Can't afford that backpack? What about those notebooks and pens? Increasingly, consumers are using layaway plans as a way to pay for back to school items.
Sears Holdings reported fourth quarter earnings this morning that beat analyst estimates, helping to send Sears shares up nearly 8% in early trading. While I hate to rain on positive news, especially since it's so rare lately, it's hard to get excited about Sears' prospects for 2009 and beyond.
Each Thanksgiving, my household brims with abundance and gratitude. But after dinner my family always squabbles over who gets to break the wishbone. One year I had an idea that would solve the problem for my family and, I was sure, many others on Turkey Day.
Investors who think shares of Sears Holdings are a bargain after plummeting 80% from their peak should think again.
Judging from a leaked ad for day-after-Thanksgiving sales, major stores will tempt shoppers - whose help is desperately needed to bolster the economy - with huge discounts.
Sears Holdings Corp. said second-quarter profit fell 62% as the retailer continues to struggle to attract customers to its stores despite a high-stakes restructuring. The company also said that it expects that its sales and gross profit margins will continue to be pressured as it sees no near-term improvement in the economy.
Magnetic induction may just be the best technology to hit the kitchen since the microwave oven. In the past few years this style of cooktop, which turns magnetic energy into heat, has proved itself a worthy competitor to the traditional choices - gas and electric.
Stock futures edged narrowly higher Thursday, as investors awaited the latest look at oil and fuel supplies and weighed mixed reports from two major retailers.
Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over Sears stoves in which the retailer agreed to install safety brackets for free to prevent the appliances from tipping over or provide other reimbursements.
Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class action lawsuit in which Sears agreed to pay to install anti-tip safety brackets or provide other reimbursements to customers who may have Sears stoves dating back to 2000.
Can't afford that backpack? What about those notebooks and pens? Increasingly, consumers are using layaway plans as a way to pay for back to school items.
Sears Holdings reported fourth quarter earnings this morning that beat analyst estimates, helping to send Sears shares up nearly 8% in early trading. While I hate to rain on positive news, especially since it's so rare lately, it's hard to get excited about Sears' prospects for 2009 and beyond.
Each Thanksgiving, my household brims with abundance and gratitude. But after dinner my family always squabbles over who gets to break the wishbone. One year I had an idea that would solve the problem for my family and, I was sure, many others on Turkey Day.
Investors who think shares of Sears Holdings are a bargain after plummeting 80% from their peak should think again.
Judging from a leaked ad for day-after-Thanksgiving sales, major stores will tempt shoppers - whose help is desperately needed to bolster the economy - with huge discounts.
Sears Holdings Corp. said second-quarter profit fell 62% as the retailer continues to struggle to attract customers to its stores despite a high-stakes restructuring. The company also said that it expects that its sales and gross profit margins will continue to be pressured as it sees no near-term improvement in the economy.
Magnetic induction may just be the best technology to hit the kitchen since the microwave oven. In the past few years this style of cooktop, which turns magnetic energy into heat, has proved itself a worthy competitor to the traditional choices - gas and electric.
Stock futures edged narrowly higher Thursday, as investors awaited the latest look at oil and fuel supplies and weighed mixed reports from two major retailers.
Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over Sears stoves in which the retailer agreed to install safety brackets for free to prevent the appliances from tipping over or provide other reimbursements.
Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class action lawsuit in which Sears agreed to pay to install anti-tip safety brackets or provide other reimbursements to customers who may have Sears stoves dating back to 2000.
U.S. stocks were poised for a rough start Monday as investors watched most major overseas markets tumble and awaited the upcoming Federal Reserve policy meeting along with President Bush's final State of the Union address.
Maybe Sears' critics have it wrong.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, who controls Sears Holdings, has earned a reputation as a boy wonder of retailing by wringing profits from an aging department store chain.
Sears Holdings on Thursday posted a second-quarter profit that fell 40 percent from a year ago, which the company blamed on an increased level of discounting in the period.
Sears Holdings Corp. Monday reported declining quarterly same-store sales at its Kmart and Sears stores and tightened the range of its earnings outlook, citing problems including the housing market slowdown.
Sears Holdings Tuesday forecast lower quarterly profit and admitted that it needs to become more relevant to consumers and control its costs, sending its shares down more than 7 percent in premarket trading.
Sears Holdings (SHLD) ranks no. 38 on FORTUNE's list of America's largest corporations.
