September 15, 2008 11:14am
Posted in: Company Profile , Low Empathy Companies , Low Empathy Spotlight

Sears and Kmart were icons of American retail for decades before falling onto hard times during the 1990s as Target, Wal-Mart, and other competitors took their customers and changed the way we think about one-stop shopping. Cheap generic cialis: time after time, Sears and Kmart have found themselves out of step with the tastes and needs of ordinary folks. Though a 2004 merger was hoped to create new value between the organizations, both brands have continued to struggle with sales and consumer interest.During a merger, it’s only natural for companies to take an inward focus for awhile as issues are sorted out.To succeed in the long term, Sears/Kmart needs to build a strong outward focus, too.

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1.   Peter Says:
    December 15th, 2008 at 9:56 am

   I always assume that Sears and K-Mart don’t have a clue what’s keeping someone like me up at night, but I had clear evidence of it on Black Friday this year. I’m a music game freak — I love Guitar Hero, and I’ve played through the solo tour mode in both guitar and drums for Rock Band. And now I’m desperate to try out Guitar Hero: World Tour, the new game that has vocals, and drums, and guitar and bass. It’s everything basically. And Sears had the best price for it on Black Friday. They were selling, in fact, at $40 off the considerable retail price. For once, it looked like Sears was going to come through in a big way for me.

   And then I went to Sears and remembered just how out of touch the organization is with everyday life. This is a place that loves to sell hardware: big appliances like washers and dryers; rider lawnmowers; power tools; big-screen TVs. And that’s it. If you don’t fit in that bucket, you’re out of luck. My wife and I wandered the store, looking for the video game section promised on the company’s website. As it turns out, there was nothing there. The store had a toy section, and a consumer electronics section, but no games. They even sold PlayStation 3’s, but not the game. I finally asked someone where the games were, and the clerk said, “Oh, we only sell games online. This is Black Friday, so we wanted to offer something special to web customers only.”

   In other words, they went out of their way to keep people like me, interested in software, out of their store. And I was happy to comply with their request.

2.   Ashley Says:
    December 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am

   Sears wins the award for worst retail experience ever. As a single girl with little knowledge about building I went in needing some tools for a project. What I experience was a bunch of middle age men who looked at me like I was from mars, spoke a different language and where SO unhelpful. They had no ability to talk to me in a way I understood, mostly because they could never put themselves in my shoes- a novice who needed basic how to knowledge. Unless Sears steps outside of them selves and starts to see the world through the eyes of people other then their core consumer they will never survive because girls like me won’t go back- even to experience the softer side.