Sears InventorySears is a large retailer with approximately 1,320 stores throughout the United States and Canada, selling items ranging from household items to automotive products (Sears, 2014). At some point in recent years, Sears made changes to its inventory policy and effectively alienated its longtime customers by failing to maintain adequate stock levels of popular items. One of the major problems with Sears is that it does not appear to invest in its stores or perhaps is not financially capable of doing so (Perlman, 2011). It's possible that Sears' inadequate inventory levels are just a financial problem due to slow sales, but every good business should know that you need to spend money to make money. Inventory LevelsSears took a hit during the 2013 holiday season with sales plummeting approximately 9.2% in terms of comparable sales (Cheng, 2014). I believe the decline in sales can be directly linked to Sears' inability to maintain adequate inventory levels. It is common sense that when an item is out of stock or unavailable, consumers will take their business to stores with in-stock items. Sears had the largest appliance market share in the United States, but has steadily lost ground and become increasingly irrelevant (Cheng, 2014). This was experienced firsthand by my family about six months ago when our refrigerator broke down suddenly and without warning. My wife and I ventured to a Sears store to look at new refrigerators and found several models we liked only to find that every single refrigerator we liked was out of stock or on back order and wouldn't be available for several weeks. With...... half of the paper...... References: Cheng, A. (2014). MSN Money. Sears dives into a nasty holiday surprise. Extracted from. http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post--sears-plunges-on-ugly-holiday-surprise Farzad, R. (2014). Bloomberg Business Week. A Guerrilla stock analyst plays the role of mystery shopper at Sears. Extracted from. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/a-guerrilla-stock-analyst-plays-mystery-shopper-at-sears Harbour, S. (2014). Chron. The advantages and disadvantages of economic economic order quantity. Extracted from. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-economic-order-quantity-eoq-35025.html Perlman. S. (2011). NBC. Sears holdings are struggling to hold on. Extracted from. http://business.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/27/9740808-sears-holdings-struggles-to-hold-on Sears. (2014). Sears Holding Corporation. Extracted from. http://www.searsholdings.com/about/sears/