Sears Holdings Corporation ranks no. 107 on FORTUNE's Global 500 this year, with $49.1 billion in revenues, up 149.3% from the previous year. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company was ranked no. 306 on the 2005 list. Its 2005 profits were $0.9 billion, down 22.4% from a year earlier. 2005 was a banner year for most Global 500 companies.
This year billions of dollars' worth of gift cards - estimates range from $1.75 billion to $3.5 billion - won't be cashed in within 12 months of being purchased. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Michael J. Mauboussin is chief investment strategist for Legg Mason - the Baltimore investment house run by renowned fund manager Bill Miller - and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School....
Stocks turned higher Thursday morning, a day after the Dow suffered the biggest one-day point decline for the blue chip average in three years.
The mood was tense at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., early last year. The top two dozen executives of Sears Roebuck & Co. were gathering for a strategy session with Eddie Lampert, the...
With retail sales proving more sluggish than expected -- and concerns that home heating bills will crimp sales even further -- many retailers are finding the need to be more creative this holiday season.
Stocks started Tuesday in positive territory thanks to falling oil prices, tame winter weather in the Northeast and a smattering of upbeat economic and corporate news.
Stocks could get a lift from lower oil prices in early trading Tuesday, as predictions of the season's first heavy snow to hit the Northeast proved to be a little overblown.
FOUR GLAMOROUS NEWCOMERS ARE joining the iconic skyscrapers that form Manhattan's glittering skyline. The New York Times Co. is building an opulent 52-story glass tower that will reflect the sky's ...
WHEN BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR EDDIE Lampert forged his deal to merge floundering Sears with Kmart last fall, he tossed Alan Lacy a lifeline. As Sears' CEO, Lacy was so ineffective that many people were...
Amazon.com and Sears knew how to treat their online customers right, while Payless ShoeSource and Safeway have lessons to learn, a study said Wednesday.
WHEN ALL THE SCREAMING AND shouting and light-bulb popping have died down, there are a few things we can safely say about Eddie Lampert's orchestrated purchase of Sears by Kmart. First and foremost...
Stocks surged Wednesday as investors cheered Kmart's $11 billion merger with Sears and solid earnings from Hewlett-Packard.
Stocks rallied at the open Wednesday, boosted by Kmart's $11 billion merger with Sears, Hewlett-Packard's upbeat earnings and some encouraging economic news.
Kmart is buying Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11 billion in a deal that will marry two of the nation's oldest retailers that had trouble keeping up with the changes in American culture around them.
Sears Roebuck and Co. has agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty for failing to report a defect in certain riding lawn mowers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday.
Time is running short for Alan Lacy. As Sears' performance has drifted from lackluster to lousy, it looks as though he may be another casualty of the toughest turnaround challenge in retailing. Sea...
You've probably heard that thanks to divorce and the fact that women outlive men, 90% of women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives. Now a new study on women a...
In February, as every retailer knows, shoppers' thoughts turn to spring. At J.C. Penney, Target, Wal-Mart, and others, this year was no different: Anyone walking into those stores on Groundhog Day ...
Sears, Roebuck and Co. is buying more than 60 stores from competitors Kmart Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., as it makes its largest push away from the nation's malls in a number of decades.
The idea of living in a factory-built house turns off many Americans; much too déclassé.
Don't be surprised if Sears starts hanging with Leonardo DiCaprio or checks into a local hospital suffering from "exhaustion." The 100-plus-year-old retailer has hired a bigtime Hollywood agent. La...
A survey of 1,002 homeowners conducted for Sears Roebuck by Matthew Greenwald & Associates backs me up in my contention that too many homeowners are unprepared for the expenses of ownership.
When we called Sears (S) a turnaround story in June 2002, we made much of the company's credit cards, which produced 69% of operating profit. So far the turnaround hasn't panned out: Shares are dow...
It's a scary scenario: A thief gets hold of your Social Security number, signs up for credit cards in your name, then goes on a shopping spree. Worse, you're none the wiser until you try to finance...
Judy Lugo is one-third of a fairly typical middle-class American family. She drives a Toyota Camry and lives in a two-story shingled home in Highland Lakes, N.J., with husband Ray, whom she met whi...
Cliff Whitehill is a trim, athletic 70-year-old, an unflappable man who worked as a top lawyer for General Mills for 30 years. Now comfortably retired, with 60% of his net worth ("millions and mill...
You wouldn't impulsively buy a new washing machine just because it's cheap. But, if you were shopping for a retail stock right now, Sears Roebuck (S) might look tempting. It boasts a sharp new CEO,...
