Is Sears closing both it's Kelowna Stores?

[XT225]

People have mentioned they remember shopping from the catalogues, kind of ironic, that was how they built their business through mail order and now they are being done in by business that sell to people from web sites and ship the product to the people!!

Good point. I am surprised that Sears has not tried to keep their warehouses and become an on-line company like Amazon, etc and ship to customers. They still have quite a few products in my opinion that are worth buying.

[Fancy]

What I don't get is the pretence of renovating (at one out of town store) by closing off sections of store as its inventory dropped when it was clear there were no renovations being done. Possibly a manager's decision to offset employees' fears back in June? Well those fears have been realized and so far the items I was looking at are not on sale and some items won't be but will be gone probably by the end of the week. If there is anything unique that Sears sells that people want to buy I wouldn't wait. Some of Sears Canada Home Improvement brands will operate under new ownership.

[Dizzy1]

Sears has had a 130 year run, thats pretty impressive to say the least, companies such as Amazon will never achieve anything close to that.

[maryjane48]

Sears has had a 130 year run, thats pretty impressive to say the least, companies such as Amazon will never achieve anything close to that.

you must be joking. if you think facebook and amazon wont be around in 130 years you haven't been paying attention.

[rookie314]

If we haven't destroyed ourselves by then.

[Bsuds]

Well the Sears employees shouldn't have too much trouble finding a new job. Everywhere I go lately I see "We are hiring" signs.
Even if they are minimum wage jobs there is work out there.

[Retrosnap]

Sears has had a 130 year run, thats pretty impressive to say the least, companies such as Amazon will never achieve anything close to that.

you must be joking. if you think facebook and amazon wont be around in 130 years you haven't been paying attention.

Recently history is littered with companies that were industry leaders, but failed to adapt to disruption. Kodak, Polaroid, Blockbuster to name a few.

It's too early to say if Amazon or Facebook will suffer the same fate, but the speed at which those previous companies failed should be a warning. In the future, some new technology the likes of which we can't even imagine yet may arrive on the scene, and be the Amazon/Facebook equivalent of Ebola. It took the Amazons of the world 20+ years to destroy traditional retail...it's naive to believe that something similar won't happen to them in the space of 100 years.

[Jonrox]

Good point. I am surprised that Sears has not tried to keep their warehouses and become an on-line company like Amazon, etc and ship to customers. They still have quite a few products in my opinion that are worth buying.

You're surprised a company that has been bleeding money for years doesn't have the money to invest in completely re-inventing itself? And that it would be in an effort to take on behemoths like Amazon and Wal-Mart that are already locked in a fierce competition for on-line dollars? Even if they wanted to (which would be a case of too little too late anyway), they don't have any money... hence why they're being shut down. It's hard to run a business when you have no money and can't pay your bills.

Sears has been a poorly run company for years that deserves it's current fate.

[youjustcomplain]

You're surprised a company that has been bleeding money for years doesn't have the money to invest in completely re-inventing itself? And that it would be in an effort to take on behemoths like Amazon and Wal-Mart that are already locked in a fierce competition for on-line dollars? Even if they wanted to (which would be a case of too little too late anyway), they don't have any money... hence why they're being shut down. It's hard to run a business when you have no money and can't pay your bills.

Sears has been a poorly run company for years that deserves it's current fate.

You just nailed it. But even if someone gave Sears Canada 100 Trillion dollars, they would have maintained their failed business model. They've been failing for about 30 years now, and haven't adapted.

[forumdoug]

Most likely sweating bullets. We can all just wait and see I guess. When I try to understand what the future will most likely be like, I look at the past. The past as in happened already throughout North America. Guess what? Malls are in a spiral downward. I’ll go with what is happened and continues to happen all over, rather then your rosy view of things. They are sweating bullets for sure. They will probably leverage their company in hopes of making a fortune on losses. Why not, that’s what Toys R Us investors did. To bad their gamble failed and they now are bankrupt.

It may take them a couple years to release the two spaces completely once redevelopment is done and it could put pressure on rents elsewhere within the mall as businesses relocate to the newest redeveloped portion of the mall in the short- to medium-term but, even if that happens, with all of the additional businesses paying $20-25 per sq ft plus operating costs/property taxes (i.e., so-called Triple Net), even if that's down from let's say $30-35 per sq ft before NNN, they're still looking at a significant gain in NOI. :)

Cheers,
Doug

[forumdoug]

What I don't get is the pretence of renovating (at one out of town store) by closing off sections of store as its inventory dropped when it was clear there were no renovations being done. Possibly a manager's decision to offset employees' fears back in June? Well those fears have been realized and so far the items I was looking at are not on sale and some items won't be but will be gone probably by the end of the week. If there is anything unique that Sears sells that people want to buy I wouldn't wait. Some of Sears Canada Home Improvement brands will operate under new ownership.

The home improvement services businesses were sold but they'll be rebranded. They have no rights to the Sears brand name, which remains owned by Sears Roebuck & Co. Yep, you guessed it, Sears U.S. smartly moved many of their trademarks in Canada to the U.S. parent company years ago so names like "Sears", "Kenmore," "Craftsman," etc. were all owned by Sears U.S. and not part of any asset sales. Sears Canada simply licensed the name, which now terminates with the move of Sears Canada into liquidation. :)

As for trademarks Sears Canada owned, the "Viking" trademark is being sold to Canadian Tire Corp Ltd. It also owns the "Simpson's" trademark, but likely of little value now with the stores closing. It had transitioned to its Eaton's trademark to a numbered company but it now would appear to be owned by an affiliate of Cadillac Fairview Corp, which is the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan real estate asset management arm that owns malls like Market Mall in Calgary.

The Quebec home improvement business operated as Corbeil and that'll likely continue with that name under its new ownership.

Cheers,
Doug

[Dizzy1]

you must be joking. if you think facebook and amazon wont be around in 130 years you haven't been paying attention.

And what makes you think Amazon will have such an impressive run?

The days of working for a single employer a life long are gone as are the days of commerce trends being operated for long periods of time. Things change faster and faster every decade. Online shopping will be a thing of the past before you know it and companies like Amazon won't be able to adapt.

[Fancy]

Well the Sears employees shouldn't have too much trouble finding a new job. Everywhere I go lately I see "We are hiring" signs.
Even if they are minimum wage jobs there is work out there.

Unfortunately the Sears employees may find work but can kiss their pensions goodbye.

[Urban Cowboy]

Well the Sears employees shouldn't have too much trouble finding a new job. Everywhere I go lately I see "We are hiring" signs.viewforum.php?f=26
Even if they are minimum wage jobs there is work out there.

Unfortunately the Sears employees may find work but can kiss their pensions goodbye.

Unfortunately in this day and age the only thing certain is uncertainty.

I've met many people who are subscribed to the freedom 95 plan.

[forumdoug]

Unfortunately the Sears employees may find work but can kiss their pensions goodbye.

Even if the Sears Canada Pension Plan is wound up, it's not clear they'd be kissing their pensions goodbye. There'd probably be a life insurance company that would be willing to assume the assets of the pension plan and roll them into into a guaranteed annuity that offers pension plan-like payments every month, albeit they will likely see a "haircut" on their monthly pension amount (i.e., someone eligible for or receiving a $900 pre-tax pension from the company might receive $600 per month, for instance). Employees would also have the option to take out the commuted value of their pension, too, to which they could invest but they'd be responsible for longevity risk too in addition to investment risk.

It's not ideal by any stretch but's also not completely devastating. :(

The real thievery is the luscious pensions our local, provincial and federal public sector workers and elected politicians have in their gold-plated, fat cat pensions that never get clawed back. :(

Cheers,
Doug