Thread regarding Sears layoffs

@1ufy+16RbpqcA My friend, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the fallacy of division, also Known as NAXALT. Meaning "not all X are like that".

It is explained here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_division

Long story short, some people use the argument: not all x are like that! Not all African-Americans are democrats, some might state! OK true! Doesn't change the fact that 90% are! Yes you could find some exceptions, but that doesn't disprove the trend. OK, I found a few 25 Year olds that shop in malls! Cool, good for you, but that doesn't change the fact that 95% of 25 Year olds do not shop in malls. You can find a few Yankee fans in Boston, and a few Red Sox fans in NY, but it doesn't change the fact that most people in Boston support the Sox and most people in NY support the Yanks. Just because you find a few 25 Year olds (including your kids) that shop in malls, does not change the fact that most kids that age do not. My best friend is an African-American Trump supporter, but that statistic does not change the fact that most African-Americans do not support him. My point is that exceptions do not change overall statistics. And those are, by and large, younger people don't shop at stores. And the fact that you insulted someone who disagrees, earns your downvote. If I Said "nobody" under 25 shops in stores, it's obviously hyperbole. You could state "nobody" who is African-American supports Pres Trump. Obviously you can find a few exceptions but it doesn't change the fact that 95% of African Americans don't support him. Similarly, I don't care if your kids shop in Kmart or whatever, but the fact is that most younger people don't. Your kids are outliers statistically, much as minorities who support the President are mathematically, statistical outliers. I Study maps and statistics for a living. Exceptions do not disprove a rule.

Exceptions do not disprove trends.

The next generation in 20 years will be weak and feeble that will be replaced by the next stronger one.

B and m will always be here just like the police and happy to see it

People still need bricks,cans,water bottles to throw.

Do not forget all the mary jane shops to dull the mind

There are an awful lot of strong - and lengthy - opinions for a non-Sears topic.
Strange movement in the likes/dislikes as well.

The future is hard to predict and current trends seldom hold true for long.
I still don't have my flying car.

Not everyone of any age wants to be a shut-in.

And the OP is still right.

Obviously travel stores like Wawa must be B&M. Ditto for tire/auto repair shops. Pretty much every other example listed has an online presence. Yes, B&M shopping is still there now but less and less Every Day. Again, this trend will only go in 1 direction. As mentioned, most people listened to CD's and sent faxes 20 Years ago. Few do, now. 20 Years from now, we won't be having this discussion as most (not all) B&M shopping will be obsolete. Sure, you can find an example of a 25 Year old in some mall. There are outliers in everything. You could find a few Yankees fans in Boston if you really look, but exceptions don't disprove the trend. By The Time generation Z takes over, & boomers Die off, there just won't be a significant demand for stores. Some will linger, but that currently under-30 set, simply won't support in-person shopping. The only reason it still exists is because the older folks haven't Died off yet. But the writing is on the wall, the fate has been sealed, and the ship is about to sail.

Sort of like when you unplug your laptop. It will still work for a while, but if you don't plug it in eventually, it will stop working at some point. That's where B&M shopping is now. It has been unplugged. It will run for 10-20 Years but begin to automatically phase out after that as the demand among Millennial and younger dries up. They are living on Borrowed Time, in other words. The end is near.
I can imagine people 120 Years ago having this same discussion about how cars will never fully replace horse buggies. Or how Air travel will never fully replace train travel. Some old grandpa was yelling "them cars ain't gonna replace the old horse buggy". Look what happened. Our grandkids and great-grandkids will look at store shopping, as we look at horse buggies now. I won't miss it. As stated, I haven't been in a mall in 10 Years. I buy almost everything except food online.
Don't believe me if you don't want to. But come back here in 2040 and let me Know which "stores" are still thriving for in-person shopping. And then again in 2050, 2060, etc.. Everybody might have their own personal shopping drone by then.

I live in an urban area, have adult kids under 25 and they shop a mixture of brick and mortar and online. Along with my neighbors who's adult kids also shop at stores. So when you say no one under 25 shops in store, you sound stupid and arrogant.

There are plenty of sources for total retail sales information. Here is one link:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECOMPCTSA

According to this table, ecommerce as a percentage of total retail sales jumped to 16% the first quarter of 2020, due to the pandemic. Whether this percentage will be sustained remains to be seen.

