Customer Reviews

Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Marcia Turner does an excellent job of laying out what KMart has done wrong over the years and builds a very convincing case, citing mostly secondary sources such as retail trade journals. The writing is clear and lively, but the "10 Deadly Sins" idea is rather tentatively executed. Many chapters discuss multiple sins, and partly because the entire history of the company has to be addressed in each chapter there is a fair amount of repetition.

But for me, the most frustrating thing about the book is that it is entirely an outsider's perspective. Turner does such an excellent job of documenting Kmart's persistent stupidity over many decades that at some point you want to hear from an insider to answer the question "what could they have been thinking?"

A particular strength of the book is laying out the competitive landscape of discount retailing. One major unanswered question (which, granted, would be very difficult to answer) is how big a role pervasive corruption has played in Kmart's decline. The conviction of a senior real estate executive for bribery indicates that self-dealing in the company may have gone back much further than the executives who put the company in bankruptcy.

Kmart debuted around the same time as other American discount retailers, but while they constantly adapted to changing times and styles to keep their relevancy, Kmart luxuriated in a 1970's/early 1980's holding pattern regarding customer shopping and store decoration.

Insisting that discount shopping meant 'cheap' (despite the numerous negative connotations within American culture) Kmart itself turned American shoppers off from spending their money in these stores. Disaffected shoppers then began turning to the other discount stores.

Things became so bad that 'store brands' (usually a godsend for thrifty shoppers) were pulled only because of name stigmatization. It is a bad omen when a store is ashamed of it's own brands.

Kmart actually was unable to figure out why it's clientele base shrunk while Wal-mart and Target respectively grew into the powerhouses of today. By the 21st century, the only people really in love with Kmart's business decisonmaking were the executives who apparently got paid no matter what bad decision they fastened the company to.

After reading this scathing-but fair indictment for myself, I also am amazed nobody from the inside was concered about the shortcomings. The early 1990's 'Big K' concept failed because the company merely put a new sign on the same dinky and dingy stores of yesterday. Constructing more new stores AND a new training program would have made the critical world of difference.

In a Kmart as late as 2003, I was openly taken aback by the dirty floor and cluttered layout. I had honestly chalked that one 'current' experience up to the 'back to school' rush, but if most of the stores in a company are in this condition---there are very big management problems. No amount of downsizing or 'new' brand introduction can bail out a company with such obvious disgust for customers.

When I picked up this book, I expected to find some interesting insights into why KMart, once so widely known and popular, ran into all its problems. A company whose stores were once part of the American landscape and whose blue light specials were exciting mini-events, spun into bankruptcy on January 22, 2002. What happened?

I looked at the author's credentials and, frankly, was a bit dismayed that she was author of "The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business." Even though the title is described as a best-seller, I questioned whether such an author would be able to produce the kind of study that the K-Mart subject demands. Looking further through the book, I discovered that my concerns were totally unfounded. This book is quite well researched, as evidenced by the abundant footnotes at the end of each chapter. Turner lists, in her acknowledgements, some of the people she conferred with in putting this book together. Impressive. Almost academic.

The book begins with two features I appreciated. One was a chapter, called the introduction, which effectively sets the stage for the in-depth look at what happened... and why. The other feature is a time line that includes progressive events at Kmart and at Wal-Mart. A fascinating fact to ponder is that Kmart and Wal-Mart were started in the same year. Throughout the book, Turner interweaves and compares the strategies-and implications-of Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target, as well as other retailers. This approach adds value to this book for every retailer-every business leader-who designs strategy with anticipated results. The bibliography and comprehensive index make this book a most usable tool.

A chapter is devoted to each of the Deadly Sins: Brand Mismanagement, Lack of Customer Knowledge, Underestimating Wal-Mart, Lousy Locations, Ignoring Store Appearance, Technology Aversion, Supply Chain Disconnect, Lack of Focus, Strategy du Jour, and Repeating the Same Mistakes. You'll learn about strategic blunders, tactical mismanagement, and operation deficiencies that crippled the potentially powerful chain retailer. Details even go down to the level of describing how insufficient staffing levels in the stores confounded efforts to keep the aisles clear of incoming merchandise, let alone serve the customer.

While you'll shake your head numerous times as you read this educational and insightful book, you'll gain new perspectives and cautions in the way you run your own business and life. Highly recommended.

The author has researched well, using many footnotes to indicate her sources. However, the book reads like a high school student's report of individual articles (too, the grammar and tone are often colloquially conversational) and there is little central organization to the book. The author frequently beats the same dead horse with so many different articles to support her view that you'll find yourself wondering if she a little defensive in making some of her points.

