Sears And Kmart

This could have come out differently, but as this news story begins, Sears and Kmart lost their way.

Sears & Roebuck started off as the original Amazon, competing with Montgomery Ward over catalog sales.

Kmart was a cross between Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart.

It could come back, but the high priced managers are already lining their pockets and bailing the sinking ship.

So, what could have been done?

They each could have been combined in a unique, new experience.

Sears could go back to catalog - online catalog sales with limited physical locations that are combined with Kmart locations.

The only difference is that the combined Sears/Kmart stores would be part online fulfillment centers, part retail.  The customer would have the option of buying online, picking up at a store; buying online and having it shipped to the customer's home, or the customer could just show up at the retail location where they could actually view their item from the warehouse before buying it.

The retail space could be for items being sold at a discount, on top of the warehouse and operations centers for the online.

The online catalog would be an experience site, with products that are limited in nature:

Kenmore for the appliances
Craftsman for tools
furniture designed for tiny homes, apartments, condos.  Multi purpose.
Electronics geared for vloggers.

Adding:

Modest clothing lines from American designers - with a much greater line of full figured clothing
Guinne Sax/Jessica McClintock clothing

Organization areas with agreements to sell from:

The Container Store
Avery
Smead
Erin Condren

Kitchenware from:

Pyrex
Corning
GreenLife (Ceramic Non-Stick Cookware)


The online catalog would contain easter eggs - trivia, games, as well as an online lite CAD site for designing the look of your space with products sold by Sears/Kmart.

The store would also hold demo classes for customers wanting to do more with their homes, as well as vloggers.  This would also include financial management classes.