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Toys R Us when under because they borrowed a huge amount of money right before the 2008 recession. Sears and JCP and going under for poor management, they are often used in business schools of how not to manage a company, as well as refusal to innovate and adopt new technologies like the internet.
With engines that could crank out 10 horsepower, and in later years 14 horsepower, it could run at "any speed up to 25 miles an hour," the ads said.
"We don't believe that the average person wants to go whizzing along at 40 to 50 miles an hour," Sears proclaimed.
I'd like to take just a second to acknowledge the ridiculousness of what's happened in America. Liberals were once strong advocates for American workers, even to the point of idolizing the communist party state in the USSR. Now liberals seem to say **** American workers and **** owning quality possessions.
'Buy Chinese, Work for Peanuts' is the modern DNC slogan for America.
Sears even marketed an automobile.
https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/13/autos/sears-motor-buggy/index.html
Although my take may be unpopular here, it is nevertheless true. Sears and JC Penney have been given an unfair playing field by the government, which has allowed Amazon to deal in counterfeits for well over a decade. Sears and JC Penney have had to adhere to selling genuine merchandize, while Amazon has acted as a bazaar for illegal goods. They simply can't compete with the low prices that accompany these fakes.
Why the government allowed Jeff Bezos to build his empire off of pirated brands remains a mystery.
it's kind of weird to see the retail giants of my childhood reduced into ghosts of their former selves. i hope that some of them can find a way to keep kicking. however, as Stephen King says in the Dark Tower series, the world has moved on.
When I was a kid, we had a shopping district downtown. We had stores where you could buy tailored suits, dress shops, toy stores, local jewelers that made custom jewelry and had existed since the 19th Century or early 20th Century, restaurants with waitresses who'd worked in the same establishments for decades, shoe stores staffed with people who could tell you anything about any brand of shoes they sold and personally fit your shoes. All of the shoes were made in either America or Europe (principally Britain or Italy), some by Maine and Massachusetts shoemakers who could trace their family lineage in the business back generations. We even had a cobbler who could repair the shoes you bought. There were variety (five-and-dime) stores as well, such as Woolworth's, Kress, J.J. Newberry, and W.T Grant.
And then a mall anchored with Sears at one end and J.C. Penney at the other opened and that was the beginning of the end for the five-and-dimes and mom-and-pop stores downtown. The city tried to put lipstick on the downtown pig with nice planters and benches and by limiting vehicular traffic, to no avail. By this time as well (early to mid-1960s) discount department stores such as Kmart, Gemco, Fedmart, Unimart, and Zody's appeared on the scene. But the final nail in the coffin for downtowns all over Southern California came when huge regional malls with well-stocked, multi-level anchor department stores such as Bullock's, Robinson's, and May Co. opened. We had two single-screen movie theaters downtown, one owned by 20th Century Fox, the other by United Artists. The malls cornered that business, too, with multii-screen theaters operated by companies such as AMC. Soon after that the downtown theaters closed for good, but you could still catch Planet of the Apes at the AMC while the kids watched Blackbeard's Ghost on another screen. The 1980s and '90s saw the three or four-screen theaters balloon into huge multiplexes, some with ten or more screens. And what NOW? Malls, in an effort to stay relevant, are tearing down multiplexes and structures previously occupied by department stores such as Sears and creating upscale theaters that combine elements of the movie palaces of my youth with the multi-screen theaters of the 1960s-70s (Mall of America's replacement for movie theaters: More movie theaters). Go figure.
So basically what we see in the American retail experience, which has been a central part of our culture, is evolution. Some companies adapt, some don't. F.W. Woolworth, arguably the inventor of the downtown variety store, begrudgingly accepted the mall concept and managed to morph itself into Foot Locker, while W.T. Grant and J.J. Newberry clung to their downtown roots and eventually went bankrupt. Sears and J.C. Penney are just the latest examples of what happens when you don't change the times.