Last May, Bank One sponsored an "Immersion Day" in New York City to introduce the press to its new online spinoff--an Internet bank called WingspanBank.com. Even though the shindig was sponsored by...
Come into my portal, said the spider to the fly. In Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, before boarding a flight to Singapore, I picked up a copy of the International Herald Tribune. I started on it abo...
To CEO Arthur Martinez and his shareholders, "the softer side of Sears" is no longer just an uplifting ad ditty promoting his new and improved company. These days, Sears' "softer side" evokes somet...
Despite his title of chief administrative officer, Anthony Rucci functions as one of a handful of true chief learning officers in the world, charged with revitalizing Sears Roebuck's dinosaur cultu...
When consultants show up to root around inside your company, several things can happen. They may perform dazzlingly, saving you millions of dollars and pointing you in the direction of lucrative ne...
Price Waterhouse turnaround specialist R. Carter Pate has taken on an assignment in a business that is, he says, "tougher than a woodpecker's beak": appliance retailing. With national behemoths lik...
Most chief executives often have little use for business journalists, so we were bemused to hear that Sears CEO Arthur Martinez had asked his top 100 or so officers to try their hand at writing sto...
Is retailing a good business? You'd expect Sears Chief Executive Arthur Martinez to have a ready answer to the question. He's been in retailing, after all, for most of his career. He's the man who ...
Back in January, this column recommended three retail stocks: Liz Claiborne ($34.25), The Gap ($55.25) and Sears Roebuck ($48.75). Now all have nearly met or surpassed the target prices they were s...
God never did give Ed Brennan the gift of seeing Sears as others see it. During his nine years as CEO, Brennan misread consumers, fought change, and cheer-led Wall Street while investors tried to t...
Nick Whitridge, 57, spent a year near the ocean's bottom as a Navy submariner. Now, as manager of the $140 million Babson Value Fund, he shows a knack for scouring the bottom of the market to find ...
S&LS LOOK ROSY NOW, BUT THEY COULD WILT LATER THIS YEAR
It was an uneven year for the world's largest service companies. Profits of banks and other financial institutions on FORTUNE's unique list soared, and most retailers did well too. But companies in...
Familiarity breeds contentment at advertising agencies, where brand awareness -- the industry's most cited measurement -- is generally viewed as the best indicator of a brand's strength. Wrong, ret...
It's spring, and Tyler Smith is anxiously awaiting a burst of new sprouts from the bulbs he planted last year at his Weston, Connecticut, home. Smith's other green thumb has already worked wonders ...
Retailers are betting on a jolly Yuletide. Avers Arthur C. Martinez, head of Sears Roebuck's $32 billion merchandise group: ''I don't think we have a scared consumer out there anymore.'' Folks on t...
WHEN Frank St. Onge, manager of marketing analysis for Osram/Sylvania, really wants to impress customers -- the wholesalers who distribute his company's lamps, for instance -- he brings them into t...
Not even the recent string of brighter economic signs -- including an increase in orders for computers and other manufactured goods -- can stay the relentless blizzard of pink slips. The 46,964 ann...
AT 110 STORIES, the Sears Tower dominates Chicago's urban skyline. At 3.6 million square feet, it also carries considerable sway in the Windy City's real estate market. But this prominent structure...
Washington budget battles, recession scares, a volatile U.S. dollar -- these hardly make for the calm seas one would like for important investment decisions, such as which mutual fund to buy today....
When trouble strikes a company, ordinary investors flee. Michael Price pounces instead. Litigation? No problem. Regulatory scare? He's there. Price, 41, president of Heine Securities in Short Hills...
Sic transit gloria: IBM, General Motors, and Sears were stars in total market value in 1972, but after two decades they were conspicuously absent from the Big 20. Morgan Stanley data show IBM ranki...
THE YEAR was 1963, the occasion was a prestigious series of lectures at Columbia University's business school, and the speaker was arguably America's most famous chief executive. He talked about th...
A whozig? A whatzig? Okay, so the makers of the new Woodzig power saw could have crafted a better name. But whatever you call it, the gadget will cut much of the drudgery out of your spring pruning...
To be a great rebounder in basketball requires tenacity. So too for the comeback kings in the corporate reputations survey. What these ten companies have in common is resolute managers with a winni...
In MONEY's August 1991 issue, Mark Boyar, a well-regarded money manager in New York City, urged readers to invest in troubled Sears (estimated 1992 revenues of $60 billion), the nation's third larg...
