Sears
and Kmart to Offer Cash-for-Gold Service By ABC News - May
17, 2010
CHICAGO
(Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp , which expanded its layaway
program to help cash-strapped consumers pay for purchases
during the recession, is now helping its customers exchange
their jewelry for cash as gold prices soar.
The new service, available at the jewelry departments of
Sears and Kmart stores, allows customers to send their gold
and silver items to Pro Gold Network, a company that buys
precious metals from consumers.
Pro Gold makes an offer on the gold or silver and the consumer
can choose to accept the offer or have the items returned,
free of charge, Sears said.
Sears provides the shipping envelop and also helps consumers
track the items via websites or a toll-free customer service
number.
Sears has seen sales pressured over the past two years by
the weak economy and has also lost sales to discounters like
Wal-Mart Stores Inc and electronics retailers like Best Buy
Co Inc . The company did say, however, that sales improved
in the first quarter.
In 2008, it expanded its layaway program as a way to help
cash-strapped consumers pay for goods.
Advertising from companies offering gold recycling services
had reached a fever pitch in late 2008 due to a global economic
crisis, as the price of gold climbed above $1,000 an ounce
in a flight to safety.
Last week, gold has soared to record highs at just below
$1,250 an ounce as jittery investors fretted over sovereign
risks and inflation.
Bullion is still far away from its inflation-adjusted record
at over $2,200, analysts said. In 2001, gold was trading at
just $250 an ounce.
(Reporting by Brad Dorfman and Frank Tang,
editing by Dave Zimmerman)