Sears quarterly profits slump 99%

[douglas9]

Source: BBC News

Retailer Sears has seen quarterly profits tumble 99%, after poor sales at its Sears and Kmart outlets.

The firm saw profits drop to $2m (£970,000), or 1 cent a share in the three months to 3 November from $196m or $1.27 a share, a year earlier.

Sears sees more problems ahead, as the credit squeeze dampens consumer spending over the holidays but also said there were other issues at play.

The firm's shares fell 13% to $16 - nearly half what they were in April.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7119893.stm

[laylah]

1. Unfortunately I cannot

express any sympathy whatsoever. After becoming a card carrying member of "The Divorced Wives Club", I was forced into bankruptcy in early 2005. I did not include Sears because at the time there was no balance and I wanted to keep that card...ya know, the "obligatory" Sears card every family should have? Well, about 6 months later, I went to use it and the charge was denied. When I called the company, which, btw, is now serviced by CitiBank, they told me they had closed it due to the bankruptcy. I was at a 749 credit rating and current on EVERYTHING the day I filed, life just happened and I had no choice; however, I was an excellent customer the 20 plus years I had that card. So, they can crash and burn for all I care!

[Name removed]

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[laylah]

18. Read my post

before you DARE to judge! I WAS AN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER FOR OVER 20 YEARS, HAD AN EXCELLENT RATING, NO DELINQUENCIES WITH ANYONE THE DAY I FILED! How DARE you! Take your nasty ignorance elsewhere! If I had defaulted on ANYTHING, I could see your point; however, I did/was not. :mad:

[yardwork]

29. I'm so confused. How did you come to have to file bankruptcy, then?

I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm seeking to understand, and perhaps the other poster was puzzled as well. If you weren't delinquent on anything, why did you have to file bankruptcy?

[laylah]

31. No offense taken.

I lost my job, had no cushion, and no assets, other than my house. The writing was on the wall and, as I said, my credit rating has always been very important to me. I thought if I filed BEFORE everything went south, it would be better for me on the other side. It didn't work out that way, though.

[yardwork]

33. I'm so sorry. I hope that things improve for you.

I am recently divorced myself. It's been quite a struggle.

[laylah]

35. Thank you so very much

for your good wishes. Yes, it is quite a struggle, worse the older I get. But, as the saying goes, this too shall pass. Warm wishes for you too :hug:

[yardwork]

37. Hugs back to you. I hope that things are brighter soon.

:grouphug:

[Fool_Me_Once]

40. pfft

:eyes:

[olddad56]

22. And just how long have you been God?

[douglas9]

24. Better hope you never have to rent a car.......

[laylah]

32. No problems

thus far. My debit card does just fine. But thanks for the input.

[douglas9]

44. Debit Cards....never thought about them....dating myself...thanks for the enlightment n/t

[douglas9]

45. Further research on debit cards at car rental agencies......

While debit cards bearing the logo of a major credit card are accepted for virtually all transactions where an equivalent credit card is taken, a major exception is at car rental facilities<17>. When car rental agencies require an actual credit card to be used, or at the very least, will verify the creditworthiness of the renter using a debit card. These companies will deny a rental to anyone who does not fit the requirements, and such a credit check may actually hurt one's credit score.

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

[laylah]

46. As I have said,

for me, this has been no problem.

Edited to ask you why no profile?

[laylah]

47. Psssssst! douglas!

Why no profile? I always enjoy knowing a bit about who I am conversing with.

[niyad]

38. things pretty slow over in freeperville today?

remd I-95

[aquart]

2. So richly earned. Stupid gits.

[Fool_Me_Once]

3. What most of you do not know is this:

"How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2346136&mesg_id=2346136

So this is actually sad news. Walmart should be the ones with the 99% drop. Sears is actually doing something positive for our Men and Women in Iraq.

Thanks!

[SKKY]

36. A lot of people don't know that...

...Thanks for pointing that out. As a Vet, I appreciate it! :thumbsup:

[noamnety]

5. Sears did its best to wreck my credit

And I have near perfect credit. I pay off my credit card bills in full each month - I don't carry a balance.

