The decision by Sears, Roebuck and Co. to slow the rollout of its Great Indoors home remodeling chain has some retail experts scratching their heads.
The Great Indoors is the best-looking store that Sears has ever produced, and its timing couldn’t be better. More Americans than ever are interested in upgrading their homes and have the money–or the borrowing capacity–to do so.
But recently, the Great Indoors has stumbled. Its same-store sales have declined for four out of the last six months. And Sears’ investor relations folks have been making noise that things better turn around soon or the Great Indoors could find itself out in the cold.
In a March 7 research report, Merrill Lynch retail analyst Daniel Barry says Sears is “prepared to walk away” from the decorator store concept unless results improve. That was a very poor paraphrase of the conversation Sears had with Barry, according to Sears spokeswoman Peggy Palter.
Chief Executive “Alan Lacy is prepared to walk away from any business that doesn’t show appropriate returns, but there are no imminent plans for the Great Indoors,” Palter says. “We’re actually very comfortable and confident we’ll be able to turn that into a successful format.”
Still, Sears’ frustration with the Great Indoors leaves retail veteran Gordon Segal shaking his head.
Legendary for his patience, Crate & Barrel founder Segal has spent two years tinkering with his first spinoff concept in nearly 40 years–CB2.
“You have to give it a few years,” he counsels. “These big companies go in and they want to get it right right away. This is an art form.”
Segal, who really likes the Great Indoors, wonders whether Sears’ ambivalence stems from a change in regime. After all, it was former CEO Arthur Martinez who promised there would be 150 Great Indoors in five to eight years. One of Lacy’s first acts was to rein in that aggressive growth plan.
Indeed, only 7 new Great Indoors are opening this year, including two in Houston that were supposed to open last year but were postponed because of serious flooding.
What Segal thinks probably doesn’t matter to Lacy, except in this regard: The Great Indoors and Expo Design Center, Home Depot’s entrant in the home remodeling game, were vying for the space that Segal owns in the former Homemakers building at North and Clybourn Avenues, Lincoln Park’s hot home furnishings retail zone.
Segal says he chose Expo over the Great Indoors for the lease because “I wasn’t sure if Sears would stick with it if Arthur left.”
We sure hope Sears proves him wrong. By the way, the Expo in Lincoln Park opens Saturday.
A gift for the giving: DePaul University has bestowed its highest honor on former Sears, Roebuck and Co. Chief Executive Edward Brennan. Brennan, who has spent 20 years as a DePaul trustee, received the St. Vincent de Paul Award Wednesday.
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His accomplishments at the university include creating the school’s corporate and foundation gifts committee and arranging numerous gifts to DePaul that helped fund scholarships and facilities.
DePaul’s president, Rev. John Minogue, praised Brennan for “making Chicago a better place to live, learn and work.”
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