Eddie Lampert – originally hailed as genius for putting together the Sears-KMart deal, because it just got him so much darned commercial real estate, and they’re not making THAT any more – is now trying to figure out what the hell to do with KMart. LoLo sends me Eddie’s latest idea:
Sears Holdings Chairman Edward Lampert revealed a plan at the company’s annual meeting that would convert Kmart stores into warehouses where consumers would order products online and then pick them up at the facility. Called MyGofer, the first pilot store has opened in Joliet, IL, where shoppers can even get their items at a drive-thru.
It turns KMart into a half-warehouse, half-showroom. Yes, with a drivethru. I find it horribly reminiscent of Service Merchandise, which I remember dying in a fire in the early 2000s. I remember going there with my mom, pulling a card for a toaster oven, typing its stock number into a dumbterminal, then waiting in line for it to emerge on a conveyor belt from a cavernous and mysterious warehouse. Would this have worked better if we could have pre-ordered the toaster oven online and picked it up from the Service Merchandise drivethru? Maybe. But would it work better in an era where Amazon offers free super-saver shipping? Probably not. The only element MyGofer would have over Amazon is immediacy, but I won’t even give it that. If I need a toaster oven IMMEDIATELY, I’ll just walk into Target and grab it and ten other things I didn’t mean to buy, because when you are female, that is what you do at Target. (Reportedly, it happens less often to the male of the species, though I know a certain someone who often loads up on random DVDs there.)
You can check out MyGofer in beta form here. So if you really want to be able to pick up tampons and Black Hills Gold jewelry at a drive-thru, KMart may soon be the store for you.
And here’s a video of the real Crazy Eddie. I am a fan.
lavacake // May 7, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I luv Target and I do the exact same thing whenever I go.
Linden // May 7, 2009 at 1:08 pm
If you love commercials in which big sweaty men yell a lot, I direct your attention to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pp4q0041Ck&feature=PlayList&p=E336818F0A107A96&index=1
Enjoy.
Gari N. Corp // May 7, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Eddie Lampert believes he has invented Argos, a somewhat dubious catalog store from Merrie England.
Tony // May 7, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Yeah I usually shop at Walmart… if you’re going to suck at the corporate teet, I say go for the gold… but when I do wander into Target, I always end up coming out with a t-shirt or DVD more than I intended to, and pissed off that they’ve discontinued (some item I wanted) because that’s what they do… they discontinue half their s*** every 2 months just for fun.
toshiro_mifune // May 7, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Thank you for the Service Merchandise reference.
The way I remember it though was; get product number, type it into terminal, go and wait at pickup area for a 1/2 hour only to find out the terminal was wrong and they were out of stock.
Jason // May 7, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Wow, next to Crazy Eddie, the Appliance Direct guy ain’t shit.
Clotario // May 7, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Ah, Service Merchandise….how I miss the ’80s….
Clotario // May 7, 2009 at 6:34 pm
PS: Worst website ever. Looks like one of those squatting sites you run into if you type in a wrong address.
LoLo,Esq. // May 7, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I remember going to Service Merchandise and being like wtf why jump through all these hoops to buy a watch when I can just go across the the street to Target? The only benefit to going to Service Merchandise was that it was on the same side of the street as Taco Cabana.
YT // May 8, 2009 at 9:17 am
“Reportedly, it happens less often to the male of the species, though I know a certain someone who often loads up on random DVDs there.”
Aww…does this mean Alyx is taken? I guess I have to fall back on plan B and marry my much less funny fiance.
RC // May 8, 2009 at 2:14 pm
The online models like Amazon rely on vastly reduced bricks ‘n mortar overheads to keep costs rock bottom.
Lampert’s plan sounds like a great way to miss out on all the impulse-item sales people here are mentioning while keeping the bricks ‘n mortar costs WAY high. (Yeah, I know commercial real estate is getting cheaper, but it’s not that cheap).
I’ll be flabbergasted if this idea succeeds.