Struggling Retailer Sears Monetising Real Estate Assets

Oleksii S/Unsplash

As ecommerce changes consumer behaviour, retailers might abandon real estate, but real estate abandoning retailers? Nada. Impossible. 

Context, Please. 

Sears, the needles to washing machine departmental store is struggling to find customers. Battered by the growth of e-commerce, the iconic store chain still has one commodity to peddle - it's real estate. 

Beginning almost 10 years ago, and speeding up over the past few months, Sears' owners and investors have embarked on the equivalent of a clearance sale, betting on new tenants/buyers for vacant Sears stores, from Santa Monica to New Jersey. 

Once A Store Always A...

Sears' stores all over the country can be broadly classified into two kinds. 

1️⃣ The windowless boxes connected to shopping malls - these are not too far from their original purpose. They’re being refurbished for new retailers who are taking its place. 

2️⃣ The bigger have-it-all properties - developers are installing high-end apartments, cutting-edge classrooms and even labs where classified weapons systems are conceived. 

Not A Solo Performance

Sears is not the only retailer struggling with abandoned shopping carts. Other big department stores have filed for bankruptcy protection during the pandemic, including Neiman Marcus, JCPenney and Lord & Taylor.

With the opening of its Chicago store a century ago, Sears began a nationwide push to introduce a brick-and-mortar side to a thriving mail-order business. 

Today, with ecommerce's rise, this feels like another 'full circle' tale of change.