Tag Archives: Sears Holdings

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

At Sears, You Can Now Buy a Rolex With That Washing Machine

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By FOXBusiness

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By Kate Rogers

Sears just got a little more fancy.

The department store chain, known for its affordable clothing and home appliance offerings, is now peddling high-end designer duds from major labels including, Chanel, Rolex and Zac Posen.

The designer goods will be sold on The Sears Marketplace through third-party vendors. The move may seem counterintuitive, but a Sears spokesperson says it takes the department store back to its roots, which once included selling cars.

“We’ve grown Sears Marketplace to include more than 85 million items in just more than three years, so while it does include designer items, it also includes literally millions of other items across nearly every imaginable product category at a wide variety of price ranges. We’re focused on serving, delighting and engaging our members while they shop their way,” said Imran Jooma, executive vice president and president, marketing, online and financial services, Sears Holdings in a statement to FOX Business.

However, luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger, says the move is misguided and will confuse shoppers looking for a bargain.

“It just seems totally nuts to me,” Danziger, who is president of Unity Marketing says. “Sears, K-Mart and luxury don’t go together.”

Shares of Sears were up 12 cents to $44.50 on Monday.

Sears Marketplace faces stiff competition in the e-commerce world that is currently dominated by eBay (EBAY) and Amazon (AMZN), which are more widely-known and established. Luxury consumers will likely have trouble making the switch to trusting Sears in making big-ticketed purchases, says Danziger.

“eBay has had success, but that is a function of their longevity and through their ratings system, they have given [shoppers] more confidence. I don’t know how Sears can match the length of time eBay has been at this business to compete with them,” Danziger says.

Offering more upscale items can help a company’s bottom line, Danziger says, calling K-Mart’s move to sell Martha Stewart products a smart decision. But Sear’s move might be too far of a jump.

“Affluent [consumers] only make up about 20% of American households, but are 40% of consumer spending. But Sears is wasting time on this. They should be doing a better job of attracting more affluent customers back into their store, with good merchandise and good service,” she says. “Affluent shoppers buy from all classes of stores-from dollar stores up to Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.”

But Sears seems confident the move was a smart one, and will enable it to better serve its customers with more selection.

“When you combine the capabilities of our stores with the broad assortment we have available online, it will help bring an endless aisle of products from our Marketplace to our members and start to blur the four walls of our stores. If our members can’t find the items they need in a store, they can order through …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Competition Gets Pantsed by Kmart

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By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

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I’ll admit that when it comes to Sears Holdings , I’m not a big fan of the company. I see its death spiral as a slow, painful one for investors. It’s too bad a new marketing campaign for its new Kmart shipping services isn’t the norm, because it’s the type of promo that makes the once venerable retailer seem relevant again.

Laden with innuendo, Kmart’s “Ship My Pants” commercial highlighting the ability of shoppers to get items shipped for free from the company’s website if it can’t be found in stores is actually a pretty funny spot. It’s gone viral, too, serving up more than 5 million hits at this writing, even though it was posted to YouTube just last week.

One actor remarks how excited he is that he can “ship my pants,” while a woman notes that she “shipped my drawers” and a third person can’t believe he “shipped my bed.”

It’s the kind of advertising that’s fresh, despite being tinged with bawdiness. Contrast that with an out-of-touch and out-of-fashion decision by Sears to launch clothing lines by pop stars Nicki Minaj and Adam Levine — an all too reminiscent retread of its Kim Kardashian clothing line — and you have to give them props for going a different route here.

Not that the actual service Kmart is providing is unique, mind you. Wal-Mart offers a free ship-to-store feature, as do J.C. Penney, Radio Shack, Toys R Us, Nordstrom , and a number of other retailers. Actually, so committed to customer service is Nordstrom that it’s even had employees drive items to a customer’s house at no charge to ensure they get it. 

Yet the service does set Kmart apart from some of its top rivals, such as Target , which offers only a standard free shipping option if you use your Target credit card for the purchase. Macy’s doesn’t offer it at all.

Yet for those that do provide a free ship-to-store option, Kmart has separated itself by promoting it in a fun, memorable way. But let’s see just how many customers decide to avail themselves of the opportunity and whether it can have an impact on a steadily declining retail base. As the Pets.com sock puppet made clear, a clever advertising campaign doesn’t always translate into sales.

Out of stock
J.C. Penney’s stock cratered under Ron Johnson‘s leadership, but could new CEO Mike Ullman present the opportunity investors have been waiting for? If you’re wondering whether J.C. Penney is a buy today, you’re invited to claim a copy of The Motley Fool’s must-read report on the company. Learn everything you need to know about Penney’s turnaround — or lack thereof. Simply click here now for instant access.

