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((wasn't sure if this was suited better for this forum or the TF GD, so if I did plunk it in the wrong place, please move it)).


Apparently Sears and Kmart did really badly this holiday season and will be closing 100+ stores, which means we'll likely see Transformers on sale.

Of course the entire company isn't going under, just a bunch of stores so the kmart near you mightn't be affected. Never hurts to keep an eye open though because you might be interested to pick up a few figures you were otherwise passing up

Here's the article I saw about it: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-close-100-120-kmart-sears-stores-113133071.html

Sales on TF's as well as other things.

while i am not a fan of Kmart and enjoy the idea that i might get some stuff from them cheaper than their usual high prices, it is a shame that more people in this bad economy will be losing jobs

triKlops wrote:while i am not a fan of Kmart and enjoy the idea that i might get some stuff from them cheaper than their usual high prices, it is a shame that more people in this bad economy will be losing jobs

I thought the same thing when I first read it. Not much one can do about it though.

I'm half wondering if the K-mart near me will close, which will likely cause even more issues. It's about 20-25 minutes from my house and skirts right on the edge of a really bad area filled with gangs and all the deaths and violence that come with them. The store itself never seems to be well maintained either, like a tornado hit and no one bothered to try cleaning up. I don't go there often because of the area, but it always looks like a disaster when I do. At least it employed people in the really depressed area though... so hopefully it won't, but a part of me wonders since a Walmart is 5 minutes down the road and Kmart just can't compete with that retail titan :/ (the kmart that used to be 3 minutes from me fled years ago when Walmart opened up down the road)

I worked for K-Mart until January of this year. I never liked working there and they treat their employees wrong. I never got my raise but was promoted twice. You got lifers there who got more pull than the managers. I did like getting dibs on the toys but doesn't help when I need money. One of the stores in an influential area closed but the one near me by NC State is still open. Last time I went there they had noting.

According to the Finance section of Yahoo.com, The Sears Holding Corporation will be closing between 100 to 120 stores due largely to a poor holiday shopping season. The article states "The closings are the latest and most visible in a long series of moves to try to fix a retailer that has struggled with falling sales and shabby stores."

In an internal memo Tuesday to employees, CEO and President Lou D'Ambrosio said that the retailer had not "generated the results we were seeking during the holiday."

As parts of the national economy continue to struggle, jobs are still being lost. As this is unfortunate of many people, it might lend a hand to some Transformers collectors looking to find the silver lining in the shape of discounted toys in a closing K-Mart or Sears store. To read the entire article click here, and share your finds in the Toy Sightings forums here.

You just cant mess with Wal-Mart. K-Mart has always been like a ghost town even in Miami. I give Target a few more years as well...

I would not be surprised if my local Kra....err K-Mart will end up on the chopping block.

It's hard to be surprised by this. The one or two remaining K-Marts within driving distance are poorly maintained and stocked. Meanwhile, the prices I've noticed are higher than Target and Wal-Mart. If that's any reflection of the company as a whole, it's no wonder.

As for Target, I used to have no interest in them whatsoever. But the Wal-Marts in this area have gone from pleasant to unbearable in the past decade. Even after they remodeled one to be a "super" Wal-mart, with no less than 32 registers, there will sometimes be a grand total of...drum roll...one that is actually open. And employees will walk by customers waiting for help without acknowledging them or giving it a second thought. And did I mention the "self-checkouts" are always out of order?

Target, on the other hand, seems to think service matters. Yeah, they have that completely ridiculous policy of calling customers "guests", but there is always someone at the ready to help you check out. Lines always move fast, at the register or at the return counter. I wonder how they keep so many people staffed, but then again, I guess it evens out since their employees actually do work, unlike the loafers I see at Wal-Mart.

I'm a cashier at my local Kmart, and this holiday season seemed to be okay for us. It was packed every day but who knows what the actual profit is. Folks in my line tell me every day that this is the best Kmart in the area to go to, but in the end, like the article says, the company is looking for the most profitable stores, not the most efficient ones. It is just unfair to us workers. We try so hard to create a great shopping to experience to our customers to make up for the lack of inviting style of decoration the store has had since the 80's, and the prices that are no where close to being competitive with Target or Wal-Mart. It's just that our stock sucks. All of Kmart stock sucks. To TransFans, we're a joke. Wave 2 DOTM toys still warm the pegs and will continue to do so until the summer. It's just sad to see a place I love to go to be in danger:(

walmart just kicks everyones ass...only good thing bout kmart is layaway tho

There use to be a Kmart across the street where we live now, and that went belly up like 7 or 8 years ago, but i dont think it was due to poor sales, i think it was the lease on the building and now the store is split in two! its a Christmas Tree Shop and a Jo-Ann fabrics. Someone said that Target will be next in several years? I highly doubt that cause there's 4 Targets within the area i live and they're more busy than walmarts and have better sales too. Kmarts i always thought they was rude to customer and collectors and never really had anything in stock and if they did it was overpriced.

nemesis-prime wrote:walmart just kicks everyones ass...only good thing bout kmart is layaway tho

you forgot to metnion online shopping alot of people would perfer get something online than go to store & pick up cheaper that is how netflix & gamefly became popluar i like to interact with people in person i dont care how long i have to wait in line

Not surprised. Using the KB Toys business plan of marking up your toys like crazy can't be good. $15 for deluxes, 25 for voyagers...

Rated X wrote:You just cant mess with Wal-Mart. K-Mart has always been like a ghost town even in Miami. I give Target a few more years as well...

