Sears Core Competencies

Sears has made several attempts to improve their business, most of which involved selling off assets and closing stores. Sears has sold off all properties they once owned to Seritage and also sold their Craftsman tools brand to Stanley Black and Decker. Another strategy Sears has tried to compensate for their losses is closing stores. Sears has closed around 100 stores and continues to close more. It was released that Sears is expected to close another 63 stores (45 Kmart and 18 Sears) by the end of January 2018. Sears has made some attempts to improve by involving and trying to draw in new customers with social media challenges, free home delivery, or rewards programs. For example, this year Sears is hosting a social media challenge called

In 1905 Florence Butt moved her family to Kerrville, Texas, with a sixty- dollar loan, where she then established Butt’s Staple and Fancy Grocery. A one – roomed grocery store on the bottom floor of the family home. In 1919 her younger son, Howard Butt’s ranned the business, delivering groceries from a wagon. Later on Howard Butt’s introduced low cost distribution, and eliminated the middleman, by maximizing profit and becoming the store manager.

Sears began its journey in 1886 when a Chicago jewelry company shipped some gold-filled watches to an unsuspecting jeweler in a Minnesota hamlet. Richard W. Sears was an agent of the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway station in North Redwood, Minnesota. Sears’s job as station agent left him plenty of spare time, so he sold lumber and coal to local residents on the side to make extra money. Later, when he received a shipment of watches, unwanted by a neighboring Redwood Falls jeweler, Sears purchased them himself. He sold the watches at a nice profit to other station agents up and down the line, and then ordered more for resale. In 1886 Sears began the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis. The following year, Sears moved his business to Chicago and inserted a classified ad in the Chicago Daily News for a watchmaker. Enter Alvah C. Roebuck. Here began the association of two young men, both still in their twenties, to make their names famous. For it was in 1893 that the corporate name of the firm became Sears, Roebuck and Co was created. By the time Sears was created, rural farmers were infuriated with the outrageous costs of buying supplies from the general store. Thanks to volume buying, to the railroads and post office, and later to rural free delivery and parcel post, Sears, Roebuck and Co. became a welcome change to farmers. At the close of its 2000 fiscal year, Sears operated 863 mall-based retail stores, most with co-located Sears Auto Centers, and an additional

More importantly, their lack of knowledge would put them in a complete disadvantage. However some discount retailers are able to sell similar level of products but at a fraction of the cost. Perhaps, this is a reason that such a big retailer such as John Lewis is now providing electronic service as well as in store. It is inevitable that more entrants will be making their way into the online market as it is becoming increasingly popular. There is a perception with this that customer service is often diminished as there is no ‘face to the name’. However, with respect to John Lewis this will not be the case as they have a very strong reputation and position in the

The Sears Canada situation has put the former and current employees at the risk of not getting their full pensions and other benefits paid as promised by the company. This problem was raised due to the underfunding of the pension plan by the company. this deficit has but over 16,000 former and current Sears Canada employees at risk of not getting their full pensions. (MacDonald, 2017) This is due to the pensioner not having any priority’s when a company goes through their bankruptcy process. In order to help those who are affected by this, the government should take actions towards protecting and preserving the pension of the employees. The help of the government would help reduce other problems that will arise due to employees not getting their full pension. Such problems that would arise are; the burden on taxpayers to pay for the loss of the employees and how it is unfair and unethical for the employees to suffer from the company’s faults.

I chose sears because it was one of my favorite stores When I was young. They have always lived up to their mission statement and made me and my family very happy and excited because of thing we bought there and event held during certain holidays, before there was Macy’s there was Sears. Their mission statement is:

Sears Holdings Corporation offers a wide range of goods and services to the customers. Goods include home merchandise, apparel and automotive products. The company is also the nation’s largest provider of the home services, with more than 14 million service and installation calls made annually.

Also, with the popularization of cars and the construction of modern roads, rural farmers were not limited to shopping by catalog. The American city was becoming larger and farmers were abandoning their farms to work in factories and live in cities and by 1920 the urban population outnumbered the rural for the first time (Sears History, 2009).

As a small electronics retailer competing against Walmart, I would clarify my target customers, streamline the number of products I sell, and expand the types of services I provide my target customers. To begin with, I would conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis to ensure I have made a complete, thorough, and objective assessment of my business and the competitive landscape (Parnell, 2008). Secondly, I would identify, review, and analyze my sales history, existing client list, and subscribe to a reasonably priced, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) service that would assist in analyzing my past, current, and potential customer base (Solomon, Marshall & Stuart, 2012). Lastly, after reviewing the CRM

Using a consequentialist perspective, I can understand to a certain degree why Sears implemented their new productivity incentive plans in all of their auto centers. This approach focuses on the results, or consequences, of the action or decision. Upper management’s primary goal was to increase profits as much as possible after years of declining sales and profits. In order to achieve this result, they decided to develop more of a commission based pay for everyone involved in the auto center in order to motivate employees to achieve higher sales. Using this new approach would likely result in positive results for all stakeholders

We will relaunch a piece of Sears’s past; we will be recreating its seasonal catalog. We want to bring nostalgia back to a company that has lost its way. Sears started out as Sears, Roebuck & Co in 1893 as a mail order company. We want to create a new age catalog that's fun to use and is reminiscent of the experiences the people in our past have had. We want to go back to the days where excited children would dog-ear pages that had something they wanted.

Strength: I believe one of Sears’s holdings most important strength is that they are a solid retail association since they provide the U.S. and Canada with over 3,847 stores. Furthermore, Sears has the lead in the market position, giving them another great strength. Moreover, they have balanced products combination, which help them with their strengths as well. Consequently, I believe Sears’s expansive product offering is a strength that helps them do their tasks so

We have something in common; I enjoy shopping at sears as well since they have also relieved me save money. Yes, I have experienced their strengths and I decided to share them, SWOT since I have recently purchased a washer and dryer from them. Moreover, the store is extremely accessible since they have retail stores, online and cell phones as stated. Furthermore, they have call centers, which helps their customers with several problems that they may me encountering. In addition, I believe Sears may have different competitors, for example, Walmart, Amazon, Target and numerous mores. However, what makes them unique is that the company stands as a leading retailer of tools, lawn and garden, fitness, and automotive repair equipment.

After finding Sears Holdings Corporation standing on the Fortune's 500 worst companies list, I decided to do a little research on the Fortune's 500 page to gather some valuable information about the enterprise. While looking at the information provided on the website, I noticed that Sears Holdings Corporation previously ranked 99 and the company is now listed at 111 per Fortune's 500. (Beta, 2016). Not only did the company fall twelve spots, but it is also showing a negative revenue change of 19.4%, and it is indicating a decrease in profits by $1,129. (Beta, 2016). Although the company has a negative revenue of 19.4%, their current income is sitting at $25,146, and their current assets are $11,337. Also, as of March 31, 2016, Sears Holdings

Office Depot achieves its strategy by offering products that are less expensive than its competitors. This allows Office Depot to make sales to the largest possible consumer base and yet, at the same, still differentiating itself by providing more of the problem solving, and innovativeness desired by many corporate and some retail customers. Over the past twenty five years, Office Depot has been able to enter into various global locations and develop or maintained its competitive advantage by following this strategy. In fact, this strategy has paid off well over the past several years. Office Depot consistently ranks high in terms of customer recall of office supplies and business solutions. This quantitative measurement may be used by Office Depot to quantify the Company’s growth in this area.