Sears Holdings' Christmas Strategy

Sears Holdings got an early and shrewd start on the holiday shopping season.Noticing that many of its Sears stores were in malls that had lost KB Toys stores when that chain was liquidated,Sears decided to take up the slack and start selling toys itself at these malls.Since August 15,Sears has been selling toys at 20 locations in the Chicago,New York,Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.The Toy Shops are stocking private label toys such as My First Craftsman,My First Kenmore and Just Kidz,as well as Fisher Price,VTech,Hasbro,LeapFrog and Bakugan.Specialty brands Schylling,Gund Plush and Thomas Wooden Railway are also being sold at the Sears stores.