Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

craig11152 wrote:

Bryce wrote:K Mart has operated poorly for a long, long time. When I moved back here from the left coast in the early 90's I stopped in to purchase a snow shovel because the forecast called for snow and I didn't have one. It was very early February and although they had row after row of golf clubs on display there was nary a snow shovel to be found. Was told they were out of stock.

Not to defend K-Mart but that sort of thing is not uncommon at all retailers.

Having worked in retail for a time, I can verify that stores tend to work way ahead on resets. Sometimes the inventory sits in the storeroom for quite a while as returning it to the supplier results in a loss. Even if they stash an item that's off the floor and sell it to a customer at a deep discount, it's still better than shipping it back for pennies on the dollar. Just depends on how much space they have in the back.

We had Christmas trees in storage at Walgreen's year-round. A customer who asked for one in July could get a hell of a deal!

Sorry, but a retailer with any kind of supply logistics and inventory tracking would not be out of snow shovels the first week of February in Michigan.

That simple fact is a sign of much bigger problems and is one of the reasons WalMart ate K Matt's lunch.

It is sad to see that the very first K Mart to ever open (Garden City) will be closing. That store changed retail shopping and gave birth to the big box store.

Bryce wrote:Sorry, but a retailer with any kind of supply logistics and inventory tracking would not be out of snow shovels the first week of February in Michigan.

I remember my local Lowe's and Home Depot running out of window air conditioners a few summers back during an extreme early July hot spell. Neither one at that point had any plan to get more in. If we get a 24 inch snow storm in early February it wouldn't surprise me if it happened to snow blowers. By the time 10 inches of snow was on the ground I could probably buy a lawn mower but not a snow blower. By early February most people have their snow shovels. To expect them to stock an item for a guy who gets off a plane from California is unrealistic.
I guess the moral is a homeowner needs to have his personal equipment logistics up to snuff.

A month from now in early February most retail clothing stores will phase out winter gear and put in spring/summer wear.

on Feb 15th, I'm going to visit a local Walmart. What do you want to bet I can take a time stamped photograph of a snow shovel and post it here?

ADD in TC wrote:It was announced earlier today that our local Acme Township store will be closing.I go in there about once a month to pay my DTE Energy bill(for whatever strange reason I like paying my bills with cash when I can).This store is a bit outdated up front and has few floor cracks but is otherwise extremely clean and very nice looking throughout,including a very clean modern large men's restroom,unlike most Kmarts which are dumpy and dirty,including the nearby Garfield Township store.

Even though this store is nice and quite,which i kind of like,I don't believe I've ever spent more than 10 dollars on merchandise there at once.

I will be very sad to see a large nearby building sitting empty,possibly for many years.

The liquidation sales begin shortly, is there ANYTHING in that store people actually want? I don't think they even sell Coke products anymore...

As for Acme, that building will sell very quickly. Acme is a HOT location these days and despite being hidden on the trees, it is a great location.

Bryce wrote:on Feb 15th, I'm going to visit a local Walmart. What do you want to bet I can take a time stamped photograph of a snow shovel and post it here?

I'll bite. How about a beer?

Bryce wrote:on Feb 15th, I'm going to visit a local Walmart. What do you want to bet I can take a time stamped photograph of a snow shovel and post it here?

You may very well be able to but thats not my point. My points are:
1. retailers are always jumping ahead of the seasons. What do you want to bet I can take a picture of some short sleeve shirts in Marshalls on Feb 15?
2. seasonal stuff often doesn't get reordered when it runs out. What do want to bet that if a local Walmart runs out of snow shovels on Feb 16 they may not get any more in this snow season ?

I am not defending K-Mart. I am not saying they were not mismanaged, but I am saying your snow shovel incident may or may not have been a sign of that mismanagement. Its possible that K-Marts problem wasn't running out of snow shovels in February rather it was NOT running out of lawn mowers in September. A lot of retailers buy a set number of seasonal items and when they are gone they are gone.

craig11152 wrote:

Bryce wrote:on Feb 15th, I'm going to visit a local Walmart. What do you want to bet I can take a time stamped photograph of a snow shovel and post it here?

You may very well be able to but thats not my point. My points are:
1. retailers are always jumping ahead of the seasons. What do you want to bet I can take a picture of some short sleeve shirts in Marshalls on Feb 15?
2. seasonal stuff often doesn't get reordered when it runs out. What do want to bet that if a local Walmart runs out of snow shovels on Feb 16 they may not get any more in this snow season ?

I am not defending K-Mart. I am not saying they were not mismanaged, but I am saying your snow shovel incident may or may not have been a sign of that mismanagement. Its possible that K-Marts problem wasn't running out of snow shovels in February rather it was NOT running out of lawn mowers in September. A lot of retailers buy a set number of seasonal items and when they are gone they are gone.

That's exactly correct having worked in retail. You don't reorder snow shovels in February. Valentines stuff was going up on New Years Eve this year in a Kroger I was in. My favorite is a Reese's peanut butter eggs display for Easter put out the week BEFORE Christmas in the Kroger in Novi a few years ago. Gee that was a tad early don't you think? But they got it in so out it went.