Her style of continually referring back and forth between Wal*Mart and Kmart left me feeling as though I were holding a finger in two different books and flipping back and forth. Comparisons of this sort are valuable, but the constant shifting of gears is distracting.

The book lacks the perspective from the inside. Isn't that what gets to the heart of the problem?

For readers with financial savvy, it would have been nice to see some financial and non-financial statistical tables and/or charts. Specifically, what was the impact on the financials during this time? The number of transactions? The average sale amount per transaction? A picture is worth a thousand words.

If you buy this book, read the first few pages of each chapter and you will have the main ideas. This book could have been half as long.

I read this book with interest from both the perspective of a consumer and a business person. As a consumer, I stopped shopping at KMart a long time ago. This book gave me the understanding of how the customer service at KMart ended up being such a low priority to a retailer when it should have been the highest priority. As a business person, it was fascinating to read about one more example of how egos in Corporate America can cause the downfall of an established institution. A recommended read...

K Mart's 10 Deadly Sins by Marcia Turner is a well-documented story of a fallen giant. Ms. Turner uses respected individuals, former employees, specific examples and printed sources to make her points. It could very well be recommended reading for a business school course.
Ms. Turner cites specific problems and follows it up with particular remedies and suggests solutions. She compares K Mart to several competitors in an easy to understand format. It was an informative and enjoyable read on a timely subject.

The Author should have taken a lesson from the title of her own last chapter ('Repeating the Same Mistakes'); there is way too much repitition in the content. After the first chapter, there is not much new to be learned.

If you have watched with dismay (or glee) as K-mart has twisted in the wind for the last few years, you will probably find this book interesting. It is a pretty good analysis of what went wrong in the troubled company.

According to the book, in which industry analysts and business publications are quoted heavily, among K-mart's mistakes are:
Not having a focus (i.e., not knowing "who they are" or how to differentiate themselves from Wal-Mart and Target), relying too much on weekly advertising circulars, bringing back the BlueLight special, their haphazard approach to technology, having a short-term focus in terms of hiring and keeping a CEO, and their 2001 attempt to attract low-price shoppers by trying to undercut Wal-Mart.

The book's not without problems, though. For one thing, it is very repetitious. The book is divided into ten chapters, each of which ostensibly focuses on one of the deadly sins. But there is so much overlap in the content of the chapters that it's like reading the same chapter, reworded, over and over. I feel that I could have written the last half of the book myself.

In addition, Turner seems to contradict herself on several points. For example, at one point she criticizes K-mart for relying too strongly on Martha Stewart, and at another she seems to fault them for not focusing on her enough.

Not having read much business writing, I don't have much to compare it to, but I found the book to be a reasonably compelling read.

As a business student and self-described retail afficianado, I love books about the history of major retailers, and so of course, when I came across this book at my local library, I had to check it out. I'm very glad I did.
It's a extremely well-researched book describing the gradual decline of the K-mart brand, both economically and culturally. Ms Turner's writing is very readable. I honestly found parts to be riveting!
I was particularly interested in the section regarding how corrupt many of K-mart's real-estate dealings were at one time. As someone who lives in the Dallas area, an area K-mart withdrew from following 2003, I have seen firsthand how terrible many of the locations they chose for their stores were.Many former K-mart locations have still not been able to secure a new tenant for the space, over 7 years later!

The major minus for me was that the book lacked a section of photographs. One would have been quite useful to illustrate the logo changes, various store formats, etc. That would have painted a more complete picture of the K-mart story, really.

Also, I do hope there will be an updated version of the book (or follow-up)at some point to address what the future holds for K-mart as it is now a part of the Sears family of stores. Additionally, the Martha Stewart line of products is no longer sold at K-mart, having "defected" to Macy's. The book constantly reiterates that Martha Stewart's association was a major draw for K-mart. With her gone, now what?
Regarding customer service, have they stepped up their efforts? As I haven't been in a K-mart store myself in 7 years, I can't say, but with the recent national news story headlines that K-mart still ranks on the bottom of major customer service lists doesn't bode well for the brand.

But,overall, a great read and recommended enthusiastically!

K-Mart's rapid descent into a near corporate oblivion has been well captured by Turner in this excellent piece of business analysis. From a falling market share, poor store layout, employee dissatisfaction, customer trust lost, lack of vision in corporate strategy and marketing, as well as no advances in technical innovation for supply chain management led to the failure of the company. Each one of these problems is detailed in clarity with great examples and a wide range of both business and academic sources to supplement Turner's analysis. While there is no one quick fix for K-Mart (and in fact if there is any lesion it is that quick fixes need to stop) there is a clear need for improved strategy and technological integration of the supply chain (especially at the store inventory level). For those who really want a solid business analysis of K-Mart's problems this is an excellent place to start.