The Absolute Truth

I have been visiting this site over the years since I joined SHC and have been astounded by the amount of (false) positivity posted by many people.

The truth is that our Fearless Leader Eddie has no intention (and never has) of saving Sears/Kmart from extinction. A once - larger than life - American Icon....the Amazon of it's time - will ultimately go BK and fade into obscurity into the history books along with any pretense that Eddie knew anything about Retail. The next Warren Buffet - will turn out to be anything but...

He has kept Sears somewhat solvent in a very-long Real-Estate play. As long as the stores are open....there would be some value in the Seritage Properties. Meanwhile he has dismembered the "Holdings" from Sears Holdings over the years - while lining his pocket with the proceeds from the many companies that he has cast-off. His latest "offer" to buy Kenmore and Home-services is the final play in his play-book of eviscerating the company formerly known as Sears Holdings. Once this is complete - there will be nothing left for any creditors to claim....once BK occurs.

I have watched for many years - as we close vast amounts of both Sears and (especially) Kmart stores in a mad-dash towards the elusive positive comp-sales. A feat that ultimately will never happen...sadly. We have only been able to show positive comp sales for July/August - because of the ever growing list of closed stores. This trend WILL NOT continue....and we will once again fall into the negative territory that has been so comfortable for so many years. Eddie's incapable of propping up sales - because... a) it's too late....and b) he NEVER invested in the stores to make them attractive to the younger generation of shoppers that DO frequent our competitors...and finally c) the retail ecosystem shifted a VERY LONG time ago to on-line. We (Sears/Eddie) refused to invest in a REAL way to shift us to an e-commerce company.....a la Wal-Mart. The ignorant among us will blame Amazon for our (and many other retail outlets) demise. The truth is that WE created the environment for Amazon to thrive and prosper. Any company could have taken the financial risk and had the foresight to see that American Retail was moving on-line....it does not take a 2nd Warren Buffet to see that.....it takes a forward-thinking retail manager to do that. This was not rocket science - it is just being aware of what is going on around us. And now it is too late...

After the latest $508M losses...layoffs are imminent...and this coming Tuesday is set to be a blood-bath.....numbers as high as 50% layoffs have been circulating for months....and now the day of reckoning is almost upon us. And...Eddie Lampert - b---s---ter extrodinaire - will spin another story of "how we needed to do this - to right-size the company in a march towards transformation and ultimate profitability". What should have happened - a very long time ago - is that he should have given up the chase and put the company in the hands of those that knew how to take Sears Holdings forward. I could go on for many more chapters - but I wont.... There will probably be many haters who react negatively to my post. There maybe grammatical errors above....maybe some miss-spellings too - but they know I speak the truth. I would love nothing more that for Sears to survive Eddie Buffet...er...Lampert....but I don't believe he can do it.....mainly because HE DOESN'T WANT TO. RIP Sears Holdings.

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I actually had my store manager say at a meeting that the press doesn't like Eddie because he was kidnapped and that's why Eddie gets bad press. The excuses for why SHC is failing never end.

Agree the entire C suite ala Leena, Braithwaite, Riecker, etc. ought to toss and turn sleepless at night for supporting this.

Agree with the OP and want to add a couple of things:

1.) The "positive" sales are because of free cash offerings in SYW. I received IN Store ONLY offers for $15 free cash off of a $20 purchase several times for both clothes and jewelry at Kmart. Thought i was special but as they admitted SYW drove those sales and the resulting low margins. Who wouldn't buy with deals like that?

2.) Target. Target has quietly made their intergrated retail experience work. I shop there and truly can use the web to either buy from Target successfully or simply locate a product in store down to the aisle number. I wouldn't that's it's such a big deal to do this if I weren't pummeled by Sears trying but failing to do this accurately.

3.) When I started working for Sears, I was going to call Eddie Lampert myself to let him know what was going on in store and how things could be fixed relatively easily (at that time.) I naively thought he didn't know but would both want to and would care. I was wrong ...

continued from last post

It is all lies and PR to make them look like they still care about this company. News flash, they don't at all. They said they won't close anymore stories, more lies of course. Whatever game they are playing it will not be the benefit to any of the workers I can guarantee you that.

Eddie hasn't been "trying" at all. All he has been doing is trying to line his own pockets with more money. He's a hedge fund CEO; not a retail CEO and it is quite clear that's the path he's taken given the shape of this company is in.

Just face the facts, all. There is no revival plan for either Kmart or Sears coming. The only real plan there is to slowly kill off these companies and raid the corpses until there is nothing left. Whatever corporate speak they tell you

If Eddie was really trying, he’d be in HE every day. That’s mistake #1 and it goes downhill from there. The first rule of being successful is showing up and he doesn’t even do that.

"...... Could this be that Eddie really is trying, but no matter what decisions are made it wont matter?"

For the love of god.....Does Eddie pay you when you swallow? Your comment could not be MORE divorced from reality.

The Sears.com website leaves a lot to be desired. Many of my friends and family complain to me about it. Didn't Wal Mart buy an online company that helped them revitalize their online presence? Sears did attempt an online marketplace but it falls short in comparison to other competitors.

On the other hand...its hard to fight a battle where you are always wrong. No matter what moves are taken, its a mess in the media. Could this be that Eddie really is trying, but no matter what decisions are made it wont matter? Good or bad...the only two things i would have liked to have seen from Eddie is 1) Work recognition for his associates. 2) To stop hiding on his island and visit stores so he knows what its really like. (Just like the customers and employess see.) Sears and Kmart could have been saved. Still can if he was to act today. You cant win a battle if you are not in it. I have never met him so i guess its not fair to call him any names. Although i disagree with his style, maybe he isnt so bad of a person...

The OP is 100% correct.

There's a special place in hell for people like ESL, Leena, Jesse, Gareth, et all.

How ANY of the are able to sleep at night, or draw breath without wracking guilt is beyond me.

None of this had to happen. None of it....

Most of the Sears KMart cheerleader posts on this board are paid shills and trolls looking for attention.

Well said.

Amen.

I kinda agree with that. Now he's blaming everyone whos retired for the mess they are in today? Come on...take responsibility!!!! They don't control the stores today!!!!

Eddie is a piece of ****. Nothing more to say then that. He gave himself a raise this past year. What a piece of trash. His associates making minimum wage for years with no increse. The salaired and hourly managers working well past their due to try to make ends meet, yet can't satisfy anyone due to the lack of staff. It's all just a joke that starts with the leader. My rant can go for pages...but im so disgusted with how associates are treated I just can't.

While Eddie did try (barely) to move to online - he NEVER committed the company, meaningfully, in that direction. Buying a company in Israel - that never really did anything for us (our on-line experience is poor...at best).....revenue never exceeded $60M....and is now less that half of that #. Again - he never corrected a bad decision....just poured more good-money on bad results. Amazon's on-line sales are ENORMOUS.....Walmart's (organic) on-line grows in the double-digit's each an every year. To say "Too little, too late" is a tale of two separate tracks of conversation: 1) Too little: He NEVER did enough...lets not fool ourselves. 2) Too late: sadly the truth.

Finally, a realistic post that represents all of us that work at SHC. The post depicts how me and all my colleagues feel, thanks for sharing.

U r correct but I will say this, Eddie did realize the move to online years ago and did make moves in that direction. Too little, too late though....

Thread regarding Sears layoffs

The Absolute Truth

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