Sears going out of business?

[Phil Thien]

My brother's in-laws own the property that the Sears in Rockville, Maryland is built on.  They have a 99 year lease with probably 60 years remaining.  I wonder what happens with something like that?

If the lease was signed 40 years ago, they may be happy to see Sears go.  Retail rents aren't what they were 10-15 years ago, but they're still better than much of what was negotiated 40 years ago.  And I understand there were inflation adjustments built into that original lease, but the start or base back then would have been way low.

[Herb G]

One of the largest Sears stores on the East Coast used to be about 15 miles from my house. It was ginormous. 3 floors, each about 40,000 sq. ft.
It sat at the end of a mall that was torn down years ago.
Sears still owned the building & the land, so it sat mostly empty in a giant empty parking lot for many years.
They finally sold it to a developer who is making satellite parking for Fedex Field out of it.

[chips ahoy]

Heard today they are closing another 150 stores,not sure if that is just in Canada.

Mel

[EricU]

I wouldn't say the management was the last to know, buy I always thought selling out to Kmart was a losing game.  Did they know then?  I certainly never looked at the store the same, and ours is always empty.  There are other stores in this area that do fairly well for themselves.  I think the concept of a mall is not doing well.  I haven't been to our mall since I bought some toolboxes from Sears at least 3 years back. Most of their stores were in malls, maybe that has something to do with the decline.

[Robert Adams]

True that all mall stores are in decline especially the anchor stores. I can't think of one anchor store that hasn't filed for bankruptcy or has closed large numbers of stores. The biggest cost to a mall store is the rent if they don't own the building. Rent for a small strip mall hole runs 8k a month and up. Just imagine what rent for an anchor store would be, then you have to light it heat and cool it etc.


        But with sears it's been odd. Do some research on the current leadership there. He has his own office in Florida on an island, never visits the and it gets better... Looks like the typical method of running a company out of business for a quick buck. Counter intuitive but many companies are bought to specifically run them out of business in order for the new owners to make a nice profit. Seen it many timestimes and the customer and employees are the loosers.

          All the sears stores here are mall stores and well stocked however one had most of their display tools dissappear a few weeks ago... What worries me is out hometown store here was finally sold to a new owner and I see a huge loss in their future.

[packerguy®]

I recently bought a highly rated Kenmore washing machine from Sears.  Now Sears says it is going to go out of business.  Kenmore is owned by Sears.  If Sears goes bust my warranty goes bust too.

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/sea...d=70945482

The long-struggling retailer said on Tuesday that there was “substantial doubt” that it could stay in business. 
 
“Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Sears said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the filing, its annual report for the period ended January 28, 2017, Sears reported a $2.2 billion loss for the year. Its long-term debt as of January totaled nearly $4.2 billion,

Sears has been going out of business for 15 years. 

Someone will buy Kenmore.

Worry not.

[Cooler]

Sears is now backtracking.  They say they are not going out of business.  They have a plan.  But the information was required by "regulatory standards".  This is from Chain Store Age:



Sears Holding Corp. tried to walk back the uproar it caused early Tuesday morning when the struggling retailer included cautionary language about whether it would be able to continue as a "going concern” in its annual 10-K filing. 
 
On Tuesday afternoon, the chain released a detailed statement from CFO Jason Hollar in which he explained the inclusion of the language that caused the uproar was meant to adhere to “regulatory standards.  
 
“To clarify, the comments from our Annual Report quoted by the media are in line with regulatory standards that require management to assess and disclose potential risks the company could face within one year from the reported financial statements,” Hollar stated. “As 2016 proved to be another challenging year for most “bricks-and-mortar” retailers, our disclosures reflected these developments.” 
 
He noted that media reports generated by the filing failed to include the actions Sears is taking to mitigate its financial risks and boost its liquidity. These include the recent sale of its Craftsman tool brand, the selling of select real estate assets, and a restructuring program targeted to deliver at least $1 billion in annual cost savings. 
 
“In line with these initiatives, despite the risks outlined we remain confident in our financial position and remain focused on executing our transformation plan,” Hollar stated. 
 
To read Hollar’s full statement, click here.

[drice]

I believe this has been in the works for sometime now. It wasn't that long ago Stanley Corp purchased the Craftsman name from Sears too.

[Mr_Mike]

$1 billion in cost savings and a loss of $2.2 billion? That works! Do they also have unpaid student loans?

[geek2me]

Now Sears says it is going to go out of business.

No, they did NOT say that.  They filed a required document with typical accounting doublespeak, like many other businesses.  What they essentially said that one day in the future they could possibly have financial trouble - like any other business.  Most of the time you just don't hear about it, since it is essentially meaningless.

I would not be surprised if Sears files for reorganization in the next few years, but it's rather unlikely Sears will go out of business.  They are taking some profit hits to restructure and refocus the business, but they are not weak or endangered, regardless of what the haters say.