There is a calmer atmosphere at Sears and Kmart than at similar major department stores such as our area Target and Walmart and the department stores in the Mall that would go along with Sears like Penny's.  The other stores are always more crowded which in a sense means more customers but to the customer it means more people, more pushing, less help.  Similar stores can be just over crowded with people making shopping an anxious and tiring experience. 

Then the music is always just too loud.  There are people around to help but you must be prepared to wait.  There is less waiting for help in Sears and  K Mart.  You feel more like a person and you get more individual attention. 

If the store, especially Sears, does not have what you want, they do not mind calling another Sears to see if they have your size in stock or if the electronic piece your are looking for is in stock in another near by location.  I like that they take that extra time for me. 

KMart has surprising buys as well.  I recently had a hospital stay.  I am not into night clothes but my mom was staying to make sure things went well and so she insisted my night attire was not suitable for the hospital nor visitors.  Off we went to K Mart and they had adorable sets of summer night pajamas and things that were perfect and better yet on sale.  She was delighted and so was I.  Thank you K Mart for saving the day.

I do not think that bigger chains or the mall would have been as handy or as inexpensive with the quality that was needed at that moment.  There were no lines at K Mart either.  No one ran into our cart.  We shopped with our neighbors and the people we go to church with.  It was nice.

Selection, availability and price. It's quite simple. Sell what people need at a price they can afford.

Following Mary's lead, I would like to add that I never have a hard time finding a good parking spot at Kmart. But I'm not certain that empty stores are considered a plus to the retailer.....

i know of no other store that pushes protection agreements and credit the way sears does

In all honesty Sears needs to address the following. 1) The fitting rooms are a mess and usually only one is open, if open at all. Women DO NOT like this at all. 2) The cloths racks are cluttered and very disorganized. 3) Price checkers rarely match the checkout price. A big problem and more delays. 4) Employees need vitamins or free coffee and a smile. 5) At the stores we shop the cosmetics and perfume section has the air conditioning blowing fragrances away from the womens clothes rather than into it. A nice fragrance is needed. Maybe people will stay a little longer.  In the shoe section, a total chaos and no one is ever around to find your size. The wait is much too long.    K-Mart has always been a great store, but service has been removed. People never know anything. Sears sells its tools there but no one is around to open the cabinet to see the product. Prices are higher than Sears stores. K-mart needs a color change, more action at the entrance to stimulate people to look around more. The entrance needs to be cleaner and neater, more inviting. K-Mart has many good products, but needs to compete more in price and quality. Again the employees are somewhat more awake and energized than at Sears, but need to be more knowledgeable and helpful.  Sears and K-Mart need to make some basic changes that are not costly. We are more global and people like to see more global products and atmosphere.

josebetzy said…
1) The fitting rooms are a mess and usually only one is open, if open at all. Women DO NOT like this at all. 2) The cloths racks are cluttered and very disorganized.  4) Employees need vitamins or free coffee and a smile. 5) At the stores we shop the cosmetics and perfume section has the air conditioning blowing fragrances away from the womens clothes rather than into it.

women must not dislike it too much since they are the ones making the mess in there and the mess on the racks. 
the employess might be a little happier and more energetic if they didnt have to clean up other peoples meeses for min wage.

where the hell did you find a store with the A/C on?  maybe it was blowing in from the mall lol

They really don't compare maybe JC penney or the old woolworths. Woolworths was shlock and comparable to kmart now. They donl;t compare becuase they don;t compete.

I don't shop very much at  Sears for clothing as all their clothing looks like it is for older women (60+) to go to church.  I am 58, but I don't want to dress Pentecostal.  I want clothing that is age appropriate but that doesn't look like I'm buying for grandma. As for the dressing rooms being a mess and clutterd clothes racks, that's what I thought the sales personel was there for besides checking out or helping the customers.   My husband likes Sears tools, but we agree with josebetzy, there is never any sales people around to help you and usually only one check out counter with people.  I haven't been to KMart in over 2 years, so can't comment. 

I would have to agree with you ace1210. I think selection, availability and price are probably the top three things that people look for when shopping. But... starting from the initial stages of driving traffic, how do you get people into the stores and how do you keep them coming back?

There are two things that keep me coming back- value for my money, and customer service.  With the double coupon promotions that Kmart and Sears have been running they seem to finally be catching on that they have to provide an adequate value for the money (because looking at the base prices only I can find these items cheaper elsewhere).  However customer service is also key.  I live in a major metro area, so I have all kinds of stores to choose from.  When the corporation does a particular promotion, such as the double coupons, I expect that the staff will be well trained, and that the register software will actually work.  That has been my experience at Kmart, but definately not at Sears Essentials, where the registers were not programmed to accomodate the super doubles promotion.  Hence I am likely to go back to KMart, but not to Sears Essentials.

One thing that Sears is doing well in compared to most other retailers is the in-store ability to search and shop online.  Sears would do well to follow suit in regards to who I consider the leader in this endevour, Target.

After being around the Sears system for a long time, I had assumed we were the best, having never seen the capabilities at Walmart, Lowe's, or Home Depot.  Then I had some couples close to me register at Target.  I went to Target take a look at their registries and found myself staring at some very advanced consoles.  They have fully integrated moniter/cpu/printers that allowed me to print the registry and then shop it on target.com.  I then processed the order in a matter of minutes and my shopping experience was complete and oh so easy.  Sears Holdings needs to model their store to web system after Target's fully integrated store to web consoles.

thatmanguy said…

One thing that Sears is doing well in compared to most other retailers is the in-store ability to search and shop online.  Sears would do well to follow suit in regards to who I consider the leader in this endevour, Target.

After being around the Sears system for a long time, I had assumed we were the best,

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wow the sears i was at everything was about 5 years out of date the kmart im at now the stuff registers look newer but the stuff in the backs closer to 10 year out of date if not more

Really?  They just revamped the computers (not the registers) at my store and the bandwith so store to web is a good bit easier nowadays.  I don't think Kmart has the ability ... at least not the run down Kmart across town ...