4 ms·

> I feel like a big part of the downfall was the huge lumbering corporate culture unable to cope with JIT supply lines and race to the bottom economies of consu

> I feel like a big part of the downfall was the huge lumbering corporate culture unable to cope with JIT supply lines and race to the bottom economies of consumer goods. i think its simpler than that. they got so big that they didnt pay any attention to all the waste, e.g. all the ad time that they spent on the old "I'll call today" A/C commercial.

b112 9mo ago
I wonder if those networks had a hard time filling ad orders, so Sears ended up with a massive discount? If those ads were pennies compared to other spots, it could be deemed worth it. Parents often are nearby when kids are watching TV.
- jonway 9mo ago
  Hell no! TV ads were Goliath! Radio still stays relevant, too. Late night is where it dried up. (nowadays it’s podcast spot and insta bullshit? Eh.)
  - b112 9mo ago
    No, the cartoon networks. There was a mass explosion of cable channels, and ad rates plunged. Some networks had a hard time filling all ad space.
craftkiller 9mo ago
That ad was worth every penny. I _still_ quote that ad, and everyone over the age of 30 always recognizes it, yet I can't remember ads I saw last month. If only sears was still around to capitalize on the ubiquitous headspace they purchased.
- dragonwriter 9mo ago
  > That ad was worth every penny. I _still_ quote that ad, and everyone over the age of 30 always recognizes it, yet I can't remember ads I saw last month. If only sears was still around to capitalize on the ubiquitous headspace they purchased. Sounds like they would have been better off investing more in staying around in the conditions that actually existed rather than buying attention that they could never benefit from.
  - jonway 9mo ago
    People flocked for this crap though, they were a consistent and reliable partner here. Times change though and everyone started just heading to Walmart, the modern version of sears in essence I guess, and Amazon who didn’t profit at all for like a decade and also never ever paid a dividend. I wonder about comparing the total sales rev of Walmart or Amazon (lifetime revenue) to the lifetime revenue of Sears Roebuck and whatever, adjusted for inflation. This would probably paint an interesting picture of our consumer trends and corporate governance
    - dragonwriter 9mo ago
      > People flocked for this crap though, they were a consistent and reliable partner here. By the 1990s, when the ad in question was around, Sears was long past its status as a retail juggernaut, and was trying (ultimately unsuccessfully) to regain it--this was roughly the last decade before they were bought by Kmart—and the loss was in large part because they had spent decades working harder on trying to do other things (which they largely abandoned during the 1990s, except for the consumer credit business that had displaced retail as the main revenue source, for their terminal effort to refocus on retail.) > I wonder about comparing the total sales rev of Walmart or Amazon (lifetime revenue) to the lifetime revenue of Sears Roebuck and whatever, adjusted for inflation. This would probably paint an interesting picture of our consumer trends and corporate governance Not really, without a lot of other data. Their dominance was for different lengths of times, and with difference size population bases. Simply comparing lifetime sales revenue adjusted for inflation isn't going to paint much of a picture at all.

b112 9mo ago

I wonder if those networks had a hard time filling ad orders, so Sears ended up with a massive discount? If those ads were pennies compared to other spots, it could be deemed worth it. Parents often are nearby when kids are watching TV.

jonway 9mo ago
Hell no! TV ads were Goliath! Radio still stays relevant, too. Late night is where it dried up. (nowadays it’s podcast spot and insta bullshit? Eh.)
- b112 9mo ago
  No, the cartoon networks. There was a mass explosion of cable channels, and ad rates plunged. Some networks had a hard time filling all ad space.

craftkiller 9mo ago

That ad was worth every penny. I _still_ quote that ad, and everyone over the age of 30 always recognizes it, yet I can't remember ads I saw last month. If only sears was still around to capitalize on the ubiquitous headspace they purchased.

dragonwriter 9mo ago
> That ad was worth every penny. I _still_ quote that ad, and everyone over the age of 30 always recognizes it, yet I can't remember ads I saw last month. If only sears was still around to capitalize on the ubiquitous headspace they purchased. Sounds like they would have been better off investing more in staying around in the conditions that actually existed rather than buying attention that they could never benefit from.
- jonway 9mo ago
  People flocked for this crap though, they were a consistent and reliable partner here. Times change though and everyone started just heading to Walmart, the modern version of sears in essence I guess, and Amazon who didn’t profit at all for like a decade and also never ever paid a dividend. I wonder about comparing the total sales rev of Walmart or Amazon (lifetime revenue) to the lifetime revenue of Sears Roebuck and whatever, adjusted for inflation. This would probably paint an interesting picture of our consumer trends and corporate governance
  - dragonwriter 9mo ago
    > People flocked for this crap though, they were a consistent and reliable partner here. By the 1990s, when the ad in question was around, Sears was long past its status as a retail juggernaut, and was trying (ultimately unsuccessfully) to regain it--this was roughly the last decade before they were bought by Kmart—and the loss was in large part because they had spent decades working harder on trying to do other things (which they largely abandoned during the 1990s, except for the consumer credit business that had displaced retail as the main revenue source, for their terminal effort to refocus on retail.) > I wonder about comparing the total sales rev of Walmart or Amazon (lifetime revenue) to the lifetime revenue of Sears Roebuck and whatever, adjusted for inflation. This would probably paint an interesting picture of our consumer trends and corporate governance Not really, without a lot of other data. Their dominance was for different lengths of times, and with difference size population bases. Simply comparing lifetime sales revenue adjusted for inflation isn't going to paint much of a picture at all.