KMart - Bleak outlook and poor earnings are weighing down this sinking ship

[Miami Bomb Squad]

How does any business try to stay afloat when it lost 580 million in 1 quarter?
Shut them all down like Sports Authority. 
Another step to fleece the stock holders $$.
IMO, The only way for them to survive is to close all Kmarts and for Sears to downsize and sell only their Craftsman & Kenmore line. 

[Phil B]

15 minutes ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

How does any business try to stay afloat when it lost 580 million in 1 quarter?
Shut them all down like Sports Authority. 
Another step to fleece the stock holders $$.
IMO, The only way for them to survive is to close all Kmarts and for Sears to downsize and sell only their Craftsman & Kenmore line. 

Well, the rumor on the street is that they are actually considering selling the Craftsman line .... just like they did with Lands' End clothing.

[exciter1]

14 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Well, the rumor on the street is that they are actually considering selling the Craftsman line .... just like they did with Lands' End clothing.

That would certainly seal the deal.

[Migration]

5 hours ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

How does any business try to stay afloat when it lost 580 million in 1 quarter?
Shut them all down like Sports Authority. 
Another step to fleece the stock holders $$.
IMO, The only way for them to survive is to close all Kmarts and for Sears to downsize and sell only their Craftsman & Kenmore line. 

A competent ceo/board could still turn them around with a total replacement of upper management and retraining of store employees as well as remodeling the stores to bring their apperence up to a reasonable standard while overhauling their logistics operation and....Nevermind, they're toast.

[lodibricks]

I couldn't find a thread regarding this, but my Kmart's closing in a month or so. I'm just curious with others' experience on how the markdowns go with closing Kmarts. Toys are currently 40% off and it's already been cleaned out of anything good. I'd consider a few more things if the % off rises (90% for Chima), but I don't know if they might bump up the markdowns weekly or what.

[Achilles]

A few years ago, I had several stores near me that went out of business - they may have changed their procedure, but if memory serves, if you have multiple stores going out of business near by, I think as they get to the close date instead of marking stuff down an insane amount (I am not sure if Toys made it past 50 or 60%) they moved everything to OTHER stores that were going out of business. I imagine they have deals with liquidators where they may just move the inventory in bulk to one buyer instead of mark stuff down to crazy levels. I don't recall toys ever getting to something like 90%, though honestly casual buyers would ****** that stuff up at 60, 70% off pretty quickly anyway if you were hoping for somehow things to last to 90%

This was a few years ago, so they may have changed and lord knows my memory isn't great. I do remember going into a couple stores and everything being gone and they said they shipped it over to store X which was a few weeks behind Store Y in the markdown schedule. 

[Phil B]

Decided to give my wife time and quiet for an important phonecall and took the kids to my last remaining KMart (closing down). Toys indeed at 40% off. Only a few buildable SW figures left, the rest was Ninjago, Chima,Nexo and a few Bionicles.

The Friends & Elves section was bare - I found 2 Emma 's houses, a hot air balloon, 2 show stages and a Pop star dressing room - nothing else. My daughter wasn't impressed with Emma's house, but took a Show stage. 

Lady at the checkout said they didn't take coupons, but I could still collect SYWR points. Giving my phone number triggered a SYWR $7 off $35 coupon so those coupons still work. They also continued to operate the usual tills and hence Credit Cards still work. All sales final, but when I noticed a pricing mistake on my receipt when I got back to my car, customer service had no issue with refunding me the difference. 

Hopefully my findings help some of you in your KMart store liquidation searches....

[Average Guy]

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

Decided to give my wife time and quiet for an important phonecall and took the kids to my last remaining KMart (closing down). Toys indeed at 40% off. Only a few buildable SW figures left, the rest was Ninjago, Chima,Nexo and a few Bionicles.

The Friends & Elves section was bare - I found 2 Emma 's houses, a hot air balloon, 2 show stages and a Pop star dressing room - nothing else. My daughter wasn't impressed with Emma's house, but took a Show stage. 

Lady at the checkout said they didn't take coupons, but I could still collect SYWR points. Giving my phone number triggered a SYWR $7 off $35 coupon so those coupons still work. They also continued to operate the usual tills and hence Credit Cards still work. All sales final, but when I noticed a pricing mistake on my receipt when I got back to my car, customer service had no issue with refunding me the difference. 

Hopefully my findings help some of you in your KMart store liquidation searches....

Good post.

I am surprised to see ANY  Lego reach the %40 off mark. I have never seen that happen. What was the kit box condition of the remaining Lego stock? Did they look like used soccer balls? You know, round and scuffed up? I never go to Kmart store closings anymore.

[Phil B]

35 minutes ago, Average Guy said:

Good post.

