Sears Canada preparing to seek bankruptcy protection

This is being reported in several sources.

Sears' Canadian operations are reportedly going to seek bankruptcy within weeks. It sounds like outright liquidation is not off the table.

No surprise, given how dire Sears/K-Mart's financial situation is, but I still find it sad. There's only 1 K-Mart left in my area, and I'm wondering how long it will be until that location appears on the latest store closing list.

Lost our k mart years ago.
Too bad about sears though.
It's a shame the dept stores are all going under.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan
Our K-Mart & Sears are all gone. Sears has been gone for a few years, K-Mart finally closed last Christmas

Kmart has been gone for several years.
Sears is always busy in the mall. Apparently ours is not the norm or people are just browsing.

With things like Amazon, which operate at a far lower cost and offer virtually infinite amount of more goods, it's obvious that even big companies like sears is going to die off.

I've never even seen a K-mart before.

But I remember when Zellers # it's doors and when target tried to take it over a few years later only to spend millions opening stores that shut down less than 3 years later.

Those kinds of stores only functioned in a pre-modern internet consumerism market. They should have adapted better

a reply to: Bluntone22

My sears is always fairly crowded...im in a dallas suburb
Moreso than the adjacent Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus..

I am a kenmore devotee so hope they stay in business...
Their customer service is outstanding...

-Chris

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

Just lost K Mart here in Vermont, Sears & JC Penny are likely next. Retail apocalypse is now upon us!

a reply to: Ghost147
Yeah target didn't do well here in Canada. I always liked Zellers.

The online world is all too common these days abd yes Amazon has everything at a much cheaper cost

I get that Amazon takes some business from companies like Sears, but have you ever mail ordered shoes or shirts?

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

Sears Canada has been floundering for awhile. This will be a common business trend the next 10-20 years.

Brick and mortar shops are going way of the dodo. Online shopping is here now and will be the predominant purchase method in the near future, if not already.

Cheers.

a reply to: UFO1414

"Brick & Mortar" is dead, now it's "Click & Order"... just ask Marvin the Martian!

Sears had the upper hand a few years back when The Bay was a floundering mess and Sears didn't do a damn thing about it.
They just kept pumping out over priced low quality merchandise and thinking they could compete with the likes of Canadian Tire and Amazon.

Well, the Bay stepped up their game by focusing on designer clothes and niche items to make shopping experience exclusive and hands on, Canadian Tire went on a logistic frenzy pumping up their Online game and incorporating 'at cost' items in store found ONLY in store not in a flier or online forcing people to visit stores.
What did Sears do?
I can't even think of anymore, the last major marketing thing they did was change their signs by adding a Maple leaf to it.
You snooze, you lose.

Circuit City has gone as well. Remember going to one to buy a 24" flat-tube CRT. Looked at the shelf and saw a Sharp model. Went to the salesguy and wanted to buy it. He asked "What's wrong with the RCA model? It's got the same features and it's $20 cheaper". Many of the Canadian stores had clerks with that paternalistic attitude. Like Silicon Valley, the speciality stores would be scattered across the metropolis requiring either a long drive, a multi-stage public transport commute there and back - not fun in -35C temperatures.

In the UK, I order jeans and clothes online. Mainly because I have a reverse commute from downtown to the business park. So by the time I get home at 6pm, all the local shops are closed. I have to wait until the weekend to do shopping. This is a traditional British thing enforced by the unions. For TV's, I thus shop online at Argos, they have the widest range that let me build up a comparison price list going from £60 to £6000. It's quicker and cheaper to go to online marketplaces like Amazon regardless of where they are in the UK that it is to local shops.

In countries like Norway, stores and shopping malls are open till late every evening. I could walk down to Solsiden or Trondheim Torg after work and get everything done by visiting stores like Klas Ohlson, Meny, or Rema 1000.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
I get that Amazon takes some business from companies like Sears, but have you ever mail ordered shoes or shirts?

Yes.

We order shoes all the time from online retailers.

My husband and I both have wide feet...and brick and mortar stores rarely carry what we need.
Make that almost never.

Same with jeans.....stores carry only what most people want.
If you are taller than average....forget about most stores being of any help.

I do shop JC Penney's catalog online a lot though.....

Well, that happened sooner than I expected.

Sears Canada Announces Bankruptcy; Fires 2,900

Sears Canada is closing 59 stores and cutting 2,900 jobs in survival bid

They're going to try to restructure, because they claim their turnaround plan is starting to work. (Yeah, sure it is )

In addition to the job cuts mentioned above, they're going to close 20 Sears department stores (out of 94 currently), plus 15 Sears Home stores (out of 23), 10 Sears Outlet stores (all of them) and 14 Sears Hometown locations (can't find the number of locations).