Boarded-Up But Open Sears Cited For Urban Blight

(tjean314)

Rioters destroyed storefronts in downtown Oakland, California five months ago, filling the area with sadness and boarded-up windows. All of the businesses have fixed up their public faces except one. One retailer’s huge building still has boarded-up windows and looks abandoned. Local residents call the blighted storefront “depressing,” and the city issued a citation for “blight.” The blighted business? Sears.

It’s easy to make fun of Sears, and we often do. In this case, the issues are much more complex than just assuming that Sears doesn’t care about its stores. A whole building of broken windows is a bigger problem than a few stained carpets or empty racks here and there.

The real problem is Sears’ legacy. Specifically, that huge building that a very different company called Sears, Roebuck & Co. built in the 1930s. Yes, technically Sears Holdings and Sears Roebuck are the same company, but every American consumer knows that they aren’t really the same company at all.

Oakland Sears still hasn’t repaired windows [San Francisco Chronicle]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist