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- <text id=93TT2437>
- <title>
- Feb. 08, 1993: Where America Shops Less
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Feb. 08, 1993 Cyberpunk
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- BUSINESS, Page 21
- Where America Shops Less
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Sears plans to shut its catalog and shed 50,000 jobs and 113
- stores
- </p>
- <p> After years of striving to restore its tarnished retailing
- luster, Sears, Roebuck rang up the most painful No Sale in the
- sprawling company's 107-year history. Admitting that it could
- no longer sell all things to all people, Sears announced the end
- of its famed catalog, which lost $175 million in 1992, after
- this year. Once America's top retailer (now third behind
- discounters Wal-Mart and K Mart), Sears also plans to close 113
- of its 860 stores and eliminate an additional 50,000 jobs, or
- nearly 15% of its current merchandising work force. The
- Chicago-based company has already shed 48,000 jobs since 1990.
- </p>
- <p> The latest cutbacks follow a dramatic restructuring last
- year in which Sears put its Dean Witter brokerage and Coldwell
- Banker real estate units on the block. Sears expects to sell a
- 20% stake in its Allstate insurance subsidiary as well.
- </p>
- <p> The retrenchment amounts to a public confession that Sears
- took its eye off retailing in the 1980s, allowing more focused
- rivals, like Wal-Mart and service-conscious Nordstrom, to pocket
- its business. The new Sears will operate almost entirely in
- shopping malls and will continue to revamp its stores with
- hipper styles and more enticing merchandise displays.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-