Posted on 10/17/2018 8:34:54 PM PDT by conservative98
1983. Mannequins are shown as Sears unveils its "Store of the Future."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
What do you expect from a company that dumped its catalogue 5 years or more before online retail took off. Then ignored the internet.
Sears got too big. Retail was ignored while most assets were focused on the running of the beauracracy. Along with buying Dean Witter and just managing their real estate holdings.
Kmart did the same thing. Wal-Mart is headed that way too.
I bought a Sears “diehard” battery several years ago with a 5 year warranty. It failed before 2 years. No one at any level of Sears gave a damn about the warranty. It was worthless. I have been wishing for their demise ever since. It only took 5 years! Not bad.
Walmart is ramping up to compete with Amazon by enlisting other sellers to its online store.
I was referring to Walmart becoming a real estate holding company. Didn’t make that clear.
As to retail I never go there. Stores are a mess, no help, checkout a n8ghtmare, etc.
The REAL "Store of the Future" in 1994.
Sears missed the target by a country mile.
Hmmm. I got 10 years out of a pair of Diehards in my F250 Powerstroke. So I put 2 more in 2 years ago. So far so good.
I went to Target today. It was an ordeal but I bought some things I wanted ... electric blanket [dogs are hogging it now].
But it’s hard to avoid the appeal of Amazon Prime. I keep the shopping list going 24/7 ... and it arrives in 24 hours. I have tried the same day ship with great success ... a somewhat obscure item was delivered by a little delivery guy a few hours later.
Although I suspect that nothing is really “obscure” in Los Angeles.
I was confident in buying that battery. It was for my V-8 truck and I got what I thought was a very good battery. Cost a lot. Then one day it was dead as a doornail. I had it tested and confirmed it was unable to hold a charge. Sears gave not one sh*t that it was a bad battery. I paid over $200 for it. From the Sears I got it at, to every person I could reach at Sears by phone, no one cared and they were rude. I said I’d never set foot in their store again after buying their tools for 50 years. No one cared one bit to lose a life long customer. Fraudulent fake warranties didn’t concern them either. I should have involved the consumer protection bureau but didn’t have time-I just needed a battery that worked and went to my Chevy dealer I knew for 25 years. They said Sears batteries are over priced. Can get better for less at a dealer or car part store.
That sucks. Certainly not my experience with them. Sorry to see them go.
I was just having a similar discussion with my step dad last week. I suppose that after all the brick and mortar stores close due to lack of sales, the online retailers will have a heyday raising prices and lowering service standards.
That being said...I’m guilty of shuttering the local shops. My weed whacker broke this weekend so on Monday I checked out the prices on Amazon and ended up buying 3 different yard tools. I went to my local Ace Hardware then the exact 3 items were $50 more each! I would have to spend $400 locally to get what I got for $250 on Amazon. The Amazon order was waiting for me when I got back home from work today. It’s hard to compete with that.
I felt like an idiot for buying batteries and tools from them for so long. They had the worst customer service ever.
Fond memories of visiting Santa Claus at the Sears in San Diego and my Dad took me to see the Aston Martin 007 car from Goldfinger there. Wonderful smell of roasting peanuts and other treats. This makes me kind of sad, actually.
Te old story still holds....if you don’t support your local retailers they’ll be gone.
It’s not icons that make America great, it’s a free and fair market.
Davids Bridal is going bankrupt as well.
Damn straight.
Amazon just does everything right. Need it at a good price, fast? Done. Need to return? No problem. No parking, no lines, no return hassles. The reviews before you buy are so helpful. I’m going to start using Amazon for groceries and see how I like that.
I can find the item I want online in about 1 minute opposed to driving to several stores to search for the item and getting no help from the store clerks. And the price is almost always cheaper, a lot of times without tax. I get most orders in a couple of days. I have spent days to weeks trying to find something specific in a store. Online ordering just make sense.
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