Speaking at a question-and-answer session with company investors, Kmart chairman Edward Lampert, who also is the company’s biggest shareholder said that the company needed to carve out a different identity from its chief competition, Wal-Mart. "If that's who our competition is going to be, and we're going to be a second- or third-rate version, I don't think we're going to win,” he said, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Lampert said that Kmart’s primary goal has to be to give customers a compelling reason to shop at its stores, though he concedes it is a laborious process. "We're taking baby steps to find a message that we think will resonate with our present customers, as well as those who may have shopped at Kmart in the past," Lampert said.
According to Lampert, Kmart has more than $2 billion in cash on hand, which allows it the flexibility to work on survival in a slow, measured away.
Lampert said that Kmart’s primary goal has to be to give customers a compelling reason to shop at its stores, though he concedes it is a laborious process. "We're taking baby steps to find a message that we think will resonate with our present customers, as well as those who may have shopped at Kmart in the past," Lampert said.
According to Lampert, Kmart has more than $2 billion in cash on hand, which allows it the flexibility to work on survival in a slow, measured away.
- KC's View:
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That stuff about needing to create a compelling reason to shop at Kmart that is different from Wal-Mart’s value offering? It sounds like maybe Lampert has been paying attention to the MNB community…because we’ve all been saying that for months, maybe years.
Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another. To this point, we see little evidence.
And one other thing. Those comments about having more than $2 billion in cash? Betcha that irks the living daylights out of all the former employees and shareholders who lost a bundle when Kmart was mismanaged into bankruptcy not that long ago.
