22 Retailers Closing Stores

nivek

As Above So Below

As latest Sears closes in New York area, just 12 remain - so, just what went WRONG at 138-year-old retailer that was once the world's biggest?

Sears' last remaining store in the New York area is shutting its doors - in another blow for the once-legendary retailer.

A store in Jersey City, just over the Hudson river from Manhattan, announced a 70 percent off closing sale in a Facebook post - ending 40-years in the Newport Centre Mall.

At its peak, the 138-year-old department store was not just the biggest retailer in the US - but the world. It boasted over 4,000 stores as recently as 2012.

But the vast majority have now shuttered since the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2018.

Sears previously had 11 locations in New Jersey alone, but now has only a dozen across the whole country. The closest location for New York and New Jersey shoppers is now over 200 miles away in Braintree, Massachusetts.

The company, which was established in 1886 by railroad station agent Richard Sears, is now owned by Transformco, a retail company headed by hedge fund operator Eddie Lampert.


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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Sitting here wearing my Craftsman insulated shirt I didn't know there were ANY Sears left, thought that was over with a while ago. Sad. That one I actually miss.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I have never been a fan of Walmart for many reasons and by extension have had little use for Sam's Club, or BJs for that matter. But, since the economy is booming so well (we've been told) it finally prompted my wife and I - dedicated DINKS - to do some comparison shopping. We don't go through that much as it's just the two of us and the need just wasn't there but watching prices soar and quantity reduce the way they have been, added with the fact that I have more free time in my life that ever before, we made the rounds.

The BJs near here is dilapidated and had me wondering when my last tetanus shot was. Sam's Club is beautiful to behold and very well maintained but to the uninitiated I saw fully 20% of the store, right in the middle, stocked with absolute garbage. Literally entirely made of pallet after pallet of snack foods and junk. Also, we're not shopping there for clothing, furniture, electronics or anything so probably half of those huge stores are of no interest. If I were raising a family on budget, absolutely - but I'd still be aghast at the **** people eat and spend $$ on.

By comparing unit cost BJs actually is cheaper, then Sam's after that. Walmart won the prize because once I had a look at membership costs and what we actually buy, Walmart is doing fine by us and surprisingly our local supermarket comes in ahead of the big chains on some things. You have to really look, which is what we did. Basically, the cost savings of a membership club could be realized by skipping one, two at most trips to the diner. So WallyWorld it is maybe twice a month for bulk items.

Walmartians. Now, this is an old cliche but not necessarily to me. The spectacle's the thing, you see, I found yesterday to be highly entertaining. There are enough memes out there and you don't need me to burden this thread with more but there is a phenomenon I noticed.

No matter how big the store is human beings mill around like cattle. Our local green grocer is tiny by design, makes it quant, and I imagine an aerial view of what goes on inside would look like a slide full of contaminated water under a microscope. Make that exponentially bigger, make the aisle wide enough to drive a semi truck through and you still have people that can block it. Big, fat lumbering asses swinging arms and coats and walking slooooooowly side by side completely oblivious. I read that somewhere is Asia they have 'pushers' on subway platforms to pack people into train cars. Great idea here except they'd need an attachment for a fork truck to do that.

Americans in 2024 by and large are fat bastards.
 
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