Sears Makes a Clever Move to Stay Alive with Amazon #Business #Economy

In this May 17, 2017 file photo, an Amazon Alexa device is switched on for a demonstration of its use in a ballpark suite before a Seattle Mariners baseball game in Seattle. Struggling retailer Sears is looking to get a hand from Amazon, announcing that it will start offering its Kenmore products on the online powerhouse's website. Sears, which runs Kmart and its namesake stores, said that Kenmore Smart appliances will also be fully integrated with Amazon's Alexa. This will allow consumers to control products, like Kenmore Smart air conditioners, by making a request to Alexa. Shares of Sears Holdings, based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, surged more than 8 percent in Thursday, July 20, premarket trading. 

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson


A whole lot of those ruffians on Wall Street seem to think this is an excellent idea.

Sears will begin selling its appliances on Amazon.com, including smart appliances that can be synced with Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa.

The announcement Thursday sent shares of Sears soaring more than 13 percent in midday trading, after jumping 18 percent at the opening bell. The tie-up with the internet behemoth could give shares of the storied retailer one of its biggest one-day percentage gains ever.

Phys.org:  Alexa, turn up my Kenmore AC; Sears cuts a deal with Amazon


This is one brilliant pairing since Sears can't sell off its traditional retail stores fast enough and, with this move, the company won't even need them.  Sears will keep producing Kenmore which is one of the great names in big box appliances and they will use Amazon's well-known front-end to sell the appliances with the after-sale delivery going out using Amazon's super slick distribution system.

We can have a little weep for lost Americana in those Sears storefronts and that whole vibe but keep the weeper brief since it appears there's money to be made.

Nothing is going to save the retail stores and they now have less chance than a Snowman in San Antone; those jobs are going to be lost ... but ... it may be possible to save the brands and the back-end manufacturing jobs which produced them.


Hat tip to Sears management for some, fo' real, evolution in action.  When the stores are pulling you down, lose the stores and evolve into the New World.  Most impressive.


There's a secondary jobs aspect since a whole lot of tinkers know how to fix the classic products from Kenmore so they should be pleased at this news as well.

Update: that might have sounded disrespectful to tinkers but you've got to know some tinkers or otherwise you have to call a contractor for everything you need.  Tinkers are the kind of people who can look for maybe a minute at just about any broken thing and then say, "Yep, I can fix that."

I know you know who tinkers are and the hell of it is you know they can do it.  Who knows by what magic that happens.