Kmart Buys Sears

[Ian]

Just when Sears was starting to look like a decent store... Kmart goes and buys it up.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fo ... /index.htm

I thought Kmart was having financial troubles anyway.. how'd they afford Sears?

[CowboySlim]

Makes perfect sense to me. They are joining hands as they walk down the gangplank that Wal*Mart has put them on.

Slim

[JamieW]

Oh my, what a terse and humorous summary.

[tazdevl]

Probably a stock swap. I haven't looked at it.

[LoneWolf]

K-Mart's stock has soared since they came out of bankruptcy, but that is due to real estate holdings, not to retail performance.

I think the big thing that every analyst I heard didn't comment on was customer service, though. I have NEVER been to a K-Mart with good customer service. Ask an employee where something is? "That Way" with a pointing hand in a vague direction somewhere. That's assuming you can find someone, and if you can, that that someone isn't talking to their coworker about boyfriends or last week's (insert big sports event here) victory.

I'm not likely to buy from someone who has lousy service. I have a million other retail outlets I can choose from. Want to make it big with me? Provide great service, then be 50 cents higher on everything than your competition. I'll still buy from you.

Tom Cruise: "You tell `em Ray." Dustin Hoffman: "K-Mart SUCKS!!!" -Rain Man

[CowboySlim]

Sam Walton said: "Please them once - they'll be back again. Please them twice - they'll be back forever".

Slim

[LoneWolf]

Yep, and then Sam died and his money-grubbing relatives took over the business, resulting in the service and ethics issues you see in Wal-Mart as a company today.

LoneWolf (hoping that someday those who hired illegal aliens to work Wal-Mart are themselves locked in stores at night and told to clean floors)

[VEFF]

Just when Sears was starting to look like a decent store... Kmart goes and buys it up.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fo ... /index.htm

I thought Kmart was having financial troubles anyway.. how'd they afford Sears?

That was my first thought when I read the story last week - how can they afford to buy Sears after they (KMart) filed for bankruptcy protection a couple of years ago (and shut down a bunch of their stores).
If anything, I would have expected it to be the other way around - Sears buying KMart.