Sears files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; CEO resigns

[Fuzzer1]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/15/sears-bankruptcy/1595399002/

 

This move was inevitable after Sears and Kmart both had such long periods of store closures and poor sales.

 

Don't be surprised if they officially file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy early next year.

[DLurkster]

Sears was no more up in Canada back in December 2017.

 

Wow, this different then the Toy 'r' Us closing down in the states and still open up here.

 

Who would of thought Sears up in Canada closing would mean the ones in the states would follow pursuit.

[purple_beard]

As a current worker there and in my 20th year (21 next March) with the company I have a lot of thoughts on this but to put all that out there might be a little much.

 

Ever since Eddie took over KMart and then flipped it into also acquiring Sears to form Sears Holdings Corp. he basically took two somewhat struggling at the time retailers and managed to somehow ruin both while setting himself up majority share owner and creditor via his hedge fund of the company.  Think about that situation for a minute.  Then think about how the SEC, or any other governing body for that matter, hasn't looked into his dealings.

 

Online shopping and the rise of Amazon.com is not what killed them as Sears even started out as a catalog company.  A non retail-centric based CEO did--more interested in his hedge fund than moving the company forward.

 

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I'd say, a lot of the internal moves and practices that have been employed over the last few years have generated better and better results in terms of running more efficient operations from what is available to work with.  Keep those processes and drive sales improvements and you can make it work.

 

 

It will be interesting to see what moves Amazon makes now.  Sears and them have test marketed a lot of arrangements involving auto and appliance purchases.  How badly does Amazon want a pieces of the appliance business?  The parts business?  The automotive business?  Aside from their own distribution centers one could make the argument that they could use brick and mortar stores to cut down on shipping times even more and probably with less travel might have internal shipping costs cut too.  The access to Sears's network and brands of appliances and automotive stuff coupled with the parts ordering side of the business would be a pre-set up easy access way into those markets.  The infrastructure is already there.  Kenmore, Die Hard, and Craftsman brands still stand for quality products.

[Tyranogre]

Dumb question, but how many chapters of bankruptcy are there, and what's the difference between them?

[Kezay]

Wow 20 years, PB!? Nice!

 

Hopefully some arrangement comes out of it because Sears would still be a huge logistical acquisition for a potential buyer if the Chapter 11 doesn't improve things.

[Fuzzer1]

30 minutes ago, Tyranogre said:

Dumb question, but how many chapters of bankruptcy are there, and what's the difference between them?

 

4 chapters of bankruptcy.

 

They are as followed:

 

• Chapter 7 - Liquidation
• Chapter 11 - Reorganization
• Chapter 12 - Adjustment of Debts of a Family Farmer with Regular Annual Income
• Chapter 13 - Adjustment of Debts of an Individual with Regular Income

[Tyranogre]

What happened to chapters 1-6 and 8-10?

[Link, the Hero of Dreams]

Maybe they don't apply to the Sears thing at hand... Although I don't know how farmers would be involved with Sears.

[Fuzzer1]

19 minutes ago, XLW said:

Maybe they don't apply to the Sears thing at hand... Although I don't know how farmers would be involved with Sears.

Those are just the main forms of bankruptcy in our court systems.

 

Chapters 7 and 11 are the only ones to worry about for businesses like Sears.

 

I should do more research regarding the other "chapters" of bankruptcy protecoon myself.

 

Edit: Chapter 9 refers to reorganization for municipalities as in cities like Detroit a few years ago. That wasn't fun to hear about being so close to there where I live in Michigan.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Fuzzer1

[purple_beard]

3 hours ago, Tyranogre said:

What happened to chapters 1-6 and 8-10?

 

I honestly find that question to be a good one.

[purple_beard]

2 hours ago, XLW said:

Maybe they don't apply to the Sears thing at hand... Although I don't know how farmers would be involved with Sears.

 

 

Farmers, based on their property, farming equipment investments, and the agricultural products they grow would put them in a different class of businesses than retailer.

[purple_beard]

4 hours ago, Kezay said:

Wow 20 years, PB!? Nice!

 

Hopefully some arrangement comes out of it because Sears would still be a huge logistical acquisition for a potential buyer if the Chapter 11 doesn't improve things.

 

I agree and that is why I bring up Amazon.  People seem to forget than when the started in the mid-late 90s all they sold were books, movies, and cds.  They somehow spun that into the conglomerate you see now.

 

And their 3 core store brands of Kenmore (appliances), Die Hard (automotive), and Craftsman (tools) are very well thought of and while Craftsman did get sold to Stanley tools the only major retailer to start carrying it is Lowes and from what I have seen, they have gotten the lower tier of the product lines.

[Alice Phantasma]

5 hours ago, purple_beard said:

As a current worker there and in my 20th year (21 next March) with the company I have a lot of thoughts on this but to put all that out there might be a little much.

 

Ever since Eddie took over KMart and then flipped it into also acquiring Sears to form Sears Holdings Corp. he basically took two somewhat struggling at the time retailers and managed to somehow ruin both while setting himself up majority share owner and creditor via his hedge fund of the company.  Think about that situation for a minute.  Then think about how the SEC, or any other governing body for that matter, hasn't looked into his dealings.

 

Online shopping and the rise of Amazon.com is not what killed them as Sears even started out as a catalog company.  A non retail-centric based CEO did--more interested in his hedge fund than moving the company forward.

 

As someone who worked at Kmart for 3 and a half years (only stopped because my store was closed), your points sound very valid, especially with remembering the dumb stuff that was tried the past yearish that I worked there.

[April]

Capitalists killing business is a funny trend.
Too parasitic even for a den of parasites