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Sears Is Turning Shuttered Stores Into Data Centers
miller60 writes "Servers may soon fill the aisles where shoppers once roamed. Sears Holdings is seeking to convert former Sears and Kmart stores into Internet data hubs. Some stand-alone stores and distribution centers may be repurposed as data centers, while mall-based stores can be converted into disaster recovery sites, the company says, offering access to stores and eateries for displaced workers who may be on site for weeks. Then there's the wireless tower opportunity. Seventy percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Sears or Kmart store, and these rooftops can be leased to fill gaps in cell coverage. It's not the first effort to convert stores into IT infrastructure, as Rackspace is headquartered in an old mall, and companies have built data centers in malls in Indiana and Maryland. But Sears, which operates 25 million square feet of real estate, hopes to make this strategy work at scale." Also at Slash DataCenter.
Your data back.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
New HDD in Isle 6, New HDD in Isle 6!
I don't understand why place data centers in urban mall environments where property value is supposedly higher?
The summary actually says they are considering this for standalone stores and distribution centers.
recycling, good to see that these structures will serve a purpose beside being shopping stores! :)
... or malls that have closed completely. But very few mall management firms would sign off on turning one of their anchor stores into a datacenter.
Wouldn't the number of firms that would turn up their nose at someone continuing to pay them rent (especially those malls that can't sustain a Sears, which are probably half empty) be far lower than those who would be grateful for the income?
"Newspapers: A tiny little part of the internet, printed out yesterday, and delivered to your house"
Don't listen to the Analysts. You guys are every bit as good as Amazon. But what's the one thing Amazon's got that you ain't got? DATACENTERS!"
The whole thing seems like an April Fool's joke, until you realize that these are the people who thought that buying K-Mart was a good idea.
there is a blue light special on red light web sits to day.
red light as in web sites that have slowed down to a stop.
They're called anchor stores because (more so than the other, smaller retail) they serve as a draw. If a particular shopping center is in really bad shape or circling the drain, then sure, it might be one of those very few.
So, we're gonna be where people come after the disaster?
Yeah. There's bound to be money in that
Huh. Just gotta ask -- wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask -- How much did the Superdome people make off that whole thing? Cause I can't see us beating their volume.
... or malls that have closed completely. But very few mall management firms would sign off on turning one of their anchor stores into a datacenter.
Wouldn't the number of firms that would turn up their nose at someone continuing to pay them rent (especially those malls that can't sustain a Sears, which are probably half empty) be far lower than those who would be grateful for the income?
It's not really in question here because Sears is doing this with standalone stores, but an anchor store is exactly like it sounds; once a mall loses its anchors, it is done for, it's not a mall any more, it is a hangout for kids who don't spend money. Mall managers will do anything to keep anchor stores in place, and I mean ANYTHING.
If one of your "anchor" stores is Sears you're already in trouble...
Karma: Bad
Then maybe you should think out them as "offsite mirrors" Depending on what industry you work in there are compliance laws requiring you to have certain steps in place to mirror your data so you recover from natural or man-made disasters in a reasonable time. Yes, DR is a growth industry.
It scares me that anyone would think there would or should be any economic viability in 'disaster recovery sites.'
Providing disaster recovery services is already a big business.
I certainly wouldn't want to do business with a financial institution that has no capability to recover from a disaster that affects their data center.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Dunno. You might be able to get them to do it.
Don't listen to the Analysts. You guys are every bit as good as Amazon. But what's the one thing Amazon's got that you ain't got? DATACENTERS!"
The whole thing seems like an April Fool's joke, until you realize that these are the people who thought that buying K-Mart was a good idea.
You have that backward, K-Mart was the one who bought Sears (though it is more casually described as a merger). Sears was near bankruptcy and K-mart had the upper hand. Yes, it was a messed up world back then.
One of the links (the "in Indiana" one) points to a datacenter installation in a former mall The other one ("in Maryland") does in fact describe a former anchor store of a still-working malll turned into a datacenter. They apparently (http://www.marleystation.com/directory) still have at least a Macy's and a J.C.Penney's.
