And now, the end is near...

[samhexum]

The last-standing Sears in the New York area is shutting down, bringing the 138-year-old department store’s US footprint down to a measly dozen locations.

At its peak as the world’s biggest retailer in 2011, Sears boasted roughly 4,000 locations worldwide, according to Statista.

By 2014, that figure more than halved, per the data intelligence firm.

Now, the Illinois-based company has just 12 outposts nationwide, plus one in Puerto Rico.

Sears used to have about a dozen locations in New Jersey alone.

But the last of those in Jersey City, just six miles from Times Square, is about to close its doors.

That Sears, at Newport Centre Mall, has recently been displaying “Blowout Event” posters, plus signs that say “Everything must go!” with deep discounts up to 70% as the location plans to close up shop for good, according to a local Patch.com posting.

It wasn’t immediately clear when exactly this Sears will shut down.

Representatives for Sears at Transformco — which purchased 425 Sears and Kmart stores in 2019 — did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Once it goes belly-up, the closest Sears location for New York and New Jersey shoppers will be in Braintree, Mass., more than 225 miles away.

Arcade and sports bar Dave & Buster’s is moving into part of the two-story Sears space at Newport Centre Mall, according to a separate Patch.com report, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Affordable clothing retailer Primark may also occupy part of the building, per Patch.

Sears has been trying to stay afloat since filing for bankruptcy in October 2018.

It emerged from Chapter 11 proceeding four years later after more than 10,000 court filings and slashing its portfolio from almost 700 stores to less than two dozen.

In 2022, the bankruptcy estate’s reorganization plan took effect, signaling an end to Chapter 11 and the start of a liquidation process for its remaining assets.

In its heyday, Sears advertised itself as “Where America Shops” and boasted merchandise lines from supermodel Cheryl Tiegs and “Charlie’s Angel’s” star Jaclyn Smith.

At its peak, Sears — formally known as Sears, Roebuck & Co. — was the world’s largest retailer, with nearly 3,500 Sears and Kmart stores, including 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores and 1,100 specialty retail stores.

Sears also had a portfolio of prominent brands and operating businesses, including Kenmore, DieHard, Craftsman, Sears Home Services, Sears Auto Centers and Innovel.

For reference, retail rival Walmart has just over 3,000 stores at the time: 1,353 discount stores and 1,713 Supercenters.

 

Lampert, the former chair of Kmart Holding, bought Sears for $11 billion in March 2005 in a bid to hold off brick-and-mortar competitors such as Walmart and e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.

At the time of the merger, the Sears-Kmart combo, called Transformco, had annual revenues of $55 billion, a fifth of Walmart’s fiscal 2004 total of $256 billion. 

Amazon had annual revenue of $2.54 billion back in 2005.

Since then, the e-commerce behemoth is the world’s largest online retailer, raking in $554 billion in 2023, a more than 10% year-over-year increase.

Walmart ended 2023 with a staggering $611 billion in total revenues.

Transformco, a privately-held company, does not report its financial results.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/15/business/last-sears-in-ny-area-shutting-down-just-12-stores-remain/

[+ Charlie]

My grandparents lived just down the street from a Sears Roebuck in New Jersey, and they shopped there for almost everything except food. They and my parents--all long dead now-- would be shocked at the news. I still have my old Sears credit card somewhere, but I haven't had an opportunity to use it in years.

[+ WilliamM]

14 hours ago, samhexum said:

The last-standing Sears in the New York area is shutting down, bringing the 138-year-old department store’s US footprint down to a measly dozen locations.

At its peak as the world’s biggest retailer in 2011, Sears boasted roughly 4,000 locations worldwide, according to Statista.

By 2014, that figure more than halved, per the data intelligence firm.

Now, the Illinois-based company has just 12 outposts nationwide, plus one in Puerto Rico.

Sears used to have about a dozen locations in New Jersey alone.

But the last of those in Jersey City, just six miles from Times Square, is about to close its doors.

That Sears, at Newport Centre Mall, has recently been displaying “Blowout Event” posters, plus signs that say “Everything must go!” with deep discounts up to 70% as the location plans to close up shop for good, according to a local Patch.com posting.

It wasn’t immediately clear when exactly this Sears will shut down.

Representatives for Sears at Transformco — which purchased 425 Sears and Kmart stores in 2019 — did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Once it goes belly-up, the closest Sears location for New York and New Jersey shoppers will be in Braintree, Mass., more than 225 miles away.

Arcade and sports bar Dave & Buster’s is moving into part of the two-story Sears space at Newport Centre Mall, according to a separate Patch.com report, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Affordable clothing retailer Primark may also occupy part of the building, per Patch.

