I have heard that it turned into one of the worst places to work the last 15 years. Talk about missing the boat. They had some good appliance traditions, I know I bought a number of them. They had Craftsman, vacuum cleaners etcetera. All of those things generate traffic. They even repaired a lot of their stuff. Warranty traditions were good. With all that to generate a base line of traffic they could not get their soft goods to any sort of consistency and reliability. Work garments might be the only exception.
What a lot of bone headed moves. AND it was a century old CATALOGUE company that could not figure out internet sales — DUH>
“they could not get their soft goods to any sort of consistency and reliability. “
Sears Toughskins sold like hotcakes in my neighborhood in the 60s and 70s..
All the kids wore them-—they had a reinforced knee.
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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.