Thread regarding Sears layoffs

In reply to 1qt1: There are other retailers who get rid of unsold merchandise or unsellable returns by just chucking them in the trash - check out this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuZmICbnQss There are lots of others you can find. It is ridiculously lazy and wasteful. Tons of food is thrown out as well by groceries and fast food restaurants that someone could surely find a way use.

If even a small amount of this is true is makes so much since why this company is going down hard. At my store we try to sell heavy damaged items like potting soil or cat litter to associates at a discount, instead of sending them back. Win-win for everyone even though it’s against policy. So sad to hear about perfectly good merch getting trashed. Our planet is done for if companies are going to act like this

A better-run company would have a procedure for mistaken merchandise to be taken back to the DC the next time a truck makes a regular delivery to that store, no extra shipping expense needed since the truck would've just been driving back empty anyway. But of course they don't.

We have thrown perfectly good merch in the trash because it was more expensive for the store budget to ship it to a nearby sears than if we sold it. I think the process is to send it UPS to the nearest Sears or Kmart, but that can be expensive and the DM's and SM's dont want to take the hit on the stores budget; Crazy but makes sense from a budget standpoint. Most DM's and SM's are just trying to keep their stores open and not worrying about the whole company

A retailer should never be throwing away product that isn't damaged or recalled. The SGM and AP that @1cip referenced should have sold it or shipped it back to the RRC.

This sort of reminds me of what an associate told me; she transferred from another Sears two states away. The backroom guys at that store were throwing unboxed softlines merchandise into the compactor to avoid having to process it and to get it "done" quicker. Then there was a twist: the SGM was turning a blind eye because the receipts would be "processed quicker". Apparently AP and was informed multiple times yet those backroom guys were still employed by the time she transferred to our store. Other shady things were happening too, like associates ringing non-members under SYW accounts they made up in their spare time.

No wonder why this company is going under. If someone was throwing away perfectly good merchandise anywhere else they'd be fired and possibly sued/facing charges, no questions asked. Throwing away merchandise is just as bad as stealing.

So Kmart has about 350 stores being serviced by 6 DC's ? I remember the days when just 1 DC would handle about 300 stores. Now each DC only serves about 50??!! That is just crazy.

iuhk, don't be so quick to name call. The system tends to kick things out overnight or sooner - like after ending day on the computer system - that aren't supposed to be there. At kmart, you also get flagged on a report for adding it. It's a lose - lose situation.

1cip- you are either full of sh-- of you have dumb sm/ap. You could have easily added the upcoming to the system and sold it for a similar amount. I find your story hard to believe.

I remember seeing a post some months ago from a Sears employee saying that their store had been selling some of the mistaken Kmart merchandise by coding/pricing it as the most similar product they could find in Sears inventory. Probably still wouldn't survive DM scrutiny, but seemed reasonable to me. If they insist on not selling stuff like that or shipping it back to the DC, then they should at least donate it to local charities for some good PR instead of throwing it in the darn dumpster! So wasteful.

@1nhj - District Managers are a total waste of payroll. They can't stop flapping their lips when they are complaining about something, however, you can't pry an answer out of them even if you used a crowbar. They play a grand role of Captain Obvious while pontificating, but go totally silent and adopt a deer in the headlights look when confronted with a problem.

Kmart side here. We received a bunch of small appliances that were sears items. Microwaves, toaster ovens, blenders etc. Same thing happened to us. We couldnt sell them because the numbers would not scan, we couldnt get and answer from Pebble, DM or anyone else. We ended up throwing them in the dumpster because SM and AP would not let us sell them.

@1rfh ~ Oh we were CONSTANTLY getting Kmart items that we couldn't sell through our system! One of our storerooms had collected about 12 feet of hangered softlines and maybe 40 pairs of women's and kid's shoes, all from Kmart. None of it would come up through the register because Sears systems don't recognize KSIN's or whatever Kmart SKUs are called, so the merchandise was taken back to the storeroom and storaged.

We set it all aside in the storeroom while we waited for an answer from the district manager and from someone on Pebble for advice on what to do with it. Finally, after about six months of no response, we just slapped a class-control ticket on everything and sold the stuff for the price marked on the Kmart ticket. That was the direction we were given by our store manager.

When our district manager came in for her visit, she remarked that the three or four racks of Kmart softlines were not to NPS standards, we shouldn't have sold the Kmart items and that we weren't supposed to use class control tickets for anything.

We told her that not only did we try to ask someone from corporate, we emailed her and we didn't get a reply. What were we supposed to do? Throw it away???

The DC's are out of stock on just about everything. No vendors shipping anymore. If Innovel cant find another business to use the warehouses the DC's will be toast. Right now they are trying to ship anything and everything out of the DC's. If you work for Sears or Kmart just ask how much stuff is coming in that is already expired or Kmart stuff going to Sears and Sears stuff being shipped to Kmart by "mistake". There is a method to this method. Stay tuned.

Secretly? You obviously don't work for the company. Lmao.

If any DCs close it's only going to increase costs as far as transportation goes. The RRC that services my particular store is over 500 miles away. If that closes, we're looking at well over 1200 miles between our store and the next available DC. You figure that each truck fits 1-3 stops (stores) and it has to come all that way. Also figure that for each DC that closes, the existing ones must absorb the increased capacity.

Of course, this won't be an issue if they decide to close a whole bunch of stores that are over a certain distance from the nearest DC.

Here is some info, all the DC are now ran by this company https://www.innovelsolutions.com/#/home and guess who secretly owns the majority share in innovel solutions. Yep its Mr. Lampert himself. If they don't use the whole DCs for Sears and Kmart they will use it for other businesses.