Sears Canada Essay

Stephen B. Huttie, president of Wooster-based Crown Retail Consultants, said nationally, the retail industry is “over-stored.” So, the news about Kohl’s closing stores is not surprising. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. closed 154 stores in the United States in

Sears, Roebuck and Co began in the 19th century and sold farm supplies and consumer items as a small mail order company. The first Sears retail store opened up in Chicago on the 2nd February 1925 in the building named the Merchandise. This store had included a soda fountain and an optical shop. The first detached and separate retail store opened up on the 5th October 1925 in a city called Evansville in Indiana. During the summer season in 1928 3 more Chicago department stores opened newly, one on the 63rd and Western a second on the south side at Kenwood and 77th, and the third at north side at Lawrence and Winchester Street. In 1929

One threat to SHLD is its competition with many retailers because it is not very differentiated from its competitors and lacks brand loyalty, thus nothing is stopping the customer from overlooking Sears and visiting a rival retailer. Another threat is a downturn in the economy which could wreck havoc on SHLD’s financial position.

The employees being laid off are major stakeholders as their means of living in jeopardy. In addition, as a result of the layoffs, the local economy will be effected. The culture of inclusiveness was one of the things that attracted Dennis to the company and the layoffs could seriously damage the institutions culture (Gentile, 2009).

I think that Abbott did right by finding alternatives to workforce layoffs. It was good thought by giving early retirement to employees over the age 55. Others like cross training and sharing reduced the work on one person and improved efficiency. What he did not focus was did not strategically look for other alternatives besides getting rid of older employees by offering them retirement. He should of retained older people whose experience

Over the last few years, it has been predominantly evident that Sears Canada has been not performing relevant to the standards present within the competitive industry. The market of retail department stores has dramatically changed since the time the corporate entity first began. To stay relevant within today’s retail industry, Sears Canada has to change their current operations. In today's market, the power of value-driven consumer products has been dominating the industry due to their affordable prices and emphasized popularity. Sears Canada has failed to distinguish themselves within the industry as either an affordable or a high quality department store. With emerging high-end retailers like Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the rise of online discount retailers like Amazon and eBay, Sears can not afford to flood both market segments. This has become a major issue that Sears Canada is facing, as the company will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors by focusing their resources in the home improvement industry.

Sears began as a small retailer but as the years have gone by, they have become

The following pages focus on providing a strategic analysis of Sears Holding Corporation. The introduction reveals the issues that the paper addresses. The Company Presentation section reveals important facts in Sears' evolution. The Strategy Debates Section discusses theoretical issues applied to the situation of Sears. This is followed by the Strategic Decisions section that provides a series of recommendations that can help Sears improve its situation. The Implementation Challenges section provides important issues that can be considered challenges of strategic implementation.

There are far more effects than what might meet the consumer’s eye as local businesses close their doors. For example, when the doors close on a department store, that leaves anywhere from one hundred to two hundred employees without a job. With 8,600 stores closing this year alone, that is upwards of 860,000 people unemployed. Those people have to go out and search for another job in a world that cannot meet that demand. Employment opportunities are shrinking in numbers because of the global online retailers. People have been led to believe that Amazon and other online retailers are creating a significant number of jobs that make up for closing businesses. That is far from the truth. Leon Kaye (2017) said, “It was estimated that Amazon employed over 145,000 people at the end of 2015. But, on the other hand approximately 295,000 jobs that have been lost at brick-and-mortar stores.

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.

After the liquidation, approximately at least 2,900 people will lose jobs, leaving Canadians in a serious economic crisis in their life. Due to this, it seems challenging for Canadians to pay off their mortgage, bills, taxes and more. Not only they might have an issue to meet the payment of their economic priorities, but also the difficulty of providing themselves along with their family with the services and resources needed to survive. This includes the inability of providing food, clothes, education and much more. Very few Sear employees were shocked with the liquidation due to them having the upcoming feeling with the dwindling sales, debt loads, and with the shifting of consumer tastes toward online sales. Rather they are vigorous and upset of the closing. Workers at Sears are still contributing their assistance and will have to until the liquidation process will be done. With this, the employees know that they will be unemployed by the very end. After the liquidation, former Sears employees will have to find an entirely new occupation field, where they might have no experience in or need to learn about it. With Sear employees finding new jobs, this can benefit other large retailers, since the unemployed Sear employees are most likely trying to find the same occupation

The retailer will continue to see aggressive competition from Target, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Home Depot and Lowes. These companies are some of the national retailers that Sears will have to contend with in order to survive. According to Sears Holding 2011, annual 10K Report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Home Depot and Lowes are the company’s most fierce rivals of the major appliance category in which Sears accounts for nearly “16% of its entire revenue” (p.5). This fierce market positioning battle between its competitors will be a major obstacle for Sears to overcome. Sears continues to try to move forward as the company’s efficiencies in fixed assets continued

Due to slow sales and less traffic at both Sears and Kmart, the two have decided to merge creating one entity named Sears Holdings. Kmart has agreed to buy Sears for $11 Billion. This puts Sears Holdings at the third largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although Wal-Mart is a direct competitor with Kmart, Sears Holdings goal is not to compete with Wal-Mart directly, but find areas that have been overlooked by other retailers, and take advantage of the expanded line of products the new company has to offer. Sears has had higher sales than Kmart, so hundreds of Kmart’s will be transformed into Sears stores. As of now, most of Sears 870 stores are only found in malls. The new strategy would be to open Sears stores in current

During the time where customers are shifting towards online shopping and farther away from physical stores, traditional retail stores are coming to an end sooner than later. It is very important for traditional retail stores to revolutionize the way they operate to compete with e- commerce giants such as amazon.com and Alibaba.com. For instance, Sears Holdings Inc. is unable to compete with the current e-commerce markets and announced the closing of 308 stores this year.

Sears grew up to the world’s largest retailer by expanding annual sales through diversifying sale products, such as apparel, cosmetics, jewelry, electronics, household appliances, cookware, bedding and hand-tools. This article shows that Sears suffered from a cost increase in 1997, including lawsuits, credit collectibles and sales in Mexico. Besides, the flexible payment facility that Sears offered is also a reason for cost increase. These problems brought Sears with bad debt and hence decreased the cash flow. The problems of the company came from the liquid market security, so I emphasize the flowing concepts: