Posted on 04/12/2018 4:03:08 PM PDT by foreverfree
Sears, based in Chicago for more than a century and now facing mounting troubles, is closing its last store in the city.
Employees at the store at Six Corners, on the edge of the Portage Park neighborhood, were told of the closure Thursday morning, spokesman Howard Riefs said in an email.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Yes, it is all catalog shopping/ordering.
That’s all “on-line” is. Trying to dress it up as new-age doesn’t change the fact it’s still an old-fashioned kind of shopping, in the old days meant for those who were remote and couldn’t shop in person.
Another thing to think of. Sears has been around a long time and they had many employees who got benefits and pensions.
How do they compete against newer retail stores who only pay peanuts?
I’d agree.
People knew Sears was downsizing and scrambling 30 years ago.
And it’s not a great sign when your main direct competitor, Monkey Wards, dies at that time. Means something was “wrong” with the company approach long before “cyber”.
In the early 80s, when Walmart was expanding into Oklahoma and other areas, the prez of Sears was interviewed and asked what he thought about their expension and whether it was a threat. He responded, ‘who do they think they are? Sears?’
It was about a decade later when Walmart, Inc., passed Sears, Inc., in value.
Sears Tower doesn’t even exist in Chicago anymore. It is now renamed and called Willis Tower.
I shopped at this store in the 1960s. Still remember the Candy Shop area toward the middle of the store and that great chocolate smell. Other department stores had them as well.
” Sears was on their way down long before that.”
Indeed. Don’t forget to include the fact that their point-of-sale system is practically THE worst one in the entire world. It’s always been practically impossible for their sales associates to use. I doubt if they’ve updated it for at least 25 years, and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s based on a program from the DOS day or from some obscure computer model that’s been defunct for at least 20 years, but continues to run on some kind of simulator ...
That may be part of the answer. But to me what killed them was the Chinafication of their products.
Craftsmen tools were once one of the best values you could find—quality tools fairly priced. I liked Sears work boots and work clothes. Again, quality made at a fair price. Their appliances were as good as any on the market.
I once had a Kenmore washer that was still going strong after 25 years. It may be still going strong for all I know. I left it with my old house 20 years ago. I liked Sears work boots and work clothes. Again, quality made at a fair price.
I imagine now Sears sells whatever their Chinese brokers are pushing this year.
Have you ever tried to buy something at the Sears website? It’s the slowest, most convoluted website I’ve ever used. How a company could have one of the greatest mail-order businesses in the world (they sold HOUSES mail order!), and then completely miss the boat on the internet, is beyond me.
If it wasn’t for Craftsman tools (which they sold off I think), I wouldn’t walk in their store.
I think time passed Sears by, but it should be respected for what it meant to America, for maybe a century, and given a decent burial.
That certainly hasn’t helped.
“Retail stores come and go. Monkey Ward, Woolworths, Kresge, etc.”
Kresge isn’t quite gone: it turned into Kmart.
If it wasn’t for Craftsman tools (which they sold off I think), I wouldn’t walk in their store.
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Used to be able to bring in any broken Craftsman tool and they would replace it on the spot. No questions asked. Now they sell the same junk as everyone else.
Every few years I go there for filters for my shop vac. That’s it.
In about 5 years, half of all Americans were on the Internet.
If Sears had played its cards right, they could have been a real competitor to Amazon.
yes. ‘and sears website is a bad joke...
ESPECIALLY since Sears almost pioneered mass-scale mail-order merchandising....they were GRRAT at it! now it almost all been captured by Amazon ... a modern upstart, if you will....
and even using Sears website can be a real struggle, even its product-search function is really crappy !! amazingly poor website, and they shipped up an OBVIOUSLY broken at the warehouse tool.. that required a year struggle to even get a half-assed refund for, a refund they promised in writing immediately but when you tried to get it... you got connected to people in Phillipines, Viet Nam, all over hell and gone as I recall....we finally had to threaten to sue the guy who purchased, owns sears now...just to get our damned money back ... horrible horrible company nowadays, but it was PRIMO good place in the past, a fine company and you always knew the merchandise was good or they’d fix or refund right away, it used to be just the opposite of what it is today, a very honest reliable company, imho
Kresge isn’t quite gone: it turned into Kmart.
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Good luck finding a Kmart store.
The nicest hand tools these days are the Kobalt line from Lowes. Sure, made in China, just like Craftsman and now just like Snap-On. Still, they're reasonable priced, durable, and ergonomic.
Don't even get me started on the flat-out GARBAGE that Snap-On is putting out these days. We use them at work where they're purchased by the taxpayers. They break all the time. Since the military is the purchaser, they don't even bother replacing them under warranty. They just dispose of them and get new ones.
I remember Snap-On tools from 30 years ago. The ones they're making today are shameful.
I have my Kenmore washer and dryer, nothing fancy or digital, one step up from the basic models. They're freakin' tanks! Never given me the slightest bit of trouble.
Actually, in the decade I've been a homeowner, they're the only major appliances I haven't replaced (and the only Kenmore appliances I own).
Should've bought Kenmore everything.
ff
Sears has for years seen falling sales — down 45% since early 2013. Meanwhile,
its debt load has spiked to over $4 billion, and it’s losing well over $1 billion
annually.
The company closed nearly 400 Sears and Kmart stores last year. The upcoming
round of closures will leave it with fewer than 940 stores, down from 3,510 six
years ago.
Two years ago, Kmart had 941 stores. After the upcoming round of closures,
it will have about 400.
http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-closing-stores-list-2018-1
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