No way. Maybe Target is different where you live, but here and in a few other parts of the country where I have friends, the general stereotype (and while I'm no fan of stereotyping folks, this is just what the perception is, I don't make it, I'm just sayin') is that Wal-Mart is where the trailer park/low income crowd shops and despite having similarly competative prices, Target is where everyone else shops. That may have to do with Target having a lot more market penetration in this area, but again I know at least a few other parts of the country where the stereotype is the same.

Now granted with the economy there are plenty of low income families out there, but there are still a lot of people who also won't go near a Wal-mart with a ten foot pole because of the general feeling about the place(not too mention the service tends to be awful compared to Target).

As parts of the national economy continue to
struggle, jobs are still being lost. As this is
unfortunate of many people, it might lend a
hand to some Transformers collectors looking to
find the silver lining in the shape of discounted
toys in a closing K-Mart or Sears store.

Silver lining? "Sucks about your jobs and all, but I got my TOYS! Oh, what's that? You won't be able to buy any for your kids and can't even feed them now? D'aww, too bad."

There is no silver lining. The article should've been left at people losing their jobs and how unfortunate it is.

*smh*

Autobot032 wrote:
Silver lining? "Sucks about your jobs and all, but I got my TOYS! Oh, what's that? You won't be able to buy any for your kids and can't even feed them now? D'aww, too bad."

There is no silver lining. The article should've been left at people losing their jobs and how unfortunate it is.

*smh*

This is a Transformers website, not a "the world sucks, please post sympathy" site/forum. I think everyone knows it sucks when a business fails, regardless of the economic state in the world.

And given this is, specifically, the toy forum, it's alerting anyone looking for toys (either for themselves, relatives or charities) that sales (potentially really steep sales) are coming in the future.

You can't stop a business from going out when they've declared a state of bankruptcy or are making moves to prevent bankruptcy. We should just be thankful the corporation is smart enough to take steps to prevent their entire self from caving in and wish luck to those who are about to be effected by it. But that doesn't mean the point of this website (Transformers) needs to be neglected. It that were the case, why post it in the new section in the first place.

Erailea wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:
Silver lining? "Sucks about your jobs and all, but I got my TOYS! Oh, what's that? You won't be able to buy any for your kids and can't even feed them now? D'aww, too bad."

There is no silver lining. The article should've been left at people losing their jobs and how unfortunate it is.

*smh*

This is a Transformers website, not a "the world sucks, please post sympathy" site/forum. I think everyone knows it sucks when a business fails, regardless of the economic state in the world.

And given this is, specifically, the toy forum, it's alerting anyone looking for toys (either for themselves, relatives or charities) that sales (potentially really steep sales) are coming in the future.

You can't stop a business from going out when they've declared a state of bankruptcy or are making moves to prevent bankruptcy. We should just be thankful the corporation is smart enough to take steps to prevent their entire self from caving in and wish luck to those who are about to be effected by it. But that doesn't mean the point of this website (Transformers) needs to be neglected. It that were the case, why post it in the new section in the first place.

Some things are more important than toys. Even on a toy forum. There should be no silver lining in any of this disastrous news.

I'm angry enough to make sure K-Mart doesn't get anotyer dollar from me. They've mishandled themselves for years and Wal-Mart made them deal with it. And now tue employees are going to suffer for it.

Yeah, it's just bad news for the employees. I used to work at the local Kmart back in 1997 to 2000 and we did our best, there. Most of the people I worked with were nice and decent.

I'm disturbed by the amount of pro-Wal-Mart responses in this thread. We need a team of qualified psychiatrists now, and the military and fire department for back up.

Nekoman wrote:I'm disturbed by the amount of pro-Wal-Mart responses in this thread. We need a team of qualified psychiatrists now, and the military and fire department for back up.

Compared to K-Mart, Walmart is a shining beacon of hope. Not only are K-Mart stores often dirty and depressing, they actually charge MORE than most other retailers for figures. Their prices are even higher than TRU's.

Autobot032 wrote:
Silver lining? "Sucks about your jobs and all, but I got my TOYS! Oh, what's that? You won't be able to buy any for your kids and can't even feed them now? D'aww, too bad."

There is no silver lining. The article should've been left at people losing their jobs and how unfortunate it is.

*smh*

This is a Transormers Toys Forum, where collectors of Transformers toys gather to talk about Transformers toys. You wanna talk about the economy and jobs? Go to the Huffington Post or something.

I've never really liked Kmart. The one near me never has anything. Target and Toys "R" Us are good places to get toys in my neighborhood.

I like shopping at Kmart. They do tend to overprice their goods, but when they have a sale it's usually a pretty good one. Also the Rewards program lets you bank points quickly as they can be accumulated through all the outlets Sears holds
and giving you cash to spend on future purchases. I hope the Kmarts near me don't go under like when I lived in Michigan, too many people I knew lost their jobs, it was a travesty.

GuyIncognito wrote:This is a Transormers Toys Forum, where collectors of Transformers toys gather to talk about Transformers toys. You wanna talk about the economy and jobs? Go to the Huffington Post or something.

You're right that this is the TransFormers Toys Forum. This topic at hand is a General Discussion thing. It should've been posted and discussed there. It mentions nothing of TransFormers. It speaks only of store closings, nothing more, nothing less.

Because of that, I have the right to discuss what's in the topic., I can't help it was put in the wrong forum.

Editorializing, does not make it a TF news story.

How about them apples? Enough bold typeface for you?

Kmarts are closing? I don't get it...premium prices and ghetto facilities...I mean, what's not to love?

I at least hope their top notch website stays in service...