Posted on 12/04/2016 2:30:46 PM PST by ARGLOCKGUY
Things aren't looking good for Sears. The company is shutting down dozens of Kmart stores this month and two of its highest-ranking executives left this week in the midst of the key holiday shopping season. This comes following speculation among Sears and Kmart employees, suppliers, and several banks that the retailer will soon go bankrupt — something Sears has repeatedly dismissed. Jeff Balagna, formerly Sears' executive vice president, left the company Wednesday, "in order to focus on his other business interests and pursue other career opportunities," Sears said in an SEC filing dated November 23.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The real issue with Sears was their credit card. They made a fortune giving high interest credit to almost everyone. When Visa/Mastercard came out they refused to let them be used in their stores because they were making their real money from usury not regular sales. By the time they created Discover their customers had fled (and they could get credit elsewhere). Bye bye Sears! Note: They kept my honest Dad in hock almost all his life with 21% interest. I have no sympathy for the usurious scum.
Not any more.
Tim Allen owes his career to Craftsman.
As a kid, if we needed something, we just went to Sears and was done with it. Quality usually above average with an affordable price.
One of the things that keeps me out of their stores was probably in the 90’s or so they changed their life time warranty on many of their tools. And some of the tools still under warranty they tried to replace with inferior designed tools.
Yup. And National Geograpic, too.
That is true. Sears has the best garden hoses in my opinion -- real rubber that doesn't have a memory and lasts forever. I bought two online from them a year ago. They arrived quickly in a HUGE box with poorly done tape securing the box. The box was full to the brim with styrofoam beads and I'm sure the Sears guy who packed the box dosed those beads with an extra charge of static electricity. It must have taken me an hour to clean up the mess they made. Amazon's boxes always arrive very professionally marked, neatly taped, and nicely packed in the air-inflated bubble material.
Hard to believe something as simple as packaging leaves a big impression - very positive for Amazon, very negative for Sears.
I needed tools for my first field service job out of engineering school, so I went to Sears. They turned me down for a credit card! After I was established and making good money, they BEGGED me to take their credit card. I often returned their mail-in application with a big “NO WAY!” scrawled across it. I never did get a Sears credit card, even after 45 years from the day they turned me down.
I agree with you! Sometimes I need to roll over and check if I am really a woman at all! I don’t see the fun in shopping. AT ALL.
I see shopping as something you might have to do sometimes if you can’t get some item online or fast enough. It’s just a regular errand.
When traveling, of course I do enjoy seeing what is in the shops of other countries. But for a few minutes on a walk through town, not 3 hours of clothes shopping! I like nice clothes but shopping? There is always something more fun to do than that.
He would have a new tool Craftsman yard sale at least once per year.
I was cold one day in Huntington Beach, ducked into the Westminster Sears and grabbed a hoodie and bought it. It was a horrible purchase. The hoodie was so stiff, wasn’t flexible and comfy like my other cotton hoodies. Looked at the tag and it was 100% poly. Made in China. Wasn’t a great impression of Sears today.
They couldnt explain why they should exist and why they were the best place to come for things.
Thanks. I’ve heard there are only three companies left in the States that make them any longer.
LOL
“As a kid I remember the old Sears and Roebucks catalog from the covered wagon days....”
Do you also remember when Sears carried the moniker, “Sears, The Men’s Store”. How many of you would EVER consider this the first place to look for a gift for your wife or girlfriend (unless she’s Rosie O’Donnell)? No one.
If these corporate executives running Sears would take off their skirts for a second, and remake the store as a the place where manly men go to gear up, I think they could have a winner. They need to differentiate themselves as a brand.
Aside from Cabellas and similar outdoor stores, their are few, if any, stores that are men centric. And don’t talk to me about Men’s Warehouse. Those guys are either Men in Name Only, or dudes who remembered at 12:05 they have a wedding to attend at 1:00, and the booze is free.
If the store is selling upright vacuum cleaners, and coffee makers, it’s not a Men’s store. I’m looking at you, Lowes and Home Depot. You two lost me at Ty Pennington on HGTV.
A man-centric store would be a refreshing change. None of these gender bender bathrooms. Nope. Just a door with a sign over it that reads ‘piss trough’. If you can’t stand, tough, take your butt down to the Candle Barn and do your thing.
Sears can come back if it grows a set, or it can die on the vine like thought hatched out of the head of our exiting pResident. Maybe they should start selling hope and change, that always seems to work.
“But in HF you didn’t have one programmed sales Associate after another nagging you to buy an extended warranty”
HFT does plenty of nagging to buy an extended warranty or join their sales club when you check out.
It would appear the real estate has become more valuable than the brand name.
We have a Kmart not far from our house. I’d rather go there than Walmart. I can park right by the front door, run in and get what I want and run out. The same trip at our Walmart would take half an hour longer. First I’d have to find somewhere to park and then hike into the store. Lol
damn, that’s messed up... i had no credit history at all aside from a car loan
i dropped the card a year later when i got my Visa cause it was smaller and hard to get out of my wallet and it was only good at Sears
Up until around the early 1990s, I went there on a regular basis. Then national chains like Home Depot, Kohls, Circuit City and Best Buy start sprouting up everywhere. Sears never adapted. It was the same old store with the pushy appliance salesmen, the nerdy clothing, the lame music selections and the laborious check-out process resulting in yard long receipts for just buying a couple of items. Only the tool section made it worth a trip but in recent years, the quality of Craftsman tools started to decline as well.
Back in 1973, Donald Knuth gave them an early hint in his book, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Searching and Sorting. At the beginning of the volume's index, he quoted advice from the 1897 Sears Catalog: "If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue." The art of indexing and searching has come a long way since 1897, and nowadays, the seller searches the index for you and puts the results in front of you. All you have to do is click Buy.
Over the years, Sears stores have become ever more drab and dreary, no fun to "look very carefully through".
The Sears store nearest me anchors the north end of the Burlington Mall. It occupied two stories, until a year or two ago, when they closed the second floor "for renovation" and moved the appliances, etc., down the first. Renovation never happened. Finally, they announced that the second floor would be occupied by Primark, an Irish clothing retailer now owned by Associated British Foods. The new store opens Wednesday.
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