35 depressing photos that show why Sears is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy

Hayley Peterson

Updated

2018-10-10T14:16:00Z

Sears 56 of 59 — Sears is reportedly preparing for a bankruptcy filing. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson

Sears is reportedly preparing for a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this week
Sears has said that it is in the process of a transformation that will lead the company back to profitability. But conditions inside some of Sears' stores tell a different story.
We visited a Sears store in Glen Allen, Virginia, and found empty shelves, broken merchandise displays, torn and stained carpet, evidence of water damage, and active ceiling leaks.

Sears is reportedly preparing for a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.

The company has a debt repayment coming due on Monday, and it's short on cash following a years-long downward spiral in sales and customer traffic.

Wall Street analysts have speculated for years that a Sears bankruptcy was imminent. But the retailer has managed to stay afloat with loans from its CEO, the sale of valuable real estate, and the slow dismantling of its exclusivity over some big American brands.

The company had cut its store count to 866 stores as of September 13, down from 1,980 stores in 2013.

Sears has said that it is in the process of a transformation that will lead the company back to profitability. But conditions inside some of Sears' stores tell a different story.

We visited a Sears store in Glen Allen, Virginia, and found empty shelves, broken merchandise displays, torn and stained carpet, evidence of water damage, active ceiling leaks, and curtains hanging from the ceiling that hid empty parts of the store.

Here's what we saw:

The window displays outside the store — which are meant to entice shoppers passing by — were mostly empty when we visited in July 2017.

This is what greeted shoppers upon entering: an empty table and an empty box.

At another store entrance, we found an active ceiling leak with a bucket to catch dripping water.

Overhead, there were a number of water-damaged ceiling tiles. We spotted more than a dozen water stains on the ceiling tiles throughout the store.

The tools department appeared to be suffering from a severe inventory shortage.

More than half the displays in this department appeared to be either completely empty or short on inventory.

Sears has admitted in recent months that some suppliers are trying to cut back on orders or cancel shipments to the retailer altogether.

"We reached the point in the past 12 months where some of our vendors have reduced their support thereby placing additional pressure on our business," Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post around the time of our visit.

Source: Sears Holdings

Throughout the store it appeared that employees had spread out merchandise, like these red buckets, to try and fill empty shelves and floor space.

The store was also using curtains to hide empty areas of the store.

Behind one curtain, which was hung from the ceiling, we found dozens of empty display shelves.

In the clearance bedding section, we found missing wall tiles ...

... as well as ripped carpet and empty shelves.

There was apparent water damage on the ceiling nearby, and the carpet underneath the tiles was stained.

The ladies' apparel department appeared dreary with little wall signage.

We found an abandoned stepping stool ...

... and a broken display shelf.

The men's department also felt drab and empty.

It looked like employees spread out the socks as much as possible to fill this wall, but it was still mostly bare.

One display nearby was full of merchandise, but it was a mess.

We found another broken display shelf in the appliances department.

This section was better stocked than other departments, but also lacked wall signage.

The walls in the bedding department were equally bare.

There were droves of empty shelves in the shoe department.

It seems like Sears had either cut back its shoe orders, or was having problems with shoe suppliers.

A department devoted to curtains also appeared to be missing some inventory.

And the store seemed to be short on bicycles. There was only one for sale — a pink girls' bike — in the entire store.

The baby section appeared to be pretty well stocked, however.

Most of the registers in the store were left unattended by employees.

A corner of the store featuring travel items had the same items hanging on multiple hooks in a likely attempt to fill space.

That strategy was less effective in a section devoted to sports team apparel.

Sears has been closing unprofitable stores and reducing square footage in many other stores to address the issue of excess space.

Overall, the store appeared to need some upgrades and it would probably look a lot better if it were about half the square footage it is now.

When we revisited the same store a year later, this July, it had debuted handwritten pricing signs. They replaced many of the printed signs throughout the store.

While the handwritten signs were likely a strategy to reduce printing costs, they gave some customers the impression that the store was closing.

Source: Business Insider

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