Sears, San Antonio Center, Mountain View, CA, 1961
Good-bye, Sears, 2011...
New "mixed use" in 2014. The new "urban landscape."
Posted on 06/25/2017 8:56:12 AM PDT by ARGLOCKGUY
I haven't been inside a Sears store for more than 10 years, until Thursday, June 22. And, wow, did I learn a lot.
Mainly, I came away with a better understanding of why Sears Holdings Corp. is closing an additional 20 stores on top of the 245 it already planned to shutter. And why it has failed to turn a profit in 29 out of the last 37 quarters and seen same-store sales decline in 11 of the past 12 quarters.
I observed alienating treatment of a loyal customer at the store in Jersey City, N.J., which was also messy and uninviting inside.
When I came upon customer Stephanie Rosso, a resident of Jersey City, she was struggling with four employees to get a simple return transaction completed for a dryer she'd bought and sent back to the warehouse that day with the delivery man. Normally, getting a refund takes about two minutes tops.
Sears is another once iconic American company bought out by a Wall Street corporate raider and milked dry over the past decade. Unfortunately in today’s economy Wall Street investment firms are all about extracting rents for personal gain, not investing, building and creating.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-eddie-lampert-set-sears-up-to-fail-2017-5
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/03/22/sears-holdings-ceo-eddie-lampert/99487518/
Sears, San Antonio Center, Mountain View, CA, 1961
Good-bye, Sears, 2011...
New "mixed use" in 2014. The new "urban landscape."
I keep thinking someone, or a group of someones on the Board of Directors must have made the decision to let Sears slowly die on the vine. The deterioration is just too obvious, too widespread and prolonged to be spontaneous. I have a sister who worked for them in California maybe 15 years ago. She mentioned the poor management, skewed schedules and low pay even back then.
It would have been kinder to simply cease operating the retail stores or sell them off. I think that’s what happened to Montgomery Wards stores, which used to be one of the retail giants. Of course in today’s world, not many retailers would need that many overlarge brick and mortar stores that need to be lit up and maintained.
Maybe the majority of Sears store could become hospitals , Community Colleges or affordable housing.
One other thing I've noticed: lots of burned-out ceiling fluorescent lights in the ceiling fixtures. It's like the place is slowly fading away.
Sears got rid of all the things a man might buy..its a women’s store ..how many women’s stores do women need??
In the 1980s all the construction workers went there for tools..
Then along came Home Depot
Thanks for sharing that as I was curious to know how Ottawa was going to be affected. Looks like we are losing just the one store.
neverevergiveup wrote: “Sears had lots of positives in their favor, and blew it. They had history and an exceptionally well-known brand name. They had Craftsman. They were emblematic of the ‘shop from home’ model with their famous catalogue business, and could have made a smart and smooth transition to online purchasing. They screwed up all of this, and now look like Woolworth in their waning days.”
Sears used to be the ‘go to store’ for military families since they knew they could get their appliances, etc., serviced even when over seas.
Too bad as you mentioned their Craftsman tools were top shelf quality and also the Kenmore line of appliances. The modern cultural rot has infected deep institutions of once great value. We can cite many examples, J.C.Penney, Target, Macy’s, K-mart, etc.. and others who have embraced the lieberal SUCK.
The popcorn back then was so good
I think it when Montgomery Ward starting importing from Japan much of the goods Sears sold that was made in the US, it forced Sears and other companies to do the same. The quality of the Japanese goods then was inferior to US goods but a lot cheaper. It is ironic that Ward went kaput a long time before Sears faced that possibility. Just this year most of Craftsman tool that were US made finally disappeared in favor of Chinese crap.
You were obviously in the wrong line, for English, you need to be in line one.
Their catalogue was the best things they had going for them. The hours spent pouring over that picture book were endless.
From underwear to furniture: they had it all. Even homes at one time.
SEARS MODERN HOMES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKP2RTLkiTg
Noting says “mixed use” like an $800,000 condo overlooking a Safeway parking lot! :)
JC Penny as well.
Went to the Sears just inside the DC Beltway, (Van Dorn), at the Sears there was nothing but muslimes “working” there with NO interest in assisting anyone unless they are muslime as well.
Felt like I was back in the mid-East again, with the black draped arabic-speaking, sweat/perfume smell.
i knew they wer dying 25 years ago when their tool manager (female) knew nothing about tools, power tools, or even basic shop safety
That’s a pet peeve of mine, that you go in some stores, and the people who work there can be clueless about the products their stores are selling. I wonder about what training, if any, they give their employees about the merchandise they sell.
The Bra section was the best
when there’s a huge store and four shoppers, all on line, the store looks empty...
Well not much they spend 2 weeks training them how to make change
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