Sears is like the gooney bird

[Magee]

To me, Sears lost substance and reliability when they began contracting out warranty and product service. It's been awhile, but I was in places where I could not get service in-home. Once I was requested to take my clothes washer to the "Sears service" person's garage! They also somehow, whether because of contract or greed, completely destroyed their auto service departments.
There is still an Ace Hardware within driving distance of me - love it!

[miniceptor86]

My last visit to Sears was maybe ten years ago. They had a small store in town. It closed and then someone else bought the franchise. Good, I needed a gas grill, there's was rated well in the size and price range I was interested in so I bought it from the new franchise. Very nice people, knowlegeable, nice well lit clean store.

Burners guaranteed for five years, burnt out in two, went to the franchise store, "Sorry, you'll need to contact Sears Service". I did, they said they needed to send out a tech to verify that the burners were actually burned out as I stated. And that would be $9O, how would you like to pay?" Last time I did ANY business with Sears.

[masterdrago]

I worked as one of their service guys for 40 years. Saw them go downhill since the KMart merge. Last time I went into one of their mall stores other than to service an appliance was over 8 years ago. They were going to price match a $5,000 zero turn Husqvarna mower. The price match was close to 2 grand. We were then told the price match had to be put on a gift card that could only be used at Sears. After the steam all spewed from my wife's ears, we left the store never to return. Now even service is a shambles.

[minnow]

This is a link to one of many discussions about the new Craftsman tools:


https://toolguyd.com/no-you-cannot-b...ools-at-sears/


Apparently there are now two Craftsman tool conglomerates out there. Sears sold the Craftsman name to Stanley Black & Decker who will develop and produce tools to be sold to Lowes and others. Sears however has a 15 year agreement to keep selling Craftsman tools. However these tools are not Stanley Black & Decker products but rather tools Sears itself are marketing. A recent example is a 20 volt drill driver that both Sears and Stanley Black and Decker have each come out with. However the batteries are not interchangeable and specifications on the drill itself are different even though both sport the name Craftsman. The colors of the tools themselves are slightly different.

[TonyMac]

Sears was the original shop-from-home retailer, remember the Sears Catalog? It revolutionized retail, putting mom and pop stores out of business. The fact that they went brick and mortar when malls were the thing, and then could not move to online and succeed and even thrive online is testament to bad management.

[junkyardjeff]

Its amazing that a company that started as mail order could not compete today.

[60sumtin]

When I graduated from high school my dad gave me some money and said put it to good use and buy a Craftsman tool set. They'll last you a life time he said. He was right. That was 1973 and I still use that tool set. A few pieces were lost over the decades but none of the pieces have worn out. Good stuff. In Canada the last Sears stores closed about a year ago.

[packnrat]

Originally Posted by 60sumtin

I've noticed that too. I'm wondering if they've bought the overstock.

lowes now owns the brand.

[Ancabuild]

Since they quit sending catalogs home, I had to start buying toilet paper.

[Ret.LEO]

We lost our local Sears 6 months ago. Now we're losing our Kmart that jacked up all the prices to put a 30% discount on everything.

Walmart and Sam's now owns our town

Sure wish Target would move in

[baraff]

Originally Posted by nothermark

I used to be a fan of Craftsman and the catalog. Then they changed owners and have been slowly killing off the business since. It's been a while since I was in a store and much longer since I made a significant purchase. Every once in a while I wonder if the folks who killed the catalog every look at Amazon...

Sears COULD HAVE BEEN Amazon, if they had had a little forward thinking in management. Think about it, they had the catalog, the suppliers, almost everything in place. All they needed was some vision. A shame, really.

[OregonJim]

Sears went bankrupt a couple of months ago. I believe KMart did as well:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...cy/1595399002/

[oceansailor]

Sears never figured out "the internet thing" - which isn't very surprising; it's like expecting somebody who was very, very good at driving a train for decades to become a top-notch jet pilot. Theoretically possible, but all his reflexes, muscle memories, and thought patterns are going to be fighting against it.

Their online catalog was never worth a dime. It was very poorly designed, and focused on pushing their higher-margin stuff rather than letting you find what you wanted - especially on queries that weren't worded perfectly. Once past the first page, there was never a chance of you finding what you wanted. Amazon excels at this, as well as making all the other parts of the buying experience as smooth as possible. That's not to say they're perfect, but dealing with the Sears buying process felt like riding a third-world train - the cheap seats in coach - after Amazon's slick, modern experience.

I also have a bit of the "old Sears" nostalgia, but the things that made it great are long gone - and aren't what people are looking for nowadays, anyway. The market has spoken.

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by packnrat

lowes now owns the brand.

No. Craftsman was sold to Stanley Black and Decker. They have an agreement with Lowe's, Ace and Amazon to sell their product. See Oregon Jims link above.
jt