Sears - more bad news

[dpson]

Now suppliers are balking at taking/filling orders from Sears. Sad ending for a once great company.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/sears-has-a-bigger-problem-than-plunging-sales/ar-BBBcYSf?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

[Chris Pile]

Just like Studebaker dealers bailing out and taking on other makes... The end is near.

[64V19816]

Sears needs a NEW Advertising Agency!!!! Sears STILL has Everything! In a way it's like it's still a "normal" store, friendly to us older people who remember stores of the sixties. Last weekend I went to buy good steel toe work boots. Kohls ( nothing). Target ( maybe a dozen pairs none my size 12). Sears, four full aisles, hundreds of them. Found a pair of Cattipillar boots for $89 (on sale). ....you know, just like we blame people in the sixties Not buying Studebakers as a reason for no more Studebaker. We can't do anything about that now BUT we can buy that next appliance, clothing, shoes etc etc from Sears. Craftsman Tools, workshop items....Go To Sears!

[Gunslinger]

I have a Sears gift card with a balance of less than $3.00. I guess I better rush over to use it...on something.

[rbruner]

Burlington Coat Factory is already slated to move into the Sears space at the mall.

[dpson]

Okay, to help the good folks at Sears out I bought a new Sears Craftsman riding lawn mower "on-line" last week (May 20th to be exact). The sale price was great, plus there additional discounts (10%) for Craftsman club, 5% off if I used my Sears card, free delivery, etc. I was happy with the deal. The mower was scheduled to be delivered between 7 am and 9 am on June 1st. So far so good.

Yesterday I missed a call from Sears and they left a voicemail that it was important that I call them back before 7 pm Central time so they could speak to me about a delay in the delivery of my "appliance" (yes, "appliance", not mower). So about an hour later I called the number they provided and it was fairly quickly answered, by someone who didn't speak English very well, however before we even got to the reason I called, he informed me that their "system" was reloading and asked if I could call back in about an hour. Ok fine, I called back an hour later and spoke with a very pleasant woman, who's English was much better, and she said that due to delay in getting the product from the manufacturer the delivery of my mower had been rescheduled for June 22nd. Okay, I guess I can live with that, but now I'm starting to get a sinking feeling that this "good deal" may not turn as well as I first thought. This does not boost my confidence that Sears is going to make it.

[Jeff_H]

I mentioned here that the Sears in the "big" mall in Fargo closed a couple of months ago. Turns out that the reason was not from Sears' downsize, but that the mall owners didn't want to renew the lease. This week I noticed they are apparently demo-ing the former Sears Auto Center garage addition on the end of the mall complex as well as the pavement in the parking area adjacent is torn up. Not sure what is planned there. I did think it "odd" the Fargo Sears closed as compared to the next closest ones as those are smaller retail markets in comparison and seemed strange to close the potentially better sales area store.

[Chris Pile]

We used to have 2 Sears store here in Wichita. The one on the west side closed a couple years ago. The older one on the east side is trashy looking, the roof leaks, and the place is always filthy and poorly staffed. If I need any Craftsman tools, Ace is closer and a much better experience.

[JRoberts]

The Sears here is still going, but I have for quite some time noticed that the getting someone to help you has dropped to almost nothing. I asked the last time I was in there about sales on Craftsman tools, but was told that if I wanted sale prices on Craftsman tools I should go to K-Mart. I did go there but the sale prices were minimal and most everything was made in overseas and not very promising as far as quality goes.

[studegary]

I have a Sears gift card with a balance of less than $3.00. I guess I better rush over to use it...on something.

I had more than $25 in Sears Reward Points. This week, I went and bought a lightweight jacket, mostly to use the points. It was priced at $30., on sale for $25 and I had a 20% off coupon from the paper that brought it down to $20. Now, I have the jacket and only just over $5 in points that I won't worry about.

Two things that I noticed while shopping there.
1) Instead of a checkout counter in each area/department, there is now just one near the center of each floor.
2) I may have been the only customer in the store at that time (and I didn't spend any cash).

[Chris Pile]

Speaking of K-Marts..... Used to be 5 here in town. We're down to one.

[studegary]

Speaking of K-Marts..... Used to be 5 here in town. We're down to one.

We went from two to one in this county.

[bumpkinvilledano]

I have not, and will not, shop at a Sears since 1980. They sent me an application for a Sears charge card, which I filled out and returned. About a month later I got a letter back saying the account had been denied. Not because of my credit, I had a mortgage (11%, remember them days?), or my income, but due to my OCCUPATION (industrial maintenance). Their letter stated that "people in that occupation had a high rate of non payment". No consideration of my credit worthiness, just lumped in with deadbeats based on my occupation.
As I was still accumulating tools for my job, I started buying Snap-On, Mac, SK,Dayton, etc. I would estimate since 1980, I have spent in excess of $100,000 on tools and equipment for work and personal use. In the last 14 years, as a partner in a millwright company, the company has spent over $300,000 on tools and equipment. Not all that has been bought could be obtained at Sears, but I'll bet 75% could have been. In an emergency (broken/lost tool) I will try Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Menards, etc, depending on where in the country we are.

Sears loss, not mine.

[wittsend]

I have not, and will not, shop at a Sears since 1980. ... Sears loss, not mine.

Good for you. I can't remember the last time I bought something at Sears..., probably at least 15 years ago - likely more. Not for the same reasons you didn't. I just felt they were offering a 4 quality product at a 7 price (on a 1-10 scale). I always felt the same way about Radio Shack and we saw what happened there. And, you can throw K-Mart in for the same reason. It seems their dooms day clock is at about 11:58 also.

And yes, I remember those mortgage days. 1984 my first house had a 13-1/4% interest rate and that was with putting down the required 20% of the price!

[aenthal]

Sears has been irrelevant since they discontinued the catalog and went full retail.
I wore the pages out looking at the Christmas Toy catalogs they sent out, when I was a child.
My parents rarely took me to toy stores, so that was where I saw everything I could imagine owning.
My mother brought practical things like kitchen step stools and a small sewing cabinet from the Sears catalog, but we never went to their store.
As an artist, I used the catalog as a a reference. If I wanted to know what an electric fan looked like, because I had to draw one, I would find some in their pages.
But their decision to pair up with the equally failing KMart (shades of Studebaker Packard) and that mail order loss (not that they would have survived the rise of Amazon and the internet, if they had stayed in mail order) set up their doom.
What amazes me is that they have held on so long as corpses. The one and only Sears I know about, is 1/5 the size it used to be. Six other stores have moved into what used to be their whole building.
I know of two KMarts still in existence. Neither is anywhere near me, or a place I want to shop.
And though I wish no ill will on anyone who works/worked there, or still shops there, they need to finish this long drawn out end of their existence.
They have been dead for years. Time they accepted it.