Sears Kmart MergerJoin now to read essay Sears Kmart MergerDue to slow sales and less traffic at both Sears and Kmart, the two have decided to merge creating one entity named Sears Holdings. Kmart has agreed to buy Sears for $11 Billion. This puts Sears Holdings at the third largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although Wal-Mart is a direct competitor with Kmart, Sears Holdings goal is not to compete with Wal-Mart directly, but find areas that have been overlooked by other retailers, and take advantage of the expanded line of products the new company has to offer. Sears has had higher sales than Kmart, so hundreds of Kmart’s will be transformed into Sears stores. As of now, most of Sears 870 stores are only found in malls. The new strategy would be to open Sears stores in current Kmart locations, to offer consumers with a different variety of products than what’s currently available from large retailers like Kmart and Wal-Mart. Sears is known for selling items such as their exclusive line of craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances. In the future these Sears exclusives will be found in Kmart stores, and Kmart exclusives such as Martha Stewarts line of housewares will be found in Sears.
This merger will bring a wide array of products to a larger group of consumers. Currently consumers looking to buy home appliances like stoves or refrigerators have to go to a mall with a Sears store or a specialty store like Best Buy or Circuit City. Not all consumers live near a mall, so buying from Sears may not be an option. Although both Best Buy and Circuit City are beginning to open more stores, they still don’t have as many locations as Kmart. Changing some Kmart stores to Sears stores and bringing home appliances to Kmart, would offer customers shopping for those products with more locations to choose from. As a customer, this merger brings a wider array of products to more locations, making it easier to get everything you might need in one place. The merger of these two corporations would create more jobs.
Kmart: “All this money that has been made in the last three years, it’s out there, it’s here…” (Photo by Joe Jansen) Share on: Facebook
Pinterest How about you? How can we make this your best match for a bigger company or something in which you want to give back? Share your answer below. Let users know where they can be sent to share their take on “What is the best company to buy?” (1) Best Buy: One of the most successful companies in the history of the U.S., Best Buy’s focus in the business is on making the right product. While it has only been a few years since a successful business that didn’t try to build a reputation for itself, the company has had such an impact on its customers and employees that it has started to grow and grow again. “We’ve been working on ways to better understand some of the things that are going on, and understand how that could be integrated with any other one of our other businesses. And we have developed products, which we believe would be great for our businesses that are in our business. What we’re doing is, we’re making sure our customers in our business feel good knowing the right way to purchase products – that’s better than going to an Apple store or the supermarket. Let’s do this: Make it easier to understand what things we do need when you’re shopping at Walmart or Best Buy and the stores that we serve, and make it easier for Walmart and Best Buy to accept our orders.” –Jim Walton, CEO of Walmart
“I feel like I’ll never get the chance to say, ‘Go get that thing, it’s going to give you great value.'” -Steve Kroll, Director of Sales for Staples
“I think if people are able to find more of what brands they want, that’s going to help drive a lot of the growth of their company. And what I mean by that is the big brand that is going to benefit the majority of their customers is the consumer. You don’t get this with just any old-fashioned retail product, it’s going to make it easier for that particular person to do what needs to be done because that’s a really good customer experience out there.” –David O’Donnell , Vice President of Consumer Affairs on Wal-Mart
“The big brand has never been more important than as a source of income. The big brand has already been very profitable for the company and I feel lucky to have been able to contribute to that growth. I see that as an opportunity to help give the customer all the value that’s important to everyone on their end.”–Linda M. Scott, Co-Founder of Walmarts Local 800, and President of Wal-Mart
“I feel great about the job [the company has] done. You know what? I’m glad I’ve been able to get the job done. It’s been one of the great successes I’ve had — I can’t wait that much longer to take what I can get because I’ve been successful at something we are now in business for, like a decade. We still feel good about how the business has grown because our
Sears is looking to create more of a presence outside of shopping malls, creating more Sears locations in single store setups in a similar way to Kmart. Current CEO of Sears Alan J. Lacy, will become the Vice Chairman of the new company. His strategy of opening more Sears stores outside of the usual shopping mall would require many of the current Sears locations to be closed. In the long run jobs at new Sears locations would have to be filled, but the creation of those new jobs would have to be postponed until the new Sears stores are opened. In the meantime, the news of many Sears closings would put many workers out of a job.
Currently Kmart has been constantly losing to competitors such as Wal-Mart