This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Sears Halted, Plunges After Report Vendors Halts Shipments
Is this the beginning of the end for Eddie Lampert's exercise in financial engineering that is Sears Holdings Corp? Bloomberg reports that three of the biggest insurance firms for Sears' suppliers are seeking to reduce coverage... which has led to:
- *SEARS VENDOR SAID TO HALT SHIPMENTS AS INSURERS REDUCE COVERAGE
- *SEARS VENDOR WITHHOLDING SHIPMENTS IS MEDIUM-SIZED SUPPLIER
The stock has been halted twice on volatility limits and is down 10% for now. SRAC 5Y CDS are offered at ~39% upfront, implying around a 87% probability of default.
As Bloomberg reports,
Three of the biggest insurance firms for Sears Holdings Corp.’s suppliers are seeking to reduce coverage, prompting at least one medium-sized vendor to halt shipments to the department-store chain, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Euler Hermes Group, one of the top providers of credit insurance to vendors, has been sending out cancellation notice , according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Coface SA has indicated that it intends to do the same, two of the people said. Atradius Credit Insurance, another of the insurers, said it’s scaling back coverage, though the firm hasn’t yet pulled policies.
The situation has spurred one supplier to withhold products from Sears after a recommendation from its credit department, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News. The vendor, a closely held company, asked not to be named.
Suppliers rely on credit insurance to protect themselves against not getting paid for products they ship to retailers. For Sears, which has posted 30 straight quarters of declining sales, the shrinking support from insurers may make it harder to stock products and execute a comeback.
David Huey, the president and regional director of U.S., Canada and Mexico for Atradius in Baltimore, said the firm is decreasing its Sears supplier coverage “as the problems have become more obvious.”
“We’ve reduced as we’ve seen the risk increase,” he said in an interview. Though no policies have been canceled, “it could happen,” he said. “We’re reviewing it regularly.”
* * *
»
- 14271 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
DAMN
I want my Haggar slacks, NOW!
Sears use to be a really good company back in the day. Sears was the place to buy all your made in America tools and appliances that would last 30 years. Now it's crap
It's really sad :-(
Sears is a metaphor for America. I agree. 30+ years ago Sears was everything that was great about America. Now it's just a hollowed out husk fleeced clean by corporate sharks, banksters and their enabling politicians - just like America.
I too used to buy all Craftsman tools at Sears. But over the years, even they started to import the cheap Chinese stuff to compete with the discount tool suppliers. Their quality fell a lot, but their prices only dropped a little. The highest-quality American-made tools were still very expensive. Eventually, the discounters ate their lunch by selling the same Chinese-made tools at much bigger discounts.
Here's just one anecdotal example to show why Sears is flailing:
A single 2" forstner bit for $34.36 at Sears:
http://www.sears.com/freud-forstner-bit-shear-2inch/p-SPM6279644001?prdNo=16&blockNo=16&blockType=G16
A complete set of 16 forstner bits through 2-1/8" in a wooden case for $37.99 at Harbor Freight Tools:
http://www.harborfreight.com/http-www-harborfreight-com-16-piece-titanium-nitride-coated-forstner-bit-set-39812-html.html
I bought the set from Harbor Freight, and they have worked perfectly for me (used on lots of hardwoods like Walnut).
Which would you buy?
Today's burning question: Where does Yellen buy her support hose?
When is Radio Shack going to get the same fate? Another US company that once was good and is now a POS.
Sears should have gone out of business in 2000 along with Wards. The only reason why that zombie is still around is because they are hoping to flip its real estate.
Well, I bought Freud Forstner bits myself. Not from Sears though. If you only need to use them once in a while for fun, go ahead and buy the Chinese-made generics at Harbor Freight. I'm not a tool snob and I've bought plenty of stuff at Harbor Freight. Nothing I have to depend on, though.
In the late 1970's and early 1980's my kids were toddlers, and I was buying a lot of consumer shit due to my purchase of a new home with more bedrooms for the kids. Everything I bought at Sears was defective to some degree. When I returned it for a refund, they just put it back on the shelf for some other sucker to purchase. People kept telling me that Sears was a great place to shop. It was "Where America Shops". My wife and I began to joke whenever we heard those commercials on the car radio. We called it "Where America Returns". I resolved to never buy anything from Sears ever again, although my resolve waiverd a bit when there local store had a going out of business sale. I bought a space heater. It broke down midway through the winter.
