Sears or JCP who will die first?

[SoonerDave]

Sooner Dave - i very much agree. And i dont see how the area is ever going to fill in the space. It's not as though you could tear out the structures and get something new built either....or homes. I can see this becoming a blight very quickly. Very sad.

Yeah, and that Sears building is in TERRIBLE shape...heck, I remember it being in terrible shape something like 10-15 years ago, back when it was just starting to emerge that Sears was faltering. They stopped putting any money into the stores, no updates, just crammed in more junk. That tells me the most likely result is either that building stays empty for a long time or someone comes along and plows it down.

That'd be a nice corner for a park...heck, you could call it Reding Park, but I don't know if something like that would ever happen.

[ljbab728]

That'd be a nice corner for a park...heck, you could call it Reding Park, but I don't know if something like that would ever happen.

I disagree. I think some type of dense, mixed used development would be best for both the Target and Seats sites.

[Plutonic Panda]

I disagree. I think some type of dense, mixed used development would be best for both the Target and Seats sites.

Listen man I gotta tell you something!

[ljbab728]

Listen man I gotta tell you something!

Are you planning a new development here, Plupan?

[Plutonic Panda]

Are you planning a new development here, Plupan?

Me, yes. However there might be some objections due to height. We'll see.

[SomeGuy]

I don't know where to put this but, Payless is closing most of their Oklahoma stores including the ones at 63rd and May, NW 23rd, and the one in Westgate.

[jerrywall]

I don't know where to put this but, Payless is closing most of their Oklahoma stores including the ones at 63rd and May, NW 23rd, and the one in Westgate.

We're losing both of ours in Edmond as well.

[stile99]

I don't know where to put this but, Payless is closing most of their Oklahoma stores including the ones at 63rd and May, NW 23rd, and the one in Westgate.

Isn't Westgate the name of the shopping center at SW 3rd? The list I saw (from Payless) said that one is remaining open. In fact, that list suggested it as an alternate for the 23rd store.

[traxx]

Payless filed for bankruptcy.

[emtefury]

Payless in Mustang closed a few months ago.

[SoonerDave]

I'm no shoe expert or shoe snob or whatever you might want to call it, but I never got the appeal of Payless. From what few times I've been in their stores, they looked like just the bottom-rung variety of shoe and the few pairs my wife ever bought just didn't last at all....not the least bit surprised they're bankrupt and closing down.

[stile99]

I wandered in to the new Rack Room Shoes at the Czech Village, and now I can say based on that one visit that I've been there twice...my first and last time. The shoes they have are very much pay for the name, not the shoe, and that even extends to the socks they had available. I just get basic socks, they go on my feet before the shoes do, no big whoop. Three pairs were almost $20, as far as I can tell merely because they had the Nike logo on them. I went to Payless and paid five bucks for six pairs. While I have no experience with women's shoes, the shoes I'm wearing now were bought there years ago and are still perfectly fine.

There's a really simple reason they've gone bankrupt. They are the latest victim of being bought by shady private equity firms and saddled with a crazy amount of debt that just isn't possible to overcome.

Warning - Autoplay video

"Like several of the other retail chains that have succumbed to Chapter 11 filings this year, Payless' parent company was purchased by private equity firms in 2012 for $2 billion. That left the company saddled with debt."

[acumpton]

They are also closing the store in Sooner Fashion Mall.

[Bobby821]

They are also closing the store in Sooner Fashion Mall.

Is there a list of the stores that are closing posted somewhere??

[riflesforwatie]

Is there a list of the stores that are closing posted somewhere??

https://consumermediallc.files.wordp...oc-3-31-17.pdf

[Patrick]

J's Hallmark is closing their store at Quail Springs after 30+ years. Quail is really starting to deteriorate.

[SoonerDave]

J's Hallmark is closing their store at Quail Springs after 30+ years. Quail is really starting to deteriorate.

In fairness, however, standalone Hallmark stores are becoming a bit of an anachronism. The idea of a dedicated greeting card store with substantially overpriced side-knickknacks is not much of a mainstream business model as it was 25-30 years agi.

[whorton]

According to a bookie, odds are 7 to 5 that Sears cashes in their chips first.

I haven't seen a store brought down like that since the roof caved in at Walls Bargain Center!

[Eric]

Good to know that all the bud pub for Sears was just the press with an axe to grind or too stupid to see how great things were going.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-se...KBN1862R2?il=0

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt man...

[bchris02]

I was thinking about this. I wonder how much longer K-Mart has to survive? They are already gone from the OKC metro unless you count the Shawnee store. They mostly still survive in small towns where usually they don't have competition, but even there they aren't bringing in much business. I don't know how they've managed to keep holding on this long.

I think K-Mart and Sears are both poster children of becoming complacent and not evolving with the market. Sooner or later, you won't be able to hide behind your name and history and the market will go elsewhere. Instead of gobbling up big box chains in the mid '00s (like Borders, which has also failed), K-Mart should have focused on its own stores and competing with Wal-Mart and the dollar stores.

