Really a shame, I bought a lot of things there when we moved 20 years a go, fridge, washer dryer (still have the kenmore front loaders), mower, trimmers, tools, heck the last big tube tv a 36 inch I bought at Sears.

The one at the larger mall up by the interstate seems to be doing fine, the one by us not so good but that mall is failing as well.

They built an outdoor mall down south that has taken off like gangbusters, the traditional indoor mall not so good.

It seems a lot of malls are in trouble. I know walking into our local mall (Goldsboro, NC) is like stepping into an early 90's mall but in great disrepair.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money...s-BByFpjX?li=BBnb7Kz

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

I remember that!

I can remember going to Sears with my dad and looking at J.C. Higgins rifles and shotguns.

Sears treated my mother poorly somehow about 30 years ago. I forgot what happened exactly but she was really angry at the situation. She said she put a curse on Sears. I've never heard her put a curse on anything before. She is a gentle, mild mannered nurse. That is when Sears started going down hill .

My Sony Bravia was purchased at Sears.

Our local Sears is at the mall, and I still go in to shop when I visit the mall.

It's just now, at this stage of my life, my visits to the mall are rare.

We depended on Sears (and Aldens catalog) when we were young newly weds. A few years later we rescued my wife's little sister from a bad situation and went to Sears to buy her a wardrobe for Junior High. Sears sold motorcycles briefly and we bought one made by Galera which gave good service. If a car needed tires or a battery we went to Sears. As time passed we gradually started buying elsewhere. Their high interest rate is one of the things that drove us away.

My first ever firearm was a J.C. Higgins bolt action 20 gauge. I got it for Christmas when I was 10 years old. Still have it.

CW

When I was 12 I told my parents that I wanted to start collecting tools. Every Christmas and birthday my Dad would take me to Sears and let me pick what I wanted. I too have a small pension from Sears that I haven't started collecting yet. I called Sears Pension Services yesterday and they told me it was guaranteed by the governments pension service. Like the gov. ever gets anything right. Pretty much figure it's a 50/50 chance I'll get it.

Interestingly enough, in the night class I took on business management, Sears was the subject of a segment.

Sears would buy a few of an item, then buy more and more until a contractor had to hire more employees.

Eventually Sears would increase their demand for product till the contractor had to invest in new equipment and facilities to keep up. Whole factories.

Then, once the contractor was committed fully, Sears would lower the boom and tell the contractor how much they would pay for the product.

Sneaky!

The lesson was to diversify and have no one major customer.

I will miss Craftsman hand tools. That's all I have used in my business and personal life. Mine are all still 100%, but some day I will need to replace them unfortunately.

My dad worked for Sears at Northwest Plaza in St Louis in the 1970s and 1980s, he worked in their credit department in some upstairs office area. I have fond memories of going there as a kid, smelling the popcorn being popped, raiding the vending machines for candy. He eventually moved on to another job but everything he bought was Craftsman and Kenmore. He has several Sears firearms that have little intrinsic value but great sentimental value. Sears stayed at that mall until they died together in the mid 2000s. Same thing with another one at Crestwood Plaza that passed on several years later. I ponder what memories our children will have... Sam's Club/Costco/Trader Joe's? Receiving Amazon boxes by drone? Having all the tools I need, I've moved on from Sears as their quality suffered. Kmart does a good job at almost giving away LEGO with their Shop Your Way rewards, so I still go there sometimes to pick up online orders. After Columbine they stopped selling anything useful in their sporting goods though.

quote:

Originally posted by satch:
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.

Same here in the Sacramento CA area. The Macys actually has two locations in the mall, one for women's and one for men. When they all shut down, it's going to get ugly.

Maybe these malls can be turned into shooting ranges and active shooter training centers.

Have to go to Wally World.

I remember going to Sears in the early 70s. It was thriving - THE retail store to shop at.
The shoe department had the electronic shoe-sizer. You stuck your foot in a square and it would size your foot.
Allstate Insurance, which started in Sears, had agencies in the stores.
They still sold Allstate-brand tires.
There was a killer cafeteria.
Ted Williams-brand ball gloves, shotguns, hunting clothes.
It had a furniture department upstairs.

There goes my lifetime warranty on my Craftsman tools.

quote:

Originally posted by Ozarkwoods:
There goes my lifetime warranty on my Craftsman tools.

They sold Craftsman already. Black n Decker is supposed to honor the warranty, probably with replacements made in China.

I loved the cafeteria at Sears. I remember my grandfather taking me to the cafeteria after he picked me up from school. Sears was less than a mile from our house so we would just walk. I always got a hot dog.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
They sold Craftsman already. Black n Decker is supposed to honor the warranty, probably with replacements made in China.

Bad news for you: they're already made in China and have for at least the past 4 years. That was the last time I looked at a Craftsman tool. It was early 2013 right as I was getting ready to leave Oklahoma and I was looking for a set of long beam wrenches. Went to the local Sears and the package said "Made in China" but the prices were still inline with them being made in the US.

I passed. If I'm going to buy a Chinese made tool, I'm going to pay a Chinese level price.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I loved the cafeteria at Sears. I remember my grandfather taking me to the cafeteria after he picked me up from school. Sears was less than a mile from our house so we would just walk. I always got a hot dog.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
They sold Craftsman already. Black n Decker is supposed to honor the warranty, probably with replacements made in China.

Bad news for you: they're already made in China and have for at least the past 4 years. That was the last time I looked at a Craftsman tool. It was early 2013 right as I was getting ready to leave Oklahoma and I was looking for a set of long beam wrenches. Went to the local Sears and the package said "Made in China" but the prices were still inline with them being made in the US.

I passed. If I'm going to buy a Chinese made tool, I'm going to pay a Chinese level price.

That's why God made Harbor Freight. Cheap, semi-disposable tools.

quote:

Originally posted by Snapping Twig:
Interestingly enough, in the night class I took on business management, Sears was the subject of a segment.

Sears would buy a few of an item, then buy more and more until a contractor had to hire more employees.

Eventually Sears would increase their demand for product till the contractor had to invest in new equipment and facilities to keep up. Whole factories.

Then, once the contractor was committed fully, Sears would lower the boom and tell the contractor how much they would pay for the product.

Sneaky!

The lesson was to diversify and have no one major customer.

Pretty much a true story. And it's also how WalMart destroyed Rubbermaid and a bunch of other companies.