I had some fraudulent charges on the Discover card - which occurred 1/4 mile from their own security fraud headquarters in another state - they told me from their office they could SEE the store where the fraudulent charges were made. Hmmmm. Not that they'd have access to our card numbers at that location, or anything.

They told me they were canceling out that card, and they sent me a new one. That was easy.

A year later, I was refinancing my house, and it turns out on the old card, instead of wiping the fraud charges when they canceled the account, they turned it over to a collection agency because it wasn't paid. WTF. They never sent me a bill saying they wanted me to pay those charges, when they closed the account over the phone, bills for that account just stopped. All the bills for the new card were paid in full each cycle. But it kept the bank from refinancing. When I tried to get them to fix it, to drop the charges, I went through months of them saying it was taken care of, only to find out that it wasn't.

I had to go through the BBB to get them to a) cancel the charges, and b) report to the credit report folks that they'd canceled it, and it was an error on their part. That whole process took about a year.

F*** Sears.

And I'm not interested in how "nice" they treat their military people. I was one of those military people.

[Name removed]

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[fasttense]

7. If you are concerned about theft, credit cards are safer than cash.

A thief can only steal the first $50 from you if they steal your credit card and most credit card companies wont make you pay even that $50. When your cash is stolen, it is gone for good.

But I'm no friend of credit cards. They can lead to big problems. I had my card information stolen (thanks AOL) and the charges were written off and I got a new card. But I had nothing put on my credit report.

Leaving fraudulent charges on a card, to be reported later on a credit history was an error. Just because a corporation makes an error does not excuse that error. Sears should have apologized profusely and fixed the error immediately. Instead they gave the victim a great big run around.

That's the problem with corporations. They are filled with bureaucratic policies, unresponsive to unique situations and more concerned about the bottom line then loyal customers.

[Name removed]

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[fasttense]

17. By law, you are only responsible for the first $50.00 of a stolen credit card.

It is in your credit card agreement too. On the other hand, most, not all, banks do not guarantee their debit cards. If someone steals your debit account numbers, they can take out all your money and there isn't much you can do about it except try and negotiate with your bank. Some banks are kinder than others but unless you have it in writing, I would not want to be at the mercy of a corporate bank.

But I agree with you that credit cards can become a huge mess and burden. A lot of times the consumer is hoodwinked into these bad credit card agreements. My son got a credit card add in the mail the other day. On the surface, it sounded good, no interest until May. But when you start reading the fine print you notice they have 24 day billing cycle (so they get to add on extra interest every year) they have a monthly membership fee and an annual user fee. I had to get out a magnifying glass to read these little gems.

Half the credit card industry makes its money from subtle fraud. Yeah a consumer should be careful but there are so many frauds going on that they are tough to catch. From the advertiser who says you can make millions off his book to the tainted Chinese toys, some of the many frauds slip by even a wary consumer. Yeah, corporations should be held responsible for their conniving ways. If I hoodwinked someone on a sale, I would be held responsible, why shouldn't corporation be held responsible?

[qanda]

9. Wow! You just jumped right in and pissed all over everyone

Must be nice to be so perfect.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Gormy Cuss]

21. Consumer smart? Not about credit cards.

Federal law limits the consumer's liability for fraudulent charges to $50 in most cases. Based on what the previous poster detailed it was an error on the store's part and/or the credit bureau.

I agree that you are consumer smart to live within your means, and also that too much debt is ruinous.

[olddad56]

23. do you sell tools at Sears?

[Name removed]

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[JeanGrey]

20. This is awful! But also the reason why hubby and I keep one Visa

credit card for emergencies at 5.99% fixed interest, and don't keep any other.

[Voltaire99]

12. Visible butt cracks on bending dryer repairmen expected to decline, too.

This hurts the whole Sears team, folks.

[Fool_Me_Once]

13. SEARS and KMART

Have been struggling against Wallyworld for over 15 years now... Sears is AN AMERICAN COMPANY that sells mostly AMERICAN MADE Products... And they were basically put out of business by a NON-American, Outsourcing business which sells poisonous products to our citizens.

[kysrsoze]

28. WTF are you talking about? Even a lot of Craftsman tools are made in China

Have you checked the labels on their clothes, shoes and almost everything else in the store lately? Bet you haven't.

