Here is the best of Jim Quinn regarding Sears:
“Jesus Christ himself couldn’t save Sears. Has anyone on TBP actually bought anything at a Sears/Kmart in the last five years? They are the worst run retailer in America. They are dead and don’t even know it. These morons have added 247 new stores since 2006 but have managed to decrease their annual sales by $10 billion. Eddie Lampert is truly a retail genius. Over the next five years you will see a battle of retail zombies. Every big box retailer is part of the walking dead.
Sears will be the first victim and the stronger zombies – Home Depot, Lowes, and Wal-Mart will destroy them by underpricing appliances and tearing their heart out. Target, Kohls, and Wal-Mart already destroyed their apparel and general merchandise business.
A forward thinking realist would take a look at his 4,038 stores and close the 1,000 worst performing stores and try to conserve cash for the rough years ahead. They will not do this. They will go out in a blaze of glory with the biggest retail bankruptcy in history. There will be 4,038 rat infested vacant hulks rotting in our communities for decades.”
Jim Quinn – May 2011
“Eddie Lambert bought K-Mart and Sears as asset plays. One problem – the asset values of the properties have been cut in half. The fact that Sears and K-Mart are the worst managed retailers in America hasn’t helped. Sears started the year with $1.3 billion in cash and has burned through $600 billion in twelve months. This Lambert is a fucking genius. He is butt brothers with Jimmy Cramer. They worked together at where else but – GOLDMAN “THE VAMPIRE SQUID” SACHS. Cramer has been pumping this stock for years. Let’s assess his brilliance as an investment guru.
The stock traded at $192 per share in early 2007. Jim Cramer rated it a buy at this level. Today it trades at $34 a share. That is a NEGATIVE 82% return in just under five years. That is about par for the course for Jim Cramer. It traded at $95 earlier this year. It dropped 27% yesterday alone.
Here’s the deal. These bozos opened 247 new stores since 2006 and now they announced they are closing 120 stores. That is a piss in the ocean. If they really got serious and closed their 1,000 worst stores, they would have a chance to survive. But the ego of Eddie Lambert will not allow that decision to happen. He thinks he is smart. He’s a graduate of Goldman University for Christ’s sake. His reluctance to accept the facts will result in the bankruptcy of this piece of shit retailer and will leave the rotting carcasses of 4,000 rat infested hulks across suburbia. This stock is going to zero.”
“Time to buy Sears stock. It’s a can’t miss. Jim Cramer’s buddy, Eddie Lampert, has now appointed himself CEO of Sears. This douchebag has had control of Sears for ten years and he’s run it into the fucking ground. They are lucky to have JC Penney around, so they can claim they aren’t the worst run retailer on earth. Their quarterly sales declined again. Their sales have been in decline since the day Lampert took over. He was touted by the MSM as the next Warren Buffett. What an investing genius. He has managed to drive the Sears stock price from $180 to $40 in just five years. Sears will lose $800 million during a year where the economy was supposedly expanding. Imagine how well they will do in 2013 as the economy flounders in recession. Expect the store closing announcements in the spring. I just know Eddie will turn this around. I sure hope the former CEO’s “Health Problems” clear up with his $5 million severance package.”
“There are 2,500 Sears/Kmart stores in the country. There are hundreds of thousands of employees. Not for too much longer.”
COMING TO A MALL NEAR YOU
SEARS EMPLOYEES
That brings us to this morning. Sears stock is plunging as suppliers are worried about getting paid. When your suppliers lose confidence in your ability to pay, you’re toast.
Sears Halted, Plunges After Report Vendors Halts Shipments
Is this the beginning of the end for Eddie Lampert’s exercise in financial engineering that is Sears Holdings Corp? Bloomberg reports that three of the biggest insurance firms for Sears’ suppliers are seeking to reduce coverage… which has led to:
- *SEARS VENDOR SAID TO HALT SHIPMENTS AS INSURERS REDUCE COVERAGE
- *SEARS VENDOR WITHHOLDING SHIPMENTS IS MEDIUM-SIZED SUPPLIER
The stock has been halted twice on volatility limits and is down 10% for now. SRAC 5Y CDS are offered at ~39% upfront, implying around a 87% probability of default.
As Bloomberg reports,
Three of the biggest insurance firms for Sears Holdings Corp.’s suppliers are seeking to reduce coverage, prompting at least one medium-sized vendor to halt shipments to the department-store chain, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Euler Hermes Group, one of the top providers of credit insurance to vendors, has been sending out cancellation notice , according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Coface SA has indicated that it intends to do the same, two of the people said. Atradius Credit Insurance, another of the insurers, said it’s scaling back coverage, though the firm hasn’t yet pulled policies.
