They also failed to adapt to the world of internet marketing, which is
amazing when you stop to think that they, along with Montogomery-Ward, began
business as a mail-order outfit. When I was living in Europe the Sears
caatalogue was one of our connections with American culture, along with AFRTS
radio and the movie theatre.
When you stop to consider it, internet marketing essentially isn't much
different from catalogue marketing. You just can't slip paper bookmarks on the
monitor, but you can save items as bookmarks or favourites. Even so, it's
really no different than mail-order.
Sears and others failed to see into the future and recosnise that brick
and mortar (B&M) marketing was doomed. Amazon has displaced legacy B&M
retailers in a big way.
How many of you purchase your photo equipment online? Almost all of my
local camera shops have gone, the exception being Tempe Camera. They have
survived as they are more diversified and are the primary supplier to Arizona
State University for photo services.
The biggest loss here was the Lewis Camera Exchange. They were always
stuffed full of customers, and that's where I purchased my Sigma teleconverter.
Then there was a small place called Tri-City Camera, that had merchandise
hanging on the walls right up to the ceiling. That's where I bought my first
set of Cokin filters. Mark Photo in Phoenix closed up it's shop and moved to a
much smaller location on Scottsdale. I bought my gelatin holder at their
Phoenix shop.
There's a lot to be said of B&M retailing, but the internet has all but
completely displaced it.
>
>Sears was preceded in death by General Motors.
>
>These mega-corps lose the basic fundamentals of Business 101. After a
>while, they get totally destroyed by analysis-paralysis. It doesn't
>take fancy spreadsheets and trend analysis to figure out what 30
>seconds of walking into a store will tell you.
>
>The typical Sears store is dingy, dark, shelves are empty and the
>staff worthless. But, man-o-man, when you actually DO buy something
>and are at the checkout, do you get sales pitches on twelve different
>types of credit cards and other loyalty programs.
>
<<SNIP>>
Chris
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
- Hunter S. Thompson
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