[ima_sinnic]

39. Sears sells tacky, cheezy, bottom of the line polysester clothing

I wouldn't buy anything at Sears if you paid me--clothing, tools, appliances, whatever, it's just crap, but their clothing is the absolute pits. They weren't "put out of business" by anybody else except their own bad, cheezy, tacky taste. I mean, I love polyester shirts with 1/2" of facing, polyester jackets without a lining, nylon panties that cause crotch rot within 1/2 hour, polyester skirts with no lining that get shiny and develop pills within the first day of wear, etc. etc.

[robcon]

14. Sears has been circling the drain for years.

"Kmart and Sears have been in a downward spiral for the last two years," said Britt Beemer, founder of America's Research Group, which examines how consumers behave.

"I think in a major free-fall.

Analysts say the latest results raise questions about the direction of the firm, which was the result of a tie-up between Sears, Roebuck and Kmart in 2005.

In a research note called "Death Spiral?", Gary Balter, an analyst with Credit Suisse, wrote there was "nothing good" to emerge from the results..."

[napi21]

15. Something is very wrong within Sr. mgmt. of that Company!

I was never a big fan of Sears except for their Craftsman tools, and my hubby was a meatcutter for Super K for over 5 years. He got another job when it became obvious that Super K's were not going to survive. However, we continued to shop several times a month at the local Kmart. Something has changed in the last 6 months or so. We went to the Kmart about 2 weeks ago to get some items from their sales flyer. Of 6 items, 4 of them were not in stock! The store clerks were all in a really bad mood. The store was dirty and what merchandise that was there was really unkempt. After being a loyal customer since Kmart opened back in the 60's, and a loyal employee for 5+ years, my husband said he doesn't think he'll ever go back inside their stores again. I don't know what's going on inside that organization, but something is very wrong.

[bigworld]

16. What's going wrong is that KMart is ignoring their meat-and-potatoes

offering of socks, vac cleaner bags and other everyday stuff at the expense of high-profit crappy impulse items. They don't seem to realize that without a dependable stock of the boring items (that are the reason that people actually go to KMart), people will stop going there, especially when they realize that Target, Walmart, etc actually have the items they need in stock (and without pallets in the aisles).

[JeanGrey]

19. I'm surprised it is taking this long. K mart is finished, the parking

lot there is always empty, they cannot compete with Wal Mart and will probably drag Sears down with them.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

25. It's their management...

The Chairman of Sears Holding Corp is an investment banker (who I'm sure has never shopped at Sears or K-Mart in his life) and the CEO of Sears is from the fast-food industry. And together they have given us a textbook definition of the phrase "More money than sense."

Theoretically, SHC should be a winner by combining the low-cost market sector of K-Mart with the deparment store market of Sears -- Think Target and Macy's combined. Beyond that, Sears has acquired Land's End and has made an offer for Restoration Hardware. Combine mass-market appeal with the acquisition of a few "boutique" retailers, and you ought to have a retail powerhouse.

But you don't. And that's a management problem.

[JCMach1]

26. Management: you hit the nail on the head!

[progressivebydesign]

27. there are usually underlying issues with profits...

and often companies take write offs and other things during that period that affect "profits", it's not income it's "profits". This was the quarter before the holiday season.. we shall see how they fare.

The one thing I've never understood about Sears in particular... why is all their shit so ugly? Can they not see what other stores are selling and what people actually wear? Their buyers are the absolute worst out there... I don't shop there because their stuff sucks.

[Sultana]

30. Damn! .....nt

[tabasco]

41. Rich people don't shop at Sears.

Poor people ain't got no money.

Ain't no more middle class thanks to Boosh and the republicans.

'nuff said.

[Vinca]

48. That's it exactly. Time to buy stock in the thrift shops. nt

[Raine]

42. Sad news

my father worked for Sears for 30+ years and retired from them. Sears always treated him fairly so we've remained loyal to them. I would feel awful if they go under. If stores like Sears and Penney's fall by the wayside Walmart will thrive even more. :-(

[Doctor_J]

43. 99% is a slump?

Collapse would be a better word.