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/competition-gets-pantsed-by-kmart/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Sears Is Out of Fashion

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By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

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If Kim Kardashian couldn’t help Sears Holdings turn its retail operations around, what makes it think singer Adam Levine, or rapper-turned-American Idol judge Nikki Minaj, will do any better? The diminished stature of the once-venerable retailer is simply taken down yet another notch as it slaps a new pop icon face across its banner.

Sears is developing a new business unit called Shop Your Way Brands that focuses on entertainment-driven fashion and lifestyle brands, and the Levine-Minaj tag team duo represent the first two also-rans to populate the stage. I’m just not sure the “authentic personal style of iconic artists” is exactly what the typical Sears shopper is looking for.

Levine’s t-shirt and jeans might carry over, but exactly how that differentiates what Sears offers from the clothes found at Target and Wal-Mart is beyond me. And the big curves of Minaj seems to have already been tried with the Karadashian line, though perhaps the pink hair might be a new draw.

It’s easy to understand why Sears might want to hitch its wagon to celebrities, as revenues at the retailer continue to ebb away, dropping more than 4% in 2012, and down 25% since 2007, the last year it recorded a gain. The ShopYourWay social shopping experience drove over half of its revenues at Sears and Kmart in the fourth quarter and for all of last year. But its half of a quickly dwindling pie. In contrast, Wal-Mart sales grew 4% in the fourth quarter, to $127 billion while Target’s sales were almost 7% higher, and neither had to rely upon pop stars to achieve the growth.

It’s true that every retailer has a stable of personalities it relies upon, though more often than not, they’re related to true fashion designers rather than the latest popular reality TV star. But Sears is making an art form out of trying any new shtick to see if it can reverse course and, by this point, you’d think it would realize it’s making some horrible choices.

At this point, I’d be willing to bet J.C. Penney has a better shot at making a viable comeback than does Sears. Perhaps it was done tongue-in-cheek, but a blog yesterday speculated about the chances of Sears buying out Penney, though it concluded adding yet another wounded retailer to its mix of dying brands would probably not serve anyone’s interests.

From Christmas in July to being your quick cash-for-gold broker,  financial gimmicks like total return swaps to calving off divisions like Orchard Supply and Sears Hometown, the retailer has thrown a lot at the wall over the years to try and return value to shareholders, but hardly anything has worked.

Despite what it heralds as a new entertainment-driven fashion business, Sears isn’t singing any new tune that shoppers — or investors, for that matter — are likely to want to hear.

J.C. Penney’s stock cratered under Ron Johnson‘s leadership, but could new CEO Mike Ullman present the opportunity investors have been waiting for?

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/sears-is-out-of-fashion/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Gap Hit By Weak Consumer Confidence

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By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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Shares of Gap dropped as much as 3.1% in early Tuesday trading and remain down 2.6% with less than an hour left in the session. They weren’t alone.

Sharing Gap‘s misery are retailers including Sears Holdings and American Eagle Outfitters , down 1.3% and 1.5%, respectively, while other clothiers suffer to a more limited extent.

What’s behind the sell-off? In two words: consumer confidence. Today’s Conference Board report on the ephemeral feel-good metric for American shoppers showed a drop from the “68” level of February to 59.7 in March. To put that in context, AP says that any number below “90” means the economy remains unhealthy.

Shocker.

Recent reports of strong home sales and declining unemployment levels notwithstanding, I doubt many of us were under the impression that America’s economy was going great guns. And that makes today’s reaction — overreaction, I should say — and overpunishment of Gap shares all the more remarkable.

If you’re an investor and feel you need to respond to Conference Board estimates of how “confident” Americans are feeling — buying when confidence is up and selling when it’s down — then you need to be aware of what you’re in for. These confidence reports come out every month, and I can tell you one thing with 99% certainty: Whatever number the Conference Board reports in April will not be the 59.7 number we see today in March.

It’ll be higher, or it’ll be lower, and if you insist on hopping every time the Conference Board says “toad!”, then you can expect to pay trading commissions each and every month of the year. You’ll get dinged by the IRS for short-term gains (if you’re lucky), as well. And likely as not, you’ll have to reverse your decision just 30 days later.

A bit of Foolish advice
So what should you do instead? Invest for the long term. Don’t buy or sell Gap based on an eternally fluctuating confidence number. Instead, buy or sell Gap based on whether you think the stock is worth its current 15 times earnings at its projected 9.4% growth rate.

