• kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    The Sears mail order business could so easily have taken on Amazon and crushed it in the early days, if only they had built a proper website for it.

    They already had the entire logistics and distribution system in place for their catalog business. And decades of experience running it.

    All they needed was a digital version of their catalog and an easy to use ordering platform.

    • JimmyBigSausageOP
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      4 months ago

      They probably could have! Unfortunately, they ended their catalog business long before they closed their stores. I am not sure they had the right “ideas” to move forward with it. Jeff Bezos gets criticized for being rich, but he had the ideas to create Amazon. You have to give him credit. How he has moved forward with his business, how Amazon treats its workers, all of that will continue to be questioned. He created an industry, though, and added value for the end consumer. The company was just added to the Dow. Sears was bought out by a hedge fund after bankruptcy. There was no plan other than to exploit the name of Sears itself, to keep borrowing money, and not add any new value to the consumer. Maybe they should create pickleball courts in all of the malls nationwide? Or healthcare facilities?