These terrifying photos of a chain store's clearance sale in Canada show the devastating impact of the retail apocalypse

Kate Taylor

Oct 26, 2017, 8:51 AM

Getty ImagesSears has struggled to attract shoppers in recent years.

Sears Canada, which is separate from Sears’ business in the US, is liquidating all of its assets.
As it closes stores, everything has gone on sale.
The resulting photos are apocalyptic.

Sears is shuttering its Canadian locations — and the stores are descending into chaos.

Earlier in October, Sears Canada announced it would seek court approval to liquidate its remaining stores and assets in the nation.

Now, liquidators have taken over the locations. First, they bumped up the prices on items that were previously on sale, Consumerist reported. Now, they’re dragging prices down until everything is gone.

The result is apocalyptic. Many Sears locations in the US are looking pretty shabby right now. However, as seen in photos published by Consumerist, even the worst Sears in America looks pretty good in comparison.

Here’s some of the worst carnage yet of the retail apocalypse.

Sears Canada liquidation sales began on October 19 and are expected to continue for 10 to 14 weeks.

Stores are covered in signs proclaiming that 'EVERYTHING MUST GO.'

By the end of the weekend, everything had been marked down 20% to 50% at most Sears locations.

'This makes me so sad,' one Instagram user wrote, asking that shoppers be kind to employees working at clearance sales.

Inside, stores are pure chaos.

Shoes are everywhere.

Kids could almost get lost in the mess.

At a Sears in Thornhill, Ontario, pillows had already been thrown to the ground on Day 1 of liquidation sales.

'I implore shoppers to show some common decency/respect for the employees and your fellow shoppers by not throwing EVERYTHING on the floor,' an Instagram user wrote.

'People are selfishly and greedily concerned with finding sizes and snagging discounted shoes rather than being considerate of their shared environment and other people,' wrote another Instagram user.

Sears has struggled to adapt to the rise of e-commerce in both Canada and the US.

In the US, Sears has announced plans to close more than 300 Kmart and Sears stores this year.

Sears Canada was spun off in 2012 from Sears Holdings, which owns Sears' US business.

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert dodged responsibility for Sears Canada's failure in a blog post published on Sunday.

'ESL (Lampert's hedge fund) disagreed with the aggressive and risky strategy to stimulate sales growth known as 'Sears 2.0,'' Lambert wrote in his blog. 'ESL believed that strategy was highly risky and unlikely to succeed.'

Source: Eddie Lampert's blog

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