Personally, I don’t think it is. But whether you agree or disagree, at least you’ll be trading on hard-and-fast numbers that won’t change 12 times a year — only four.

The article Gap Hit By Weak Consumer Confidence originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor
 

Rich Smith

 
has no positions in the stocks mentioned above.
 
You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle

TMFDitty

, where he’s currently ranked No. 326 out of more than 180,000 members.
The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Wal-Mart Won and Sears Is Burning

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By Jeremy Phillips and Austin Smith, The Motley Fool

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Sears Holdings‘ Sears stores dominated American retailing for years, but the company has recently faded. In this video, Austin Smith and Jeremy Phillips review the single fundamental reason why Sears lost its dominance and why Wal-Mart continues to grow, even after becoming a $250 billion company.

The article Why Wal-Mart Won and Sears Is Burning originally appeared on Fool.com.


Austin Smith, Jeremy Phillips, and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Sears Will Never Be Great Again

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By Austin Smith and Jeremy Phillips, The Motley Fool

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In the following video, Fool analysts Austin Smith and Jeremy Phillips look at Sears Holdings‘ Sears stores and talk about why Sears will never again be the great company it once was.

For quite a while, investors have looked at Sears as a real-estate play with a genius hedge-fund manager at the helm, turning things around, Jeremy says. But that hasn’t happened. And he doesn’t see the situation changing.

Sears was an innovative company for a long time. It literally invented the catalog, and in the 1920s, it was shipping kits for houses to be built.

But Sears won’t be great again, Austin says. He argues that what the company has done is amazing, but it doesn’t have the pieces in place to return to greatness.

Austin also says the real-estate play on Sears is misunderstood. Many believe its assets are undervalued. Austin disagrees.

And while management has tried to run the company like a hedge fund, it hasn’t worked, because the company is a retailer and needs to be run with the customer in mind, Austin says.

The Motley Fool’s chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report: “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

The article Why Sears Will Never Be Great Again originally appeared on Fool.com.


Austin Smith, Jeremy Phillips, and The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Consider This Your Mulligan for Sears Hometown and Outlets

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By Michael Lewis, The Motley Fool

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After a less-than-favorable earnings release earlier this week, Sears Hometown and Outlets sank double digits in the market. Investors and analysts were clearly upset at the softer-than-expected January demand and a minor decrease in same-store sales, but in the next couple of days the stock regained much of its loss. The reality is, Sears Hometown is on track to deliver attractive shareholder value over the next several months for a few reasons. Allow me to reiterate, with updates from this recent earnings release, why Sears Hometown should be your top retail stock.

Why the stock plopped, then propped
Since its IPO last fall, Sears Hometown and Outlets has been on a near vertical climb. This week, however, the stock stumbled in a big way — down 14% on Wednesday. CEO Bruce Johnson attributed the weak same-store sales figures, down 0.5%, to a weak January. The thing is, though, the company has been phasing out its consumer electronics section from stores. In the fourth quarter, it successfully wound down the electronics section of 589 stores. With that category excluded, same-store sales actually grew 1.1%.

In other areas, the company performed nearly as expected. Operating income rose more than 40% to $17.3 million. On the bottom line, EPS grew 23.5% to $0.42 per share. Adjusted EBITDA fell 23% year over year, but the prior year did not have the same costs associated with being a stand-alone company. In the year ago quarter, Sears Hometown was still a part of Sears Holdings.

As explained in earlier articles, Sears Hometown is boosting margins by converting company-owned stores to franchise models. This was evident in the last quarter with gross margins at 24.8%, up from 23.4% in the year-ago quarter. The boost in operating income was not just a matter of the extra week in the calendar year or any one-time event but due to increased sales and improved margins. These are the organic gains we want to see in a retail operation such as this.

For the full year, net sales rose 4.7% to $2.5 billion. Without the 53rd week, sales would have likely been flat. Gross margins improved substantially, hitting 25% over 22.3% in 2011. This, again, is due largely to lower operating costs from the newly adopted franchise model. Even with net sales essentially flat, operating income for the year grew to $99.5 million, compared to $55.3 million in 2011. Sears Hometown hauled in $121.6 million in operating cash flow to help bump its current cash reserve to just over $20 million, compared to $0.7 million in January of last year.

While not an out-of-the-park earnings release, Sears Hometown and Outlets seems to be playing out the investing thesis I outlined in prior articles. Here’s a quick review of what that entails.

