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It's Black Friday, which means shoppers rush into shopping malls to take advantage of substantial discounts, knock out much of their holiday shopping, or maintain family traditions. For Sears, the big question is how many of these buyers will be attracted to its stores.
Sears Holdings Corp., of Hoffman Estates, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, is not only trying to get rid of its gloomy holiday seasons. This year, the beleaguered parent company of Sears and Kmart is trying to bring buyers back to ensure a future for the company and some of its stores.
But when the newly renovated Oakbrook Center Sears opened at 5 am on Friday, there was no waiting line and only a few cars in the parking lot.
29-year-old Cameron Luhn of Romeoville and his friend Mike Baum, 28, of Homer Glen, were the only ones to come before the store opened. "It's by far the least we've seen," Luhn said.
According to the National Retail Federation, 164 million people were still planning to make their purchases between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, while the trend of the spread of transactions throughout the month of November had reduced Black Friday. Black Friday remains the most popular day of this period, attracting about 71% of these consumers.
This is an opportunity for Sears to win back customers during what the company's leaders have called a "critical season". On Friday, local store customers found shelves full of products and discounts, but no customer-filled aisles and long visible payment lines among competitors. Many expressed sadness at Sears' woes.
Debbie Steimel, 60, of River Grove, had already stopped early Friday morning in Kohl before settling at Sears in Oak Brook in the hope of finding gift ideas.
She has been shopping at Sears less often since her store was shut down, but added that the retailer would still miss him if he did not go bankrupt. She likes Sears to have "a little bit of everything". It's also where she grew up to shop and where her parents took her to visit Santa during the holidays.
"I guess I'm a bit biased," said Steimel.
Jayne Harrison, a 62-year-old resident of Cicero, went to the Chicago Ridge store Friday to buy a pair of boots with a coupon that she found online. "They will not survive. I had these boots for $ 5, "joked Harrison.
Harrison and her friend Cheryl Medley, 58, follow the struggles of Sears. The two women said that Sears had been woven into their lives since childhood and that he was sad to see the chain struggling. Medley of Oak Lawn said her grandmother worked at Sears and would visit her at work. Harrison's sister worked there in high school.
Sherry Watson, a resident of Lockport, was wearing a pair of Levi's and sifting through piles of plaid shirts looking for a present for her husband.
Watson and his family have been to Chicago Ridge Mall every Black Friday for over 15 years. They tend to follow the same route: park outside Sears, then go to this store and Kohl's before going to other stores.
But the atmosphere is no longer like before, when the crowd was thicker.
"Everyone is competing with Amazon, but we still love the shopping experience," said Watson, 54. "It's always an event for us – it's a family tradition."
However, around 11 am, the pay line extended almost to the back of the store. Dozens of people scoured the appliances section, opened microwaves, and inspected refrigerators. Some guests pushed overflowing trolleys and other bags of bedding transported to the exit.
At the Sears store at Schaumburg's Woodfield Mall, a steady stream of customers walked the aisles at 8am. But the Sears crowd was much smaller than in the rest of the mall, including Macy's, where customers lined up as much as possible. dozen people at the bottom of the records.
Denise Dufern, a 59-year-old resident of Kenosha, wandered into Sears' clothing displays, but said she was killing time while she waited for the center to the automobile has finished installing its new tires. Dufern worked at Woodfield Sears more than 30 years ago. Friday was the first time she'd been back for decades.
When she was working there, employees often had to park in front of the mall or in a remote car park on Black Friday and weekends during the holidays. She had no trouble finding a place near the store on Friday morning.
Eamon Griffin, 49, and his wife arrived at the Woodfield store with a list of one-page gifts that can be purchased for their children and loved ones, hoping to reap particularly interesting prices this year. .
"It does not seem like bankruptcy is going bankrupt," said Griffin, of Norwood Park, as he walked through the store. He however stated that he thought the store would be more crowded.
Industry watchers expect buyers to open their portfolios this season, highlighting high consumer confidence and low unemployment. Companies such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macy's and Kohl's have announced an increase in sales before the arrival of holidays.
The optimistic outlook is good news for a retailer hoping to have strong sales, but that leaves an excuse of less if it does not hold water.
Sears' situation is "clearly difficult," said Christina Boni, vice president of Moody's Investor Service. Financing secured by the bankruptcy will provide liquidity to ensure the longevity of the company, but the company will have to determine the next events, she said.
Sears told Bankruptcy Court that he thought he could avoid winding up by reorganizing himself around a smaller group of profitable stores, which she intended to sell to a new owner who would continue to operate the business. The company has identified these 505 stores, including nine Sears stores and two Kmarts in Illinois, in a court filing late Wednesday.
The retailer got court approval last week to start trying to sell its best-performing stores and has a schedule requiring an initial bidder by Dec. 15.
Sears has already tried the strategy of "reducing growth," said Boni. It is possible that this last cycle will leave a core group of stores that may succeed, but retailers who appear to be in better shape tend to be the ones who have the scale and financial flexibility to invest in order to meet customer demands. , she said.
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