I don't buy a lot of tools, so maybe the Craftsman brand held up for awhile after I stopped shopping at Sears, but they've been selling garbage for at least 45 years. It's amazing it has taken this long for them to go tits up.
FUCK!!!!
Who is going to honor the warranty on all my Craftman tools now?
Sounds like a business opportunity
Wheres the upside? Selling warrantees? How do you replace a tool that isn't made anymore?
_
Go get your Chinese made lifetime warranty Craftsman tools while you
still can -
- Alibaba is not going to be shipping anymore from Guangzhou Province to Eddie Lambert.
No worries, as there's always Harbor Freight, though (same shit).
Now excuse U.S, while we pop some tags (we've got $19.13 in our pocket).
A friend of mine broke one of his old lifetime warranty craftsman tools. Took it to the store, "Sorry, we don't sell those anymore. Here, you can have this cheaper Chinese replacement. No, it doesn't have a warranty."
I bought tires there last year (only due to best price), and had the front-end aligned. I had to do risk-reward calculations on whether or not to pay more for a 3 year alignment or not.
Looks like the extra $80 might not pay off, even with a teenage driver.
<< Who is going to honor the warranty on all my Craftman tools now? >>
The Wang Fu Comapny said it will honor all Craftsmen tool warranties; simply mail your table saw to them at:
Wang Fu Corp, LLC, Inc
% Warranty & Repair Dept
888 Emperor Fang Street
Wuhan, China
Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed crate with your broken tool so they can ship it back to you after the repair.
[BTW, I noticed the clothes now made in China are far superior to the textiles in for example, India or Bangladesh. Proves what the retail buyer said on NPR their factories are super modern, air-conditioned and well-equppied and workers paid fairly well compared to many of these other countries.]
Yeah, China stuff is generally okay now: they produce so much, they get lots of practice.
Bangladeshi stuff is garbage. Better to throw your FRNs down a hole.
Sad to see Sears fall, but you can only sell so many fridges and mattresses.
@NotApplicable:
"A friend of mine broke one of his old lifetime warranty craftsman tools. Took it to the store, "Sorry, we don't sell those anymore. Here, you can have this cheaper Chinese replacement."
Same thing happened to me, although this was many years ago. Nice ratchet wrench with a swiveling head. Sucker broke, took it to the store, and they gave me a generic, non swiveling ratchet, which has always worked poorly.
I'll take my chances at Harbor Frieght. So far, everything I've bought there has met or even exceeded my expectations, which is more than I can say for Sears.
My expectations for harbour Freight stuff is that it will break upon first use. Anything more is gravy.
Agree 100% ,, I had a HFT ball joint press crack in half on my crown vic ...
Ace
Well, for another year, perhaps. Our Ace stores are pathetic. Instead of selling packages of small items, like eye bolts, they've got them all priced individually (including tags). So, now I have to both over-pay, and spend time and effort removing fucking stickers from everything.
Last fall, like every fall, I went to buy window plastic for winterizing. Did they have the multi-window kits with a standard width that you cut to fit to length? OH FUCK NO!!!! They were packaged for individual windows, at 3-5 times the previous price. I turned around and left.
And just like Office Depot, et al., employees outnumber customers by a wide margin.
In my area there are two REALLY GOOD TRUE VALUE hardware stores (out of maybe 10 within a 40-mile radius), thank God, that actually stock real hardware and stuff. Socket-headed metric cap screws and weird things that are needed for fucking Volkswagens and fucking Audis and stuff. Aisles of this stuff in drawers. Paper bags, write the stock # and price on them, get however many you need (sold individually). Not EVERYONE EVERYWHERE has gone completely into the new retail paradigm of shitty service and no supply and Chink crap (yet), but it is encroaching, even where I am. These stores are invariably quite busy, as well.
I know what you mean about Office Depot. Kind of reminds me of Sears.
KD used to make Craftsman tools as well as NAPA tools. Shit used to be IDENTICAL (except for the name stampings). Easco bought them, and they turned into Easco/KD. Still made tools for both, as well as specialty tools under their own name for automakers and dealerships. Sears went Chink, and went to hell as far as anything quality. NAPA has now just finished converting to Chink as well (I think the new tool line is called 'Carlyle').
American-made high-quality tools are still available, but you REALLY have to search for them. I haven't been in a Sears retail Big-Box Mall store since they started asking for my name and phone number when I wanted vacuum cleaner bags for my fucking Kenmore vacuum cleaner (about 4 years ago). There IS a Sears catalogue distributor/small-retail out here, believe it or not, and I bought an electric hedge-trimmer a couple of years ago they had in stock that seems to be holding up well (ALSO, believe it or not). 40 bucks, on sale, U.S. originated.
