We only have one of the small Sears stores. About the size of a restaurant. They have the best selling appliances and only smaller stuff that sells good locally.
And if course they service stuff and can order anything.
I like it. And they seem to do great business. It's easy to find stuff and I don't have to wade through a bunch of crap to do it. It's basically just the appliance and tool section of a larger Sears.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
I grew up in one...beautiful home. Few years back my family did some research and found the ad for the home in an internet archive catalog. Marketing pre-fab catalog homes was an innovative concept and proved to be profitable.
I think the nail in their coffin was the automotive dept scandal in the 90's. Even in Phx you could see cars stacked up on Sat for service. When it broke that Sears was paying incentives to auto techs to charge for repairs not needed that destroyed the bond of trust between lifelong consumers and an American institution. They became a battery store after that. A new generation of women buyers were turned off to a clothing line that was mid-50's to early 60's with a whiff of 70's sewn in. Their clothing buyers were still entrenched in WW II designs that made the company flourish. And don't forget all the speciality booths in many Sears stores.....Allstate Ins.....Caldwell Banker.....Dean Winter (sp?) Investments.....all gone....a marketing idea that collapsed. When i came home from the service in '72 the local Sears had already removed the entire line of sporting goods. But i believe it was the automotive scandal that drove people away for good.
I think you hit the proverbial nail on the head here. That was the turning point for me. Before, Sears was the go-to store, after, just tools and some appliances.
I try to buy from them during the Christmas season as much as I can. The other day I needed a sport coat and decided that I would give them the business. It appeared that there were only a few employees in the entire store, and they were in the women's section. I goofed around in the tools section for a while in hopes that someone would show up in men's wear. Finally this guy comes over and he wanted me to sign up for a credit card. Bummer! I left and bought a sport coat from a consignment store.
I need a sports coat, too. The Sears store here doesn't carry them at all. They don't have any men's clothing that's dressy.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
The Sears of forty years ago wouldn't appeal to yuppies and that's the demographic they tried to reach. Too bad they never realized there were customers other than mall crawlers.
I miss the khaki work pants. Used to wear them all the time when I worked in an office with a dress code and nobody figured out I was set to leave work, rip off the coat, tie and shirt, add a sweatshirt, change shoes and be ready to fish.
Dead to me 20 years ago when I dropped off an old Porsche for tires only Sears carried. I went back 7 hours later to pick up the car but they had refused to do the work because I had not paid cash and according to their records was not a Sears credit card holder. At that time the only cards they took were Sears and Discovery. BUT if I opened up a Sears charge account they would complete the work ASAP and send me on my way within 2 hours and with a wonderful Sears charge account to boot.
I left immediately with my old tires and never went back. Never will in fact.
Same thing happened to me when I drove miles to buy Sears mower parts and did not have enough cash in my wallet.
That was my last Sears product.
Leo of the Land of Dyr
NRA FOR LIFE
I MISS SARAH
“In Trump We Trust.” Right????
SOMEBODY please tell TRH that Netanyahu NEVER said "Once we squeeze all we can out of the United States, it can dry up and blow away."
The BIG screw-up, in my opinion, was getting rid of the catalog. Sure, catalog sales may have been lagging, but it would have been an easy transition from the paper catalog to internet sales, when the internet started becoming popular in the mid/late 90's.
They sell internet. However, their prices are absurd. Everything I've looked at online can be found elsewhere much cheaper. No one is going to pay $100 for something at Sears when they can get it for $75 elsewhere.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
Sears used to sell the Henry J car (built by Kaiser-Frazier). You know anybody that ever bought one?
When I was around 13, Dad bought a wrecked Henry J from the local Pepsi bottler. Took the OHV 4 cylinder out to replace the worn out flathead in a Jeep we owned. The little car was cute, in my eyes.
I've always been a curmudgeon - now I'm an old curmudgeon. ~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
This area was settled in the decades following 1905. At that time, Sears was selling very high quality kit houses. They'd come in on a rail car to be assembled on site. There is a BUNCH of them around here that are still in excellent condition.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
Sears used to sell the Henry J car (built by Kaiser-Frazier). You know anybody that ever bought one?
