Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
The two-floor Sears store we visited hardly had any shoppers.
- Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. The company says it will close 142 stores before the end of the year, and its CEO, Eddie Lampert, will step down.
- The rise of e-commerce, declining foot traffic to malls, and a higher demand for off-price products are just some of the factors that have caused department stores to suffer in recent years, and Sears is no exception to that.
- We visited a Sears store the day the company filed for bankruptcy, and it felt like the store had already been abandoned. Parts of the store were well-kempt, but others were disorganized and empty, and there was hardly anyone in sight.
Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.
The company says it will close 142 stores before the end of the year, and its CEO, Eddie Lampert, will step down.
Sears has been closing stores and selling off assets following years of crippling sales declines. The company currently operates 687 Sears and Kmart stores, according to its bankruptcy filing. That's down from nearly 2,000 stores in 2013.
The rise of e-commerce, declining foot traffic to malls, and a higher demand for off-price products are just some of the factors that have caused department stores as a category to suffer in recent years.
"The problem in Sears' case is that it is a poor retailer. Put bluntly, it has failed on every facet of retailing from assortment to service to merchandise to basic shop-keeping standards," said Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData
When we visited a Sears store the day the company filed for bankruptcy, it felt like the store had already been abandoned. Parts of the store were well-kempt, but others were disorganized and empty, and there was hardly anyone in sight.
Here's what it was like: