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.
Did your family members still with Sears until they retired?
I wondered if they an an inside view of the company’s demise.
It still seems unreal that such a store could wither and die. Was such an American icon. We did not have a lot of money growing up but on occasion my mother needed to stop in and buy something we needed.
I just loved walking through the place and looking at all the new products, neatly displayed, the display models - all of it. It just seemed like a different world!
Why Sears Employee Feedback Predicted Its Downfall
https://hubpages.com/business/Why-Sears-Employee-Feedback-Predicted-Its-Downfall
My last (and I mean last) experience with Sears wasn’t too long ago. I needed a new car battery so I called Advance Auto and because of experience in the past with the `Die Hard’, also Sears. Both had similar batteries for the same price.
The guy on the phone at Sears assured me installation was free (the battery wasn’t cheap, a `Gold’ or something). The counter guy made the same assurance. I waited quite a while. The store was depressing as all get out also, like going back to the 1982, and you know the rest: when it came time to settle up there was an `installation fee’.
I complained to the dept. then store managers with no success. In response to their subsequent e-mail (`How did we do?’) told them I wouldn’t be back and would never accept any prize or anything free from Sears unless I had everything in writing first.
Disappointing. Used to buy a lot of stuff there, big-ticket items and more. They got in trouble in the past for `bait and switch’ but it looks like they still skin customers. I won’t go back.
I don’t know if I would jump to broad conclusions about anything I observed in New Jersey.
Obama’s poison has reached everything.
If Obama had a store...
Probably “fortified” with generous amounts of section 8 residents, too.
I worked in the Sears Hardware and Tool Department for 15 years - Retired in the 1990’s - we had every size wrench that was made. Inventory on every item. On Saturdays I would run for 8 hours waiting on customers. Then that idiot Alan Lacy was made CEO. He started the destruction of Sears by trying to sell every customer a credit card rather than selling paint and hardware.
Sears, Chicago based, enough said.
LOL...you’ve got that right! And that $800k gets you a studio here, to boot. Nothing like being equi-distant to Apple, Google, Facebook, et al to make housing “affordable.”
On the plus side, you can’t accumulate much crap on your journey through life.
No, not much in the way of Section 8...all H1B visa holders! You need to speak Hindi or Mandarin around here these days.
Walmart is in trouble also.
The problem is not Sears nor Walmart, but the internet has replaced shopping like this.
Walmart is on the same path, but has a strong online presence that is slowing the decline.
People impulse buy in a store. Regular purchases are done online. If the item is wrong (doesn’t fit) you can return it to a store rather than shipping it back.
Brick and mortar stores will get smaller. They will be mostly dedicated to returning/exchanging online purchases.
This is good capitalism. The “waste” of a store is no longer needed and must be swept away.
Let’s face it. There are soooo many reasons why Sears and other Department Stores are failing and will eventually go away. Too many to mention that determines the inevitability of their demise.
I find myself changing greatly too as a consumer. I now often times would prefer to order and receive goods and services from a robot. Especially fast food. Wouldn’t have dreamed it a few years ago. In a weird way though it makes sense.
what’s the best quality tools now if not craftsman?
Large corps, with few exceptions, are run by drooling libs. They focus on quarterly bonuses in order to get rich quick and could not care less about the long term health and growth of the company.
They squeeze lower level employees as hard as they can. When you pay little, you get little. No one cares, everything goes down hill. In a free market eventually the company dies. As it should.
Companies that hire and value good people thrive. In a free market.
But those compassionate libs, ticks and fleas that have sucked the company dry, do not care. They got theirs. And now they want you to vote for Hillary because they ‘care’.
Yep. Kenmore appliances were always quite affordable and
a solidly supported product.
Next they moved into the malls. They hired people that didn't know the product unless it was womenz shoes or clothes. The other lines suffered. The foot traffic fell off.
With less people buying, Sears doubled down on the derp by increasing the size of the womenz wear section by cutting into the tools area. No tools, no men!
Death Spiral. They can't pull out.
Ed
Twenty five years ago I bought a stereo system at Sears for about $700. The manuals showed that two pieces of the set had dust covers-the record player was one. There were no dust covers with the set. I called the salesperson who sold me the set the next day and was given the bums rush. I decided then and there never to shop at Sears again.
I have not! My wife has purchased a few things but not many.
And besides my son works at Wal-Mart so he purchases stuff and saves money with his employee discount card!
I remember taking in a very old, broken 1/2” Craftsman ratchet wrench to the El Cajon, CA store. They replaced it with a new one, no questions asked, and in just a minute or two.
My last experience with Sears years ago (before the battery fiasco described above) was running a gauntlet of Sears associates determined to sell an extended warranty agreement on a snow thrower.
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