Sears has been trying to stay afloat since filing for bankruptcy in October 2018.

It emerged from Chapter 11 proceeding four years later after more than 10,000 court filings and slashing its portfolio from almost 700 stores to less than two dozen.

In 2022, the bankruptcy estate’s reorganization plan took effect, signaling an end to Chapter 11 and the start of a liquidation process for its remaining assets.

In its heyday, Sears advertised itself as “Where America Shops” and boasted merchandise lines from supermodel Cheryl Tiegs and “Charlie’s Angel’s” star Jaclyn Smith.

At its peak, Sears — formally known as Sears, Roebuck & Co. — was the world’s largest retailer, with nearly 3,500 Sears and Kmart stores, including 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores and 1,100 specialty retail stores.

Sears also had a portfolio of prominent brands and operating businesses, including Kenmore, DieHard, Craftsman, Sears Home Services, Sears Auto Centers and Innovel.

For reference, retail rival Walmart has just over 3,000 stores at the time: 1,353 discount stores and 1,713 Supercenters.

 

Lampert, the former chair of Kmart Holding, bought Sears for $11 billion in March 2005 in a bid to hold off brick-and-mortar competitors such as Walmart and e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.

At the time of the merger, the Sears-Kmart combo, called Transformco, had annual revenues of $55 billion, a fifth of Walmart’s fiscal 2004 total of $256 billion. 

Amazon had annual revenue of $2.54 billion back in 2005.

Since then, the e-commerce behemoth is the world’s largest online retailer, raking in $554 billion in 2023, a more than 10% year-over-year increase.

Walmart ended 2023 with a staggering $611 billion in total revenues.

Transformco, a privately-held company, does not report its financial results.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/15/business/last-sears-in-ny-area-shutting-down-just-12-stores-remain/

And another article from the new York Post

 

Yikes 😬

[Act25]

One of the twelve remaining stores is in a suburban Seattle mall.  The original big Sears store in Seattle is now Starbucks HQ.  

[Bokomaru]

As a gay man of a certain age, the most notable thing about Sears for me was that at a very early age I could see pictures of men in their underwear in the Sears catalog. There was nothing else available that was even remotely sexual, so that was the best I could find.
 

To this day I have a specific fetish tied to using that catalogue as a form of porn.

[+ DERRIK]

Three Sears stories

• as a child in Chicago - brother and I would go to Sears and try to put my head under the shoe X-ray machine - fortunately the opening was only big enough to two shoes - customer looks down at his feet
• knew a friend whose mother would mark up the sears /JCP catalogue and pencil in the scanty pictures
• years ago I worked in the original sears building on west side Chicago - building was maybe three stories and had a five story sears tower in the parking lot

[dbar123]

I miss the Sears tool and automotive departments.

[+ DynamicUno]

Related, the old Kmart headquarters in Michigan is finally being demolished.  I used to work across from "Fort Kresge" which has been abandoned for years, even though it was in a busy office district adjacent to a thriving mall.  The 40 acre site will hopefully be developed soon instead of becoming yet another parking lot 

 

[samhexum]

1 hour ago, Bokomaru said:

As a gay man of a certain age, the most notable thing about Sears for me was that at a very early age I could see pictures of men in their underwear in the Sears catalog. There was nothing else available that was even remotely sexual, so that was the best I could find.

To this day I have a specific fetish tied to using that catalogue as a form of porn.

So that's YOU bidding up the prices for vintage Montgomery Ward catalogues in auctions!

[+ Pensant]

8 hours ago, Bokomaru said:

As a gay man of a certain age, the most notable thing about Sears for me was that at a very early age I could see pictures of men in their underwear in the Sears catalog. There was nothing else available that was even remotely sexual, so that was the best I could find.
 

To this day I have a specific fetish tied to using that catalogue as a form of porn.

When I was a teenager, I used to see B&W ads for Adonis theater in the NYT and would jack off to them. Also, purloined copies of my sisters’ Tiger Beat!

[+ Pensant]

9 hours ago, Act25 said:

One of the twelve remaining stores is in a suburban Seattle mall.  The original big Sears store in Seattle is now Starbucks HQ.  

Which mall?

[viewing ownly]

8 hours ago, Bokomaru said:

As a gay man of a certain age, the most notable thing about Sears for me was that at a very early age I could see pictures of men in their underwear in the Sears catalog. There was nothing else available that was even remotely sexual, so that was the best I could find.
 

To this day I have a specific fetish tied to using that catalogue as a form of porn.