The situation has spurred one supplier to withhold products from Sears after a recommendation from its credit department, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News. The vendor, a closely held company, asked not to be named.
Suppliers rely on credit insurance to protect themselves against not getting paid for products they ship to retailers. For Sears, which has posted 30 straight quarters of declining sales, the shrinking support from insurers may make it harder to stock products and execute a comeback.
David Huey, the president and regional director of U.S., Canada and Mexico for Atradius in Baltimore, said the firm is decreasing its Sears supplier coverage “as the problems have become more obvious.”
“We’ve reduced as we’ve seen the risk increase,” he said in an interview. Though no policies have been canceled, “it could happen,” he said. “We’re reviewing it regularly.”
* * *
Do you hear that?
The fat lady has started singing. More Space Available signs coming to a mall near you.
Sure, I’ve bought tools, a lawn mower and even a TV from Sears in the last 5 years. Why not when they are selling items at prices below any sane/profitable retailer in the market? Most of the Craftsman line is still pretty good.
TC
You should be able to get some good bargains at their Going Out of Business sale.
The last time I bought from KMart was when they were going out of business. Got some great buys but then my wife lost her job. As for Sears we only have a ‘catalog’ store which does well. Not sure what will become of it if Sears goes belly up. We still like their washers and dryers.
Bargains at Sears are no bargain if they won’t be around to honor the warranty… which they barely honored in the last 5 years anyway, a big reason I stopped buying anything there. (I had only been shopping their tools before I stopped going there at all.)
I still catch my husband tuning into Cramer. He tries to quickly click away, and always has some lame reason, but I know in my heart he listens well, just like he listens to the “Inside information” that is leveled by the WSJ. Lemming.
The last couple times I’ve gone into Sears – and this is over the past three years or so – it is lucky I am no stranger to retail and the internet, as I had to go online to find the price. When I bought the chest freezer, I actually bought and paid for it online and bypassed the entire staff – because, well, screw ’em.
The employees have seen these days coming for a long, long, time.
Wow, I had no idea that when companies like HP, and soon Sears/Kmart, close locations and lay off employees that this was just more signs of a recovery.
Just like Wally world getting an out on the health care law.
Smell the success.
Lots of people are going to be awakened into reality. Sad most still won’t recognize it.
Short SHLD and cover when it hit’s a dollar. The vultures will swoop in and take the rest.
I think Quinn cheated on this one. He has been watching the Jim Kraemer indicator. He has been pumping Sears for several years. That would be an automatic death sentence.
My dad didn’t know many songs. The ones he knew were taught to him by his old man, an Irish drunk (and no, that’s not redundant, not quite), so I think he only taught my dad about 1/2 of the lyrics. Aside from Danny Boy, there was one about a deacon going down to the church basement and drinking all the communion wine, one about a “20 pound dog” (?) and one about an outhouse. The one about the outhouse said something about a star and a moon, carved out the door, “the Sear Roebuck catalogue lies on the floor…”. I wish I knew that whole song. I’d take a dump in honor of Sears and my old man. If anyone’s grandpa was an Irish drunk and knows that song, feel free to offer up any more info.
I’m not sure if I related my experience earlier this year in buying a new refrigerator from SEARS or not. I doubt it because it took a 10 page, single spaced letter of complaint to SEARS HQ to lay it all out for them. Never in my life have I made such a difficult purchase!
In my letter I related how I had not shopped in Sears for over a decade and that I knew, the moment I walked into the store, that I was going to regret it if we purchased a fridge there. I told them that I did not expect or even want a reply and that my letter was only intended to serve as a warning that they should all start looking for for new jobs before SEARS finally implodes in a giant cloud of mismanagement caused bankruptcy.
If anyone still wants Craftsman tools, pawn shops across this formerly great nation sell the old, American made tools for pennies on the dollar along with Snap-On and MAC Tools.
Thirty five years ago the brains and I bought a lot of stuff for the family at Sears and Penney,s. When we consider purchases neither are on the list to even check out now. American institutions ruined by shortsighted management. It is a shame.
Iska, Is this what you were looking for ?
Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) is laying off at least 5,457 workers and closing over 100 Kmart, Sears and Sears Auto Center locations, many before Christmas.
Sears spokesman Howard Riefs declined to speak by phone. “We disclose our store counts at the end of each quarter,” he said via email. “We don’t have further comment.”