Kmart's Past Struggle

There has been an overall loss in Market Share throughout departments stores. JCPenney is one department store in particular that has a very hard time dealing with this issue and has struggled to retain its market value. JCPenney CEO’s of the past and present have taken very different approaches to solving this problem and that will be discussed throughout this paper. We will start off by introducing you to former CEO, Mike Ullman who managed JCPenney before and after the recession as well as his presence after next CEO Ron Johnson was fired. We will walk through the problems that occurred after Johnson enforced his new turnaround strategies for JCPenney and how it cause disastrous results in sales and in the further decrease of market share. We will then focus on the current CEO, Marvin Ellison, and his plans for JC Penney and if his strategies can fix the overall problem JCPenney is facing.

Competition is a constant challenge for Kohl’s especially when it comes to retaining customers and the market share. Kohl’s also has a weak global presence and the profitability was declined in

To summarize their overall history, Kohl’s has been expanding and evolving since its first grocery store had opened back in the late 1920s to become a billion dollar retail chain. Their ability to reach deals with reputable companies and their ability to control their

The story of Kohl's commenced during 1962 in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Founded by Max Kohl, the company initially began as a department store, meaning it sold a variety of goods, which back then included food produce. The company BATUS inc., a division of British American Tobacco, took control of Kohl’s Food department by purchasing 80% of their stake. BATUS was not able to deal with the amounting competition, so they went out of the retail business by the mid 1980’s, and later sold Kohl’s food stores to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea company (A&P) in 1983.

In view of the financial statements attached to this paper, Kohl’s acquired debt increased both in dollars and as a percentage of sales. Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 36.4% in 2014, much lower in 2013. The merchandise margin increased, but was offset by higher shipping losses attributable to growth in the number of on-line orders. Selling, general and administration expenses both increased in dollars and as a percentage of sales. There are numerous factors that impact the success of department stores such as, political and

Kmart is a huge vintage company that had peeked at one time and now is

For this research assignment, I chose Big Lots. The reason I decided on Big Lots is primarily, because I am very interested in home decorating and in High School I lived very close to a Big Lots store, so I shopped there often. While in college, I moved from campus to my apartment and I visited them quite a bit. In this paper I’ve described the history, retail strategy, and competitive advantage of the Big Lots store I researched.

| Arpit Minhas, Tim Gaugler, Christopher ScwartzRetailing –Marketing 327 Fall 2015 – Dr. Denise T. Ogden

I chose “After 30 years, Kmart closes doors this weekend in Gonzales” in the Advocate as my article because I grew up going to the Kmart in Gonzales. As a kid, that was the store my family would go to when we wanted to buy something cheap. It was also close to the Jambalaya Park and we would go to Kmart after playing at the park. So seeing that it was closing made me a little sad. I read the article so I could learn more about the closing of a childhood store.

Sears Holdings is a relatively new company, having only been created in November of 2004 (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). At that time, Kmart Holdings purchased Sears, Roebuck, and Co. The corporation decided it would operate stores under both names, and the merger was officially completed in March of 2005. The shareholders voted to close the deal, or it would not have been able to take place. Now the company is called Sears Holdings, and it operates both Sears and Kmart stores (Barbash & Barbaro, 2004). The company also markets both brands without blending them or favoring one over the other. There were several reasons why the companies chose to combine.

If Wal-Mart needed a distribution center, they would build on in Florida, they would build one in Texas, and they would build one in California. Even without the additional warehouses, Wal-Mart had the advantage of better information systems. They knew what was selling and what was not selling in the stores whereas Kmart was just staying with the same-old, same-old, and did not bother to reinvest in its infrastructure logistics and inventory control.

Currently Kmart has been constantly losing to competitors such as Wal-Mart and Target. Target is seen as a higher class store compared to the other two, and Wal-Mart is seen as a good store with good prices. Kmart has had trouble finding it’s own identity. They try to market themselves as being a better bargain than Wal-Mart, but the store is viewed as being “cheap” from the customer’s point of view. Kmart tried to fix that, by bringing in the Martha Stewart line. They

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

In 1897 Sebastian Spering Kresge opened five-dime stores in Memphis and Detroit with John McCrorey as his partner. Two years later the partnership broke up and each person kept one city. Mr. Kresge kept the Detroit store and began expanding from there onward. In 1912 the company became incorporated as S.S. Kresge and was the 2nd largest dime store chain with 85 stores and annual sales of more than $10 million. In 1918 S.S Kresge was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Throughout the decades, Kresge rapidly expanded eventually opening the first Kmart store in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. By 1966 there were more 160 Kmart stores in the US and Canada. In 1968 Kmart began airing TV commercials. In the 1970s, Kmart continued to expand

Kmart started off as a discount retailer successfully pioneering the same concept as that of F. W. Woolworth. As stores began to grow and diversify, Kmart stepped in and took the lead role in offering a one-stop shopping center that fulfilled everyone's needs. As new niches began to emerge offering larger, more specialized stores, Kmart hit a major hurdle. The successful management strategies it had developed early on were now outdated and in major need of being renovated to coincide with changing market place and customer values. As Kmart attempted to revolutionize its image and infrastructure, stores such as Target and Wal-Mart took over as the leaders in the discount retailer arena. As Kmart's image began to sink