As Sears Withers, Its Former Stores Fuel a New Fortune was printed by the New York Times on 8/28/2018. It was written by Michael Corkey with research and reporting help from Keith Collins and Doris Burke. The medium of this article is print and the vehicle is newspaper.
The companies/businesses involved are Sears and Seritage Growth Properties. My client in the situation is Sears.
In the last couple of years, my client, Sears department stores, has been on a financial decline. After years of losing money and closing down locations, Sears decided to sell 235 of their previous locations to Seritage Growth Properties, a large real estate company, in hopes of transforming their old locations into profitable properties. These new properties will house promising businesses such as trendy offices, stores and restaurants. This decision is in an effort to help the old Sears company to remain as profitable as possible while they pay off years of debt.
For the most part, the coverage of the story is neutral/negative. The writers spend most of the article simply explaining the business transaction and what Sears and Seritage hope to accomplish. While the coverage is not inherently negative, it does mention that there was a lawsuit regarding the price of the stores and the fact that these large companies and shareholders are trying to get as much money out of this transaction as possible. The article does include some positive quotes from those involved in the deal who explain that in the end the venture will be profitable and worth it, but since the quotes are from those who profit from the transformation, it makes the deal seem shady. At the end of the article, Corkey also mentions that the local communities surrounding these stores are not be fully on-board yet since they think the construction done on the old Sears locations will take away from other projects that will help their community.
The message of the story is that Sears is essentially trying to make a negative situation positive. Even though the company is shutting down hundreds of locations, by selling their old properties to a wealthy real estate company, they are still making a profit and contributing to the growth of real estate properties.
The audience that is most impacted by the deal are those who live around the sites of the redone buildings. The construction will lead to an increase in jobs through the construction and the businesses that will open will add to the local economy. While those are positive impacts, Corkey also mentioned that not everyone in these communities are excited about the transformation of the stores.
The public perception of Sears is positive since it’s a well trusted brand that’s been around for a long time. That being said, some of the business transactions being done do seem shady since it’s all in attempts to make money. In the article it also mentioned that some community members are worried that the construction of these huge buildings will take away from other efforts in the community, such as the downtown.
With the knowledge of Sears public perception, PR folks should be thinking of ways to sell these transformed buildings as a positive addition to the community, and show the community the ways in which they will benefit from the store transformations. The transformed locations need to be marketed as opportunities for new jobs, shopping, food and tourist attractions; all businesses that will help the local economy. The Sears PR department should do community outreach and see what the public wants and needs out of these locations, and then try to make sure those businesses go into these stores. They need to show the community that the new store is meant to support their community, not change it.
The story was generated by reporters and researchers interviewing key stakeholders in the deal..
Vacant Sears store in Santa Monica, CA