I hadn't heard of the construction handouts. I assumed that most of them were stolen, which is why I never go to pawn shops. It sounds like I should take a look some time.
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19 years ago
Sears will gradually disappear
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19 years ago
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19 years ago
On big union commercial jobs it's apparently easier and cheaper to buy all new small power tools and abandon it at the end of the job. During the job, the security people take a "nothing leaves" rule. Between jobs, it's difficult and expensive for contractors to store the stuff. This might also be a regional thing.
I guess this would be how you buy enough DeWalt for a free Corvette.
FWIW, I didn't believe this story the first time I heard it, but it's been confirmed by many independent sources.
Barry
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19 years ago
Yeah, mine's a lot smaller than it was 15 years ago.
Tim Douglass
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19 years ago
According to your website, that appears to be by choice, no?
Barry
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19 years ago
KMart has already sold off stores located on properties with high values.
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19 years ago
Hey no problem here then. Sears sits in a mall where the other two anchor stores are empty, and the whole thing is perpetually almost vacant.
Ours should be one of the last to go then. :)
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19 years ago
Would be, but they couldn't get it started.
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19 years ago
Regardless of origin, I've never been overly impressed when I've gone into pawn shops. The prices listed are so close to new retail, it just isn't worth the risk or hassle. If they are marking high in order to haggle, I've got better things to do with my time than that.
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19 years ago
One other bit of questionable analysis: since most Sears stores are in shopping centers, my understanding was that this was lease space. Sears could vacate, but gain no appreciation in value because it is the mall owner, not Sears that owns the building and the real estate.
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19 years ago
True. But the unfortunate truth is that in many areas and industries wages have actually gone down over the last 20 years. 25 years ago I made more per hour as a drywall finisher than they make now in this area - in fact I made more than twice what they are making. Granted, there are differences between Seattle area and Central Oregon, but a lot of the trades are paying less now than they used to. Lots of high-tech jobs are also paying less than 10 years ago. I just wanted to ding the OP a bit about costs and wages.
Tim Douglass
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19 years ago
And The "Kenmore" plant is right next to the park where the little Inca Dove birdies cooo "Whirlpool" all the live long day.
No... that's off to the left behind the Bruce Willis statue
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19 years ago
As another pointed out, Sears (or at least someone with some influence!) has actually been listening to what's happened to the Craftsman trade name by the schlocking-down of the tools that made it what it once was.
Now you find "Craftsman" and "Craftsman PROFESSIONAL" tools side by side on the shelves.
The "Craftsman" tools are those we all deride -- the Ryobi re-dos and the Blank & Fletcher foul-ups.
The CRAFTSMAN PROFESSIONAL line is another story! Those suckers cost (a lot) more for good reason: they're actually substantaial tools. Those new table saws by Orion (22124 and the others) and the 15" Lathe and the Planer-Jointer are prime examples that Sears is really making its way back to providing real value over the long haul while remaining "right around the corner". That "being right around the corner" is going to continue to mean a lot to the final purchase decision -- especially when the machine quality is "right there" up against the mail-order competition.
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19 years ago
Hehehe. Sears was the purchaser of many of these (I believe 66 was the last count).
Kevin Daly
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19 years ago
...and yet, the average hourly wage continues to rise and is at an all time high, even adjusted for inflation. Some employment areas are over supplied and others under supplied, thus some wages drop and some increase, but overall folks are making more money. The info is available on the bls.gov site.
-Doug
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19 years ago
What pee's me off about KMart/Sears is that they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year or 2 ago. I had 3,000 dollars worth of their common stock and was told it was now worthless and to go ahead and claim it as a loss on my income tax. And now, low and behold they go ahead and acquire Sears and the so-called future looks bright for KMart. All of the sudden they got cash to buy out Sears and us stock holders of a year or so ago are screwed and can not recoup our money. It just doesn't seem fair. I'm thinking about writing the SEC for an explanation. As far as I am concerned, before I trade at KMart they can go pee up a rope. It feels good to blow off steam now and then.
differences
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19 years ago
You could'a bought back into the re-organized company last year in May at about $15/share. If you'd doubled up your investment of $3000 for a total of $6000, it'd be worth $21,000 today for a tidy profit of $15,000.
- Doug
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19 years ago
Actually I'd say Forbes is quite in tune with modern practice and in this case I believe they have called it correctly.
You'd think so, wouldn't you? Sadly, in many cases you'd be wrong. Such mergers, buyouts, etc. are all too often undertaken as a way to get the value _out_ of the company rather than to add value to it.
This isn't at all uncommon, although it appears to be primarily a post-WWII phenomenon. One of the things that finally killed pulp magazines was that the major distributor was cannibalized in exactly this way.
The people who now control Sears are not retailers and I doubt seriously they have much idea how to turn around a company as troubled as Sears. After all, K-Mart hasn't exactly been soaring under their leadership. True, it is out of bankruptcy and showing a profit, but much of that is a result of the restructuring that was done in bankruptcy, not major improvements in their performance.
OTOH Sears is still sitting on a lot of prime suburban real estate, acquired 40 or 50 years ago at low prices. That makes it an attractive target for cannibalization.
The question, of course, is 'optimal for whom?' (Or 'who', but let's not go there.) For the company, or even for the stockholders in general, selling off the real estate and folding the company might not be optimal at all. However the people driving things at Sears/KMart are not average stock holders. They are traders who are used to making money buying and selling things rather than by building and running businesses. From their standpoint they believe the maximum ROI lies in tearing Sears apart and selling off the pieces.
--RC
Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent
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19 years ago
That's right ! I forgot about that...
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19 years ago
When companies go bankrupt, the common stock holders usually lose everything. The people who hold the company's debt (in the form of bonds, usually) have to be repaid before the stockholders. That's the price stockholders pay for the chance to make a lot more than the bondholders; they also risk losing everything.
The KMart of today shares nothing with the previous KMart corporation except the name. In this case, the Kmart's creditors got the remains of the company, reorganized, and reissued new stock.