NOT SO GREAT INDOORS
When I was researching my book, The Great Indoors, a free-standing division of Sears, was doing fine. The hard asses at Forbes even held it up--with a convincing and rational argument--as a model for what Sears as a whole should become.
Now Sears has a new CEO, who's doing what Sears CEOs always do--thrash around for a successful strategy. The Great Indoors, which was his predecessor's idea, is losing money, and he's thinking about shutting it down, according to this trade mag report. Sears apparently isn't ready to serve the aesthetic economy. Not surprising, but embarrassing since I used The Great Indoors as an example in the book. (Publisher's Weekly, not me, called the place "hugely successful". I took the "show, don't tell" route, cited numbers, and described the store and its customers.)
I'm not convinced any strategy can save Sears. The one Forbes advocated, concentrating on hard goods while getting rid of apparel, makes a lot of marketing sense but apparently wouldn't generate enough revenue. Ignoring aesthetics, as Sears has traditionally done, won't help the company. But paying attention won't necessarily save it.