Sears 2Q loss widens on sluggish sales

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO and MICHELLE CHAPMAN

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) — Sears Holdings Inc. recorded a hefty second-quarter loss Thursday on another sales slump, raising more concerns about the future of a company that once was a staple of American shopping.

The company, which operates Sears and Kmart, said it plans to do more cost-cutting to right the ship. That includes closing more stores beyond the 130 that it had announced earlier this year.

But investors weren't encouraged. They sent shares down 4 percent in premarket trading.

Sears, controlled by billionaire hedge fund investor Edward Lampert, lost $573 million, or $5.39 per share, for the period ended Aug. 2. That's more than double the loss of $194 million, or $1.83 per share, a year earlier. It marked its ninth straight quarterly loss.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 9, 2012, file photo, a customer walks towards a Sears store in Hialeah, Fla. On Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014, Sears Holdings Corp. is scheduled to report quarterly financial results before the market opens. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140821/us--earns-sears-de8624c919.html

[Plucketeer]

1. Investors SEARED

by Lampert's flaming failure as a CEO. So much for the "lifetime warranty" on my Craftsman tools!

[951-Riverside]

2. I was shocked to find out that Kmart doesnt Pricematch

And I'm so sick and tired of getting 3-4 long receipts when I just buy a bottle of water.

High prices and bad business practices is destroying Sears/Kmart from within.

[Trajan]

3. Dear Sears, ...

Unless you STOP trying to denigrate working families by actively promoting the intentional suppression of worker wages and benefits, you will continually see a decrease in sales revenues, till you have actually committed economic suicide by reducing the middle class to pauperism ...

You have been cutting your own throats ...

Signed,
Still has a Job ....

[Jacoby365]

4. This is exactly what happens when the greedy one percenters

put the squeeze on everybody else. All the money is in their pockets now. What do they expect, anyway?

[Ikonoklast]

5. Ayn Rand worshiper Eddie Lampert doesn't care, he already looted the company.

He is now running Social Darwinian games with the remaining employees. That guy is a freaking nutjob.


Hedge fund jackasses do not know how or even care to run a business, they make money by ruining them.

[AngryAmish]

7. Sears has been dysfunctional for generarions

And Eddie made it worse.

[mikeysnot]

12. Not true...

worked there in the 90's, got profit sharing and 401k contributions. Then Martinez left, "to go spend more time with his family"* his successor started looting the company, selling off assets to boosts short term profits, pumped up the stock price, encouraged time card employees to buy stock in Sears and gave out stock options tha by the time they were mature, they were worthless. Aall the Executives went on a stock selling spree, cashed in, then the bubble broke in the 2000. Like everything else did after * took office, then 9/11.

Business was bad for me, and my wife got laid off in Nov after 9/11... I had to cash my 401k in to meet ends, if not for Sears, we would not be in this house.

Now no one gets 401k contributions or pension, it all goes to the few at the expense of the peons. Now there is nothing left to sell off but the properties and then name brands.

Before that my wife were able to buy a house with our profit sharing and have a kid. I was able to use my experience and start my own company, that I still have today. For a while there it was a good place to work.

All the CEO's after that just kept rinsing and repeating the same short term gains with long term consequences, but all seem to leave very $$$$ after their reign.

Have friends that work corporate in Hoffman. It is not the same, and they are all just waiting for the last lifeboat to take them away...

Greed is Good. Not.




*He actually said that. But then popped up at Martha Stewert company after getting a huge, at the time, golden parachute of millions of dollars...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. plus his stores suck

I had to walk into one about a month ago. It was filthy, messy, disorganized, and a complete mess. TJ MAxx was far better, and costco was a heaven compared to sears.

[Jacoby365]

6. People don't have money to shop at Sears

I haven't had any disposable income to shop at sears since Invitations Homes bought the house I am renting and jacked up the rent as much as California law would allow.

My personal situation is a very clear example of how the money in this country is flowing straight to the top. Invitation Homes is a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, which was founded by billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Schwarzman who helped crash the economy through his former company Lehman Brothers.

What little disposable income I had is now gone - into the hands of billionaire criminals.

This, my friends, is widespread across America. Shameful. Pathetic.

[NickB79]

8. Sears and KMart both suck ass

KMarts around here seriously look like they haven't been updated in a decade. Broken tiles, half the lights burnt out, parking lots full of weeds. I feel uncomfortable just going into the store, and their prices and quality aren't any better than Walmart.

Sears is better, but the quality of their goods has fallen in recent years. Craftsman products in particular have gone to pot, in some cases literally: a Craftsman tool I purchased there a year ago seriously feels like it's made of cheap pot metal rather than quality steel. In that case I'll go to Harbor Freight and Tool; the quality isn't spectacular but it's not bad, and the prices are very good. Same goes for clothing sold at Sears. The sneakers I purchased for my 4-yr old daughter this spring barely made it through the summer before falling apart, and the kids clothes are overpriced and poorly made.

[Zorro]

10. Too bad

Just got a killer deal 2 weeks ago at Sears on an over-the-range microwave. The salesman actually knew his stuff, unlike the drones at the 3 other stores I visited.

I think Sears is getting whacked by the public's increasing comfort with ordering stuff off the internet. Fry's is another retail chain that's also suffering.

[PasadenaTrudy]

11. I shop online for everything

now almost. I can't deal with driving all over SoCal to these dumpy stores.

[mikeysnot]

13. Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire

For a while, it seemed to work like a charm. Pundits called him the “Steve Jobs of the investment world.” The new Warren Buffett. By 2006 he was flying high, the richest man in Connecticut, managing over $15 billion thorough his hedge fund, ESL Investments.

Stoked by his Wall Street success, Lampert plunged headlong into the retail world. Undaunted by his lack of industry experience and hailed a genius, Lampert boldly pushed to merge Kmart and Sears with a layoff and cost-cutting strategy that would, he promised, send profits into the stratosphere. Meanwhile the hotshot threw cash around like an oil sheikh, buying a $40 million pad in Florida’s Biscayne Bay, a record even for that star-studded county.

Fast-forward to 2013: The fairy tale has become a nightmare.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/ayn_rand_loving_ceo_destroys_his_empire_partner/

Had to post for those that did not see before. My friend worked on that SM project called ... pebbles. fucking stupid.

[Iamthetruth]

14. They are a real estate play

Nothing really left.