HELL, the BIG FOUR TOOL-TRUCKS are starting to get some CHINK crap (MAC, MATCO, SNAP-ON, AND CORNWELL).
The BLAME must be SHARED totally by the END-CONSUMER who demands LOWER PRICES and doesn't GIVE A SHIT where this stuff comes from, or that it is substantially LOWER QUALITY. The RETAILERS simply provide a need and listen to consumer demands (usually); and this lets asshats from Harvard Business School in to the higher positions that they take TOTAL advantage of (like raping the consumer, taking the corporation down, gutting it, and stuff like that).
Something about the SMELL of the PACKAGING of ALL CHINK products immediately turns my stomach. Their Q.C. standards are very poor, and their metallurgy is from the 17th century. SERIOUSLY. Well, except for their military stuff. Their CONSUMER stuff is absolute CRAP. Their ADVANTAGES are that they can do a LOT OF IT for REAL CHEAP (it's easy when you have a mideval caste system of former Budda worshippers who now worship the Atheist Totalitarian Communist Police State and are virtual slaves who commit suicide in such numbers that FOXCOMM has had, in the past, to put up suicide nets around their buildings to protect their investment in 'HUMAN CAPITAL', for God sakes).
TRY to buy an American-made set of brake pads at the auto parts store.
WE (United States) are FUCKING DONE. It was a nice ride, but there's no hope of redemption.
SEARS is done too, it seems.
Ace has thrown in the towel as far as trying to compete with Lowe's and Home Depot. They have consciously positioned themselves to be something akin to the local party store where you drop in to buy one or two items at those times when travelling to the supermarket and waiting in line at the checkout isn't worth the time and effort. The prices for items at Ace have gone through the roof as a result, just like the prices of groceries at a party store.
Sears may have been a good company. However, they have always been in the business of ripping off other patents, especially those of tools. They have done this for decades, bankrupting smaller firms that invented AND patented tools that Sears ripped off and sold under craftsman and other name brands.
They deserve to burn.
Intellectual property patents are absurd. It's basically a government granted monopoly on a friggin recipe. They actually stifle innovation.
America used to make tools and appliances? I don't see that anywhere in the new history curriculum.
My new history book says Americans got kicked out of Europe for over consuming tea. Europe hated us cause all we did was eat and shop, so they kicked us out. We would have died because we did not know how to make anything. Fortunately for us, unfortunate for the native Americans, they brought us food and clothing and beads. They thought we were the new ignorant market they needed to boost buffalo sales. Little did they know years later we would be dancing with the stars.
Sears was the Walmart of its day.
Rural America lived by the Sears Catalog
Do we have to wait a 100 years for Wallyworld to
get its comeuppance?
*SEARS VENDOR WITHHOLDING SHIPMENTS IS MEDIUM-SIZED SUPPLIER
You can still get your Haggar slacks as long as you don't wear a size medium.
The beginning of the end started when Lampert bought this piece of shit in the first place. Kfart should have died a long time ago.
Lampert is the one that gutted it & turned it into a piece of shit.
I got my first credit card from Sears when denied by the banks.
How times have changed.
Satan Claws is coming to town.
Actually, I think the funny part about this is that Lampert* bought Sears for the real estate and then saw the real estate market, especially commercial, crash. He was then stuck with this albatross of a whale or is it "whale of an albatross."
LOL
Since he hasn't been given a sweetheart deal to get his cajones out of the fire by his Ashkenazi pals, he must be on the outs or something. Time will tell.
An American, not US subject.
Can't the vendors just ask for a small portion of the value of the real estate?
It might look like a little walk of fame at each store.
This square foot is for payment to Rubbermaid. This square foot is for payment to GE. They start in the parking lot and move inward.
When real/tangible goods and services stop crossing borders, troops will...
don't worry about eddie lampert. he got plenty.
Kidnappers screwed up by ordering pizza, no?
Eddie Lamprey is doing his best to destroy an iconic company.
He has been sucking it's blood for years.
+1 he will suck every last dollar out of that company before he disposes of the dried up husk of a corpse
I would bet a can of Schlitz and a garter I caught at a wedding that Sears is bought, in or out of bankruptcy, for the NOLs (Net Operating Losses) and then a real estate holding company or something will be spun out on to the sheeple.
