Silvertone guitars and amplifiers are considered vintage collectors items today. Back when new, they were considered low cost beginners instruments (the guitars were made by Danelectro.) If it's good enought for this guy....
Mark
Posted on 05/28/2016 11:27:48 AM PDT by PROCON
Selling off the successful parts and keeping the failures. That’s not a winning strategy ( to put it mildly). Just the contrary, in fact.
Harbor Freight says thank you.
I took back a socket wrench about three years ago, and they now just hand you cheap junk from a parts bin.
I still like going to sears and getting my tools.
My dad gave me a Stevens double barrel shotgun for Christmas when I was 12. Age 16, wanted a single barrel.
Dad said go to Sears. Walked out with a Browning, 12g Semi Automatic. I believe it was $234.
Later...two shots...2 Mallards.
Sad, indeed.
Sears appliances, tools, batteries, kids jeans, etc have been basic mainstays of this country.
They fell behind on the ecommerce frontier, big time. Buying KMart wasn’t such a great move, either.
My Kenmore sewing machine is almost 50 years old and still working fine. The plastic junk they’re making these days probably would not last nearly as long.
Craftsman had the best return policy ever. I went through two to three craftsman tape measures a year for 15 years. Only had to buy two of them, the first one and a replacement for one I lost.
Selling Craftsman and DieHard would be a mistake.
I worked for Sears from 1970 to 1991. In the 70’s most of the washers and dryers were made by Whirlpol, some also were made by Frigadaire and GE. Even a few models were made by Gibson (a heavy combo unit, washer and dryer in one.) Never were any Kenmore washers in the 70’s or 80’s made by Maytag. In those years Maytag and Kenmore (Whirlpol) were bitter rivals. Maytag washers made in the 70’s were tanks but had a major flaw...they did a poor job cleaning clothes.
I think you are right-I believe it was a Whirlpool. Only thing I ever had to do to it was a new water valve. I think it was older as well, as from the 60s.
Management needs a time machine to go back to early mid 1960’s. Sears had it all good better and best. Now they’ve moved the sales desk out of tools???? Pillow cases.
Exactly! Nearly every tool I own is Craftsman, whenever I’d need to buy a car battery, it would be a Die Hard (I can’t say how long they’d last, since I never had to replace one, and I owned my cars at least 12 to 15 years back then!)
When I bought my house, as I was moving in, I bought a Kenmore washer, dryer, and Microwave. When I sold my house, 22 years later, the washer, dryer, and microwave still worked fine, and were sold along with the house.
You’re right. Sears really was the one-stop “go to place for everything.” It’s really sad to see it going down the drain.
Mark
Silvertone guitars and amplifiers are considered vintage collectors items today. Back when new, they were considered low cost beginners instruments (the guitars were made by Danelectro.) If it's good enought for this guy....
Mark
The only decent part of Sears and they are selling? Wow. I think it literally is the end of Sears and K-Mart. They have been struggling for over 10 years. I don’t think they can survive especially getting rid of those 3 name brands that was part of their success.
Not sure of the current state of things but not too long ago Sears had much more value in tne store real estate they owned than in the business.
Yup, that’s why Amazon is prospering.
Yes. And for many items Walmart. Sears hardly even come up in Google searches, while even Blaines farm and fleet likely has better prices on basic items. Search Gorilla tape 35 yds at Amazon and you should see it at under 9.00, with free ship for 49.00 orders, while at Sears the price ranges from $9.57 to $96.58 for 3. plus shipping i presume.
It's amazing to me that a company that got it's start as a catalog sales company has no clue how to market itself online.
Why they never tried to go up against Amazon early on escapes me, they already had the supply and distribution chain set up. Mail order was your forte at one time.
And with K-mart send your executives and store managers into Target and Walmart stores. Then go back and make your K-mart stores look like they compete. If you have to revamp some stores then close the really bad ones to save some money. While it would be nice to fix up the store I'm really talking about making sure the shelves are neat and the place doesn't look like a tornado went through it.
As for Sears why would you sell your branded lines unless you were planning on shutting down completely? If your brands still have popularity then open up appliance stores, tool and automotive stores and get out of the business you don't understand or don't have the means to compete in.
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