Is Sears Dead ??

[SWR]

Went to Sears yesterday for a couple of things. Great sales going on. But, the only people I found working there were the 6 or 7 people actually manning the various cash registers scattered around the store. Not another sole to be found to help. The number of shoppers I saw could probably all fit in a large van. The place was spooky empty. Really ignorantly stupid how they got into this situation. I mean most of the Craftsman branded stuff is still pretty decent, not quite as good as 20 years ago but not all bad. The clothing in the mens dept had a decent selection of middle of the road style shirts, jeans etc. They carry all the appliance and TV brands. When I was a kid it was fun to go to Sears and roam in the sporting goods, the place was so alive- Montgomery Wards too. I still shop Ebay for vintage Craftsman stuff occasionally.
I really like their Craftsman brand of work clothes, shirts, pants. Good quality.They carry a few Carhartt items as well. I have heard a few stories here and there about poor customer service but really is Walmart any better ?
I mean really, whats the real difference between Sears and Walmart, other than price. And why is there any price difference ? Sears was around years before Walmart and had an infrastructure in place before Walmart was even a thought in anyones mind. Every community had a Sears store through the 60,70, 80's.

I think we will all miss Sears when they are gone.

 

[bobski]

sears doesnt have a grocery or pharmacy.

 

[Mike J]

When I was a kid Sears had a huge store on Ponce De Leon in Atlanta. My Uncle Billy worked there for 28 years. I remember going there when I was about 3 or 4 to see Santa Claus. They closed that store somewhere around 1980 & then we went to Sears at the mall. When I first started my apprenticeship in 1989 I went there regularly for tools. Their lifetime guarantee rocked. I bought tape measures, snips, socket sets, wrenches & a lot of other stuff (boots, clothing, appliances etc.) there. I got annoyed with them when they quit warrantying snips the second time. I quit using their tape measures at work before they quit warrantying them because the blades were like tissue paper.
Now they are not convenient to where I live. I pretty much have enough socket sets & combination wrenches. There are other places I can get better value for my money that are closer to home. About the only time I go there is to buy snips (they are about the only ones around here that sell Midwest snips) or trade a tool if one is broken.

 

[Fox Mike]

There is still a couple of large stores around here BUT the smaller stores are long gone. Stores like Target and Wal-Mart have taken much of their sales. Sears is going through today what happened to Montgomery Ward many years ago. Competition is not always what is best for a company.

 

[TinkerDave]

Sears died a long time ago - they just haven't pulled the plug yet. I used to buy all Craftsman tools, but after they almost ruined my wife's credit rating over a dollar-something refund that was owed to her before we got married - and therefore almost ruined our ability to buy our first house, I quit shopping there. It has been over 20 years since I last bought anything at Sears. Walmart is heading for the brink too. They are not far from filing chapter 11 - maybe five years if what I read in the news is true. TD

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Sears died a long time ago - they just haven't pulled the plug yet. I used to buy all Craftsman tools, but after they almost ruined my wife's credit rating over a dollar-something refund that was owed to her before we got married - and therefore almost ruined our ability to buy our first house, I quit shopping there. It has been over 20 years since I last bought anything at Sears. Walmart is heading for the brink too. They are not far from filing chapter 11 - maybe five years if what I read in the news is true. TD

They hurt our credit also. My wife worked at Sears for many years and we always shopped there and had a Sears credit card. When the company started to get into trouble they sold off the credit part of the company to some financial company and that is when our trouble started. Finally we paid off the card and canceled it.

Since then we have started shopping there again, once in a while, and gotten another Sears card to use just for the discounts.

 

[Kevin]

I only know of one Sears around here. They only sell clothing. No tools at all. They might sell TV's. I've only been inside once looking for tools so I didn't buy anything. But really, that is the only Sears I know of in this area. There must be more, I would think.

Didn't someone here say Kmart bought Sears?

 

[tinman]

When I was coming up, the Craftsman brand was the tool line to have.....and we used to wait for the BIG catalog to arrive and then spend days reading thru it. Those two things were what kept the name Sears in everyone's memory banks whenever they went shopping. From my standpoint when the catalog went away........so did Sears. They simply got lost in the sea of the other retailers "sale" fliers and circulars. :cry:

 

[vito]

I had been buying my major appliances at Sears for many years, ever since they started carrying more than just the Kenmore brand. But a few years ago our Kenmore front loading washer imploded, with glass shards embedded inside the drum of the washer and of course in the clothes that were being washed. Sears offered to replace the front door of the machine, but refused to pay for the cleaning out of the glass inside the washer even when their own technician stated that the washer would likely leave glass fragments indefinitely in washed items for months until it was all gone. Even though the washer was well in its warranty period, when I refused to accept a new door as total action by Sears they wouldn't even talk to me or discuss how to resolve the issue. I vowed then and there to never shop in Sears again and I have not felt that I am missing out on anything. Sears also showed its business ineptness when they bought K-Mart, well on its way to total bankruptcy. Good riddance to both companies.