In that way the banksters will get more fee lucre and additional "collateral" for their ponzi while fleecing the bleating.
An American, not US subject.
its a fucken eboli, obumi recovery
50% off craftsman 220pc tool sets with case and free shipping bitchez
Yeah and they'll snap the first time they hit a rusted on bolt. No thanks to that Chinese junk.
well snap-on they're not.. I'll pick up that kind of quality at yard sales and bankruptcies when I can but if you need a "kit" or several kits in different locations I suspect they are better then harbor freight.
I would assume they're the same shitty quality with Harbor Freight being twice as cheap. When comparing, I've never found Sears to be the better choice between the two. Their extended warranties are fairly cheap as well, if you're worried about destroying a new tool.
I once dropped a metal hole saw from something like four inches (I was crouching down and dropped it from knee height). The damn thing just shattered. On another occasion I tried to drill a hole in a PVC pipe with a similar tool, the damn thing just shatered again. Got a bunch of metal drills, the points were sharpened at wrong angle, as in completely the opposite one.
FUCKING CHINA AAAAAAAAAARRRRARRRARARRARGGGGGGGGGGG.
This is now a made in China horror stories thread.
Nothing good comes out of China, absolutely fucking nothing! I wish the plague on that nation and its 3rd grade manufacturing.
Check out all the General Motors "American" vehicles with entire critical components (including entire engines & transmissions) made in China.
(Even the Getrag MT-86 manual transmission that's had a very high failure rate in the Ford Mustang GT is completely manufactured in China; then again, everything from some F Series pickups - Bro!- to Ford Fusions to Lincoln MKZs are completely hecho en Mexico, with approx 85% Mexican parts content.)
'Murika.
The Sear real estate is really the last golden egg for the creditors to steal.
Especially with the massive shortage of mall real estate.
/s
"Especially with the massive shortage of mall real estate."
They'll package that load of shit in a fancy name and PR campaign that will have the bleating ones trampling over each other to get a piece of. More than half will be "placed" with sheeple pension funds and other "institutions."
Same script as it ever was.
An American, not US subject.
"I see dead sheeple."
www.deadmalls.com
Mall space can be pricey.
Many, if not most, anchor stores get their space for free or close to free.
I thought that fucking vampire already sold most of the good real estate? That was the play all along, but his plan was ruined with the fanancial crash. That's why he won't put a dime into the business.
Since Sears were often serving as mall anchors, with them going out of business, entire shopping centers are going to go vacant
I personally haven't bought anything at Sears in over 10 years. To me it's just an oversized lobby on the way to the dollar store.
The only thing I will regret, however, is not having a convenient air conditioned sanctuary during hot summer days.
No stawk left behind.
Clearly bullish
This is from the same company that had citizen watches for sale for 16.99 on their website by mistake. Yeah I can see why lol. For those interested in AR-15 found a good deal.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/ptac-16-m4-1-7-upper-with-bolt-...
Polymer lower to save a few bucks http://www.joeboboutfitters.com/New_Frontier_Armory_LW_15_Complete_Poly_...
better lower for a little more http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/14434/s...
Cheap lower and upper $399
Better Lower and upper $420
Also this one may come back in stock soon. $450 for a decent bushmaster http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/bushmasteroptics-ready-carbine-...
Anyway figured I share some of my findings for deals on AR's. I am bored.
Craftsman toolboxes to die for....I have several
Hope and change! If no change keep hoping!
No sympathy for a slimebucket motherfucking piece of shit company like SEARS. These cocksuckers built their Ponzi/pyramid off of cartel pricing and theft of market share from small business owners like myself. SEARS
fucked my business into the ground and now they are looking for sympathy
from their loyal customers and suppliers.
NOTE: "I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you done to Ned"
Unforgiven
+1 for that Eastwood quote
Damn, I have to watch Unforgiven again. One of top 50 movies of all time, easily.
I know what you mean, MC. Whenever I hear a line from a good classic
movie I have to watch it again too. Welcome to the club, MC.
:-)
One way or another, Sears has managed to offend a lot of people. Being pro-North American Union did not help. When that came out, their sales plummeted 25%. Can we do that with the rest of the companies that are pro NAU?
Didn't big O tell us just last week what an amazing job he has done with the economy and unemployment?what a joke!
*SEARS VENDOR WITHHOLDING SHIPMENTS IS MEDIUM-SIZED SUPPLIER
Times they are a changin'
J.C. Penney just halted.
WTF is up with halting sales? They don't halt buys, or insane 6 year FED fueled ramps.