They allow centers for guitars, why not allow them for data?
Is it a coincidence that MS just said they were upgrading their servers from 15, 000 to 300, 000? Gotta put'em somewhere.
This is just as stupid as the other stuff Sears has done (or not done) over the last 20 years to slowly go out of business. Sears and K-mart stores are "retail" land uses and are located on land appropriate for retail. This means that there is a) a sizable nearby population base to draw customers from, b) access via high-volume roadways, c) lots of onsite parking, d) other retail nearby to draw retail customers, etc. None of these are important for a "Data Center" which can be located (and often is) in a rural and/or low-population-density area. Converting high-value retail real estate into 'data center' real estate is the same thing as taking $100 bills and burning them to start the bbq. Monumentally stupid...and typical for Sears.
One of the links (the "in Indiana" one) points to a datacenter installation in a former mall The other one ("in Maryland") does in fact describe a former anchor store of a still-working malll turned into a datacenter. They apparently (http://www.marleystation.com/directory) still have at least a Macy's and a J.C.Penney's.
Except neither of those is about Sears, plus: in Indiana the whole mall was bought and converted after it closed, and in Maryland I am pretty sure the store in question is not part of Marley Station, it looks a lot bigger like a standalone department store near a shopping center (but I am not from there so I don't know).
HP used to have a big office park in Palo Alto that was converted from an old indoor mall. Recycling big buildings isn't a bad idea.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
That would be poetic... justice.
... or malls that have closed completely. But very few mall management firms would sign off on turning one of their anchor stores into a datacenter.
Anchor store? Probably not.
But 30,000+ sq ft of space that's not turning a profit? Absolutely.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Not really. Sears used to be the big thing, if there wasn't a store near you, your community (read: all of nagging wives) wanted one.
This type of [large percentage] of people are within [range] of a [ubiquitous thing] could be said for a lot of things when you figure how population is distributed. You know how AT&T can claim they cover 90-some% of the population? They aren't lying, but that doesn't mean that huge chunks of land aren't dead to them, including plenty of places you drive on the way between places.
Go ask google maps to show you all the sears locations in some major metropolitan area. Now take the measure tool and swing 10 miles out in a circle... covers more than you'd think.
Lets take Minnesota, because it's close to me. The Minneapolis metro is only 30-some miles corner to corner along the interstates and I guarantee that there's a sears or kmart on each corner suburb and one in the middle someplace. Put one of either type in the top 10 non-twin cities towns and blammo, 90%.
----- - The beatings will continue until morale improves
No. They're called anchor stores because they sell anchors and other nautical equipment. Geesh. Did you even read the article?
How much closer to a Walmart or Target are they? That is why Sears and Kmart are going under.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
They should turn ALL Sears stores into data centers!
Sears Holdings isn't a retail company, or an IT company, or a realistate company, they are a hedge fund trying to squeeze out all the possible paper value from their assets. So that they can eventually convince some other sucker to buy these assets.
This is a continuation of some rather silly decisions that they've been making for some time.
in a mall part of the rent is paying the mall a percentage of your revenue for that store. data centers have no revenue like a retail store
The KMarts are pretty much completely gone, but those building now house other retailers. There seemed to have a motivation to lease the spaces.
OTOH the Walmart that was built in the first Wave of the Walmart expansion into the city was unceremoniously closed when they moved 5 miles out. That stood vacant for a long time and there seemed no interest in leasing it. It was bad for the area. So while I have no fear that the two sears stores that would cause a problem in my area if closed, the two walmarts which are much newer is a concern.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
No, I don't think that's it at all. I think Wal-Mart won out because Sam Walton and the Wal-Mart execs realized the majority of Americans would rather have quantity over quality.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Statistically, there's a reasonable chance they're driving by a Sears or KMart to get there.
Sears died not because of poor locations or lack or same. They died because they were viewed as non-competitive on price and poor merchandise choices, coupled with some pretty poor marketing (especially in the case of KMart).
Craftsman is no longer a Sears exclusive. Can't guarantee this is the case in all areas, but my local Ace Hardware carries Craftsman.
