Sears/Kmart quickly disappearing

[PILOON]

Good thing I spent my Sears gift card last week. Yikes. End of an era. Kinda full circle, really, when you think about, and others have mentioned, that you could mail order anything from Sears and have it delivered to your house..... you can do the same thing today through Amazon, Walmart, etc... So I guess the ere hasn't ended, it's just changed as to who your buying from.

Except with Sears when shopping for a fridge (B4 they closed in Canada) last year they charged for delivery while all the competition did not.
And that was for the same fridge that everybody else sold.
They were simply too 'top heavy' with too many VIP's with fancy offices that worked occasionally between pricey long lunch hours.

I know their answer as I once was a sales rep.
Sears demanded higher discounts from suppliers due to their higher overheads and today suppliers don't kowtow as they did back then.
The offshore suppliers don't cater to them like the American ones did.
Offshore does not even respect patents nor 'protect' with exclusivity, they'd just as well sell as much as possible to both sides of the competition.
Offshore is all about today and the heck with loyalty and quality.

 

[ultrarunner]

What really set Sears apart was that it developed its own brands, and many of those brands developed a reputation for quality. How many can you remember? Craftsman, of course. Kenmore. Die Hard. Weatherbeater. Toughskins. Silvertone. Any others?

Fieldmaster, Coldspot, J. C. Higgins, Roebucks, Toughskin, Ted Williams Sporting Goods, Cheryl Tiegs, Harmony, Pilgrim and Allstate?

And of course Bradley Farm implements.

At first, David Bradley manufactured a wide range of agricultural items, including wagons, rakes, binders, planters and more.

As Sears did with many of its popular brands, the company added many other products under the name of David Bradley.

By the mid-20th century, the Bradley line swelled to include lawn and garden equipment, chain saws, furniture, barbecue grills and other items.

Sears Archives : Image

 

[Gale Hawkins]

That Sears Archives link is awesome and sad at the same time.

 

[EddieWalker]

What really set Sears apart was that it developed its own brands, and many of those brands developed a reputation for quality. How many can you remember? Craftsman, of course. Kenmore. Die Hard. Weatherbeater. Toughskins. Silvertone. Any others?

I agree. But then somebody changed who and where those products where made and it didn't take long for word of mouth to spread that these where no longer quality brands. Growing up, there was a chemical plant in my city that made paints for all the different brands. Each brand had a formula on how to create their paint using different ingrediants. A good friend of our family was a chemist there and he said that Sears brand paint used all the very best ingredients. Nobody else compared. And for years, that's all we used in our rental homes. But then it changed. That plant closed down after NAFTA was passed and the price for Sears paint went up. Home Depot appeared and their Behr paint was pretty good, so we quit buying paint from Sears.

Same thing happened with Craftsman tools. At one point I thought they where great tools, but other brands appeared with the same warrantee, for less money, and no hassle trying to replace a broken tool. I still have some Craftsman tools that I bought in the 80's that are great, but I haven't bought any more since then.

Twice they came out with some great deals on electronics. Back in CA, they got rid of all their furniture that they had in the basement area in the Mall, and made it a huge electronics area. They had the very best prices on all the different brands out there and you could get a credit card to buy it in minutes with very low interest rates. That was really nice when I was in my mid 20's. Then about ten years ago the price matched every other store, plus 5% to have the best price. They had better prices then Sams, and there where salespeople all over the place to explain what each brand offered that made one better then the other. I spent a lot of money there when they where doing that. Then they stopped doing it and their prices went way up. Seemed like somebody didn't want to sell electronics anymore.

Just looking online last year to buy a new TV and gave them a try. They where hundreds of dollars more for the exact same model that Best Buy had listed on their website. Who buys anything at a store without comparing prices online?

I'm surprised they stayed in business this long. I'm even more surprised that anybody bought anything from them in the last couple of years.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep... we might have had same friend at the pigment plant if it was out in Livermore?

Southland is still there but the Sears store has few people there...

I bought all my paint at Sears starting out... but it has been years since I have.

The Circuit city really cut into Sears business as a race to the bottom... but Circuit City is long gone.

About the only thing I buy at Sears is Craftsman Hoses... good hose, great price on sale and lifetime warranty... but, without the warranty I wouldn't make the effort.

As a kid it was a big deal to go to Southland Mall... even had ice skating...

Mom and Dad would always scan the newspaper advertising inserts... Mom still get two newspapers but can't remember the last time I saw a weekly Sears or Penny ad... even Home Depot has cut back...

 

[KubotainNH]

Sidetracking a bit but the lack of paper ads you mention seems odd to me. I still get some in the mail like Walgreens, Christmas Tree shop and a few more. The one I used to watch for was CVS but now they only have it online. I used to buy my batteries and a few other items there when they had a sale because it was easy. Now I would have to watch online instead of looking at the flier before I stick it in the recycle bin. So this means it's been months since I've been in the CVS with the exception of a 39cent picture my wife had printed. I can buy batteries just as cheap from Amazon and not have to go into a store. The flier pushed me to go into the store.

 

[EddieWalker]

Yep... we might have had same friend at the pigment plant if it was out in Livermore?

As a kid it was a big deal to go to Southland Mall... even had ice skating...
...

The plant was just before you crossed the San Mateo Bridge in Hayward, on the right hand side. For some reason I want to call it Rhome and Hass, but I'm spelling it wrong and probably saying it wrong in my head too. A lot of what used to be there was removed to create the open space for the shorline and the salt flats. What is left was turned into warehouses and industrial buildings. We used to walk our dirt bikes to the Shasta Plant, then ride along the railroad tracks to the salt flats and the shoreline. It used to be a huge off road dirt bike place that was packed on the weekends. Then years later, after High School and the Marines, I came back and it was all built up, and off limits.

1983 was my senior year in High School and I worked at the ice skating rink that year before leaving for boot camp.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I watched a video last night about a Sears store in Arizona at the time of insolvency. Not a soul to be seen in the store and some questionable merchandise on the shelves as apparently many vendors would no longer supply goods.

On another note. I bought a battery for the insane price of $11.00 at The Source for my Apple TV remote. Yesterday, at a friends, he was unpacking an Amazon shipment. He got 15 of those name same brand batteries for $10.00. I felt light headed and thought I would be sick!

No way, bricks and mortar can compete!

 

[Jstpssng]

I was listening to a report on NPR about the Sears bankruptcy and they stated that slightly less than 10% of shopping is done online.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

If one has an old shade tree that has been dying some each year for the past 30 years the trend line is set in concrete. Some people make a lot of money from bankruptcies. It seems like they can drag on forever if there is cash to pay the lawyers on both sides.