So I journeyed to Wasilla, the white trash capital of Alaska to check out the store closing sale at Sears. Have to admit, it really was kind of depressing.

Remembering all of the hours spent growing up in Sears at Southglenn Mall at the mini arcade playing Tempest, Asteroids and Galaga. Back to school shopping for Toughskin jeans in really horrid colors. Time spent with dad in the automotive and Craftsman sections. Thinking of how many hundreds, no probably thousands of dollars I've spent in the Craftsman section. Back when they sold really cool stuff like fishing rods, knives, rifles and shotguns. Then there was the Christmas catalog...

Now it's just a really bad clearance sale mostly made in China.

Kinda of harsh on the good folks of Wasilla aren't you.
I forgot the name but there is a really great Wood boat (Dory maker) from Or. who lives up that way part of the year. Makes a fantastic beach launch Dory. His daughter may be making them know.

Sears has been in the shitter for 25 years.

I know what you're talking about. Though I understand why they closed, I still remember the enjoyment I used to find in walking through Blockbuster with my son when he was young, looking for a VHS tape to rent. Or sitting in the kids section of Borders Books reading a children's book to him, only to look up and find a couple other kids had sat down with us to enjoy the story. All of these closings of brick and mortar stores in favor of online shopping, coupled with the era of social media removing more personal interaction have left us a society of people detached from one another and a society that is not healthy, and growing more so every day. [/step down off soapbox]

Sears was the bomb diggity in the '70s when I was growing up. Buying back to school jeans, shoes, etc was a end-of-summer ritual.

K-Mart, too. Bought my first air rifle at K-Mart. Bought a cheap Tasco scope for it. They had a pretty good sporting goods section. My mom was always looking for the blue light going off somewhere. And our local K-Mart had a snack counter at the center of the store with a huge, lit, plastic ICEE polar bear sculpture you could see from all corners of the store.

My childhood has slowly been slipping away for years.
Sears,Two Guys,Woolworth,Rickles home centers,Channel home centers,Best,Sam Goddy,KB Toys,Crazy Eddies(he lived in the town I grew up in) and the list goes on.
I had grown up in the north east and had never been into a Walmart till I moved to Florida 21+ years ago.
Pretty soon all it will be is,Walmart and Amazon.

It is depressing because I spent many hours there with my grandparents and my dad.

Sears was where we bought all of our tools, washer and dryers, vacuums etc..

When we would go school shopping Sears was the first place we went because that is where we bought our Levi/Lee jeans and flannel shirts. I cannot remember the brand but Sears used to carry the best flannel shirts and also the best prices on carhart jackets.

I just went to the JCPenny here in Bismarck looking for white undershirts. Man it is depressing, trashed and even the stuff on clearance is way over priced.

Another store from my child hood slipping away.

JcPenny used to have a great restaurant my mother or grandparents would treat us to if we were good.

The same thing with K-Mart: Some had a snack bar and some had a restaurant also. The blue light special was the bomb.

I don't know if anyone remembers Gold Circle, which was another version of Kmart. I found an old book when I was cleaning out my parents house for them to sell it that still had a Gold Circle sticker on it. Heck that book must be 40 years old.

I believe it was Woolco's located in Westland Mall in good old Cols OH. Me and my grandfather would spent hours there piddling around while my grandmother shopped. They had a small hunting and fishing section but what they did have was AWESOME--->. They always had at least three racks of M1 Garands, M1 Carbines and German Mausers for rock bottom prices just thrown in these bins. They were not a big deal then not like they are now. Even though those weapons are a collectors items now, it was the stories my grandfather used to tell about fighting through the Pacific: Leyte, Guadalcanal, New Guinea etc.. with those said weapons.. that made that time period unique

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mrapteam666,

Same here.

Grew up with K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney, the old outdoor mall that had a Stix Baer & Fuller (now Dillards) where my Mom would get her onion soup and I would get an "alligator roll" to gnaw on.

When I was older my friend and I would ride our bikes to K-Mart and pool our money together. K-Mart had a sit down restaurant with balloon specials.

We would pick a balloon and many times whatever we bought with our pooled money would be discounted based on the note inside the balloon.

Senior year in high school I worked at JC Penney. In college I busted tires at Montgomery Ward. Back in the day Sears was the place to get stuff. Craftsman and Kenmore. Now the Sears in town is a sad place. Empty aisles much Ike JC Penney on the other end of the mall. Don’t know why they stay open. Sears had a big tool a couple months back and the selection of tools was awful and the prices outrageous. I gusss some people pay those prices.

my grandmother used to work the lunch counter at woolworths back in the day.

Later growing up I would ride my bike down to Kmart and buy hoagies from the snack area for the family, while my parents loaded up the truck to head to the lake.


I loved the restaurant in the back of kmart. Later they turned it into a McDonalds. That killed it for me. Snack bar only.

quote:

Grew up with K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney, the old outdoor mall that had a Stix Baer & Fuller (now Dillards) where my Mom would get her onion soup and I would get an "alligator roll" to gnaw on.

You made me smile.
My Mom still serves us the Stix Baer & Fuller french onion soup once a year with Christmas dinner. That stuff is delicious. She has their recipe and a set of the brown bowls with the handles that they served it in.

Where will people buy their buggy whips & shirtfronts now?

The 50s and early 60s were a great time and shopping at Sears and Monkey Wards and even Penny's was fun. Sears had guns, though Monkey Wards had a lot of surplus military rifles like the Argentine 91s (I have one with the original WARDS Hand Tag that I bought not so many years ago when an old guy traded it in-whoops, now I'm the old guy).

Always bought the Sears Die Hard batteries till they became junk IMO, sometimes had my vehicle service there, too. By the end of the 70s, though, Sears just had nothing I wanted, prices were too high and I just stopped going.

I still have a pretty complete collection of Craftsman tools but since my wife won't let me use them (I always manage to hurt myself with tools) they'll likely remain relatively pristine till I'm gone.

Bob

This message has been edited. Last edited by: straightshooter1,

My Dad went to work at Sears around 1950. He worked his way up from selling in a Denver store’s hardware department to a Southwest Territory merchandise management position here in Dallas in the ‘70s. In the mid-‘70s, Sears did away with the territory offices and my Dad managed to get a lower group office position before finally retiring in 1981.

When the territorial offices were eliminated, my Dad saw it as a sign that the company was going to move away from merchandising the stores to fit the customer’s needs and towards “here’s what we’re sending the stores, put it on the floor and sell it.”

That was the beginning of the end, and it was a long, painful slide down the razor blade.

Another large company that couldn't figure out how to change with the times in order to stay relevant.
I remember those huge phone book size catalogs and stores that had just about everything and usually good quality too.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
My childhood has slowly been slipping away for years.
Sears,Two Guys,Woolworth,Rickles home centers,Channel home centers,Best,Sam Goddy,KB Toys,Crazy Eddies(he lived in the town I grew up in) and the list goes on.
I had grown up in the north east and had never been into a Walmart till I moved to Florida 21+ years ago.
Pretty soon all it will be is,Walmart and Amazon.

71, sounds like we grew up in the same area. From Long Island originally I remember my Mom and Dad taking me to all those places. Shopping for our first VCR at The Wiz, going to TSS for back to school supplies, constantly losing my Dad in the tool section at Sears when he would run off to another isle to look at something else that caught his eye. A lot of good memories and now all kids have is a memory of the Amazon box showing up at the door. I can't even take my 10 year old to Toys 'R Us any more but I'm glad we had a chance to go when he was younger at least.

In regards to Sears, I have to say the past 10 years or so have been like watching a beloved family member slowly dying of a terminal disease. To the point where on my last visit, I was relieved the rumors were swirling about their demise. The store was so far gone, there was hardly any staff, the pickup counter and stock room in back (the employee told me to go on in and look for my own package) was falling apart and empty and the staff were as happy as POW's to be stuck there all day. Out on the sales floor, shelves were 3/4 bare, displays were dusty and neglected and the whole experience was just beyond depressing. Sadly, for Sears it was time and to tell the truth based on that last experience, I'm OK with it.

A child of the 80's I also loved visiting the mall and hitting the arcade with friends for hours. We're going to lose malls as we know them as well. That one hurts.

Back in the mid-70's, Sears had actual department managers that knew their stuff and managed their area like it was their store. I had a good friend that managed the tool area. He'd give me a call when he got a customer return on a power tool to see if I wanted it. Back then, they'd just blow out customer returns. I ended up with a basement full of things like a band saw, belt/disc sander, jointer, shaper, lathe, drill press - all of which were customer returns. I'd pay about fifty cent on the dollar for these slightly dusty tools. I still have most of them. He wasn't breaking the rules for me, just giving me 'dibs'.

Shortly thereafter, Sears decided they didn't need people who knew what they were doing and shit-canned department managers and went to central checkout areas. According to an internet search, Sears has only 83 stores left open and none in 26 states. We don't have one within 500 miles.

When I lived in West Seattle the Sears store on 1st Ave S. was a multi story shopping mecca. We could get there in under 10 minutes....providing the old draw bridge and train didn't happen at once. It was a sad time to see it closed. Like many cities, the culture change hasn't been such a good thing.

The little local Sears outlet stores are a sad reminder just how some things will never be that good again. Amazon sure has made a dent in the brick and mortar business model.

Sad, but inevitable. If Sears had good leadership, Amazon would have never gotten a foothold.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Kinda of harsh on the good folks of Wasilla aren't you.

That was being polite. Back when I lived in Anchorage, we referred to it as Wasyphilis.

A good friend lives there and really doesn't like it being referred to as "Sarah's trailer park" either.

I have been to two sears close-outs, and it was very depressing. I've bought a lot at Sears, and spent a lot of time frequenting the tool section there. Our bed, freezer, and many things around the house come from there, kitchen appliances to clothing to the treadmill in the other room.

When I was a kid, the old 1902 (I think) sears catalog was popular in schoool...it was fun to see what people paid way back when, and imagine getting stuff for that price. Sears was just one of those names that I figured would be around forever. Or at least for my time. Watching it close-out was a little like seeing an emaciated relative on their last legs, and ending up remembering them that way.

And who can forget Ted Williams branded sporting goods. Growing up, all my baseball mits were Ted Williams. My first pair of real hunting boots were Ted Williams. I had a Ted Williams shotgun.