Sears Does Better Alone
By George Anderson
Sears’ chief executive officer, Alan Lacy, said the chain is accelerating its plans to add stand-alone Sears Grand and Great Indoors stores.
A Chicago Sun-Times‘ report said, “Sales of appliances, apparel and home fashions at Sears Grand are ‘terrifically’ outperforming Sears’ mall-based stores”, according to the Mr. Lacy.
The retailer has made revisions to both of its stand-alone formats and is convinced it will see even better results going forward.
According to the Sun-Times, “Future Sears Grand stores will be reduced in size to 175,000 to 185,000 square feet from the initial 210,000 square feet.” Some may be as small as 110,000 square feet, according to Mr. Lacy. He did not indicated parts of the store that might be cut by going to smaller stores.
Moderator’s Comment: Is the future of Sears in stand-alone stores? Do the Grand and Great Indoors formats give Sears
enough of a point of differentiation to compete in the marketplace?
Sears’ chief executive put a very bright face on the company’s future at yesterday’s shareholder meeting, but many do not share his views. One shareholder,
Doug Liggett of Indianapolis, called the retailer’s attempt to redesign its stores “a monumental failure.” –
George Anderson – Moderator