TC Talks wrote:
As for Acme, that building will sell very quickly. Acme is a HOT location these days and despite being hidden on the trees, it is a great location.

It was once the home of the infamous Tanz Haus nightclub.

Bryce wrote:on Feb 15th, I'm going to visit a local Walmart. What do you want to bet I can take a time stamped photograph of a snow shovel and post it here?

Absolutely! Walmart can afford to stock more inventory. They can also afford to take depreciation on the inventory they don't sell. If you asked for a snow shovel in May, chances are they'd have a few in the back and would be more than willing to sell you one at a deep discount just to get it off the books.

No doubt Kmart missed the boat on expansion and hasn't kept up with other big-box retailers like Walmart and Meijer. They had a new lease on life after emerging from bankruptcy and squandered the opportunity. Swallowing Sears was not what I would call a smart move. Taking on that kind of debt-load after re-organizing existing debt is like jumping out of the frying pan just to hop back in. Now both brands are paying the price.

I can see on the faces of the staffers @ the stores I've visited that they know their employer is circling the drain. Good, nice people, in most cases, but nothing going on. What the stores have ditched as far as product, and what they've brought in (when they bother to restock - lots of empty shelves) to replace it are another indicator of corporate gray skin.

About the only thing that is even worse than the in-store experience at a KaMeapART is the online one. Other brick and & mortars have figured out a way stay relevant with online sales, Ship to Store, marketplace, etc. KM and Sears online has technical, speed and usability issues; it's as if that side of the house is only there to take up digital space. IDK the numbers, but would guess that only a tiny fraction of already abysmal sales numbers come from the online side of the house... Even grandma shops online these days...

kager wrote:I can see on the faces of the staffers @ the stores I've visited that they know their employer is circling the drain. Good, nice people, in most cases, but nothing going on. What the stores have ditched as far as product, and what they've brought in (when they bother to restock - lots of empty shelves) to replace it are another indicator of corporate gray skin.

About the only thing that is even worse than the in-store experience at a KaMeapART is the online one. Other brick and & mortars have figured out a way stay relevant with online sales, Ship to Store, marketplace, etc. KM and Sears online has technical, speed and usability issues; it's as if that side of the house is only there to take up digital space. IDK the numbers, but would guess that only a tiny fraction of already abysmal sales numbers come from the online side of the house... Even grandma shops online these days...

At least Kmart and Sears have merchandise on their websites that you can browse through. Ever try finding merchandise on Meijer online? Absolute worst. You can't find anything on their website other than their weekly ads and their M-perks coupons.

MWmetalhead wrote:Was surprised to see the Sears at Woodland Mall in G.R. on the closing list. Years ago, that used to be a very busy store! It has a big footprint (300,000 sq. feet) and is one of only two Sears locations in Kent County. The sole survivor will be the much smaller Sears store located at Rivertown Crossings mall in Grandville.

MLive is reporting Iowa-based Von Maur will become the new anchor for that wing of the mall. It appears some or all of the existing Sears building will be bulldozed and then rebuilt.

Sears at some point will disappear completely, just like their former half-assed competitor, Montgomery Ward, which followed the same business model as Sears and managed to execute it even more poorly than Sears.

Greater Grand Rapids at one point had five Kmart stores open simultaneously (Alpine, Plainfield, 28th SW, 28th SE, plus Chicago Dr. in Jenison). They now have ZERO!!!

Even in Metro Detroit, Kmart stores are becoming very difficult to find. The only one I'm aware of that's still open is across the street from the Hazel Park horse track. Their former corporate headquarters on Big Beaver Rd in Troy is the most f*cked corporate HQ campus I've ever laid eyes on!

7 mile and Farmington in Livonia...
Wayne Road in Westland...

The three being closed (Plymouth, Garden City and Roseville) will take a chunk out of that. Macy's is closing stores at Eastlamd and Westland malls... I wonder what goes in there?

NS8401 wrote:Macy's is closing stores at Eastlamd and Westland malls... I wonder what goes in there?

Eastland: that closing will definitely be the final blow to that place, they themselves just lost Sears five years ago, in fact, they've been bleeding stores since the turn of the millennium. I wouldn't be surprised if Target announces the closure of their Eastland store too, cause once Eastland loses those two, they might as well pull a Northland (which coincidentally had those same two anchors of Macy's and Target and once they both closed Northland just flat-out died) and announce that they're closing the entire mall except possibly Shopper's World and Burlington Coat Factory (which would become the only two anchors left once Target leaves, not counting the Lowe's and Home Depot stores in the parking lot).

Westland: it's a bit better off than Eastland (they're soon getting an H&M) and they can possibly find a way to fill that space quick enough, but it does have a h-u-g-e (using dashes because the word itself, which is VERY common, somehow is censored on this forum due to a squabble involving some sort of radio personality with that name) disadvantage in that it has no freeway access and is a mile north of Ford Road-in fact, head south from Westland a mile, turn right on Ford Road and once you cross the CSX overpass and continuing well into Canton, you will see every single retailer that has a presence in the Midwest have a presence along Ford Road-and with direct freeway access too!

Also announced today is The Limited is closing all of it's brick-and-mortar stores, among them six in the Detroit area.