Redundancy is good And also good.
...they said exactly that in the article!
Farney acknowledges that many of Sears’ mall-based retail locations aren’t viable for data center usage. “I don’t think the industry is yet ready for a mall-based data center,” he said. “That may take some time. The stand-alone location is optimal.”
And also said:
Although mall-based stores may not be right for data centers, they could be ideal for disaster recovery facilities, Farney said. That includes mall stores that have closed, as well as those that have downsized to a smaller retail footprint
What's the different between a primary datacenter and a DR datacenter?
For some reason, every time they want to put up a new store, they build new. Meanwhile, when the old stores get closed they just sit and the building never gets used. It's almost like ringworm, you get this ever expanding ring of dead stores that expands out for the city center. Every day I drive by 3 abandon grocery stores and even worse, new construction for 2 new stores of about the same size!
Its good to hear they are doing something with at least some of them.
No matter how much I strain, I cannot hear the summary.
I've heard the terms used in ways that implied that a primary datacenter always had your data, but a DR datacenter just had hardware and the ability to load the data when needed, for downtime of days while loading data rather than weeks while setting up new hardware, while still being cheaper than a redundant primary.
It doesn't say DR datacenters, it just says DR. There are of course disasters that require recovery that don't involve datacenters (eg office fire). Since his selling point for this idea is 'access to stores and eateries for displaced workers' I am guessing he is talking about more workers than would be in a datacenter.
I've heard the terms used in ways that implied that a primary datacenter always had your data, but a DR datacenter just had hardware and the ability to load the data when needed, for downtime of days while loading data rather than weeks while setting up new hardware, while still being cheaper than a redundant primary.
Our DR facility has less hardware than the primary facility (just enough to keep critical services running), but everything is powered on 24x7 and data is replicated and up to date. Unless hardware is powered on and monitored, you have no assurance that it will actually power up when you need it.
My CEO would laugh in my face (and probably have security escort me out the door) if I said "Thanks for purchasing nearly an entire set of redundant equipment. So now if we have a disaster here, someone will need to swim through the flood waters and load up the trunk of their car with our backup tapes and drive half way across the country to turn on the servers at the secondary faciity and load up the data. We "think" it'll only take a few days to do that.... assuming everything powers up".
We do regular failover testing to make sure that the secondary facility really can handle our systems.
Are there really companies out there that have the foresight to plan for and spend money on a disaster recovery facility, but are ok with days of downtime while they try to bring it online?
Retailers have been doing this kind of thing for many, many years. The first indoor big box shopping mall every built (Southdale) was built just to have a place to attach a Dayton's store too. I got my start in IT in operations for a large retailer, working with the real estate team in setting up and closing down store properties was part of my job. Many retailers have as much business in real estate as they do in retail and this has been the case for years.
By way of point Home Depots are often located near Target or Walmart since they buy large tracts of land for their stores and as a defensive measure to keep the other companies store from being put up nearby. They then use the best space for their own and develop strip malls around their property. When they have a lot just the right size for a big box retailer they will lease it to someone like Home Depot just to keep the land from being used by the competitors as many cities have will build taxes for unused property.
McDonalds has been known to buy a large tract of land and build a strip mall just to ensure that they get a restaurant in a prime location. When stores closed down the realtors then find other uses for the store. This is something that the retailers have been doing for decades with professionally run and managed real estate companies that they own. There are even special tax exemptions to allow these operations with special discounts.
When Icahn wanted to do a hostile takeover on Target a year or two back his highest priority to get in - sell their property off for great profit - and get out. The only thing that is new about this case is that Sears wants to get into the data center hosting business. If they bring in professionals (which the article says is exactly what they are doing) to run it there is no reason that you couldn't see Sears do very well in a very short time doing this.
The way I heard it, it was more like two drunk guys trying to hold each other up.
"Disaster Recovery", huh. Sounds like a cover for a Z-day survival stash. Everyone knows to head to the mall at first sign of a mysterious outbreak, right?
