Amazon Didn’t Kill Sears
You probably think you know what brought down Sears. You would be wrong.
The following is a series of stories on the downfall of Sears and Kmart. To read past stories and listen to podcasts, please go here and here.
It’s called Retail Apocalypse.
Since at least 2010, a steady number of businesses have disappeared from the marketplace. Brick and mortar stores, actual locations, are shrinking in favor of online shopping. Most people blame one online retailer in particular: Amazon. It has revolutionized shopping, moving people from physical places to the store that is on your computer screen. Of course, this has had an effect on retail. Stores like Borders that were slow in getting online, ended up going out of business. This is capitalism at work: innovate or die. If you play it safe, you might end up on the trash heap.
Capitalism, when it’s working well, should be about risk. Companies try different strategies to sell their widgets and become profitable. Companies have to find ways to be relevant. But of course, there are those that want to game the system. They aren’t interested in trying to innovate. They look at making money and they socialize the risk in order to reap the benefits. They take a risk and others pay the price. You don’t have to be a socialist to think…
