I work in a Sears store as my only source of income. I am friends with the store manager and have known him for years before I even worked here. He told me privately that he believes Sears will not last till Christmas but declare some kind of bankruptcy any day now. I asked him wouldn't we at least have a few months liquidation before closing and he said we are already in liquidation now and the people higher up know all this and planned it this way. I know he wouldn't make all this up but could he be misinformed? He said if Bk were declared tomorrow the doors would be closed on 90% of the stores in less than a month. I don't know as much about it as he does, but could a company this size really vanish that fast??
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Look for a new job and maybe work two jobs for a while to save some extra money. SHC is going to close and you must be prepared. Severance seems to be gone and health insurance may be next. Good luck
Here's a better question:
Why the hell are you still at Sears????
Yes.
Congratulations. You work for the one honest Sears manager in the entire company.
As sole source of income, you need to be actively job searching first thing tomorrow. My local sears, which has been there for over 50 years closed in June. The K-Mart nearby is a mess. And I am in a pretty suburban area, with a decent population. It is beyond blatant that both chains are in decline.
You have better job opportunities if you are already employed. No one will fault you for going to another company. It is much harder to land a job when you’re on unemployment.
@1cwj "most alarming, nothing in back being stored"
That's the one-touch/simple-store procedures in effect these days. Stuff unloaded from a truck is supposed to go straight to the sales floor.
Could it be???
It's already happening.
I recently returned to kmart for extra cash. There is a fraction of the inventory we used to have three years ago. Shelves are scarce and , most alarming, nothing in back being stored. They have eliminated electronics, with the exception of a few tv's. It would take very little time to finish this.
Liquidation will take about 3 months. Assume you could be out of a job by January 1st.
Not necesarily. it depends on the store. My store closed two weeks after the announcment.
Everything was shipped off god knows where. .. they probably sold it to BigLots.
"In my store for some odd reason we are getting tons of merchandise every week from truck. We still get 1k pieces and we got no hours and its getting jam packed with stuff."
And where do you think this stuff is coming from?
I'll tell you: other stores that are closing/have already closed. Don't let your boss tell you otherwise.
Liquidation will take about 3 months. Assume you could be out of a job by January 1st.
This is a very interesting post I really would be shocked if Sears file for BK and its just over like completely. I would still assume some stores would have some type of liquidation to get rid of stock ASAP!
In my store for some odd reason we are getting tons of merchandise every week from truck. We still get 1k pieces and we got no hours and its getting jam packed with stuff.
Lets face it this week is going to be interesting some already called it that October 2nd might be the filing. Who knows lets be honest not much money is left and a big piece of debt is owed as of now to also add the stock is under $1 already aka a penny stock.
Sears has been in an extended, stealth liquidation for some time now. This is common knowledge. The only people who don't know this are either:
a. very naive
b. lying
At least your manager is honest. I don't understand the level of mind-numbing stupidity you would have to possess in order to believe this "transformation" b---s--- Eddie and every Sears manager have been peddling for years. Even on this board, there are managers and paid shills trying to constantly convince people that "it's not gonna happen... " etc. etc. Walk into any Sears store and try convincing yourself that Sears isn't dead. If you have actually worked at Sears and have half a brain, try convincing yourself that it wasn't all done ON PURPOSE. Thank your manager for at least being honest. Most Sears managers are lying sh--bags that took away people's jobs to save their own a--.
They are going to close at some point, but who knows when...maybe tomorrow, maybe by Christmas, maybe next year. But if you haven't been actively looking for another job at this point, I don't know what to tell ya.
Liquidators may transfer merchandise to another store nearby, so the store that transferred the merchandise would close sooner to save money on operational.
costs. Some locations may close immediately and not have a liquidation sale at all.
As far as how long it would take to close I agree with him. There is not that much stock to get rid off. about four or five weeks would take care of it.