The Sears elevator pitch
We all know that Sears Holdings is considered a struggling enterprise by many investors and analysts. Sure, sales are sluggish as Eddie Lampert officially takes the reins. While …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Caterpillar Fell Short on the Dow's 6th Record Day

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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The string of record closes for the Dow Jones Industrials continued today, but it’s hard to think of today’s three-point gain as anything more than a technicality. Broader market benchmarks all fell on the day, as tensions in Washington started to escalate once more as House Republicans announced their outline to reduce the budget deficit dramatically over the next three years. With a competing plan expected from the Senate soon, wrangling over the federal budget could continue for the foreseeable future, introducing yet another set of uncertainties for investors.

Caterpillar suffered the biggest loss among Dow stocks, falling more than 1.5% as fears about recent weakness in industrial activity in China continue to challenge the company’s long-term growth thesis. Nevertheless, while the Chinese economy may have to deal with decelerating growth, its growth rates will remain well above those of the developed world, and that should help give Caterpillar superior prospects compared to more domestically focused peers.

General Electric also fell, losing almost 1% as an analyst at Nomura Securities said yesterday that the recent gains in GE‘s stock already reflected most of its positive future potential. Coming on the heels of the company’s own warning in its annual report that political crises like the budget debate could lead to a reduced willingness among U.S. corporations to spend money on capital expenditures, investors need to consider whether GE‘s roughly 30% rise since last June has pushed the stock up too far too quickly.

Outside the Dow, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores plunged nearly 13% after announcing that same-store sales fell 0.5% in its most recent quarter after adjusting for an extra week in this year’s quarter. With the spinoff suffering from many of the same problems that parent Sears Holdings continues to face, the advantage that Sears Hometown has is that its small size makes it more nimble and able to adjust strategies to take advantage of changing conditions. If its move to scale back on consumer electronics succeeds, Sears Hometown may rebound sharply from today’s losses in the long run.

Caterpillar is more than just a global leader in construction machinery. It’s also a benchmark for the entire global economy. Find out whether Caterpillar is pointing to a stronger recovery by reading our premium research report on the stock, which includes expert analysis of the company’s growth initiatives and future prospects. Just click here to access it now.

The article Why Caterpillar Fell Short on the Dow’s 6th Record Day originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter: @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why the Dow Swung 125 Points Higher Today

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By John Divine, The Motley Fool

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It took more than five years, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally made up all the ground it lost in the financial crisis, surging to close at an all-time high today. China‘s announcement that it will maintain its 7.5% GDP growth goal eased Wall Street concerns about the global economy, sending the Dow 125 points, or about 0.9%, higher to close at 14,253.

Networking technology powerhouse Cisco Systems added 2.3% to lead the Dow today. It seems merely being a tech stock was good enough for investors to bid up shares today, as the sector enjoyed a strong day across the board. Now up more than 10% in the past three months, the stock is enjoying a nice rally that could continue as corporations reinvest their record profits. 

Coca-Cola , one of only two stocks to lose ground in the index today, was the weakest-performing blue chip, falling 0.4%. With an annual dividend approaching 3% and a mature, globally recognized brand, Coke doesn’t exactly have explosive growth prospects, which may have hurt shares today as investors embraced riskier options.

After being upgraded today by research firm Needham from a hold to a buy rating, shares of Stratasys , up as much as 7.8% early in the day, closed with 1% losses. The volatile day comes after the 3-D printing company announced a blowout quarter Monday, exceeding sales and earnings expectations. With the stock having already risen more than 7% yesterday, shareholders may have realized they were going a little nuts over the results, selling off after the stock reached its euphoric morning high.

Though not in the Dow, Sears Holdings was a bright spot in the broader market, as the stock jumped 5.6%. The news rallying the retailer came from a regulatory filing released yesterday that showed Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert purchased $55 million worth of Sears stock recently, a direct vote of confidence. It’s never a bad thing for investors when management puts its money where its mouth is, aligning incentives with those of shareholders.

Once a high-flying tech darling, Cisco is now on the radar of value-oriented dividend lovers. That doesn’t mean shares can’t still offer impressive potential returns. Get the lowdown on the routing juggernaut in The Motley Fool’s premium report. Click here now to get started.

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News, Politics, Government

How Whirlpool Survived A Rough Recovery From The Housing Crash

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By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff Late 2011 was not a fun time for Whirlpool. Falling appliance had led management to orchestrate a significant restructuring that resulted in hefty layoffs and the company’s stock got caught up in worries about the survival of retailer Sears Holdings, for which it makes the Kenmore line.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest