the wish book
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.
My peeve with all of these chain stores and even the banks.... they will spend millions on a new building but won’t invest in PEOPLE. Check outs and bank teller windows are closed so customers must always plan on standing around time that we often don’t have.
“by a Wall Street corporate raider and milked dry over the past decade.”
That is exactly what is happening with Cabelas. Bass Pro Shop now owns it. I will never set foot in either again. Cheap quality,over priced, foreign made crap.
I will buy online, and if I have to buy cheap foreign crap, at least I can pay what it’s worth. Or shop LL Bean and get better stuff.
Look up “man on page 602”. This was the same time that CB radios were popular. A guy in my hometown used that as his “handle”.
OMG last time I was at Sears trying to pay was a nightmare. “Do you want to put it on your Sears card” “Do you want to get a Sears card” “Warranty” “are you sure about the card” and on and on. For a $40 freaking humidifier. It was all I could do to not go off on him, I really try not to go at the “help” for stuff that’s clearly corporate decisions but damn.
They need to bring back The Man on Page 602.
The shiny pages didn’t work very well.
the wish book
IIRC Sears had a policy of somehow paying employees serving in the armed forces. And their same jobs would be open to returning service members.
It was a great store once. I really loved shopping there. It takes senior management to run loyal customers out of your store chain.
We own a Sears Roebuck house dated early 1900s
I always looked forward to the Sears “Wish Book” before Christmas. I would spend hours reading and looking, trying to decide what I wanted from Santa!
Chuckles, you are old! Right there with ya FReeper.
They had a national presence, a national distribution network, and experience in every aspect of purchasing, warehousing, distribution and sales before anyone ever heard of Amazon or any of the other competition that is currently rolling over them and putting them out of business.
But they didn't have management that could tear themselves away from the old 1940's business model and leapfrog into the present.
Sears is still around?
It was that way when I worked there in the early 80’s. We were ordered to push credit apps and warranties - and big-ticket commission salespeople got fired if they didn’t sell enough of the latter. Sears has been pissing off its customers for a very long time.
Sears near me closed. It was a smaller store. The one on the West Side of Cleveland is big. I hope it’s still there! In the basement they had a Scratch And Dent Dept. Bought all my appliances there very cheaply.
The Sears Catalog, it was Amazon before Amazon was even a twinkle in anyone's eye. How easy it used to be to comparison shop. And to find the right size tool. Or that specialty tool. Or a tool you needed but didn't even know that it existed.
I'm sorry, but online shopping can't compare to having the catalog in hand. Grainger, DigiKey maybe a few others are OK with their online catalog. They are the exceptions. Maybe it's because those guys already know how to make a good print catalog.
I went in mid-May to buy a new vacuum cleaner. They were selling the model I wanted. But they were out of stock. I said when can you get one in. The answer was 10 Jun, at the earliest. Really? So I have to wait nearly a month?
I ended up getting one off Amazon. It arrived within 3 days.
Remember the sign above their doors?
Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back
That went bye bye along with sales staff that could help.
You expect a hassle at discount stores, one of the prices you pay for cheap. But if you are paying regular prices you expect service.
Sadly Sears threw it all away.
And I worked for them for 23 yrs.
The problem with a lot of oler stores (and government) is that they made 20 year investments in computer hardware, which is obsolete after 2.
And they are still paying on them. I worked at a government agency that wasy LEASING a million dollar mainframe from IBM on a year to year basis. I could have replaced everything on that computer with a modern 386 (at the time) and a few Microsoft Access databases.
They probably still have it (and the 10 people hired to ‘operate’ it)
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