Koushik Saha
Sears, one of the largest department–store retailers in U.S. and Canada, is in danger of becoming irrelevant. Sears Holding Corporation recently announced they are closing over 110 Sears & Kmart stores and laying off at least 6,067 workers by the end of 2014. Billionaire and investment banker In 2003, Edward Lampert acquired control of K-mart while it was in bankruptcy. In 2004, K-Mart Holdings Corporation merged with Sears in an $11.5 billion deal. Their stock is known as called Sears Holdings. K-Mart kept the Sears name because it has a better reputation than Kmart in the US. The merger was a brilliant move because Kmart has very valuable real estate that could be used to build the Sears brand (since Sears are usually located in Malls, which is a quickly shrinking location for shopping -- and the Sears stores are the anchor stores in many of the old, rundown malls). This allowed Sears to better expand its reach, especially with its popular brands, such as Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard. Another advantage was cost savings; merging the two companies together reduced its operating expenses. Sears Holdings Corp, who owned approximately 51% of Sears Canada,…show more content… After having huge success in the past with Baby Boomers, Sears continues to serve the same demographic while forgetting about those that could bring lots of money to the company. Young people are not shopping at Sears anymore because the store isn’t up to date with the latest trends. Stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, have the upper hand because people want quick, easy and cheap merchandise. Going to the mall is an out-dated concept. Sears could have benefited moved to a location with more convenience, most people prefer to simply run in the store, get their items and exit instead of having to find space to park their car, walk in the mall and then finally get to