They need time for the algos to recharge...in the hopes of real buyers before cancellation. Where are the real buyers? Cramer needs to pump it...
"Paging Kevin Henry. Please pick-up the white courtesy phone in the lobby."
FYI: A year ago Sears Holdings sent a letter to us fully vested ex-employees. You could take your money at full value over a 15-year peiod -or- take a lump sum at a 15% discount. I took the lump sum, not due to need, but do to fear of SH not making it the distance.
As they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
Sounds like a good decision.
-15% is better than 14 years of not getting a dime.
That partially explains why Sears is going broke. They are idiots. The discount for a lump sum payout should have been more like 40%. Ummm......hello? Inflation? The main reason they are going broke is because their customer service has been declining for decades. I was between jobs and struggling to pay my bills, as in deciding which to pay and which not to pay. I arranged a deal with Sears and contiiinued to pay. They promptly violated the deal, and I promptly thanked them for helping with my decision process. As in, I decided to put them on the not getting another dime list. I owed about $2000 on my Sears credit card when I stopped paying. They received zero on that from me. They, of course sold the debt, and the debt changed hands about 5 times over the following years. I paid none of them. Now I have restored my credit, but have, and will, NEVER set foot in a Sears store again. Well, I may check out their upcoming bankruptcy liquidation sale.
Sears: Alexander's, wait for me. Don't crawl so fast.
I hire people with tools, in the long run it's cheaper and doesn't look like shit when their done.
In 15 yrs the only thing i've bought from sears is vacuum bags.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5087isMudEs
This says it all.
Everytime a big box opens in my town my sales go up it's called niche marketing and being fuckin paranoid
I know months in advance before they open their doors and drop like products and bring in "stuff" they don't sell been working
like a charm for 15 years.
a plus plus is super low overhead I pay my employee's in rice and teach them enlish.
The stuff at Sears is too expensive, sometimes double somewhere else, they've never been able to keep up with the internet.
There were few things that they could have done to make it worse than placing the whordashians in the store. A family store hosting a bunch of stuff from women (using the term loosely for those who have degraded the term beyond recognition) who publicly change beds on a whim, think that saying rude and degrading statements to each other is "freedom," and then pushing bruce jenner into hair styles that leave little doubt about his private life? Oh wait, got giant hinnie? Yeah sure that'll sell to moms and dads! Not.
There were few things that they could have done to make it worse than placing the whordashians in the store. A family store hosting a bunch of stuff from women (using the term loosely for those who have degraded the term beyond recognition) who publicly change beds on a whim, think that saying rude and degrading statements to each other is "freedom," and then pushing bruce jenner into hair styles that leave little doubt about his private life? Oh wait, got giant hinnie? Yeah sure that'll sell to moms and dads! Not.
Putting perfume counters at entrances to stores = a huge swath of chemically-sensitive potential customers forever turned off of Sears. That, and selling inferior merchandise for top dollar, to little old ladies who don't know any better, was hardly a sustainable business strategy.
Sears and JC Penney are 2 of the 4 anchors at our local mall.
Same here, and at the nearest nearby city as well.
It's a glorified JUNK STORE
Really kind of sad, Sears was Amazon a long time before the internet. At one time you could literally buy anything out of their catalog including unassembled cars but they forget who brought them to the dance and instead of being a business leader became just another sheep.
Half the stawk market is in free-fall; even the almighty HAL has tumbled almost 5%.
Looks like house prices are diving too according to the Yahoo headlines.
About a week ago the 24-hour K-Mart on my commute closed its convenience store / gas station and reduced its hours to 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM. These measures are too little, too late, I'm sure.
Holy Shit! Sears is still in business?
Seems as this would death spiral Sears and likely take down JCP with it as collateral damage.
When I saw Craftsman tools at K-Mart (and other places) I knew it was Game Over.
I still have many American made Craftsman tools in my box. What a shame, but then we did it to ourselves, most going for the cheapest price rather than quality. Years ago I saw a man put down a quality American made Craftsman socket set because a Chinese version was much 'cheaper'. I picked them up as they were the last USA made set in the store. Sears and others are a sympton of America going on the cheap.
halts and circuit breakers are such bullshit.
Speaking of halted shipments, check out the baltic dry index - has been pumbled 56% this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BDIY:IND
sears, jcpenny, radioshack, ..... smart people will not be spending any money this xmas. uncle sam and daddy warbucks have left the building with elvis. every man for himself. the 2nd american relvolution has begun