When I was a kid, we had a shopping district downtown. We had stores where you could buy tailored suits, dress shops, toy stores, local jewelers that made custom jewelry and had existed since the 19th Century or early 20th Century, restaurants with waitresses who'd worked in the same establishments for decades, shoe stores staffed with people who could tell you anything about any brand of shoes they sold and personally fit your shoes. All of the shoes were made in either America or Europe (principally Britain or Italy), some by Maine and Massachusetts shoemakers who could trace their family lineage in the business back generations. We even had a cobbler who could repair the shoes you bought. There were variety (five-and-dime) stores as well, such as Woolworth's, Kress, J.J. Newberry, and W.T Grant.
And then a mall anchored with Sears at one end and J.C. Penney at the other opened and that was the beginning of the end for the five-and-dimes and mom-and-pop stores downtown. The city tried to put lipstick on the downtown pig with nice planters and benches and by limiting vehicular traffic, to no avail. By this time as well (early to mid-1960s) discount department stores such as Kmart, Gemco, Fedmart, Unimart, and Zody's appeared on the scene. But the final nail in the coffin for downtowns all over Southern California came when huge regional malls with well-stocked, multi-level anchor department stores such as Bullock's, Robinson's, and May Co. opened. We had two single-screen movie theaters downtown, one owned by 20th Century Fox, the other by United Artists. The malls cornered that business, too, with multii-screen theaters operated by companies such as AMC. Soon after that the downtown theaters closed for good, but you could still catch Planet of the Apes at the AMC while the kids watched Blackbeard's Ghost on another screen. The 1980s and '90s saw the three or four-screen theaters balloon into huge multiplexes, some with ten or more screens. And what NOW? Malls, in an effort to stay relevant, are tearing down multiplexes and structures previously occupied by department stores such as Sears and creating upscale theaters that combine elements of the movie palaces of my youth with the multi-screen theaters of the 1960s-70s (Mall of America's replacement for movie theaters: More movie theaters). Go figure.
So basically what we see in the American retail experience, which has been a central part of our culture, is evolution. Some companies adapt, some don't. F.W. Woolworth, arguably the inventor of the downtown variety store, begrudgingly accepted the mall concept and managed to morph itself into Foot Locker, while W.T. Grant and J.J. Newberry clung to their downtown roots and eventually went bankrupt. Sears and J.C. Penney are just the latest examples of what happens when you don't change the times.
We own a sears kit house (https://hookedonhouses.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/Ashmore-catalog-floorplan-Sears-Honor-Bilt.jpg) circa 1918. We've done several renovations. The back of the house is now kitchen, pantry, mudroom laundry and sun room. The first bedroom is now a library/office. Upstairs 2 bedrooms share a jack-and-jill bath and the master has an en suite.
Hang on. Sears sold entire houses?
Really, people are just going to be staying home. No need to go to a theater or any store. Do everything from home, get it delivered. Return it if you dont like it. Physical stores will be going bust for anything from showrooms.
Yeah, well, maybe, but then they could do that in 2018 and yet the U.S box office set a record. So I don't see theaters going by the wayside anytime soon.
2018 Box Office Sets Domestic Annual Record With Over $11.38 Billion
OK I'll bite. Now give me a reason to believe a word you say. What "counterfeits" are Amazon profiting with? Please include sales numbers and profits realized. Amazon is publicly traded and all those things are available so no waffling.
But thats in dollars. How many tickets are sold? Whats their growth? What percentage of people are going vs staying home? Look at all the original movies being made on streaming services now that never even go to theatres. Really, they just have a monopoly on certain movies, thats why they do business. A theatre is the only place to see a brand new blockbuster.
With Sears at risk of being liquidated, it sure looks like stores can't afford to keep inventory the old fashioned way.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/27/jc-penney-shares-fall-back-below-1-on-fears-of-weak-christmas.html
JC Penny decided to become the junk jewelry store some years ago for the huge margin of profit. Didn't work out for them. All stores had junk costume jewelry.
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