 

[Dave P.]

Yup, they're toast.
I'm 59 years old and live within 3 miles of a large Sears store.
Have not been in it in the last 8-9 years, not once.
They have nothing I want, better quality, pricing and selection
can be found elsewhere.
The world changed and they didn't.
Dave

 

[Cooperhawk]

Just this Sunday we went to Sears after leaving Home Depot and Appliance Mart in disgust. No sales people at all. Went to Sears and had a great experience buying a washer dryer. Sears is still doing fine here. :D

 

[Bull Barrel]

Actually KMart bought Sears.

 

[gasbag]

We have one of the smallest Sears stores in this area I have ever seen.
Kind of a sad little store, very few customers and not many employees working in it.
Nothing special about it. It looks just like any other KMart, WalMart or whatever inside.
Except for their tools the quality of everything else is also about the same.
One of my best memories as a kid was getting the Sears Christmas "Wishbook" in November.
I had that thing worn out in a week. :)

 

[Bob Wright]

Sears has been guilty of "trying to do business from an empty cart." The Sears around me have been poorly managed, poorly staffed, and poorly stocked.

Bob Wright

 

[SamV]

Even more amazing when you realize that at one time Sears was the "Amazon" of the retail world. They sold everything and would deliver it. They were a hundred years ahead of Amazon and carried a number of well respected products. I know we used to shop there a lot . There is one at the mall close to me, but I only seem to use its parking lot to get to other stores. Kinda sad really.

 

[Pat-inCO]

I think the single most easily understood point, is if you use the Sears
"Customer Service" by phone, out of Chicago. The response you will
get is like a Tiger with a chapped posterior. You get someone that
speaks marginal English, but with a HEAVY Southern accent, that sounds
like she is totally annoyed you called. "Customer Service"?

That is an attitude from HQ, that has spread to at least half the stores.
Then, as mentioned above, they were bought out by . . K-Mart . . you
really wonder.

Craftsman tools are sill good, but the rest of what they carry is far less so.
That's not a good formula to prosper with. :roll:

 

[Cherokee Slim]

Locally, Ace Hardware & K-Mart have the Craftsman tools for sale.
Cherokee Slim

 

[jdavis]

I have a friend who retired from Sears as a corporate executive a couple of decades ago. He recalls the begining of the decline as the discontinuing of the catalog sales. The board room was to the point of being fat and happy and believed that they could save vast amounts of money by eliminating the cost of catalog production and operating cost of catalog centers. They did save money but lost a lot of sales in the process. The bleeding was never to stop from that point on. Product lines were dropped and Sears soon began to loose it's unique identity. It appears that anything done to save the company is too little too late.

 

[vito]

Every Christmas season I receive HUNDREDS of catalogs at my house. Obviously a lot of people still like to look through a catalog and order items rather than going to a store or shopping online. I think Sears failed due to not following the lead of the big box discount stores. People started to find out that there were less expensive alternatives to Sears for essentially the same low cost merchandise. But I do also think that there was a hardcore base of customers, especially in remote rural areas where the option of going to a department store does not exist who had learned to trust and rely on the Sears catalog. Ending the catalog ended an American institution and probably cost it a good share of its traditional customer base.

 

[Bull Barrel]

How about something as simple as not having shopping carts?
I don't recall ever seeing one at my local store. They would probably end up all over the mall if they had em.
And every department has its own cash register. Why not just at the exits?

 

[Colonialgirl]

Sears started down the road to Loss when they decided to DUMP the Blue Collar/ Overalls Shopper who had ALWAYS been their bread and Butter and go for the YUPPIE crowd. They also got some MORONIC accountants into the upper management position who had their eyes on the dollars and NOT on making sales. When they had a sale in ANY department, they had a "Budget" to keep an eye on the number of dollars they WEREN'T making on each item sold rather than HOW MANY of the item was sold, what was bought with the item and what profit they ACTUALLY made.
NEXT step down the pathway to failure was taking away the small little percent of sales that a FULL TIME salesman got (Not much, but it still was an incentive ) Then they made the nex BIGGEST ERROR of all by going heavily into part-time "sales" people who didn't give a D@mn if you bought something or not because it had NO EFFECT on their paycheck and dumping FULL TIME sales people.
I worked for the company that made Sears Paints at the time and knew a lot of OLD TIME Sears department Managers who would talk about what was happening.

 

[RSIno1]

Sears died many years ago and K Mart bought them. I always look at Sears retail + prices when I buy something. Makes me feel like I stole it from the other place.

