Posted on 09/16/2021 4:05:17 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
The last Sears department store located in the retailer’s home state of Illinois is getting ready to close its doors for good.
The shop, located in Simon Property Group’s Woodfield Mall, is scheduled to shutter on Nov. 14, the company confirmed to CNBC.
A spokesman for the department store chain’s parent company, Transformco, said it will look for ways to revive the space with another tenant because it also manages the real estate.
“This is part of the company’s strategy to unlock the value of the real estate and pursue the highest and best use for the benefit of the local community,” Transformco said in a statement.
Sears Holdings, which also owned Kmart, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018. Transformco later acquired Sears out of bankruptcy and has since closed dozens of the remaining Sears and Kmart locations across the United States.
Kmart’s last location in Manhattan recently shut. It will be replaced by a Wegmans grocery store.
A spokesperson for Transformco declined to confirm how many Sears and Kmart stores are still open.
The company’s websites list 35 Sears locations, including the one at Woodfield Mall, and 22 Kmart stores.
Sears was founded in Chicago in the 1890s. Its business blossomed through much of the 20th century, as it sold everything from homes to apparel. Sears was once the largest retailer in the nation, boasting thousands of stores.
The company had about 700 stores, many of them barren of goods, when it filed for bankruptcy protection.
Scott Carr, president of Transformco’s real estate division, said in a statement that the company plans to maximize the value of the Woodfield Mall property through a redevelopment.
“However, they got locked themselves into 99 year leases every where and that partially was their downfall.”
A 99 year lease is crazy, unless you’re leasing an entire city.
Another thing that didn’t help was the internal bickering between the retail and catalog divisions.
The retail department wanted to do away with the catalog thinking that it hurt business at the stores.
Unfortunately most of the higher ups had come up through the retail division and had no real loyalty to the catalog. One reason it was so easy for them to shrug off that new internet thing. They believed in the brick and mortar stores first and foremost.
Bad decisions.
Now why did you have to go there? At age 12, I took the Sears catalog into the bathroom to look for good Christmas presents, not to look at the brassieres. Never the brassieres. (Some of them were kinda see-through...the lacy ones. But I didn’t notice that.)
And Blockbuster. They just needed a new business model.
Some tools are made in the US, others come from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong it appears. Power tools are assembled in the US with foreign parts. You might find this website interesting:
https://allamericanreviews.com/stanley-black-decker/
You could buy a HOUSE thru the Sears catalog in the 20’s or 30’s.
So does Lowe’s.
Don't know who made Craftsman stuff post-1970, or so.
Prior to that, the major US toolmakers, like Stanley, Sargent, Millers Falls, Starrett, Brown&Sharpe, etc. made stuff for Sears with the Craftsman name on them. Most of it was great quality, but they had a second line branded as Dunlap which is generally crap.
Proto is now owned by Stanley, which merged with Black&Decker. Stanley hasn't made a good tool since they shuttered their UK manufacture several years ago.
Look for Craftsman tools in Loews.
Lowe’s does carry Craftsman.
Just bought a Craftsman flashlight 2 weeks ago.
We had all Craftsman tools on the farm. We bought them because they were good and the warranty.
Working on a recalcitrant threshing machine one day I had to use a cheater bar. Took a 3/4” craftsman wrench, slipped a 6’ length of pipe over it and started pulling. The wrench broke.
Took it to Sears and they replaced it without question.
There was a small Sears store in the town I lived in back in the mid-90s to 2000 or so. They had a bunch of appliances in stock, but not really much else. I went in there looking for some tool or other once and never went back. The building is some kind of touristy craft store now.
We had a Craftsman lawn mower from Sears that lasted a long time
You’re the reason Sears failed. If you like Whirlpool so much why don’t you marry it? Huh? :-)
And the budget brand of Whirlpool was Roper. Same stuff with a different label, and cheaper.
I know it is really hard to get Ivermectin and HCQ right now.
But I believe that the medication you need is still available.
Amazon? They sell books, right?
How far we have come.
And for teenage boys the women’s lingerie sections were something to look forward to!
That actually made sense at the time...plus they had to get out of their old central office/warehouse on Chicago’s west side. The surrounding neighborhood became so bad (and still is) that at shift change time the length of Homan Avenue from Arthington Street to the Congress Line CTA station was a virtual wall of Sears private security guards.
Moving out to the northwest suburbs and building a new office campus, on the other hand....
I dunno. Walmart has an aggressive online presence. They’re trying to compete with Amazon and they’re just about doing it with merchandise availability and variety, but Amazon beats their prices on most things, sometimes by a lot.
“Those old catalog corset ads were quite saucy back in the day.”
Not to mention the Man on Page 602.
http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/the_man_on_page_602
Lol! I have a supply of apple-flavored horse paste just in case.
I don’t think the drug I really need has been invented yet though.
Just messin’ with ya!
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