I am surprised to see ANY  Lego reach the %40 off mark. I have never seen that happen. What was the kit box condition of the remaining Lego stock? Did they look like used soccer balls? You know, round and scuffed up? I never go to Kmart store closings anymore.

Most of it was mint condition, or as mint as retail shelf items go. One of the Emma's houses had a crease, and some of the bionic let sets were dented at the bottom. Rest was as good as new, even the Ninjago Mech dragons and all the China speedors that filled the shelves. 

[lodibricks]

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

Decided to give my wife time and quiet for an important phonecall and took the kids to my last remaining KMart (closing down). Toys indeed at 40% off. Only a few buildable SW figures left, the rest was Ninjago, Chima,Nexo and a few Bionicles.

The Friends & Elves section was bare - I found 2 Emma 's houses, a hot air balloon, 2 show stages and a Pop star dressing room - nothing else. My daughter wasn't impressed with Emma's house, but took a Show stage. 

Lady at the checkout said they didn't take coupons, but I could still collect SYWR points. Giving my phone number triggered a SYWR $7 off $35 coupon so those coupons still work. They also continued to operate the usual tills and hence Credit Cards still work. All sales final, but when I noticed a pricing mistake on my receipt when I got back to my car, customer service had no issue with refunding me the difference. 

Hopefully my findings help some of you in your KMart store liquidation searches....

It's funny to me how consistent the stock is at every store. Your description of what you saw is like you went to my store and I know it's not.
The condition on most are still Kmart-grade decent. However, all that's left is debatable at 40%, some even still cheaper on Amazon.
I want to do a second look, but I'm hoping they get marked down further before getting weak and buying less-than-desirable sets.

[thoroakenfelder]

2 hours ago, Phil B said:

Decided to give my wife time and quiet for an important phonecall and took the kids to my last remaining KMart (closing down). Toys indeed at 40% off. Only a few buildable SW figures left, the rest was Ninjago, Chima,Nexo and a few Bionicles.

The Friends & Elves section was bare - I found 2 Emma 's houses, a hot air balloon, 2 show stages and a Pop star dressing room - nothing else. My daughter wasn't impressed with Emma's house, but took a Show stage. 

Lady at the checkout said they didn't take coupons, but I could still collect SYWR points. Giving my phone number triggered a SYWR $7 off $35 coupon so those coupons still work. They also continued to operate the usual tills and hence Credit Cards still work. All sales final, but when I noticed a pricing mistake on my receipt when I got back to my car, customer service had no issue with refunding me the difference. 

Hopefully my findings help some of you in your KMart store liquidation searches....

Considering that my local store is not closing, it still sounds like you had more stock than the closest store to me.

[Phil B]

Ok - I continue to have great experiences with Shop Your Way Rewards people. They have - everytime I have called them with a legitimate issue - been friendly, helpful and overall a pleasure to work with.

Had cancellation trouble the other day - Indian bloke at KMart's order department told me my order was cancelled (I called 15 mins after placing the order) and would get my points back within 48hrs. 48hrs later no points, but suddenly a shipping notification (I did ship-to-store). So I call KMart's customer service again, they tell me the cancellation wasn't done right by the first guy, they fix it but now my order cancellation needs to go to the back office and will take 5-7 business days.

I called SYW Rewards to check if I could already get my points back to make the purchase I had wanted to make (I accidentally ordered wrong - that's late night ordering for ya) and they obliged without much hassle (given that I should have had them back). So I made the correct purchase.

I manage to somehow return the misordered item (long story) and of course yesterday I get the email that the points have been credited. So I called SYW Rewards today, and again was helped in a most friendly manner. The message was "You have 2 options: We can remove the points, or, since you've been so helpful and polite to even call us about the extra points, you can keep the points.". Guess which option I took

They have already been super generous with points regardless, but no wonder they are losing billions if they are so liberal with their points....

[biking_tiger]

27 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Ok - I continue to have great experiences with Shop Your Way Rewards people. They have - everytime I have called them with a legitimate issue - been friendly, helpful and overall a pleasure to work with.

Had cancellation trouble the other day - Indian bloke at KMart's order department told me my order was cancelled (I called 15 mins after placing the order) and would get my points back within 48hrs. 48hrs later no points, but suddenly a shipping notification (I did ship-to-store). So I call KMart's customer service again, they tell me the cancellation wasn't done right by the first guy, they fix it but now my order cancellation needs to go to the back office and will take 5-7 business days.

I called SYW Rewards to check if I could already get my points back to make the purchase I had wanted to make (I accidentally ordered wrong - that's late night ordering for ya) and they obliged without much hassle (given that I should have had them back). So I made the correct purchase.

