Sears or JCP who will die first?

[SoonerDave]

I have thought for years that I could drive by the old, nasty Sears on SW 44th and Western on any given day, and there was no worse than a coin flip's chance the thing would, out of the blue, be shuttered and gone from the earth. It hasn't happened yet, but I still would never bet against it. That's a nasty, nasty store that holds for me only hollow, fleeting memories of the vibrant retail atmosphere that, believe it or not, once reigned there. Sears was almost as big and routine a part of my family's shopping efforts as TG&Y. A week without a trip to the Sears catalog desk to pick up an order was an exception. Sears used have a candy counter with hot, roasted peanuts and popcorn, the aroma of which would flow through the store. On the south end was a big coffee shop, and to the west were the hardware and sporting goods where they always had the current incarnation of Pong on display and for sale - and I never lost a game . They sold furniture, console TV's, VCR's, you name it, and Sears had it.

Then things, well, changed. Their namesake brands started being built by no-name mass manufacturers overseas, and the quality that had made Kenmore and Craftsman household names went down the toilet with it. The stores fell in to disrepair. They had no marketing direction, floating on the momentum of "well, we're Sears, we'll always be relevant," until they weren't. The 44th street store is a smelly, slipshot place that belies the industrious retailer Sears once was, and resembles it these days in name only. Marketing, business plan, advertising, whatever it was, Sears has failed in nearly every respect. And it's sad.

JCPenny wasn't nearly as critical a retailer for us as Sears, but its clearly a rudderless company that is grasping for direction and air. THe Apple misstep was a gargantuan failure, right down to the logo change. And I think Pete is more or less right in the general notion that both stores are examples of a bygone era in US retail - the big box, multidepartment store that serves everyone. And its precisely the reason I loathe the JCPenney store in Moore - its so freaking huge you have to pack a stinking lunch to get from the front door back to whatever department you want. And the perpetual reinvention of the company has been, well, exhausting. I can't see them continuing to hemorrhage cash before someone sees the writing on the wall and calls it a day - the recent closure of 33 stores and layoff of 2,000+ employees is probably only the beginning in much the same way the early shutdowns were harbingers of bad things to come for Blockbuster over the last few years as their market disappeared from beneath them.

Who will fail first? I guess with KMart to prop them up, Sears might endure longer merely through the sheer force of will of its owner. But JCPenney has hardly much better future, seems to me. There's hardly much future for either. As for who will last? Who knows. As likely to end up a photo-finish to the bankruptcy line as either one hitting it first.

[Pete]

Sears was almost as big and routine a part of my family's shopping efforts as TG&Y. A week without a trip to the Sears catalog desk to pick up an order was an exception. Sears used have a candy counter with hot, roasted peanuts and popcorn, the aroma of which would flow through the store. On the south end was a big coffee shop, and to the west were the hardware and sporting goods where they always had the current incarnation of Pong on display and for sale - and I never lost a game . They sold furniture, console TV's, VCR's, you name it, and Sears had it.

When I was very young, it was the same for my family with the Sears at 23rd & Penn.

I think we bought all our appliances and hardware there in the 60's.