quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
I believe my Sears credit card was the first major credit card I had. I think that was 45 years ago.

I carried it for years and years.

My tires were Roadhandlers, my batteries were Diehard, my tools were Craftsman and my appliances were Kenmore.

No longer.

Mike

Sears was also my first credit card about 1979. Still thankful they took a chance on me.

Back in the old days, it was said;
"A Sears Card is for life."

I guess another truth gone bad.

Management was asleep at the switch when the World moved their cheese.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Management was asleep at the switch when the World moved their cheese.

--it happens.

I know that the current management bought Sears, and likely Kmart also, as a real estate play. Running out the existing retail operation, and making it go away, may be an explicit part of the plan. After all, even these chains not withstanding, b&m retail is not what it was.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Management was asleep at the switch when the World moved their cheese.

Years ago I thought Sears was a little outdated, but I still shopped there for tools, appliances, lawn mowers and such. I remember thinking when they merged with Kmart "that's really dumb" they are both going downhill. I had to look it up but that was 13 years ago and it has all been downhill from there.

They were the Amazon of their day. If they had been able to see the future and redirect all of that catalogue/warehouse/distribution network toward the internet they would be one of the top 10 biggest company in America.

There's a Mall in a local City (Lima Ohio) that has on one end Sears, in the middle J.C.Penney, and the other end Macy's. Nuf said.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I know that the current management bought Sears, and likely Kmart also, as a real estate play. Running out the existing retail operation, and making it go away, may be an explicit part of the plan. After all, even these chains not withstanding, b&m retail is not what it was.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Management was asleep at the switch when the World moved their cheese.

This is commonly said, but I doubt it. All those stores and merchandise would be expensive assets to buy just to get the real estate. Not to mention losses on operations. Plus, I would imagine that a lot of Sears stores were in rented mall locations and no RE is involved.

Sad. A happy memory is going into the Sears store with your Mom and Dad and smelling the warm nuts at the candy counter just hoping you could talk them into buying some. Sears literally had everything when I was growing up.

RMD

My grandmother retired from sears. She receives a very small pension from them ~$300 a month or so.

Anyone know if that's in danger? It's about a 1/5 of her monthly fixed income.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:
My grandmother retired from sears. She receives a very small pension from them ~$300 a month or so.

Anyone know if that's in danger? It's about a 1/5 of her monthly fixed income.

"Sears Holdings has an almost $1.6 billion shortfall in obligations to its underfunded pension system for nearly 200,000 retirees, the parent firm's public filings show. The company’s retirees also could face termination of life insurance policies that provide roughly $10,000 to $12,000 in benefits for some."

Here

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Sad. A happy memory is going into the Sears store with your Mom and Dad and smelling the warm nuts at the candy counter just hoping you could talk them into buying some. Sears literally had everything when I was growing up.

RMD

and Icees!

I haven't been in a Sears for years. Think it was when I snapped a handle on a 1/2 ratchet.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Sears couldn't keep up. Maybe you can blame a particular person, but I'd imagine it is more complicated than that. Decades of doing things one way made it a behemoth that couldn't be turned quickly enough. The market changed and Sears didn't.

That's a good point jhe, "decades of doing things one way". I walked the isles of the sears tool section at a local sears store this week, and it was like walking back into a time machine. It was nice because I have nice memories of those days, but you're right, nothing has changed it seems. I spoke to a lady that I did business with in the auto dept for 20 years, and she is retiring while she still can before it's too late, since she had seen this coming for a long time. It still seems to me that Sears could turn it around, but that seems possible only for my generation, since I don't know any young people who would consider shopping at Sears, and have zero history with that type of relationship with great brands in a great brick and mortar icon.

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Sad. A happy memory is going into the Sears store with your Mom and Dad and smelling the warm nuts at the candy counter just hoping you could talk them into buying some. Sears literally had everything when I was growing up.

RMD

Hot salted spanish peanuts. A good sized bag for 10 cents scooped up by a lady in a white bib with a hairnet. People all around, it was a Saturday night cultural event. My family did that as it could afford, but what a great memory.

Our local Sears store is still an anchor-store in a dead shopping mall. There are zero retail stores left in the mall - except for Sears. It's been an empty shopping mall, except for Sears, for about 15-18 years now. Imagine going to a dead mall just to go to Sears.

I remember when the buy out happened. This was explicitly discussed. The hedgie that bought them either has some secret master plan to make money off of their demise, or is just a complete idiot.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I know that the current management bought Sears, and likely Kmart also, as a real estate play. Running out the existing retail operation, and making it go away, may be an explicit part of the plan. After all, even these chains not withstanding, b&m retail is not what it was.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Management was asleep at the switch when the World moved their cheese.

This is commonly said, but I doubt it. All those stores and merchandise would be expensive assets to buy just to get the real estate. Not to mention losses on operations. Plus, I would imagine that a lot of Sears stores were in rented mall locations and no RE is involved.

My favorite store for so many years but many years ago.. Still buy jeans there and tools but less and less now. Sad to see it as it is now.

Use to ride my bike to downtown Durham as a kid to pay off my newspaper route visit my dad at his job and make my way down main street stopping by the rail yard to see the trains and eventually to the big sears store - 3 floors and the auto center. Learned to appreciate merchandising and merchandise at places like Sears Belk etcc.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:
When I was a teen and started tinkering with motorcycles and such my Dad bought me a basic set of Craftsman tools...

Me too. 1975, though I had to wait another year to be a teen. I still have that toolbox and virtually all of those original tools, but now in a stack of three Craftsman branded tool boxes. With quite a few old Craftsman power tools in their own plastic boxes too. Jigsaw, multiple drills, 'Dremel type' tool, sander, plus more socket sets. I'm sure there's more.

Anybody remember 'Tuffskin' jeans? I think that's how they spelled it.

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Our local Sears store is still an anchor-store in a dead shopping mall. There are zero retail stores left in the mall - except for Sears. It's been an empty shopping mall, except for Sears, for about 15-18 years now. Imagine going to a dead mall just to go to Sears.

Big shopping Malls are also dieing as small strip malls are popping up all over small towns and on the edges of Cities. Even Wal-Mart is feeling the pinch of people changing their shopping methods.

This is very sad for me personally. As mentioned above, Sears was often the first foray into credit for many young people. Sears would give them the chance and their newest card holders would shop with them to positively affect their credit ratings. First purchase for most guys was tools (it was for me). I have no idea what the ladies' preference was.

Going back a little further to the mid-fifties, our "school" clothes every year came from the Sears catalog...2 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts. We'd get the Keds Redballs locally. Mom bought Sears jeans because they were double-kneed and would just about make it through a full school year. I can still smell those new jeans when Mom unwrapped those brown paper packages and handed out the goods.

Whether it's bad management or changing shopping preferences or a little of both, this is still yet another piece of our unique culture that will be gone forever and it's sad.