Deja Vu, new movie, but only a re-run for Sears

Implications: Top line growth remains a key struggle at Sears and Kmart

Revenue from investments and reduced expenses are good icing but you need a cake (sales) to put them on 





Analysis: Déjà vu might be a new film release but it is an old flick when it is seen once again in retailing. For the past 25 years of downsizing, right sizing and reorganization at Sears the only thing that has remain constant is a poor top line performance. Led by a new team, time and time again the once ‘icon” of retailing has continued to flounder when fishing for sales. They have sold just about every non store related asset to show profitability at times during this past 25 years with the hope of borrowing time to fix their real problem on the top line. Several executives have walked away wealthy as those under them scrambled to find work in the latter part of their career. Revenue from investments, surplus cash and reduced expense are certainly icing but if you don’t have a cake to put it on you are not ready to serve your investor unless you are serving him his last meal on a spoon. JC Penney, Sears one time direct competitor seems to have figured out a way to exist in the ever changing retail environment leaving Sears in the dust when it comes to winning on the top line. It is no surprise that “Home Goods’’ was most affected by poor sales recently at Sears and Kmart as this is a category that many other traditional retailers and off-price retailers are emphasizing today. Once faced with new competitive the result is usually lost market share by those who don’t have the infrastructure in place to compete at a high level in dynamic businesses. Oh how they miss the days of JC Higgins and those days when no one dared to challenge the name of Craftsman or Kenmore.