In this move that made this company bigger than Target, it had all the potential to take on Wal-Mart... so what do you feel Ed should have done differently to make it a successful merger of two longstanding American companies?
Should have liquidated then when the stores had valuable merchandise and the commercial real estate market was good. Too late now. What’s left might actually be a liability.
Kmart should have built new stores. Many new masterplan communities in big cities across the country in the last 2 decades and no new Kmarts built or opened. How are you going to compete with Wal-Mart or Target if Kmarts are only found in run down old hoods?
I would have integrated both stores and never done SYW. I would have implemented an aggressive growth strategy based on customer (not member) feedback. I would have reinvested in stores. New cash registers. How many of you used registers from 1991?? The internet “member” lounges were a good idea, but were a failure because they didn’t create the need to purchase anything. I would have added some type of coffee shop.
Once the cancer has spread so far, it is next to impossible to reign it in again.
Stronger alliance with Martha Stewart, maybe make her a partner. Invest immediately in the stores; they were already physically deteriorating when he bought the companies. No one wants to shop in a dump.
Kmart HQ was a mile away from a very nice Target and what was a decent Walmart (now a mess, although I've only gone there once in the last year) and execs should have been studying those stores very closely to see what made them successful.
For Sears, make sure quality was emphasized, instead of cheaping out on tools and other mdse. Emphasize Satisfaction Guaranteed. When e-commerce became a thing, encourage the stores as pickup points.
Understand that stores are not a collection of competing departments, they are an organic whole and treat them as a single unit, and emphasize that they are a team and success is the store's, not a department's.
Sears should have picked up all Montgomery Wards customers as well as radio shack. Instead it all turned out as planed . tear down the company and sell off the property.
Sell it to someone who knows retail and put it in a Vanguard Stock Index ETF. Two companies still exist, he doesn't get trashed as the dumbest CEO in history, and someone smart would have made money with the real estate.
The decisions that were made were idiotic, Sears started selling things like the "US Polo Association" label which is nothing more than a cheap flea market knock-off of Ralph Lauren, instead, they could have created a line of actual Ralph Lauren exclusive to Sears. They did the same with knock-off styling of Tommy Hilfiger ect...... it just made the place look "cheap". The quality of "craftsman" tools sunk to the gutter , most stores did not have cosmetic counters, the hair salons did not keep up with the competition . They just fell behind the competition in every way. Sears truly lost the battle when it became widely known that if you wanted to buy a vacuum cleaner the best deal possible was always at Macy's and that was in the late 80's early 90's. If I were Eddie I would have retooled everything from the ground up and competed directly with JC Penney expanding into formals/wedding business , partnering with actual designers for more reasonably priced lines , and K mart could carry the post season discounted fashion lines competing with TJ MAXX and Marshalls. KMart could have also entered the electronics market as a big player for cell phones and computers, they could have easily partnered with ASUS and really beome the real tech nerds and PC gamers destination of choice, with parts and pre assembled units. Sears Kmart should have been looking to pick all of the customers of everything else closing down at the time ie: radio shack, HHGregg, and they should have been stealing customers from Best Buy and picking up brand loyalty customers that were experiencing pay downgrades in the late 90's. In short, Sears/Kmart took the cheap out route and decided to focus on customer loyalty only without trying to create new customers even when the atmosphere was ripe with people looking for other places to shop. It seems as though they missed every opportunity to properly market themselves to demographics that have money to spend.
I think Sears should have been sold to Sears Mexico, while Kmart kept all the exclusive brands like Craftsmen, Whirlpool, d-e Hard Batteries, and MainStays.
The simple answer... Invest in both companies instead of tearing them down.
Eddie should become a daytime TV financial advisor! That would be a wonderful way to generate more money for the company & to get free advertising! If I were Eddie, I woule be applying for news anchor jobs right now!
I feel Eddie should have resigned from the company, and gone into televangelism.
At this point, what difference does it make?
I would have rebranded Sears as Kmart Deluxe stores and build more Super Kmarts!
Feels like an episode of "This is Your Life!" Where they make you relive the nightmare all over again.