For the time being, the death of brick and mortar retail is greatly overstated. Certainly the internet has massive effects. But most of the dollars are still going to brick and mortar stores. Retailers who want to pay their bills today need to base their programs on the reality today, while also being prepared for changes in the future. Eddie Lampert has demonstrated this well with his disastrous attempt to save money by starving the stores of merchandise and maintenance.

Thrift stores lots of young people especially in urban areas.

m-r-j-a-a stores

Cbd stores

Apple stores

Best buy

Five below....the whole store is for teenagers.

Any tire store

Autozone,O riely

Gnc vitaman stores

Louis Vuitton....big line today in outlet mall

Home Depot and Lowes

Travel store and fuel such as Buccee and Wawa

Not all retail is defined by oversized poorly run stores such as Sears....

Eh? I see kids under 25 in stores all the time. Look at Designer Show Warehouse (DSW) for example.

Best analogy I could give his plugging holes in a dam that is about to break. It will buy you Some TIME, but the fate is sealed. Plug all the holes you want, at some point, that dam is breaking and there is nothing you can do to stop it. In 20 Years from now, we won't be having this discussion, because the B&M ship will have sailed. There simply won't be enough young demographics left to support it.

Nobody under the age of 25 sets foot in stores now. They just don't. Not claiming it's a good thing. They don't develop skills on dealing with people in person. They do everything on computers. But the fact is the fact. That demographic will be the one that finally k–ls B&M shopping. Sad but true and nothing can stop it.

Do you have any link to that 85% statistic? Even if you don't, I'll take your word for it, although I'd be interested to see how that breaks down by age demographics.
I'll play along with it though. I'm pretty sure, that 20 Years ago, in 2000, over 85% of people listened to cassettes and CD's. What percentage do you think that is now? Probably more like 8%. Heck, in 2000, when I applied for jobs, I used to fax my resume to prospective employers LOL! Do you think people apply for jobs that way now? Things change.

Again, back to age demographics. Yes, older folks shop in stores, but sadly, the older folks won't be around forever. Heck, in my job, I'm the old guy at 40. Most of my co-workers are far younger than me, and they do everything, from ordering dinner, to shopping on their phones, or computers. They laughed at me when I went to Wendys and ordered in person with Paper Coupons. To them, I'm a fossil at age 40. Those younger folks are the future. And they don't shop in stores. They do everything online. And there is almost nothing that you cannot find online. You can even buy cars online, for crying out loud! When my generation is gone, and they will eventually be, there will be literally almost zero market for B&M stores. Amazon even has Same Day delivery in some areas. SAME DAY! And there are many other outlets other than Amazon. Target, Jet, Ebay, so many others ship stuff free online. Even Sears does!
And for the few boomers that still like shopping in stores, it most likey will be Target, Lowes, Kohls, etc., because there is nothing that B&M Sears/Kmarts (if you can find any) have that the better chains don't have at Better Prices. Demographics is destiny. When Generation Z is middle aged, there will be nobody left to shop B&M. Unless people start living to 200 Years old, it's simply destiny. Read this....younger people do not shop in stores:

https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-shopping-habits-k–l-brands-2019-7

TL/DR: B&M is hanging on by a thread, less and less Every Day, and when older generation Passes on, there will be nobody left to participate in it.

The simple fact is, 85% of all retail sales still go through brick and mortar stores. This can be verified by looking up Department of Commerce statistics. While internet sales are certainly growing fast, brick and mortar is far from dead.

Eddie Lampert k–led Sears/Kmart by believing in the myth of the " total internet takeover of retail". Smart retail companies work to develop online sales while also maintaining and improving their brick and mortar store presence. Walmart is doing more online business. They are also building new stores. And the new stores are doing very well. Sears and Kmart are near dead because the stores s—, not because of the internet.

Maybe eventually the internet will take over all retail, but that day is far in the future. Until then, retail companies need to address what customers want now, and most often that's well stocked stores with good customer service.

Counterexamples

What not to do to stay in business.

Yes Sears are Kmart are great examples of just how vital bricks and mortar retail is. Lolz.

