Market
Talking about the shares of The TJX Companies Inc., (the owner of Sierra Trading Post, now called Sierra), they have had a rise of 32% since last year which is good news for its recent investors. It was speculated that another store might open in St. Cloud but there was no confirmation before from the company’s side as they say that announcements like these will be made once there is a date fixed to do so. Finally, the date has arrived, another store will open on 14th of August. It has 46 locations around the USA like Newton, Omaha, Woodbury, Minnesota, and many more.
We may not be able to avail the balance sheet for strong evidence about the performance of the company, but their activities may help in determining whether the company is having a downfall. In honoring its new opening, Sierra is contributing to St Cloud’s community with $10,000 to Anna Marie’s Alliance (a women’s domestic violence shelter). Sierra is going to acquire about 42000 square feet of retail space in a building purchased by Wood Investments Cos. at 2618 King Ave, West in Billings which plans to open in 2022. For now, the count of stores is 52 across the USA.
Downfall of Sierra
There are continuous updates about the opening of shopping centers which is comprehensible as growth undoubtedly but as per the customers’ reviews, the quality of products has been unsatisfactory and degraded. The shipment is delayed and many times there are technical issues as well. There were several issues like the cancellation of orders without even providing any information to the customer. The customers were left unaware until they contacted the customer services after waiting for weeks and then told that their order had been canceled. Practices like these indeed drift the customers away. This is regarding the online store, the stores otherwise are well functioning. Several issues were there with the poor coordination with the banks. When the store informed them that the card had been declined by the bank, the latter stated that there was no decline from their side. This was not done just once or with a single bank which shows the error from the store’s end. Not being able to track the shipment is a big drawback. Customers from 10 or more years are now switching to other stores due to this degradation in Sierra Trading Post. Slow responding websites have also become a reason for their loss of customers. On the contrary, sending 4-5 emails to the customers daily brings less attention to them. Companies also charge return shipments even when it is their fault for sending wrong orders or defective orders.
There have been many grievances in the last three years for the company, its products, and services. So is it a good deal to purchase from Sierra? As per the customers’ grievances, we don’t think so.
Ranking
Ranked 142,521 (decreased by 2500 in just one day as witnessed) on Crunchbase, a platform to know about companies’ insights.
It was also stated as the biggest retailer in the state of Wyoming in an article by Yahoo News. Even Massachusetts has TJX companies (owner of Sierra) as its biggest retailer according to the data collected in February 2020.
It has around 55,000 visits every month and the monthly visits growth is 24.45 percent as stated by Crunchbase. The sales do have dropped due to the unexpected change in lifestyle caused by the pandemic which led to less consumption of products like clothes, requirements of outdoor games, etc.
TJX Companies
Pondering upon the parent company, the average estimated revenue for the current quarter (July 2021) was 10.88B and the growth estimates for the current year is 732.30%! Opening of stores is good but attention must also be drawn to the performance of the online store as it is the bigger market and due to the current situation, customers are preferring online shopping. Poor and slow response from the website, receiving defective pieces and not being replaced, orders getting canceled with no information is decreasing their market.
Conclusion
For a retail market functioning well for 25 years and more, a sudden change in quality and services is something to bother. Sierra has been a renowned market for years but 2019 brought a lot of change in the same. Losing 20 years old loyal customers reflects what a drastic change Sierra Trading Post has gone through. Unsatisfactory quality, shipment time, and then extra charges for return shipment is also a major reason for the downfall.
There were good reviews as well, for example being able to change the order once placed, but that’s useful if and only if the customer ultimately receives the correct order that was placed. The consumer affairs website has a lot of not so good reviews with multiple customers with similar issues. The TJX Companies have been investing in the company, hopefully, the performance may increase slowly and gradually.