I manage to somehow return the misordered item (long story) and of course yesterday I get the email that the points have been credited. So I called SYW Rewards today, and again was helped in a most friendly manner. The message was "You have 2 options: We can remove the points, or, since you've been so helpful and polite to even call us about the extra points, you can keep the points.". Guess which option I took

They have already been super generous with points regardless, but no wonder they are losing billions if they are so liberal with their points....

I regret I haven't worked the points nearly as much as I should. Last week, I took advantage of the $25 in points on $100 to buy a MF through TRU on the marketplace. Not only did I get $25 bonus points back, but a $10 TRU voucher. 

Free money is awesome. 

[Kenxxx]

My closing Kmart got hit hard this past weekend.  Been at the 40% off toys level for a week or two now.  Still a good number of Lego, but getting picked over day by day.  I was hoping they might hit 50% today so I went back this morning... still at 40%, but a lot of arm-sweeping has been going on.  Still a few different Friends and Elves sets, and several copies of the Ninjago Morro Dragon (now at $42 on discount)... and that's it.  Tempted by the Morro Dragons... have a $25 off $75 purchase credit, so I could get two at $29.50 each... but just don't need this in my portfolio right now.

[Phil B]

On 6/27/2016 at 10:19 AM, Phil B said:

Ok - I continue to have great experiences with Shop Your Way Rewards people. They have - everytime I have called them with a legitimate issue - been friendly, helpful and overall a pleasure to work with.

Had cancellation trouble the other day - Indian bloke at KMart's order department told me my order was cancelled (I called 15 mins after placing the order) and would get my points back within 48hrs. 48hrs later no points, but suddenly a shipping notification (I did ship-to-store). So I call KMart's customer service again, they tell me the cancellation wasn't done right by the first guy, they fix it but now my order cancellation needs to go to the back office and will take 5-7 business days.

I called SYW Rewards to check if I could already get my points back to make the purchase I had wanted to make (I accidentally ordered wrong - that's late night ordering for ya) and they obliged without much hassle (given that I should have had them back). So I made the correct purchase.

I manage to somehow return the misordered item (long story) and of course yesterday I get the email that the points have been credited. So I called SYW Rewards today, and again was helped in a most friendly manner. The message was "You have 2 options: We can remove the points, or, since you've been so helpful and polite to even call us about the extra points, you can keep the points.". Guess which option I took

They have already been super generous with points regardless, but no wonder they are losing billions if they are so liberal with their points....

Guess what .... today I got the same points credited AGAIN. This time I had them remove the points, it was getting silly.

[gregpj]

7 hours ago, Phil B said:

Guess what .... today I got the same points credited AGAIN. This time I had them remove the points, it was getting silly.

What's the over/under that it happens one more time?

[Phil B]

2 minutes ago, gregpj said:

What's the over/under that it happens one more time?

Unlikely to happen again. First time was on my request as they had screwed up my cancellation, second time was when they processed my actual in-store return, third time when the back office processed my cancellation.

[gregpj]

5 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Unlikely to happen again. First time was on my request as they had screwed up my cancellation, second time was when they processed my actual in-store return, third time when the back office processed my cancellation.

Never say never with K-Mart!

[Phil B]

Don't get this: I bought a set at KMart.com using surprise points and a $5 off $35 coupon. Total was $34.99, and no option to ship to my close-by Sears store. Free shipping starts at $35, so they asked me to pay $5.99 shipping. Did my tried-and-true "add a bag of screws for $0.89" trick and got free shipping.

Now they are shipping my items IN SEPARATE SHIPMENTS ..........

Edited July 10, 2016 by Phil B

[donbee]

Yeah. They always ship separately and poorly for me.

[Phil B]

19 minutes ago, donbee said:

Yeah. They always ship separately and poorly for me.

Haven't had a badly packed set in 25+ orders. Guess my closest distribution center hires well.....

[dcdfan]

Every time I see a post in this thread, I expect see a chapter 11 filing or something. I can't believe they're still in business...

[Phil B]

Just now, dcdfan said:

Every time I see a post in this thread, I expect see a chapter 11 filing or something. I can't believe they're still in business...

That's why I order AS SOON AS I get points ....

[Kenxxx]

Closing store report:  Stopped back at my local store yesterday. 60% off all toys.  Lots of toys remain, but all Lego gone... except an open box Ninjago Morro Dragon (with half the bags missing), and a half dozen of the smaller Friends Pop-Star sets. Nah, nah, nah, nah... nah, nah, nah, nah...hey, hey-yay... go-odbye.

[Phil B]

My closest Kmart was still at 50% off, but I'm glad I bought a few things at 40% off a few weeks back... the store was half demolished and this was what was left of the LEGO aisle:

Needless to say I didn't grab any at 50% off $14. Did grab some toothpaste at 40%, triggered a SYW coupon, and got a $5 off $20 online only coupon upon payment. Thanks KMart!