 

[Pierow]

I have a friend who retired from Sears as a corporate executive a couple of decades ago. He recalls the begining of the decline as the discontinuing of the catalog sales. The board room was to the point of being fat and happy and believed that they could save vast amounts of money by eliminating the cost of catalog production and operating cost of catalog centers. They did save money but lost a lot of sales in the process. The bleeding was never to stop from that point on. Product lines were dropped and Sears soon began to loose it's unique identity. It appears that anything done to save the company is too little too late.

Eliminating catalog costs was just a symptom..................It's perfect that an ex executive blames their demise on the end of catalog sales. Nothing makes the point better than that mindset.

JDavis is more right than you think Titan. Specifically, when JDavis wrote, ".. The board room was to the point of being fat and happy and believed that they could save vast amounts of money by eliminating the cost of catalog production and operating cost of catalog centers..." he was right on the money. Sears thought they could add to their bottom line by doing all the graphic arts and printing for the catalog in-house thus fattening profits.

Instead of focusing on adapting their business model to modern times they are scope-locked on beating up their vendors trying to squeeze each and every penny out of them. It is this misplaced focus that is taking them down. I too miss the Sears of old.

Pierow

 

[Cholo]

Sears did themselves in.

In '72 they told me that I needed about $250 worth of front end work on my '67 Mustang. I took it to an independent shop that said there was nothing wrong. They never stopped that BS. Who remembers the Feds getting involved with their auto service dept in the 80's or so? The feds brought cars in to various stores and were all told that they needed major front end work. IIRC, the Feds told them to take their "mechanics" off commission or they would shut them down. Nice :roll:

I'm a slow learner. About 5 years ago I went to Sears to buy a new refrigerator. 2 looked exactly alike, but one was $150-200 higher. I was told the more expensive one was the newest model. I specifically asked if the floor model was used. "No." They deliver it and it had a huge green (the fridge was white) paint smudge on the left side like it had been in someone's home and returned. 8 hours later there was no cooling at all. My old fridge still worked so all the grub was still good at the time of delivery. It just couldn't get as cool as I liked it. Manager said the "new" one was normal and to give it 24 hours. Riiight... 24 hours later it's still warm and all the grub spoiled. The delivery men left the tags that were on it saying it was a floor model. On the back the box was checked "USED!!!" :x

I went off on them big time. I got a new one, but maybe $200 worth of food was spoiled.

I hope Sears is dead, and they can take American Express with them...

 

[Pierow]

.....Times change. The only entity that pays more for less performance over time, and gives out big bonuses and fat pensions, regardless of the environment, is GOVERNMENT.

If I'm being honest, had I known all of what government employment entailed when I was younger I wouldn't have been so nervous trying to figure out what I was going to do for a living. Just get a government job, work and retire then get another government job, retire from that and do it a third time and get three pensions.

I have a client, a retired teacher making over $155,000.00 in pension income alone. I laugh when teachers, police or any other government employees complain about pay raises and pensions. Pay raises and pensions dried-up in the private sector long ago.

Pierow

 

[Colonialgirl]

With respect, the Sears old timers aren't likely the best judges of what went wrong. Anymore than the HP executives that were 'harmed' by Carly Fiorina.

Almost all companies change their work force, policies, and business models to adapt to changing circumstances. Sears and HP are no different.

The entrenched employees are likely to be least satisfied. The high tech industry (as one example) at one point was famous for no layoffs. Over the past decade or so, they've gotten very good at them.

Times change. The only entity that pays more for less performance over time, and gives out big bonuses and fat pensions, regardless of the environment, is GOVERNMENT.

Sweetie; The people I knew and talked with were some of the most successful Department Managers in the So-Cal Area. As far as the sales people; The DIFFERENCE was that the part time says "That's $x dollars and that's it, The FULL TIMER getting a small percentage of his sales says; How big is the room you are painting; You NEED FOUR gallons for THAT size room, DO you have a roller and pan, How about a brush for cutting in around the windows doors and ceiling, How about a ladder, Got a drop cloth?? and thus turns a $8.95 sale of a gallon of paint into a $250 sale by making SURE that the customer had everything they needed to do the job. It was NOT a "No Lay Off" policy it was a policy of rewarding FOR performance and the morons taking over top management were too stupid to realize it. The old FULL TIME employees I knew were QUITE HAPPY with Sears pay policy and worked at making sales. The ONLY reason for the change as I said was moronic Accountants looking only at the dollars and NOT realizing why there were SO MANY of those dollars rolling in.
The PROOF of what I have said is in the FAILURE over the years of SEARS and it's declining sales.

By the way; Just so you know, I was around Sears and those successful sales people for 15 years.
Now go peddle your HP and silicon valley papers elsewhere.

