They are closing the last Sears in town...

[Harry O]

and possibly the last one in the State. I went to that Sears a lot in the late 1950's thru the 1960's. They had a lot of guns and ammunition for sale. I don't think I ever bought any guns there, but I bought plenty of .22LR ammunition, mostly one box at a time (that was all I could afford). However, my mother bought most of my clothes there (particularly pants).

I vividly remember that they had a shooting demonstration INSIDE the building one time. I don't remember the guy's name, but he was shooting a Marlin Mountie with .22 Shorts. His specialty was shooting aspirin tablets in various positions at various distances. He would shoot and they would just disappear. I later tried it myself, but ended up shooting NECCO wafers. They were big enough for me to hit regularly. He also shot balloons and shot backwards with a mirror. There was nothing between the audience and the shooter other than a velvet rope. I could imagine someone trying that today.

Anyway, it was not very long after that that Sears dropped guns and not too long afterward, ammunition. I stopped going to the place not too long after that. I don't think I have been back in that store for at least 45-50 years.

[Conditor22]

Sears / Kmart was doing well until a new owner bought them as a tax write-off.
The only time I go to sears is to replace a broken craftsman tool

[Freightman]

They are closing the one here also, Sears use to be the place to go but the last 10 years they are plain sorry. Feel sorry for the ones that they cheated out of there retirement.

[CastingFool]

Our local Sears is closing up, too. I haven't bothered to go look for deals. Hate to see them go, most of my hand tools are Craftsman. I started buying them while I was in high school, 50 yrs ago.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

There was a news article about it on Fox News website a couple of days ago. It's complicated. Apparently there's a guy who heads up a hedge fund which loaned lots of money to Sears a couple of years ago when they first faced financial difficulties. They continued to fail and now are looking at liquidation. The hedge fund manager had until close of business Friday 28th to either buy and take it over or it's supposed to be curtains, and result in the closing of over 200 Sears and K-Mart stores.

Sad to see such retail institutions pass, and like Harry O, I remember my mom buying my school clothes there. Back in the late '70s the one nearest to where I was living at the time went out of the gun business. By the time I found out about it all the guns were gone, but I picked up about 20 boxes each of .30-30 and .30-06 ammo, some of which I still have to this day. So, although it's sad to see them depart the scene, keep your eyes open for bargains as it's probably going to be "Everything Must Go!"

[mold maker]

I grew up wearing Sears jeans washed and dried in Kenmore. Mom cooked on Kenmore stove with food from a Sears fridg. I made a living using Craftsman and played with their sports equipment. My yard was kept neat with Craftsman. I'm glad I outlasted Sears, and I hope the brands I trusted for my whole life out last me.
Although in recent years they were more a convenient path from the parking deck to the mall, I'm gonna miss them.
BTW My Dad saved 37 Sears catalogs, many with X and circles in the toy sections. There's a lifetime of memories wrapped around Sears.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

My washer and dryer are still Kenmore -- made by Whirlpool!

[WILCO]

Haven't been to sears in years.
They closed the store here months ago.
Life goes on. I like Walmart, when I need something.

[rancher1913]

too bad they did not return to their roots as a mail order company, might not be a amazon now if they had.

[higgins]

The same Marlin exhibition shooter came to my Jr. High school (I'm 69), believe it or not. He was Colonel something; don't remember his last name.

It just came to me - his name was Colonel Larson.

[Texas by God]

Their annual catalog was truly the Wish Book when I was little.

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[Handloader109]

Truly amazing how such a large Corp can ruin their business. Totally ignored internet.

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[Winger Ed.]

Hate to see them go. They almost invented the concept of mail order.
I never understood why they abandoned it, and also missed the chance to 'invent' shopping on the internet.

[shaper]

Sears started going down when they stopped sending the catalogs. I bought my Winchester 94 from them about 1975, on the barrel it has Sears Winchester 94. It also is a little shorter and not as heavy. It is still my favorite rifle for deer hunting. Guess I will be handing it down to one of the grand kids one day.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

They are closing the Sears store in MOA (Mall of America) in Minneapolis (actually it's in a suburb south to Minneapolis)...surprising since it is a Anchor store.

[Pressman]

The Sears in Des Moines is also an anchor store to Merle Hay mall and closing. I always liked there tools and appliances.

Who was Merle Hay? Google the name for a great history lesson, with a sad ending.

[mac60]

They closed the store in Mobile, Al. a good while back. I see Craftsman tools in Lowe's now. Like TbG I well remember the Sears catalog. Also, I remember a barrel full of old military guns muzzle down in a barrel. This would have been in the mid to late '60's.

[MUSTANG]

Another American Iconic Business Killed off by Wall Street, Harvard MBA, Global Banker Types. Todays objective in business is to Hype a Business to get the Stock up; Take lots of Stocks/Options as compensation; Dump the Stock when you have manipulated it to an unrealistic price and leave the Investment Sucker s holding the bag, then sell off the Real Estate and Assets as it slides down so you can milk the last bit of Largess from the coffers; then disappear and let the pundits pick the bones of a Great Iconic American Business. General Electric (GE) is the next to go; and it was subverted by the Obaminites, Renewable Energy, Fed's Subsidies, and other tools of the Wall Street/Harvard MBA types.

[Kraschenbirn]

Closed our Sears retail store 8 or 9 years ago but kept a mail-order outlet in one of the smaller malls. Looks like that's gone, too.

Next door neighbor was a shop manager for Sears Automotive. He'd been there something like 26 years and when they closed the retail, they gave him the choice of relocating to one to the Chicago locations...as a "lead technician"...or taking a buy-out of his pension/profit sharing. Took the cash and 'early retirement'...building racing engines and overhauling Harleys in his garage as a 'hobby'.

Bill

[smoked turkey]

Sad to see it. I used to make the short journey from my workplace on many "noon hours" to just browse the tool and lawn equipment section. I ended up buying lots of sale items that I didn't know I needed until I saw the sale price. I have a lawn tractor that was my last big purchase. I purchased one of their smaller tool sets about 55 years ago when I started driving. I use those same wrenches, sockets, etc to this day. I have added lots to it over the years and have them in one of their big roll-a-round tool chests. My wood working shop is well equipped with many of their big stationary tools. I am pretty sure that many folks on here have similar stories of their "craftsman" tools used through the years. Sad as I said in my opening to this trip down memory lane.