Sears: Why do I bother?

Published 11/29/07

Sears stores’ policy for Web orders is to accept every order, even if the item is not in stock. I learned this a while ago.

The store also has a huge disconnect between its online and offline stores. Order something online that has to be delivered, and if there’s a problem both the local store and the online people will point to the other and claim it’s their problem.

Still, my wife ordered a new microwave oven from Sears. Free shipping. First of all, unless you join the store’s shopping club (whatever it’s called), you can’t track your order. How 1998.

Second, the oven arrived broken. Kaput. We called Sears and they told us to bring it in to the local store.

Hey, Einstein, the whole point of ordering online is to avoid the brick and mortar stores during the Christmas season. (And further, knowing that the offline and online stores have, er, trouble communicating, we’d likely end up billed for the thing even if we did return it.)

After a bit of an argument, they agreed to send a pick-up order in. Of course, they can’t tell us when UPS will actually arrive, so I guess I just leave the thing on the porch or something.

Come see the stupid side of Sears.

The Fray

3 responses (add yours)

Gnomic says:

Your revenge was sweet:Sears profit tumbles 99%

Shares of Sears Holdings (SHLD, news, msgs) plunged more than 10.5% today to $104.09, because of a surprisingly weak profit report.

The percentage loss was the biggest among S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 ($NDX.X) stocks.

“We cannot blame our results entirely on the retail and macro-economic environments. We have much on which to improve,” CEO Aylwin Lewis said in a statement.

One problem was a $223 million drop in gross margin; another was a 4.6% decline in total sales at stores open at least one year.

from http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/071129markets.aspx

November 30th, 2007 at 12:02 PM

Andrew says:

Yikes, I thought you were joking! Sears really did flop this year.

The company is obviously either using antiquated computer systems for its online business, or it has implemented them piss-poorly.

And the policy of “Accept all Web orders even if the item isn’t in stock” is just bad business.

Sears needs to bring in people who understand online sales and how to integrate them with brick and mortar stores. Heck, it got its start as a catalog company; this should be old hat!

November 30th, 2007 at 12:37 PM

Gnomic says:

Remember Mongomery Wards - the former #1 catalog company?

Sears and Kmart - 2 mediocre companies, neither with any competative advantage - merge to be just another in a long list of retail companies. There are not Brand distingtions, no synergies, no real cost advantages.

The best thing to do is wait for the going out of business sales.

November 30th, 2007 at 6:03 PM