I know there's a lot of commentary about the larger retail landscape being in decline and the shift to Amazon and all that... But what my theory presupposes is that Sears is committing suicide.

Last May they rebranded with a new logo, that looks like a cross between AirBNB's logo and a natural gas flame. It looks like something they got from Fiver or a stock image site. They're throwing away decades of brand equity for this?

I hadn't been in a Sears in a long time, but when I saw the new logo it made me go look at their site to see what they were up to. What I found was a website chock full of big promotions, but also chock full of complicated fine print. For example:

The offer: $60 in CASHBACK points when you spend $60

The fine print: Offer valid 5/5/19–5/18/19. Members get $60 CASHBACK in points in 6 weekly installments when you spend $60 or more on qualifying purchases at select Sears stores and items sold by Sears on sears.com. First $10 in points issued within 48 hours and are valid for 7 days. Subsequent payments of $10 in points issued every Sunday starting 5/26/19. Offer valid 5/5/19–5/18/19. Maximum $60 CASHBACK in points per member.

So their website was plastered with $60 "cash back" offers, but they don't give you cash back, they give you "points" worth $10 in weekly installments that are only good for one week, so to get your $60 you have to come back and buy at least $10 worth of stuff for 6 weeks in a row!

Also, almost everything worth buying is on the exemption list. This is the exemption list just for Bedding (there were a lot more!):

Excludes Lands’ End, select mattresses (Chiswick, Chelsfield, Camberwell, Cavell, East Channel, Harlington, Harrowby, Isleworth, Kenney, Romford, Beautyrest Black, Sealy Conform Performance [High Spirits, Fondness and Thrilled], Sealy Conform Premium [Gratifying and Wondrous], Stearns & Foster, Serta iComfort, Serta iComfort Memory Foam, Serta iComfort Hybrid, Sealy Hybrid, Simmons Beautysleep, Tempur-Pedic, Tempur-Flex), Protect-A-Bed, SleepTracker, Mantua bed frames, adjustable bases (Beautyrest Smart Motions, Sealy Ease, Serta Motion [Essential, Custom and Perfect], and Tempur-Pedic [Tempur-Up, Tempur-Ergo Plus and Tempur-Premier]), Serta iComfort pillows, Tempur-Pedic Tempur pillows, Stearns & Foster Premium pillows, Sealy Premium pillows, Serta Premium pillows, Beautyrest Premium pillows. Items must be sold by Sears. Purchase requirement before taxes and after other discounts and must be made in a single transaction. By accepting Shop Your Way® member benefits and offers, you agree to the Shop Your Way terms and conditions, available at www.shopyourway.com/terms. Members earn points on qualifying purchases, excluding sales taxes and other fees. Extra points are inclusive of, and not in addition to, any base points earned on qualifying purchases. When extra point offers are combined, total points earned will be less than the combined point totals for each individual offer.

I found this astonishing! I've never seen such a complicated promotional offer before, and it really feels like a big "fuck you" to anyone who would bother to shop at their stores. Nobody wants to do business with a shop that's trying to bait and switch them with deceptive "deals".

No wonder they're having trouble turning things around...