Thread regarding Sears layoffs

"Give me a THOUSAND points on a $10.00 purchase and I still wouldn't want anything you're selling."

Well, at SYW valuation, a thousand points is only worth $1.00. ;-)

Points / coupons are all smoke and mirrors.

@VyCPqcV-hda This is a big one here. My SM sugar coats that don't dare to ask the customer to use their points. He says they are suppose to bring that up because we want them to come back. I just LOL'd as you mentioned the points expire and than we have p-ss-d off customers that ask where are my points.

This point gimmick is not working giving away stuff we still are losing money insanely. Instead of investing on an actual "wow experience" they rather limit the hours on workers and not have the merchandised processed in time.

I have seen customers where they come and use the free points pay nothing out of pocket or maybe pocket change. Because this free point promotions arent working. I think its a desperate attempt its to make as much money as possible, but how so people are getting scared to shop (especially big ticket items) if the company goes out of business. The store looks like c-ap because of not having a well staff team. Customers complain no cashier is to their to help them some leave some just get mad I have noticed foot traffic really died down in our store. The whole second payment 11/20 just tells you that the company might file for BK soon enough so they take whatever they can as of now.

Think about those policies. Circling the points ensures that in a court of law, SHC can say they took reasonable steps to ensure people knew about the expiration.

Your honor, Mr. Member could easily take those points and spend them 5 minutes later. We weren't stopping him.

But during the actual transaction, don't mention it because they are probably already too tired of standing in the long lines to want to turn around and spend them 5 minutes later.

How many lawyers do you think are coming up with or approving all this c-ap? This isn't some third-rate CEO pushing us into becoming a third-rate company.

However, this postponement of redemption. That is now pushing the envelope in my opinion. In my examples before, Gift Cards are available immediately (or perhaps next day) and Disney Dollars are available immediately. We are now taking peoples earned points and saying they can't withdraw for a month.

So the lawyers said this was okay? Or we laid off the lawyers and SHC is so close to the end it just doesn't matter.

What do you think?

Give me a THOUSAND points on a $10.00 purchase and I still wouldn't want anything you're selling.

this just borrows money- hold the points and they will still be a liability until redeemed..pushs that 20.00 down into another sales quarter possibly

What I really love are the totally not-at-all contradictory policies whereby we're not allowed to ask customers if they want to redeem their points (THEY must affirmatively state such a desire without prompting) even while we're supposed to circle their points on their receipt and tell them when they'll expire AFTER the transaction is complete. How many p-ss-d off customers I've had demanding to know why the f* I didn't apply their points they didn't ask to use and grumbling as they head up to the service desk to return and rebuy everything with their points.

Sorry for my long posts. The guy just infuriates me.

But I will venture an opinion that I am not alone in this.

Only way to do business with them now is cash and carry, and hope whatever you bought is good

Exactly. People aren't stupid. Once they realized that they would lose money by holding a gift card a few months, they got their politicians to pass laws to stop it. And when little Timmy wants to take home Disney Dollars, you can bet that mom and dad are giving him one crisp dollar and ensuring they spend all the others.

Companies with gift cards and Disney in this example aren't betting the farm on these gimmicks. They make some amount of money and go with it. If Disney didn't make any money (amount of dollars taken home is less than the cost of printing them) they would stop that gimmick right away.

But with SYWR points, our $$$ CEO saw nothing but dollar signs. Just like he saw $$$ going out the door via any upkeep in the stores or giving raises or, as we know at Hoffman, having anyone clean the restrooms. Now the points are being given out in large quantities to increase sales (notice that recent increase in revenue reported for July and August?) and redemption is being limited.

You just earned a great amount of money to be used again in your shopping at Sears. You are so special Mr. Member! Thanks for being so loyal to SHC like grandma always was. But just let me keep these points for you for awhile....

they will be gone before the points are yours to use.

Points are gimmicks ---- I did not buy a $1200 snowthrower this weekend because of the 'points' program ---- you want to discount ... pay me now.

Points are a liability on the general ledger as they are owed to the holder of the points. Liability until they are redeemed or expire. If redemption is postponed, the liability is floated. In this case, until the next reporting quarter. They generated sales at a higher $ amount (no immediate promotional markdown as there used to be) and the actual markdown is floated.

Sell something at $10 off the old way, you lose the $10 immediately. Sell something as points redeemable later, you hold the money and can short-term invest it. We all saw this the minute Eddie wanted it implemented. Not that he invented the concept...

Same basic ideas as buying a gift card. The longer you hold it and don't use it, the longer we got your money. That's why originally, gift cards from all kinds of establishments would devalue a certain amount every month until it reached zero. (until states started outlawing that). Please buy gift cards and if you don't mind, please don't ever use them. Same with SYWR points.

Disney had (I don't know if they still do), the Disney Dollars. Kids loved when Mom and Dad bought them and they'd take them home, unused.

Capitalism at its best. Or perhaps its basic Accounting 101. Take in but don't send out. Although with hundreds of millions in quarterly losses, I think someone forgot what they learned.

And this dawned on NO ONE who could authorize it 10 years ago

Think you're missing the point. Promotions like these are designed to develop repeat behavior patterns, so shoppers come back more frequently and become higher value. SHLD is stupidly giving away massive amounts of money, but there is a semi-coherent strategy behind all of that.