Sears and almost all Kmart stores will close in late July, according to the retailer. The stores will hold liquidation sales beginning the end of April and May.
“The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take aggressive actions to strengthen our company, fund our transformation and restore Sears Holdings to profitability,” said Sears Holdings CEO Edward Lampert in a statement.
Like many retail giants, the Obama economic experiment has created an environment not conducive to profitability. As the Feds toy with the faltering economy by printing money and suppressing the interest rates, retail stores suffer as well as the employees who are laid off, reported Truth and Action.
The US economy has only been supported by the vast money printing, known as quantitative easing, and the suppression of interest rates. The feds raised rates last month after nearly a decade and will be forced to suppress them again. We have and enormous, completely unrepayable debt that cannot tolerate a rise in rates. We will see another crash this year of historic proportions and it will be followed by a lowering of rates, if it doesn’t happen beforehand, and another squashing of rates.
In the case of Sears and Kmart, the closings are “considered important steps” aimed at restoring profitability. The reported loss of $580 million in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the loss in the quarter a year ago of $159 spurred Sears Holdings to make the needed cuts.
Those proceeds from those sales, along with some revenue from subleasing closed stores, are considered “important steps,” along with $1.2 billion in debt financing, aimed at restoring profitability, Sears said. Sears Holdings reported a loss of $580 million in the quarter ended Jan. 30, compared with a loss of $159 million in the year-ago quarter.
Sears shares rose in after-hours trading, up 6.3% to $19.15 a share, up $1.14, after having fallen 3.4% during the trading session on Thursday.
Workers being laid off at the closed stores will be able to apply at stores that remain open, the company’s statement said.
Macy’s, another retail giant forced to close stores and layoff workers, told the world how they were going to fix their declining earnings and sales. Truth and Action called the press release an embarrassment and unreadable. It is economic psycho-babble.
“In light of our disappointing 2015 sales and earnings performance, we are making adjustments to become more efficient and productive in our operations. Moreover, we believe we can operate more effectively with an organization that is flatter and more agile so we can pursue growth and regain market share in our core Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s omnichannel businesses faster and with more intensity. We will continue to invest in strategic initiatives that anticipate emerging customer needs and create shareholder value,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc. “The cost efficiencies represent more than two-thirds of our goal of annual SG&A expense reduction of $500 million, net of growth initiatives, from previously planned levels by 2018. In some cases, there will be short-term pain as we tighten our belt and realign our resources. But our eye is on a long-term vision of Macy’s, Inc. as a dynamic retailer that serves existing customers and acquires new ones through innovative approaches to the marketplace.”
The individual lives who are hurt by money manipulation and greed pay the ultimate price. As pointed out by Truth and Action, the debt attached to our money has forced an expansion of credit, an economic con game, that eventually will crumble.
Our money is created with debt attached to it, forcing us to expand credit and the money supply every year or it all shuts down. Our entire economic system is a con game. But the fiat game of money can’t go on forever and usually sees a death or drastic change every 30-40 years, and we’re overdue. See the video below.“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning”–Henry Ford
As Truth and Action pointed out, “Liberals will be hard pressed to tout Obama’s economic success after the retail apocalypse has been fully realized. With thousands of stores being closed across the country, the Federal Reserve will have a hard time propping up our failed economy with QE and zero-interest polices after confidence is finally completely shattered.”
Source: USA Today
The manufacturers are whoring out their products on Amazon directly to the public and creating a monopoly on goods. People love it, because they can buy an item for less than a retailer, so how is a retailer expected to make a profit? You can’t blame the public for seeking out pricing that undercuts retailers, because everyone needs to save money. So the public come in to a store, shop for the item, use the resources of the retailer to find out about the product, get all of their questions answered, try out the product, and run the employees around giving service. Then they say thank you and go buy it on Amazon.
If you like being able to have a retailer in your area offering products, then you need to go to those stores. Right now the bigger companies are being cannibalized the way they killed off smaller businesses 20 years ago.
Time marches forward and we all have to scramble to stay in business, if we are in retail. The only warning I have is this: The same thing always happens with monopolies. First they sell you the products for unbelievably low prices in order to kill competition, then when nobody else sells that product line, the monopoly raises the prices sky high to the suckers who helped them run off their competitors.
I like Kmsrts and do not find there prices high compared to stores in my neighborhood. Have great sales. Rarely go to Sears because store lay out is not good.