If my memory serves me correct, the men were airbrushed to be anatomically incorrect (or all of them magically uncircumcised)!

Thank you Sport Europa swimwear catalog for changing that with Eric Fox. His imprint broke the cut barrier.

[jeezifonly]

A reliable source of all sorts of merch for decades - even with the softer side, they couldn’t compete with new retail.

Craftsman Tools still rock.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

In the late 1980s, 1 in every 200 U.S. employees worked for Sears.

Now, 1 in every 50 U.S. employees works for Walmart or Amazon.

[Act25]

14 hours ago, Pensant said:

Which mall?

Southcenter. In the old Frederick & Nelson space. 

[+ DynamicUno]

I used to pass by the old Sears building in Atlanta on Ponce almost daily.  It was built in the 20s as their regional warehouse and retail store.  The warehouse served Sears' catalog mail-order business for years. It's a huge building (I think it was claimed to be the largest in the South when it was built), dominating an entire block. Sears even ran a farmers market there for years as part of an agriculture division.  It was the early 20th century version of an Amazon DC, but actually served the community it was in at the same time.

When I lived there, Sears had long closed the retail store in favor of the malls, and had just abandoned the building.  It was used for years by the City as an extension of city hall, but the building was rotting away slowly during that time.

About the time I moved away it being renovated into Ponce City Market, with retail and residential uses along with the BeltLine project.  I haven't been back to see it, but I was so happy to see the building get a new chapter that wasn't just turning it into cold offices closed to the rest of the city.

 

Edited January 17 by DynamicUno

[+ azdr0710]

remember the mid-70s scandal about some peek-a-boo action on page 602?......

The Man on Page 602 - FOXERS

WWW.FOXERS.COM

---

At FOXERS we like to tease and entice our customers with beautiful and sexy images, but do so always in good taste. Yet, not all brands share our value system. Read...

 

[samhexum]

24 minutes ago, azdr0710 said:

remember the mid-70s scandal about some peek-a-boo action on page 602?

Not at all.  Thanks.

[marylander1940]

Capitalism has creating and destructive forces. Unfortunately, Sears didn't adapt to changes like internet, but others did inspired by its groundbreaking catalog! 

[+ APPLE1]

On 1/16/2024 at 11:22 AM, Charlie said:

My grandparents lived just down the street from a Sears Roebuck in New Jersey, and they shopped there for almost everything except food. They and my parents--all long dead now-- would be shocked at the news. I still have my old Sears credit card somewhere, but I haven't had an opportunity to use it in years.

When my mother complains about being tired of shopping on Amazon, I remind her it's the Sears of the 21st century. Instead of ordering from a print catalog and having the mail deliver it, or go to the Sears catalog pickup window on Friday, it's now ordered from a digital catalog and delivered much quicker.

[rvwnsd]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:15 PM, marylander1940 said:

...Unfortunately, Sears didn't adapt to changes like internet, but others did inspired by its groundbreaking catalog! 

The sad thing is Sears was a pioneer in online services, including shopping. They were one of three partners (CBS and IBM being the other two) who founded Prodigy in 1983. For those who don't remember, Prodigy was the first consumer-oriented online service providers. While CompuServ offered service using a command-line interface, Prodigy offered a GUI. A Prodigy user could even shop from the Sears catalog.

Shutting down the catalog and its related infrastructure in 1993 was a bad move. Had they kept the catalog business, they would have been prepared to compete with the likes of Amazon. Frankly, Jeff Bezos owes his fortune to the mistakes made by Sears.

Back in the early 2000's, Sears started offering buy online/pickup in store shopping. It was great. It also got shut down after Eddie Lampert (a/k/a Fast Eddie) got his hands on Sears. Fast Eddie wanted Sears for its real estate, not because he wanted to run a department store. He transferred the real estate to a different company (that he owned) and Sears "rented" it from that company.  

The story @samhexum copied/pasted omitted something about Transformco, the company that "acquired" Sears out of bankruptcy. It is owned by Eddie Lampert and was formed to buy Sears and KMart stores that were not being liquidated. 

But, back to the topic. Way back in the day, I loved accompanying my dad on journeys to the Sears paint and tool departments. We divided our Sears shopping between the historic Six Corners store on Chicago's Northwest Side and the one at Golf Mill in Niles, IL. We would also shop at the massive Woodfield store when the family took an outing to the mall. That was back when Sears was a department store and not just a means for a hedge fund owner to use financial gymnastics to bleed the company dry.

