Thread regarding Sears layoffs

Who cares about who owns who .. for God's sake peoples lived have been absolutely shattered. Think about each time we were all told to work hang on and were lied to. Peoples lives were God dam shattered. Hard work folks had there lives shattered so who cares about the liquidators. They are cleaning up the crime scene.

Abacus is not owned by Tiger. Although Tiger has an entity named Abacus, it is not based on retail liquidation, but rather A/R. Also there are other liquidators that are private. Not all are public like Gordon Brothers and Great American.

Cut the c-ap please. Sears uses abacus because they are in financial bed with Eddie. Why cant others bid on the stores? My liquidator lady told me at dinner she made 2,000 a week plus bonus and then tried to walk it back. Somethings f—ed up with these stores closings for 16.. you get a life you pig your probably a liquidator eating popcorn in your hotel watching p–n

@1uzf. I don’t know, but I bet you’re going to tell us!

Lol! The continued obsession with Lampert/ESL is comical. If someone has a bad day, it’s Eddie’s fault. A DM is mean to someone or makes a mistake, it’s Eddie’s fault. If something positive is reported it can’t be true! Did you ever think that maybe Sears uses Abacus because they are reliable, and do a good job? I shop at the same grocery chain, fly the same airline, drive Ford pickups because I’m satisfied with their prices, selection, service and reliability. For Christ sake... get a life people !

Who is abacus and who are the shareholders????

Guess who one of Abacus's major shareholders is? 3 guesses, first 2 don't count.

@hqo. "We get it. You don’t like Eddie."

Neither does Sears Holdings, Sears shareholders, unpaid unsecured creditors, unpaid suppliers, mall landlords, Stanley Black and Decker, and customers who receive lemon large appliances, shoddy service technicians and phone support.

There's your proof. Those are facts and you know it. It's all in the bankruptcy court documents.

Common Questions about Liquidation

Why don’t retailers just close their own stores without our help? Asset disposition is really both an art and a science. Liquidators focus on creating ‘events’ that draw as much value out of the assets as possible. From experience, we know the optimal discounting, expense structure and timing to get the highest net recovery. At the same time, retailers can stay focused on their ongoing, profitable operations as opposed to the assets weighing down their bottom line. Disposition firms must be able to spur robust traffic for weeks or months, with stores staffed to holiday-season levels. The firm must also preserve the look and feel of the store even as it rolls out marketing campaigns—banners, sign-walkers, YouTube videos, customer e-blasts, newspaper and digital ads, and local and national press outreach—that convey the uniqueness and urgency of the event.

Discounts must be highly targeted, often down to the level of individual SKUs, and adjusted frequently with warp speed, all based on shifting market demand. To guarantee a steady stream of traffic, the firm must also maximize the sale of lower-demand goods while keeping enough high-demand merchandise in the store at lower discounts. A store’s regular shoppers might dominate at the beginning of the event; toward the end when discounts are at their highest, another more bargain-hungry shopper will enter the mix. Even the mannequins, office furniture, racking and all other store fixtures are sold in an orderly process at the same time the inventory is being liquidated.

As a result, another common question I receive is, “What do you do with what’s left over?” The answer is easy: At the close of the sale, nothing is left; the store is empty, broom-clean and ready to turn back to the landlord.

@1bab

Great points. My story could not have been done without the leadership of the liquidation manager. Never mind after the store is closed and all the environmental problems that occurred. Well worth it for me.

Tiger and abacus are the same guy .

@1bab

The liqudation consultant is objective from the perspective that they aren’t losing their job after the fact. The staff at the closing store may be upset, emotional, or excited and ‘not care’ about running the store during the sale. The consultant is there to keep everyone on the same page throughout the process and is mindful that there is ‘still business’ to be done before closing.

I would compare a liqudation consultant with that of a project manager. They conduct closing sales to be familiar with the process.

Also, Kmart really doesn’t ‘pay’ Abacus. Abacus gets a cut of the sale proceeds and the 15% premium on fixture sales is spilt between the two companies. The bankruptcy documents have nice details about the relationship between abacus and Kmart if you wish to peruse.

@zjz

The 2 Sears I helped close both had the liquidation run by Tiger. Abacus had absolutely nothing to do with either one.

@hqe Hi, thanks for replying but I have a few more counter-questions. Why is it needed for someone to be objective? How important is that someone is good at his job when his job is simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic anyway? He can do a fabulous job, he can do a terrible job, either way the ship is sinking anyway.
I see your point about selling fixtures, but I'm sure they can have someone in-house to do that? After all, it's just a matter of lowering Prices (on everything including fixtures) until the store empties out. People will buy used cat litter, LOL, if Price is low enough.
I see about wanting to cut ties, but it seems like An Added Expense of hiring some other company, when they can just have the mules at the store do it as part of their regular job and then lay them off. Like I Said, let the captain of the Titanic, rearrange deck chairs, then he'll go down with the ship anyway, problem solved.
Obviously I'm missing something, but just wondering allowed.....

For person asking why a liqudation company is used instead of just ‘doing it themselves’ there are a couple reasons.

First reason is to bring in someone who is ‘objective’ into the store who wont be losing their job at the end of the process.

Second is that regular managers aren’t skilled at selling fixtures or store equipment. A good liquidation consultant will be skilled at selling supplies and equipment at a good price.

Third is that Kmart doesn’t want to manage operations at closing stores. Sure your DM or DFM May visit from time to time, but bringing in Abacus allows Kmart to cut ties with the store sooner.

Abacus does them all period. Others may work for other liquidation companies when not on a sears deal but when its k Kmart or sears it always has been and will be abacus. It has zero to do with region as that would not be feasible to have control over different areas and that statement is b—s—. One if the few wrong statements here in years.

I have long suspected that Eddie has some kind of ownership stake in Abacus Advisors. Here is why:

1) Abacus has long been the liquidation company of choice for Kmart/Sears. You almost hear nothing about them. There are several other firms (Great American, Gordon Brothers, Tiger, Kimco Capital), And each Comes up in the news when other retailers liquidate or go by the bankruptcy Route... yet you never hear about Abacus.

2) The website is ancient and hasn’t been updated in years. I get this is probably a niche market, but how can you attract new clients with a website that appears to be from the late 90s? Maybe they don’t need new clients with SHC on retainer, but what happens when SHC folds?

3) In talking with our store liquidator, he said “Kmart likes working with my company because we aren’t publicly traded. We don’t have to disclose some of the information that Great American or Gordon Brothers has too because we’re private.”

4) Abacus also attracts a fair number of former SHC store manager’s to become liquidation consultants.

5) Why keep using the same firm for 16 years? We can’t even keep housekeeping companies or insect control companies for a few years in a row, yet Abacus has a long partnership with SHC.

There are multiple companies involved, with who gets what specific stores determined regionally and by the resources of the liquidator within that region. None of the 4 I was involved in had anything to do with Abacus. If you really want to know who is closing a specific store, most of the liquidation consultants have their employer listed on their linkedin.

@iva. Another retail Mensa who’s smarter than everyone.

You did some digging huh. Good for you. What difference does it make that the liquidators are notified first.... where is your proof? We get it. You don’t like Eddie

It would be cheaper for the stores not to ship out merchandise to closing locations. But remember that the person in charge of the company, aka, Eddie has no clue how to operate a retail business. This man couldn't operate a coin-operated gumball machine.

Probably a dumb question but why do they need "Liquidators"? Why cant the store themselves just do it themselves by not ordering any more stuff and simply lowering Prices til the store empties out? Am I missing something?