Amazon will be delivering by drones same day. Already started last week.Some cities deliveries now in 3 hours.

@ljy+16RbpqcA Exatctly this. Are there still some B&M stores left? Of course. There are plenty of landline phones too, and even some typewrites and VCR's still in use. But none of those things represents the future. Sure, some people still write out letters by hand and send them by regular mail. Sure, some people still file Taxes on paper. Heck, my 80 Year old dad still does, and I gently tease him about it.
But that is not how people shop (by and large). Targy, Wally, Kohls etc., have huge online presences. @2qqr+16Pjnlhn OK boomer.
And yes, those chains mentioned have B&M stores. Many people still have landlines and fax machines too. Even Blockbuster still has a store. But they're novelties not the future.

Sure, someone who needs something right away goes to a store. But in most cases, people don't. Neither myself nor anyone in my family has stepped into a mall in 10 Years. Neither have most of my friends. There simply is no reason too, because all those chains have a huge online presence. If I need some laundry detergent, or a shirt, or socks, or anything else, why would I spend gas driving to a store when the store can come to me? Yes, some older people still shop in stores the same way some older people still use landlines and CD players. But they will be on the way out soon enough. Out grandkids won't be shopping in stores LOL. Ya, maybe a few niche stores will remain. But most non-food commodities will be shopped online. Heck, I'm actually old school when it comes to groceries because I like to see/touch produce, meats before buying them, but most people younger than me don't even do that, largely even buying groceries online.

B&M is going the way of the dinosaur. They will last for a while, just like some boomers' CD players will last for a while. But the fate is sealed, and you can downvote all you want. Online shopping is the future. Sorry but it is. 30 Years from now, Target etc., will probably exist, but they will be 90% online, and 50 Years from now 100% online. Natural selection is right. You will have your oddball Blockbusters that survive but they will be novelties, much like people have 1950's cars for Weekend car shows, but not as Daily drivers. Sorry, but our grandkids will think of malls and stores, the way we think of hula-hoops, Payphones, or 8 track players. Time marches on. Life moves on.
This is just progress. Nobody under 30 (in any significant number) shops brick and mortar. Look at any poll or survey.

" What does this post have to do with Sears and KMart though?"

Sears and KMart have a brick and mortar presence (though declining rapidly) and an online presence.

That's a very short-sighted view of the future of B&M...especially as we are only 7-months into a pandemic that will completely change the worldwide view of ALL B&M. This does not apply only to retail - as all businesses will adapt to a wfh business model and on-line retail will grab a much bigger market-share. Companies like Amazon, Apple & Walmart are already there... The demise of retail B&M will be much more apparent as time goes by.

The older-set are the main buyers within a B&M environment...while the younger crowd who are very well "e-connected" buy online and will stay that way - B&M was dying long before COVID. The original post that said - “online shopping will be the only way to shop soon” argument is just lazy and misinformed" - is itself lazy, misinformed and just plain wrong! We have to think in longer than 7-month time-frames..... in 5 years "Main Street" will be bereft of many of the retail icons we all grew up with....and traditional office-businesses will have cut down drastically on their B&M footprints... This is just a further process of natural-selection like it or not.

What does this post have to do with Kmart or Sears though?

THANK YOU, to whoever wrote this! I get so tired of reading all these retail apocalypse articles. Not all.of us are interested in making Jeff Bezos wealthier than he already is.

The OP is correct.

B&M will look much different in the coming years. But sometimes you need something now and not tomorrow and sometimes you want to see or touch something before you buy it.

On the other hand, specialty or rarely purchased products will be more likely bought online. It won't make sense for physical locations to maintain inventory with low turnover. For example, even today, certain plumbing fixtures can't be purchased directly in a Home Depot or Lowes even though they are still being made and can be purchased through their websites and shipped to store or home.

Yes, I see ads for B&M stores that say something like "what's better than getting something overnight? Getting it TODAY" and that seems like a pretty good approach. Online is fine for commodity shopping; you know exactly what you want and don't need it immediately and it is much easier than hunting for that thing. But hopefully actual shopping by stores that do it right never goes away.

Ok thanks Mr Retail Analyst. Another attention seeking waste of a post.

Delete this junk please admin