 

[EVILDOCTOR235]

I bought stuff from Sears for many years. In my home town of Napa we had a catalog store only back in the 1960s. I went down one time and ordered parts for my Allstate moped. The person at the store found the parts i needed on microfilm and ordered them over the phone. A piston, cylinder, rings and a gasket set for $6.15 including tax. About 10 years ago i wanted a belt/disc sander. The salesman went to the back of the store and came back and told me they were out of them. I asked him to sell me the floor model they had and he said he could not do that. I asked to see the manager. The manager told the salesman to sell me the sander and he was to give me free of cost some sanding discs and a extra sanding belt of my choice. The same week i bought 8 one gallons of house paint for $4.00 a gallon. It was paint that was mixed wrong and was rejected by the customer. Nowadays you go on Sears website and by the time you are done trying to find something and order it, you are ready to throw yourself in front of a bus. A lot of their tools are now made in Kow Dung Pi China. Their sales people are rude and have no idea what they are selling. I belong to several collector tool sites and everybody agrees the tools are not what they were years ago and a lot of times they don't want to honor their warranty. The sockets broke, so you must have used it with a impact gun. So i have had both good and bad times at Sears. I no longer go there and buy most of my tools used.

EvilDr235

 

[EVILDOCTOR235]

What happened to Roebuck ? Did Sears do something unspeakable ? Inquiring minds want to know ?

EvilDr235

 

[SamV]

What happened to Roebuck ? Did Sears do something unspeakable ? Inquiring minds want to know ?

EvilDr235

Not sure, maybe the same thing that happened to Sturm.

 

[Colonialgirl]

With respect, the Sears old timers aren't likely the best judges of what went wrong. Anymore than the HP executives that were 'harmed' by Carly Fiorina.

Almost all companies change their work force, policies, and business models to adapt to changing circumstances. Sears and HP are no different.

The entrenched employees are likely to be least satisfied. The high tech industry (as one example) at one point was famous for no layoffs. Over the past decade or so, they've gotten very good at them.

Times change. The only entity that pays more for less performance over time, and gives out big bonuses and fat pensions, regardless of the environment, is GOVERNMENT.

Sweetie; The people I knew and talked with were some of the most successful Department Managers in the So-Cal Area. As far as the sales people; The DIFFERENCE was that the part time says "That's $x dollars and that's it, The FULL TIMER getting a small percentage of his sales says; How big is the room you are painting; You NEED FOUR gallons for THAT size room, DO you have a roller and pan, How about a brush for cutting in around the windows doors and ceiling, How about a ladder, Got a drop cloth?? and thus turns a $8.95 sale of a gallon of paint into a $250 sale by making SURE that the customer had everything they needed to do the job. It was NOT a "No Lay Off" policy it was a policy of rewarding FOR performance and the morons taking over top management were too stupid to realize it. The old FULL TIME employees I knew were QUITE HAPPY with Sears pay policy and worked at making sales. The ONLY reason for the change as I said was moronic Accountants looking only at the dollars and NOT realizing why there were SO MANY of those dollars rolling in.
The PROOF of what I have said is in the FAILURE over the years of SEARS and it's declining sales.

By the way; Just so you know, I was around Sears and those successful sales people for 15 years.
Now go peddle your HP and silicon valley papers elsewhere.

Sweetie, the 'most successful' managers translates to 'fat cats' invested in the status quo.

It's what sinks many companies, but works perfectly well in government.

I've already said that Sears' management decision making was a mess and killed the company. Believe me, they didn't die because they tried to trim their costs.

Those $250 sales just happened to generate some sweet commissions. Coincidence, or just a by-product of benevolently serving the customer?

They tried to trim their costs because they HAD TO to attempt to survive, in the decision making environment they fostered.

I'm sure the folks you interacted with were the geniuses of the company, and if only they were listened to (and kept their commissions) the company would be flourishing today.

For good or ill, the knowledge most people held in the past, is now in some sort of app. I don't think there are many people left who need help figuring out what they need to paint a room, who can't find the answers.

Sorry if this offends the Moderators;
BUT TAKE your ignorance and idiocy somewhere else to peddle nonsense.

The salesman sold the LADY everything she needed that she HAD NOT considered, THUS saving a later customer complain OR the sales going to another paint company. I SAW AND HEARD customers come into the paint department LOOKING for a particular salesman because QUOTE" He ALWAYS knows what I NEED to do a great job" (end Quote.
I ALSO have a degree in Production and inventory control which includes several courses in Accounting , Economics, Marketing AND extensive experience in Business for all of my career .
I also saw what the OLD TIME Division Managers, Regional Managers and VP's did to promote sales and HOW successful those tactics were. It DID NOT include the "NEW" upper management decision to stop the paint department from buying the needed EXTERIOR Coatings products because the store was OVER STOCKED on SKI supplies (That was the Tucson , AZ store).