Both Sears and K-Mart need complete rebrands. K-Mart needs to ditch the name altogether and call itself something else. Years of neglect have given the "K-Mart" brand a negative stigma. Sears is well established enough that I don't think they need a complete rebrand, but something like a new logo, marketing campaign, and updated, remodeled stores could help right the ship there. Unfortunately, the company is bleeding money and I don't think they could afford such a campaign.

JC Penney is in trouble because of the opposite problem. It shook things up a little too much and alienated its core customer. In business, there is a delicate balance between evolving with the times and keep your core customers coming back.

[SoonerDave]

Both Sears and K-Mart need complete rebrands...

That presumes the retailers had any notion of staying in business in the first place. The current owners have been in what amounts to a controlled "pre-bankruptcy" liquidation of assets for years now. They've had no intention of resuscitating their retail presence. That's what's frustrated a lot of long-time Sears folks, and I somewhat consider myself one only because going there as a kid was fairly routine for my family and for me when I was a younger adult.

The current ownership has not-so-quietly been selling off whatever assets Sears had - Craftsman name, Kenmore, etc., which is really nothing more than what you'd do when you were liquidating following a bankruptcy. The guy is just controlling it himself from the front end rather than letting a court manage it. He does manage to put a bit of lipstick on the pig by putting some of the revenue generated by asset sales onto the books and making things look less dreadful for a quarter, but still the long-term strategy is just bleed the thing until it flat runs out of blood, then shut it down.

The time to rebrand/rebuild/redo/rewhatever Sears was before it was bought by KMart. Even then, it was probably too late. Sad part is they were arguably positioned better to translate into the Internet/Amazon-based shopping economy than any other retailer in the country with their entrenched name recognition, catalog-based shopping, and network-based delivery setup....ahhhh, what might have been...

They'll continue to gasp along until the guys who own it have extracted whatever they can out of it, then it'll be gone.

At least JCPenny is *trying* to turn things around.....trying...

[bchris02]

Yeah I think there is a good chance that Sears/Kmart just doesn't care anymore at this point. They are simply "letting the clock run out" so to speak.

[traxx]

I was thinking about this. I wonder how much longer K-Mart has to survive? They are already gone from the OKC metro unless you count the Shawnee store. They mostly still survive in small towns where usually they don't have competition, but even there they aren't bringing in much business. I don't know how they've managed to keep holding on this long.

I think K-Mart and Sears are both poster children of becoming complacent and not evolving with the market. Sooner or later, you won't be able to hide behind your name and history and the market will go elsewhere. Instead of gobbling up big box chains in the mid '00s (like Borders, which has also failed), K-Mart should have focused on its own stores and competing with Wal-Mart and the dollar stores.

Both Sears and K-Mart need complete rebrands. K-Mart needs to ditch the name altogether and call itself something else. Years of neglect have given the "K-Mart" brand a negative stigma. Sears is well established enough that I don't think they need a complete rebrand, but something like a new logo, marketing campaign, and updated, remodeled stores could help right the ship there. Unfortunately, the company is bleeding money and I don't think they could afford such a campaign.

JC Penney is in trouble because of the opposite problem. It shook things up a little too much and alienated its core customer. In business, there is a delicate balance between evolving with the times and keep your core customers coming back.

As for K Mart, every time I see Grown Ups 2 on TV (Don't judge me) and they have that scene in K Mart, I groan. You know K Mart paid for that product placement. And the store in the movie looked so clean, well organized, well stocked with stuff you might actually want to buy. I have not been in a K Mart in the in the last 15 years that hasn't looked like a third world bazaar. Items thrown carelessly here and there. Under stocked. Dirty. Depressing.

Maybe if they'd spent that money on actually improving their company and stores instead of paying to show a K Mart from fantasy land on a movie then they might still be viable.

[bchris02]

As for K Mart, every time I see Grown Ups 2 on TV (Don't judge me) and they have that scene in K Mart, I groan. You know K Mart paid for that product placement. And the store in the movie looked so clean, well organized, well stocked with stuff you might actually want to buy. I have not been in a K Mart in the in the last 15 years that hasn't looked like a third world bazaar. Items thrown carelessly here and there. Under stocked. Dirty. Depressing.

Maybe if they'd spent that money on actually improving their company and stores instead of paying to show a K Mart from fantasy land on a movie then they might still be viable.

I agree. Thing is, K Mart used to be like that. Sometime between 2002 and 2005, my family stopped shopping there and I never gave a second thought as to why. I went back to one around 2010 and it was perhaps one of the most depressing stores I've ever been in; on par with the worst Family Dollar locations.

[SomeGuy]

Sears is closing the Heritage Park mall store

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears...ll-list-2017-6