Kmart

Sears Holdings Corp. is letting go about 700 Kmart appliance salespeople as the retailer struggles to turn around its slumping appliance business. The move will eliminate jobs at 225 Kmart stores as those outlets transition to a new cash register system that makes additional salespeople unnecessary, a Sears spokesman said. When Hoffman States, Ill.-based Sears first put appliances in Kmart stores in 2005, the spokesman said, Kmart point-of-sale systems weren't set up for appliance sales.

Kmart may have jumped the shark in a recent commercial shoot in Van Nuys. A 5-foot-long white-tipped shark died March 6 after being shipped from New York to Los Angeles and placed in an above-ground pool in a Van Nuys backyard for a commercial for Kmart, according to a letter sent to the American Humane Assn. The shark was injected with adrenaline and received oxygen from a trainer after it showed signs of stress. It was later removed from the pool and transported to Long Beach to be examined by a specialist, but the shark died that afternoon, the complaint said.

How can the Ventura City Council even consider a fee waiver for the super Kmart? Victoria Avenue is already in great need of repair. Who will pay for the conditions brought by the excess traffic, if the council waives those fees? We will. The city taxpayers. As for hiring a consultant to see if the fees should be waived, save the money for the homeless and place them in housing. That is something we need more than helping Kmart take the risks out of building their store on some of Ventura's prime development land.

They shop, they drink, they dine, they kvetch. They turn otherwise ordinary rooms into polished interiors, and then ... they go shopping again. They are the stars of “Million Dollar Decorators,” the Bravo reality series that started its second season tonight, yanking back the curtain to see how four of Los Angeles' biggest design personalities - Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Kathryn M. Ireland , Jeffrey Alan Marks and Mary McDonald - do their jobs....

Kmart, which heavily promoted its layaway options during the last two holiday seasons, is expanding the program in anticipation of another tough Christmas. The extended layaway program allows customers to select their items and make biweekly payments over 10 to 12 weeks, an increase from eight weeks; items are picked up after they've been paid in full. The discount chain is also making more items eligible to be placed on layaway, such as washers, dryers and other big-ticket items.

Twenty-three Kmart stores in the Los Angeles area and three other markets are testing financial centers where consumers can cash checks and pay bills. Kmart joins Wal-Mart in offering basic services to consumers who have little if any access to traditional banks. "We're looking at how to better utilize the real estate in our stores and to better serve our customers," said Shannelle Armstrong, spokeswoman for Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Kmart. Ten of the Kmart stores are in the Los Angeles area, seven in Illinois, five in Puerto Rico and one in Wisconsin.

As for smaller Kmart, which just emerged from bankruptcy, purchasing Sears ("Kmart to Buy Sears in Record Retailing Deal," Nov. 18), I am reminded of the purchase of MCI by upstart WorldCom and of Time Warner by smaller AOL. Both resulted in financial flops for their shareholders. As Pete Seeger used to sing: "When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?" Aaron Epstein North Hollywood

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators are looking for a man who molested a 3-year-old girl inside the bathroom of a Kmart over the weekend. Deputy Cruz Solis said the incident occurred about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The toddler was gone for about five minutes when her mother noticed she was missing. "[The woman] called her little girl and she came running out of the bathroom," Solis said. "She said a man had taken her into the bathroom and had pulled down her pants and fondled her private parts."

Federal regulators are seeking more than $22 million from the former head of Kmart Corp., who was found liable for misleading investors about the company's finances. The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking a judge to punish Charles Conaway for "intentionally lying" to Wall Street and concealing information from Kmart directors before a bankruptcy filing in 2002.

Three major retailers have agreed to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit stemming from the companies' sale of toys containing excessive amounts of lead, the California attorney general's office said Thursday. Under the agreement, Target Corp., Toys R Us Inc. and Kmart would pay a total of $454,000 in civil penalties and other fines. The retailers, along with several manufacturers including Mattel Inc., were sued by the attorney general's office and the Los Angeles city attorney's office in November 2007 after the firms were found to have sold or made toys with unsafe levels of lead paint.

