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Sears Canada (1952-2017)

  • Thread starter CanadianNational
  • Start date
Northern Light said:
[...] The shakeout for many malls, particularly smaller, small town, or B-level properties will be tough if Sears executes and across the board shutdown. [...]
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This is the bigger issue (Sears having already all but given up the fight). The future of a number of suburban malls will be put in doubt. Lowe's, Canadian Tire and Walmart have already snapped up a number of empty Target spaces - there are only so many empty Sears store that will interest them, and there are only so many empty stores that Winners/Goodlife Fitness can subdivide. A shutdown of Sears, following only a few years after the Target debacle, will result in a significant shift in the retail landscape. A lot of those malls will be bulldozed.
 
Skeezix said:
This is the bigger issue (Sears having already all but given up the fight). The future of a number of suburban malls will be put in doubt. Lowe's, Canadian Tire and Walmart have already snapped up a number of empty Target spaces - there are only so many empty Sears store that will interest them, and there are only so many empty stores that Winners/Goodlife Fitness can subdivide. A shutdown of Sears, following only a few years after the Target debacle, will result in a significant shift in the retail landscape. A lot of those malls will be bulldozed.
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On the bright side, a good number of those would be perfect for intensification.

AoD
 
Bramalea City Centre has finally found new uses for the ex-Eaton's/Zellers/Target space. Losing Sears will be a blow, but it will survive as it's Brampton's only good mall. More vulnerable will be malls like Woodbine Centre, which has been struggling for years, and smaller town malls like Timmins Square and the Sault's Station Mall, where Sears is the anchor, and where the possible replacements (Wal-Mart, Winners, etc) are already in nearby big-box centres.

In the GTA, the only troubled Sears mall that really comes to mind besides Woodbine is Promenade. But it's in a desireable part of York Region and there's rumours of possible redevelopment there.
 
bcx said:
I imagine morale at the company has been low for at least 5 years now. At this point it's simply surprising that Sears Canada has lasted this long.
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Yes and no. It might seem like a long time, but they also had a long way to fall, too. As a comparison, it took Eaton's over a decade to go from the first visible signs of decline to the final collapse, much longer if you factor in a few decades of stagnation prior to that.

The irony is the only reason Sears is around at all anymore is that what remains of the business is of such little value nobody will consider buying it.
 
ShonTron said:
Bramalea City Centre has finally found new uses for the ex-Eaton's/Zellers/Target space. Losing Sears will be a blow, but it will survive as it's Brampton's only good mall. More vulnerable will be malls like Woodbine Centre, which has been struggling for years, and smaller town malls like Timmins Square and the Sault's Station Mall, where Sears is the anchor, and where the possible replacements (Wal-Mart, Winners, etc) are already in nearby big-box centres.

In the GTA, the only troubled Sears mall that really comes to mind besides Woodbine is Promenade. But it's in a desireable part of York Region and there's rumours of possible redevelopment there.
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Promenade: hearing the same rumours........

Bramalea, quite a distance away, but Osmington has that new mega-mall development in Brampton, could it cannibalize?

GTA: Most other 'Sears' properties are successful enough, but certainly space reconfiguration or even shrinkage might be in order. As I don't enough dept. store or large-format retailers
being interested in those spaces.

Agreed completely on the small city/town malls solely anchored by Sears; trouble with a capital T for many.
 
I was in the states over the summer. The Sears down there are a run down mess, they make our Sears stores look like Sacks. If they lose Sears they still got lots of other low to mid level department stores to choose from like ... Macy's, JC Penny, Khol's, Bon Ton, Boscov's, Dillards, Wal Mart, Target, Ross. We got Hudson's Bay and lots and lots of Wal Marts to choose from.

It was a ghost town': Shoppers reveal why they've abandoned Sears and Kmart

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ghost-town-shoppers-reveal-why-223033047.html
 
I really have to wonder what Eddie was thinking all those years ago when he bought Kmart and then Sears? I remember Sears holdings stock being over $100/share. At the time many investors thought his Sears acquisition was a real estate play, yet he didn't really sell off any assets at all in those first few years. It's like he thought he could actually make a go of it as a retailer by doing all the wrong things thinking they would eventually work out for him. To have been a fly on the wall in is office back then.

As a side note, I also find it fascinating to see how both Eddie and Richard Baker have run their respective retail businesses. One clearly knows what he is doing (or hires people that know), and the other not so much.
 
ILuvTO said:
I really have to wonder what Eddie was thinking all those years ago when he bought Kmart and then Sears?
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From what I've read, he really believed the objectivist principles espoused by Ayn Rand would actually be beneficial when applied internally, which they clearly were not. So instead of having internal groups within the company working in harmony toward a common goal, they were all battling each other for resources and survival, to the detriment of the overall business. Another area in which he seemed to think he was smarter than other retailers was that he all but eliminated improvements or even maintenance to stores, figuring that money spend doing any sort of updates was money wasted. Sales might drop as a result, but he seemed to think the net profits would still be higher. Reality has proven otherwise. At some point it became obvious he was no longer operating the business as a going concern, and turned the focus to selling off whatever was left of value.

What I'm curious to know is... how is he still in charge? Is there no means to remove him, given that it's obvious his leadership has been cataclysmic to the business? Or are the stakeholders content with the dividends they've received, even as the business was gutted?
 
Bruno Republic said:
What I'm curious to know is... how is he still in charge? Is there no means to remove him, given that it's obvious his leadership has been cataclysmic to the business? Or are the stakeholders content with the dividends they've received, even as the business was gutted?
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1) He owns the majority of the Sears holding company through his investment fund and;

2) Shareholders (at least the ones who own larger stakes) are pleased with his approach, because as long as he keeps delivering cash back to them through dividends they wont complain one bit.

Most people in the business world are well aware of what he's doing and the above reasons are the prevailing factors of why he's still in charge.
 
Bruno Republic said:
[...] So instead of having internal groups within the company working in harmony toward a common goal, they were all battling each other for resources and survival, to the detriment of the overall business [...]
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Departments even had to fight/bid for space in the weekly flyers/newspaper inserts, rather than Sears determining what goods were most advantageous to promote at any given time of year. In 2011, the Sears Mother's Day circular was dominated by Doodle Bug minibikes.
 
Here is news on Sears' latest refresh. I note that my first post in this thread, back in 2012, was to share an article on what was then Sears' latest refresh. The only real difference is that then they were showcasing a store in Newmarket, while now they are showcasing a store in Thornhill.

Also worth noting that the new marketing campaign is actually "WTS - What the Sears is going on?" Hard to believe, but yes that's their new slogan.

Sears Canada tries a new store format
Sears Canada unveils a store revamp, this time at Promenade Mall in Thornhill.
Francine Kopun, Toronto Star, 27 Sept 2016
 
It appears as though the latest refresh has them targeting 'value' consumers.

That sounds like heading for the discount side of the business.

Not historically Sears reputation or area of expertise.

I get that they can't really aim for the luxury space; but middle w/a niche or two is where they stand a chance, however slim, of making a go of it.

This smacks of 'what could be done for next to no money'.
 
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