When I was around 13, Dad bought a wrecked Henry J from the local Pepsi bottler. Took the OHV 4 cylinder out to replace the worn out flathead in a Jeep we owned. The little car was cute, in my eyes.
My maternal granddad sold Kaiser- Frasier cars at his Allis-Chalmers dealership in Leroy, Illinois. I remember all the people stopping to look at the little Henry J parked out front of the store. I don't think he sold very many of them, but being about 10-11 years old I thought they were great; just the right size.
Outvoted, my dad traded in his 39 Buick for a 49 Kaiser and then a 52 Kaiser Manhattan. The 52 was my high school wheels. Did you know you did not have to get in the back seat of those cars to stretch out full length? The front seat worked just fine. I was real glad it was not a HJ.
Leo of the Land of Dyr
NRA FOR LIFE
I MISS SARAH
“In Trump We Trust.” Right????
SOMEBODY please tell TRH that Netanyahu NEVER said "Once we squeeze all we can out of the United States, it can dry up and blow away."
Sears target market in their hay day was rural America. People would do all their shopping from the catalog.. as they had no choice. Rural was really rural. My Browning Light 12 was ordered and purchased from the Sears catalog store in the late 60's, $232.50 It's still a good un!
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson
my beef with Sears was 20 years ago...My wife opened a Sears Charge Account to buy a Washing Machine... she had worked for Sears in High School, as a dispatcher in their appliance repair center, so she had a loyalty to them...
She got behind in her payments and was getting a nasty letter from collection agencies over it...so I ended up finding out what the balance was on it... told the collection agencies they could eat Schitt, as I wasn't going to pay them a darn nickle as I hate those sleaze balls....Told Sears to pull the account in house and I'd pay it off in full...
they did so, and I did what I said...and then told them to close the account....
Then here is where it goes haywire, and this is why my wife "got behind" on her payments....
After supposedly paying it off in full and closing the account, we still keep getting monthly bills.. I returned them monthly in an envelope with the bill unopened, with account closed written on it...
Finally I get calls from collection agencies telling me I owe Sears over $500....and I tell them that the account was paid in full and closed 2 years ago...
They tell me the account was never closed...so I tell them then they are dealing with a fraud case because we haven't used it to buy anything in 2 years...and demand a copy of the activity to where they got this $500 figure from...
and here is what the people at Sears did....
When I paid the amount due in full, they let the payment sit in Que until after the monthly due date.. and then charged the account a $25 late payment...this is what they had been doing to my wife the entire time...
so each month when I was returning their bill unopened with account closed, they just charged the account another $25 late fee... over and over and over...
Contacted them, about the account being paid in full and it was sent in way before the due date. They tell me then that it is NOT from the date received at the payment center, it is by the date they process the payment.. and it can take TWO TO THREE WEEKS TO PROCESS After it has been received.....
I told them to take me to court over it.....
With those sleazy tactics, I won't do business with them... even if it is buying a pair of socks and paying cash...
My wife ended up paying for her damned washing machine 3 times over...
Sears used to sell the Henry J car (built by Kaiser-Frazier). You know anybody that ever bought one?
When I was around 13, Dad bought a wrecked Henry J from the local Pepsi bottler. Took the OHV 4 cylinder out to replace the worn out flathead in a Jeep we owned. The little car was cute, in my eyes.
My grand dad had one... he thought it was the coolest car ever built...he drove that and a 48 Chevy pickup until he died in 1968..my cousin drove the Henry J to college until the engine finally died in 1972...
![[Linked Image]](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI3M1gxNjAw/z/ed0AAOSw1x1URask/$_57.JPG)
![[Linked Image]](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI0N1gxNjAw/z/pIEAAOSwY45URasu/$_57.JPG)
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/m0zk1a7.jpg)
It's still a good un!
