SEARS BANKRUPTCY MARCH PICKS UP SPEED

You know things are bad when a retailer closes stores before Christmas. Sears is throwing in the towel before the fun and riots of Black Friday arrive.  They’ve closed a couple hundred stores and fired 20,000 people in the last few years. Only 1,900 more stores and 200,000 more employees to go. Sears will declare bankruptcy. It might be in 2015 or 2016, but they will declare bankruptcy.

They are run by a Wall Street shyster and have been dying for the last decade. Wall Street reacted to the news by bumping the stock up. That’s the America we inhabit. They are even closing their store in the King of Prussia Mall. If you can’t make a profit in one of the most successful malls in America, you can’t make a profit anywhere.

More SPACE AVAILABLE signs coming to a mall near you.

Sears to close stores, lay off about 5,500: Seeking Alpha

Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:03pm EDT

A sign for the Sears department store is seen at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia, January 7, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing

A sign for the Sears department store is seen at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia, January 7, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

(Reuters) – Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) is shuttering more than 100 stores and laying off at least 5,457 employees, investor website Seeking Alpha reported on Thursday, indicating the struggling retailer may be stepping up store closures.

Sears said in August it had closed 96 stores in the six months since February and planned to close a total of 130 underperforming stores during the full fiscal year. It added at the time that it may shutter additional stores beyond the 130 target.

Sears spokesman Chris Brathwaite declined to comment on the number of planned closures, saying the company would provide an update when it reports quarterly earnings next month. Reducing operations to the best performing stores is key to Sears’ revival strategy, he said.

“While this has resulted in store closures where appropriate – decisions that we do not take lightly – we continue to have a substantial nationwide footprint with a presence in many of the top malls in the country,” Brathwaite said.

Sears shares rose 5.9 percent to $36.46 on Nasdaq at mid-afternoon.

Since August the company has moved to close at least 46 Kmart stores, 30 Sears department stores and 31 Sears Auto Centers, Seeking Alpha said, citing local media reports and liquidation notices.

Sears is closing stores to cut costs as it shifts to an “asset-light” business model. The company lost nearly $1 billion during the first half of the fiscal year in a downturn that has worried some vendors and prompted a series of moves by the company to generate cash.

On Monday Sears said it would raise as much as $625 million through an unsecured loan and equity warrants, about half of which will be purchased by Chief Executive Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund. It was the company’s third fundraising in a little over month.

It also said on Monday that it would lease seven stores to discount fashion chain Primark for an undisclosed amount, reflecting its effort to use generate rental income from better performing retailers.

Sears had 1,077 Kmart stores and 793 Sears stores in the United States as of Aug. 2. The company had 226,000 U.S. employees as of Feb. 1.

WHO COULDA HAVE PREDICTED THIS?

Shocking news. I wish someone had predicted this. Wall Street will say it’s BULLISH!!!! They need some more muppets to fleece.

1,100 more empty stores in malls across America. I’m sure landlords will have no problem filling those spaces. That hot new retailer SPACE AVAILABLE will take over all of the locations.

I’m sure this brilliant retail strategy will surely revitalize RadioShack. I wonder when JC Penney, Sears, Kohls, and dozens of other retailers will be announcing the same brilliant strategy?

Here is a preview of RadioShack’s new ad campaign.

 

RadioShack to close 20% of its stores; earnings miss

Same-store sales slide 19%

By Ben Fox Rubin

RadioShack Corp. said Tuesday that it expects to close up to 1,100 U.S. stores, or about 20% of its footprint, while reporting its fourth-quarter loss widened significantly.

Shares (NYSE:RSH) dropped about 28% premarket as the struggling electronics retailer’s results were considerably worse than market expectations. The company said it will continue to have about U.S. 4,000 locations.

Chief Executive Joseph C. Magnacca said the poor results were driven by lower store traffic, intense discounting particularly in consumer electronics and a “very soft” mobility marketplace, as well as a few operational issues. Despite all those problems, he said the retailer is making progress on its turnaround.


Bloomberg

RadioShack has struggled to reverse a string of recent losses deepened by a sales strategy focused around smartphones, which failed to improve revenue over the last two years.

Magnacca, a former Walgreen Co. executive who was hired last February, outlined a strategy last year to refurbish stores by overhauling layouts and removing items from the shelves, part of a broader effort to improve perception among younger customers while keeping traditional “do-it-yourself” patrons satisfied.

Sales at stores open at least a year dropped 19%, driven by traffic declines and soft performance in the mobility business, while gross margin narrowed to 29.8% from 35.8%.

RadioShack reported a loss of $191.4 million, or $1.90 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $63.3 million, or 63 cents a share. Excluding some write-downs and other items, the per-share loss was $1.29.

Revenue sank 20% to $935.4 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast a per-share loss of 14 cents on revenue of $1.12 billion.

The company ended the quarter with total liquidity of $554.3 million, including $179.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $374.5 million available under a 2018 credit agreement.