Well, a lot of other factors come in. Two big ones:
a) cooling
and
b) power
Another one is structure strength. Depending on what was actually in the floor-space, I wonder about a location's ability to handle a lot of heavy racks and HVAC equipment etc. Believe it or not the weight of all that stuff can be a consideration.
I was working for Sears (as a retail minion) when they mostly shut down their paper catalog operations, as the internet was becoming a thing.
I saw it then as a huge mistake, as with their experience with order processing and shipping they would have had a HUGE head start against upstarts like Amazon.
But corporate inertia, along with MBA's probably would have ruined them anyway.
yah its wasn't a real Hutch but they licensed the name. But hey when you're 14 and its 1/3 the price of a real one you'll love it just as much.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I was foolish enough to keep my order for a new refrigerator active, despite weeks of delay in delivery. They had no problem accepting my money (they took it when I ordered it) but even after it had been delivered to their store they took a week and a half to get it to me.
After talking to me every day, assuring me, "We're loading it on the truck right now."
When it was finally delivered, the truck driver (who worked for a delivery company, not Sears) apologized profusely and told me that he had been standing right next to the Sears guy the previous day, listening to him lie to me.
It'll be a cold day in Hell before they see any more of my money.
Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
the majority of Americans would rather have quantity over quality.
"Good enough" is usually good enough, especially for consumer goods that won't be around that long anyway.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Made a pretty good datacenter too. Already had a loading dock, concrete slab floor, & plenty of HVAC installation points.
And thus it was that Skynet was created in the middle of suburbia... invading all aspects of our daily lives. I for one welcome our new distributed datacentre/robot overlords.
Disaster Recovery does not imply data center. This could mean food storage, an armory, or a shelter, among many possibilities.
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Tell me more about all the data centers you've seen that don't charge money.
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That's the funniest thing I've read today.
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When Amazon buys sears not for their retail system but for their IT infrastructure....
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Agreed, those were important to Sears' decline.
But Sears was one of our biggest clients from the 80's through the mid 90's, and what I saw that hurt them was a lack of identity. One year they would try to compete with Kmart, then next year they would try to be higher end and compete with Marshall Fields and Nieman Marcus, then they would decide that Craftsman hardware and Kenmore appliances were their strength, then they would decide that apparel was higher margin, and they would try to emulate Penny's or maybe a Gap or Land's End, then they would decide that they needed to concentrate on electronics, and then that they needed to compete with appliance stores and offer more brands, etc. (not necessarily in that order)
For example, I once worked on a new store in an upscale neighborhood (Chicago's New Town). We started out with a regular, but small store, then they put out a plan for a hard good sonly store (hardware and appliances, etc), then after the design was complete, they changed it to an all soft goods (clothing, etc.) store, necessitating a redesign. In the end, the store closed a couple of years after finally opening.
wtf?
It took me a while to understand why it would be possible to abandon in-city retail place, but I think I got the idea: since all US shoppers go the retail place in their car, there is not more value for a specific place in the town, you can just open a new place a bit more far away, shoppers will follow.
Nah... but Hot Dog on a Stick can!
We could no longer afford to shop at sears.
No, I don't think that's it at all. I think Wal-Mart won out because Sam Walton and the Wal-Mart execs realized the majority of Americans would rather have quantity over quality.
Maybe my opinion is biased by my experience with the K-Mart in my town, but when most Americans think "quality", I don't think that K-Mart jumps to mind.
It seems like every Sears and KMart I've ever been in while there was heavy rain showed leaks in the roof. Unless they plan on using that as auxiliary cooling I sure hope the structures are carefully evaluated prior to putting infrastructure in.
The impression I had was that the equipment was owned by a DR company and if some other company's stuff became unavailable they could cut a deal and have them back up quickly; it sounded useful for companies who can't afford their own backup data center. But it was a while back and I may have misunderstood. Your setup sounds a lot better. Thanks for the clarification :)
Interesting theory, but would you care to explain how out here in the West I can name numerous examples of shopping malls where one of the anchor tenants is a Sears, and the other is now a Walmart, Target, or Kohl's?
That doesn't sound like a location placement problem.