Struggling women's clothing retailer TheTalbots Inc.is considering an improved takeover offer worth nearly $211 million from New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Sycamore is now proposing a $3.05-per-share deal for the Hingham, Mass., company, up from the $3-per-share bid that Talbots rejected in December as “inadequate.” The new proposal is 9.7% above the retailer's $2.78 close on Friday. Since spiking to $10.40 a share in December, when it announced an effort to ditch stores and boost profit, Talbots' stock has remained relatively stable.

-- Boston-based Kynetic, which operates designer discount website Rue La La, underwent major layoffs and intends to close its SmartBargains.com site, a report says. The Boston Business Journal reported that Kynetic laid off 11% of its 550 workers as part of a restructuring designed to allow the company to "double down" on its core business. Part of the shake-up involves outsourcing the sales force for Rue La La's city-specific portals called Rue Local. "These moves unfortunately resulted in the elimination of some staff positions," the company said.

Three Sears stores in California are among 79 stores nationwide slated to be closed after a dismal holiday season prompted Sears Holdings Corp. to retool its strategy. The Illinois retailer on Thursday posted a list of 41 Sears and 38 Kmart outlets targeted for closure, the first wave of the 100 to 120 stores the company plans to shut down. Two Sears stores in San Diego and one in El Monte will close at a date to be determined. No Kmart stores in the state are on the list.

Sears and Kmart — can you imagine America without them? With years of weak sales and no turnaround in sight, retail analysts believe that day may be coming. Sears Holding Co., which controls both chains, laid out plans Tuesday to close as many as 120 outlets after reporting yet another holiday sales slump. Industry observers say the company, which has posted four years of sales declines at its nearly 2,200 full-line U.S. stores, may be joining some other fallen giants in the retailing graveyard.

This holiday season, Sears and Kmart are testing virtual shopping walls at malls to empower smartphone owners to buy toys on the go. The walls, which feature pictures of toys for sale from Sears and Kmart along with bar codes attached to each item, will be placed temporarily at select malls, bus shelters, subway stations, airports and movie theaters around the country. While waiting for a bus or browsing the mall this season, shoppers can scan a code with their smartphones to buy a particular toy right on their device.

Sears Holdings Corp. is letting go about 700 Kmart appliance salespeople as the retailer struggles to turn around its slumping appliance business. The move will eliminate jobs at 225 Kmart stores as those outlets transition to a new cash register system that makes additional salespeople unnecessary, a Sears spokesman said. When Hoffman States, Ill.-based Sears first put appliances in Kmart stores in 2005, the spokesman said, Kmart point-of-sale systems weren't set up for appliance sales.

Black Friday came early this year for many bargain hunters as several major retailers opened their doors on a day usually reserved for sleeping in and crowding around the turkey. With big chains such as Sears joining Wal-Mart and Kmart in opening on Thanksgiving, swarms of shoppers hit stores in numbers normally not seen until Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. In Baldwin Park, a line of cars had to wait up to 10 minutes to turn into the packed parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Re "2 Kmart Robbers Get Lengthy Prison Terms," Dec. 22: The sentencing of two Kmart robbers to around-60-year sentences without parole is not justice. These types of lengthy federal sentences, if widely publicized, will create millions of jurors who will disregard the evidence and vote not guilty. I cannot believe the Kmart jury would have voted guilty for a mother of three young children who only served as a lookout and driver if the jury had known beforehand that the mandated sentence would be 60 years without parole.

Twenty-three Kmart stores in the Los Angeles area and three other markets are testing financial centers where consumers can cash checks and pay bills. Kmart joins Wal-Mart in offering basic services to consumers who have little if any access to traditional banks. "We're looking at how to better utilize the real estate in our stores and to better serve our customers," said Shannelle Armstrong, spokeswoman for Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Kmart. Ten of the Kmart stores are in the Los Angeles area, seven in Illinois, five in Puerto Rico and one in Wisconsin.