Sears Closing Over 100 Stores

[Von Halen]

The Leg Humpers

[Nickdfresh]

Nitrous Dog! Or NyQuil Dog...

[Von Halen]

The Neutered Dog Express

[twonabomber]

A reality show called the One Uppers?

[Nickdfresh]

I think c-dog and Nitro should write a TV series

[FORD]

Yeah... I was trying to be diplomatic about it.

[Von Halen]

I think half of what c-dog posts exists only in the fiction of his own mind.

Only half? Come on FORD, we all know it's more like 99.9%.

[FORD]

I think half of what c-dog posts exists only in the fiction of his own mind. He once claimed that he bought vodka at Big Lots stores, and then when it was pointed out that particular retail chain doesn't sell alcohol (except for the non drinkable rubbing alcohol kind) he denied ever saying it.

[VAiN]

I'll miss Sears for one reason. It was easy to get new electronics at Sears for half price. You get a friend to buy something you want and then return it. Then you buy it for half price as a returned item. The salespeople didn't give a shit. They even let me buy stuff I returned for half price as long as I paid cash.

Do you even read what you type or do you just fade in and out and hit send? You cannot simply buy a $2,000 TV, return it and get it for $1,000.

[tbone888]

Yeah the old Kmart building here has been vacant for years. Not sure why they can't fill the building, since it would be a great location for either retail, or a large office space. It just happened to be too close to the Sears store (only a freeway separating the two) so the corporate suits didn't want to keep both of them going.

Of course this one wasn't all that state of the art either. Or at least I don't think it was.... I don't think I had actually been in the store since the 1990s.

I have a friend that used to be "pretty high up the food chain" for a large US retailer. They acquired a bunch of stores from a rival in the Atlanta area, and the FTC made them shut a few down due to regulations (too many stores in a square mile area owned by the same company). They just left it vacant for years, rather than leasing it to a competitor.

[Sarge]

The first house my grandfather built was a Sears and Roebuck mail order house. You built the foundation and the wood and other parts were delivered. If you were a good builder and followed the instructions you got a pretty decent house. Since all the wood was cut and shaped in an industrial wood working factory everything fit tight. My dad always bought Sears stuff because if it broke they would replace it and you could always get parts.

Sears used to mean quality for the dollar but maybe they let the quality slip, the prices rise and they never marketed the brand very well in the later years. Plus there is too much retail for the demand right now and a shakeout is needed. It looks like Sears is going to go the way of Oldsmobile. A historic brand that once meant quality but became forgotten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

The house my grandfather lived in... his entire married life was one of those. It's still standing and my family owns it. Used to love sears. I went in there recently and I must have been the one in the entire store.. period!

[Nitro Express]

What. You don't think big retailers get property tax breaks? A lot of corporations do. I saw one city give away the farm for a solar panel manufacturer only to see the company run out of money before the plant was finished. A scrap dealer made an offer on what was completed and no jobs resulted. Politicians will give away the store for bribes or for jobs they can claim they brought for re-election. That's why if you run a small business most politicians don't give a rat's ass about you. You don't bribe them enough and you don't have the big name or hire enough people to brag about.

The funny thing is the mayor who negotiated the solar company deal used that as bragging rights to get re-elected but he failed in his campaign. This is how stupid many of these politicians are.

So who knows what the big picture is unless you know what the overall accounting/financial strategies are and what deals have been made. Sometimes a piece of shit is an asset for somebody and piece of garbage to others.

[DLR Bridge]

Some of these outfits negotiate a tax free deal and then they can use an empty building as a tax write off. Who knows. Sometimes things that don't make sense make sense when you look at the overall picture. Also, the CEO will get paid lots of money regardless of their performance. You can run a company into the ground and come out smelling like a rose when you are on top.

*cough*cough* Bain *cough* Capital *cough*cough*

Sorry. Scratchy throat.

[Nitro Express]

The irony is thousands of free HD photos of abandoned shopping malls online.

When I was doing case studies in the late 80's I came across some data that showed we had six times the retail in the US that was needed at the time. Since then more stores have been built and there is internet competition. We are going to see a big shake out in retail and commercial real estate in general. In the US we have an aging population and no following baby boom. The next generation who are needed to drive the economy are saddled with a house mortgage worth of student loan debt. Most can't find jobs with their degrees and many live with their parents.

Not exactly the people who are going to be buying a lot of stuff or a new home. So we are going to see a decline in real estate and another problem with homes and buildings is they last a long time. They are usually remodeled instead of being torn down and new ones built. So a long downturn in real estate and construction is going to be the result and they aren't going to be the investment opportunities they have been for the last 50 years.

So get ready to see more empty buildings in general.

So what will save us is some sort of massive tragedy that wipes out most the real estate and to pass the time, the surviving people have sex like mad. Since all the birth control has been wiped out the women have babies and since the only thing left to do is to fuck, they have baby after baby. This creates a new baby boom. When the babies grow up they need houses and places to buy shit. A new booming economy happens.

So pray for more earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, pestilence and war. Like the bible says. You got to go through the shit to get to the land of milk and honey.

[Nitro Express]

Yeah the old Kmart building here has been vacant for years. Not sure why they can't fill the building, since it would be a great location for either retail, or a large office space. It just happened to be too close to the Sears store (only a freeway separating the two) so the corporate suits didn't want to keep both of them going.

Of course this one wasn't all that state of the art either. Or at least I don't think it was.... I don't think I had actually been in the store since the 1990s.

Someone is paying the property tax on it and in prime retail locations the county appraises high. Makes no sense for it to be empty because you lose money on commercial real estate if there is no income coming in from it. Some of your biggest overhead is insurance and taxes and they exist whether it's rented or not.

Some of these outfits negotiate a tax free deal and then they can use an empty building as a tax write off. Who knows. Sometimes things that don't make sense make sense when you look at the overall picture. Also, the CEO will get paid lots of money regardless of their performance. You can run a company into the ground and come out smelling like a rose when you are on top.