[+ bashful]

Growing up in Detroit, we didn't shop at Sears.  Closest Sears was Grand River and Oakman, but we lived close to Grand River and Greenfield that had Montgomery Ward, Federals, and a block away, a JC Penny. Every fall, go Wards for school clothes and shoes.  Our kitchen and laundry appliances, and living room furniture was from there.  It was a big store, attached to Kresge's (parent of K-Mart).   Three floors, plus the Mezzanine, and an Annex. Sold just about everything, including cemetery headstones (our across the street neighbor worked there selling headstones).  

[marylander1940]

On 1/18/2024 at 3:57 AM, APPLE1 said:

When my mother complains about being tired of shopping on Amazon, I remind her it's the Sears of the 21st century. Instead of ordering from a print catalog and having the mail deliver it, or go to the Sears catalog pickup window on Friday, it's now ordered from a digital catalog and delivered much quicker.

Exactly, that's how Sears' legacy will leave on! They made it possible for a person to buy a house from a catalogue and have it shipped by train, something unthinkable a few years before. 

 

Edited January 21 by marylander1940

[Jarrod_Uncut]

I still have Sylvania electric fireplace I brought from Sears 6-7 years ago. Works like a charm til this day, but it’s been only moderately used. 
 

Looks like Sears.com is still in biz though. 
 

Idk I’m not  familiar or too versed on why certain stores get phased out: But I think some places just go thru their cycle. We see this with gay bars often in cities. Even though the longevity is a bit less than big department stores. I brought a lot of good stuff at Sears though…
 

I don’t think Amazon is the “new” Sears, even though it does appear convenient. The closest thing to that would probably be Target 🎯 Macys or Wal-Mart (can’t forget about Sears Auto Center lol). 
 

Sometimes I wonder how any of these stores make it for so long at all. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of merchandise out there. I went to a liquor store earlier, a new “Total Wine” in the area: just rows and rows of wine…and I was like the only person shopping tonight 🤷🏾‍♂️ 

Sometimes it makes me reflect on my own biz, like…how can I avoid going bankrupt? lol. But since we’re technically “managed” by a larger company, RM and some others: as long as the site stays hot, our product has the potential to stay hot. Also just because one may be tanking in one area, doesn’t mean there’s no demand elsewhere.

And one other thing: I think a lot of people are mislead thinking online is the best way to go. I was searching for a particular spinner bag to go with a luggage set I am putting together.  I brought a couple things online, but I went hopping between TJ Maxx, Ross and Home Goods/Marshall’s and found what I needed plus a couple other Knick knacks. I couldn’t find it online, and what I did find would have been much more expensive. 
 

Sears served its purpose well, but it probably more appealed to an older audience. Plus with places like Harbor Freight, Home Depot, or “Menards” and Meyer for those of us in the Midwest: It’s bigger than just tools, appliances and clothing. For me, Home Depot’s garden department wins every time. Even though I noticed lately they’ve been scaling back on selection and increased some of the prices the past summer. Hopefully it’ll be better this summer.

 

[rvwnsd]

4 hours ago, Jarrod_Uncut said:

...Idk I’m not  familiar or too versed on why certain stores get phased out: But I think some places just go thru their cycle. We see this with gay bars often in cities. Even though the longevity is a bit less than big department stores. I brought a lot of good stuff at Sears though…

So did I! At one time, Sears had a quality assurance and testing lab. A former colleague's husband was a test engineer there. They ran dryers and washers through thousands of cycles, attempted to set fire to clothing that called itself flame retardant, and abused the crap out of kids' jeans to prove that they were durable. As a condition of selling merchandise at Sears, vendors had to allow Sears to take their product apart and verify that it was what the manufacturer said it was. They had even higher standards for merchandise sold under their own brands like Craftsman and Kenmore. Unfortunately, that went away when they decided to cut costs. Not surprisingly, the quality dipped and customers stopped shopping there because they could buy similar lower quality merchandise elsewhere for a lower price. 

4 hours ago, Jarrod_Uncut said:

And one other thing: I think a lot of people are mislead thinking online is the best way to go. I was searching for a particular spinner bag to go with a luggage set I am putting together.  I brought a couple things online, but I went hopping between TJ Maxx, Ross and Home Goods/Marshall’s and found what I needed plus a couple other Knick knacks. I couldn’t find it online, and what I did find would have been much more expensive. 

 So true! I want to see the product before I buy it. I want to try clothes on before I buy them. Yeah, Amazon and other sellers accept returns, but that's a hassle. 

TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods are fun places to shop. And that's what is missing from sites like Amazon. Frankly, it's missing from most brick-and-mortar stores. A visit to Sears was fun. And then it wasn't. And here we are.