I went into a Sears store in Ft. Lauderdale and noticed that the entire electronics department was empty shelves. There was a lone radio but I couldn't tell if it were an open box item for sale or just there so the one employee upstairs could listen to music. The store is from the 50's and still looks that way so I doubt they're doing any improvements to the space. Are they going to stop selling electronics, are they just waiting for new inventory, or is this an indication that the store is closing? All of the other departments in the store seemed stocked with items. My father worked at this store in the 60's and it's sad to see what has become of it.
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But yet, they released a Kenmore television recently.? I have people asking about it, and we closed out our electronics department 3 months ago. So as a consumer, how does that make us look?Rediculous!
No money to be made in electronics anymore with everything being online and all. The margins are too low and most everything else is much higher so they're focusing more on clothes, housewares, furniture, etc.
Our electronics department is just about gone as well, about this time last year they merged both the appliances and electronics department. it's been ok, working over there, some days are good and then you have the bad days. Mattresses and vacuums and counter top microwaves are next to the department as well and from what I heard is they are going to combine all of that into one department. Has this happened to anyone else?
I worked in the electronics department for four years. My first and second year were quite lucrative for retail. The commissions were good and there were spiffs on pretty much anything. You could make $50 in commissions from selling a $350 TV stand. Imagine what a 3D 60" TV would pay? It was rare when I made less than $700 in commissions and spiffs alone (not counting base pay) during a two-week period.
Then, commissions dwindled, spiffs went away (all of us suspected Sears of pocketing them), and product availability tanked. Suddenly, we had tons of low-end el-cheapo TVs and HT (RCA, Seiki) and struggled to get the better ones (Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sony, Bose), they were rarely in stock at the store and good luck ordering them. People came in, looked, left and never came back. The good old days were over. Then they merged those of us in Electronics into appliances. Everyone said it paid better, I don't see how. Maybe they paid well a few years ago.
I usually sell no less than $30,000 a month in appliances and I make much less than I did in electronics--and that's selling the higher-end stuff, PAs, installs...it really isn't worth my time. To add insult to injury, the ability to make any money is narrowing at an alarming rate. Foot traffic is on a decline, the company is cutting our pay whenever they feel like it (but higher management never takes any cuts in pay), all while we are told that we need more PAs, more credit, more Know Your Members, more ipad sales, more water filter subscriptions, more base to bonus...it's always wanting more for less.
A lot of the people with seniority (10 years or more) are leaving or have left. I'm out the door pretty soon myself.
Same thing at my store. Started a few months ago. Not sure what's happening to the space. There hasn't been any store closure announced in a while. Wonder when the next round is. I thought some seritage properties would announce since the one year is up but I guess not. Maybe they will only sell Kenmore tv's in the space.
most of the Sears and Kmarts phased out the majority of their electronics a while ago. The are very low margin and after employee discounts, theft, etc. they generally lose money for both chains, so they decided to dump them.