Even in dismal times there are some bright spots. U.S. retailers had a satisfying year. Profits rose at Sears Roebuck (41.8%), at Wal-Mart (24.6%), and at Kmart (13.6%). And it was a fabulous year ...
CATALINA MARKETING Landfills of America overflow with Sunday newspaper ad inserts, and research shows that shoppers who actually cash in their Tender Vittles coupons are usually the same brand loya...
MOST MEN AND WOMEN elected to the National Business Hall of Fame are giant- killers. They have battled a powerful ethos or an entrenched institution and prevailed. Mere contrarians -- those who def...
Retailers who have been looking forward to this holiday selling season with * all the enthusiasm they would a root canal may have something to smile about after all. Recession-battered shoppers are...
ON A SUNNY spring afternoon, Sears CEO Edward Brennan strolls into the yawning boardroom on the 68th floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. ''I just heard the most terrible news,'' he says sadly. ''T...
Your water heater is on the fritz, and you're shivering in the shower. Once you had only two alternatives. You could hire a contractor to install a new water heater (current cost: about $500) or yo...
When the goods aren't selling, a retailer cuts the price and gets rid of them. Sears Roebuck is taking the same approach with management. Michael Bozic, 49, chief executive of the Sears Merchandise...
The marketing folks at Sears are trying to boost borrowing on the Discover card, the retailer's answer to Visa and MasterCard, with an offer that seems nifty -- at first. Discover is offering its 3...
WE STARTED out being double-crossed by destiny. Planned in the late Twenties to explain and celebrate the democratic capitalist order, FORTUNE ended up being launched at the onset of capitalism's g...
< Typically, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca hit the issue on the chin: ''It's been a tough quarter,'' he says. Indeed, after stripping out the extraordinary $309 million the No. 3 automaker got from...
The networks are trying new gimmicks to get viewers to tune in to their lineups of fall programs. They'd better. Over the past decade, while ABC, CBS, and NBC continued to rely on their own on-air ...
Bigger has been badder at Sears, where bureaucracy has blocked needed change (FORTUNE, December 5). Now the belated restructuring of the retailing behemoth is showing early signs of progress. The c...
If you are among Sears' 26 million Discover cardholders, you may have welcomed the coy come-on: ''You earn a Cashback Bonus ((of)) up to 1% . . . on purchases you make.'' The ad discloses that you ...
In hot pursuit of the ''elusive S word,'' as merchandise group chief Michael Bozic calls synergy, Sears spent $812 million in 1981 to acquire the Dean Witter Reynolds brokerage and Coldwell Banker ...
CAN WE RETAIN our position as the world's premier retailer?'' asks Edward A. Brennan. Then Sears' cheery chief executive goes on to answer his own rhetorical question. ''Absolutely.'' But the chair...
Are holders of the Sears Roebuck no-fee Discover card, introduced with such fanfare almost three years ago, about to discover something new about the card -- a fee? In September, Sears began asking...
Another twist on the airline's frequent-flier promotions: Sears Roebuck is offering prizes to buyers of $100 in goods, under a test program in Atlanta. To bolster sales, Sears is also revamping its...
It was no secret, eight or ten years ago, that Sears Roebuck was a troubled company. Between 1978 and 1980, Sears merchandise sales actually fell by 2.4% while the consumer price index was rising a...
A LOT OF COMPANIES with high hopes and deep pockets have lost money on videotext services over the years, and the few successes have been modest at best. The idea behind videotext is intriguing: Pr...
Specialty retailing has become the philosopher's stone of the 1980s. Every retailer wants to transmute its selling operations into the gold being coined by the likes of The Limited and Toys ''R'' U...
In a bungled attempt to become an international trading giant, Sears Roebuck spent big money to hire big names who knew little about the business (FORTUNE, June 25, 1984). After losing $59 million ...
Psst! Wanna hit it big in financial services? Then get into the mortgage business. Buying that home is probably the biggest single purchase Johnny Doe will ever make. Be the one to sell him his mor...
THE ACTRESS on the video screen looks 60-ish, well nourished, and confident. She is portraying a consumer, and she talks like no traditional grandma. ''At 65, my mother had become an old woman . . ...
Unfazed by the credit card glut, Sears Roebuck & Co. unveiled its long- anticipated card, named Discover, while Citicorp announced a broad range of new perks for holders of its Diners Club card. Se...
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