Sears is gone

[Petrol & Powder]

...............
Just one of the many things that point out this ain't the country I grew up in.

Change isn't always good but it isn't always bad either.

We don't have Polio or smallpox anymore. Not many Americans die of cholera, yellow fever or malaria. Most people that live far from a city or town can drive there instead of walking or riding a horse. We can travel coast to coast in 5 hours. We can travel to other continents in less than a day. You can send an e-mail, of significant length and with images and videos attached - around the world in seconds, for pennies. We have cell phones that allow instantaneous communication, to an unbelievably large portion of the world. Most of us have access to electricity and clean water.

Yes, the business environment changes. It will ALWAYS change. Retail looks MUCH different than it did even 30 years ago and 30 years from now it will look different than today.

Walk around in any old city or town, especially on the east coast, and look at the history. Most towns had stables to shelter and feed your horse. Big cities had dozens of stables. Those building have been repurposed, probably many times over. Any railroad or port city will have a warehouse district. Goods are now handled in shipping containers and those old warehouses are apartments, storage facilities or some new industry.

Sears was the anchor store in many shopping malls across America. Malls are DEAD. Those buildings and the land they sit on will morph into something else.
Life goes on. Business evolves.

[bangerjim]

As the song lyrics say:

"Video killed the radio star. We can't rewind, we've gone too far"

Now it is updated to:

"Amazon killed your local Sears store. We can't go back, like it was before."


Sad. A perfect example of the ChiComs gradually killing off our way of life. Started long long ago.

[Petrol & Powder]

You can't blame this one on the ChiComs.

Sears blew it all by themselves.

They had extremely loyal customers, a huge market share, diverse suppliers with a long history and lots of assets.
Nope, Sears is responsible for their own demise.

[Winger Ed.]

Every industry evolves and changes.
Self serve gas, and lower maintenance requirements on cars did away with the 'service station', and 'grease monkey' that worked there.

The 'super market' did away with the local gas station with a grocery store and meat market inside.
Although the concept has partially come back with the modern convenience store.

Malls with all their specialty stores have more or less come and gone when Walmart & Target came on the scene.
When big sporting goods stores came along, the local gun store that didn't have a gunsmith died.

And it goes on...

[merlin101]

While I have many Craftsmen tools and a few Sears guns my favorite Sears memory is of taking a shortcut thru the store to the movie theater down the street. Every time we walked in the back door and went past the candy and nut section, ah the smells were intoxicating! The very first date I had with my future wife (high school sweethearts) we walked thru there, now the store is office space.

[MarkW]

Here's a pretty good explanation of the whole Sears/Kmart fiasco:

https://www.babson.edu/academics/exe...sad-sad-story/

[444ttd]

sears hasn't been my choice for about 25 years or so ago. they were good, esp when it came to hand tools. but sears changed it, no more over the counter warranty. so i go to husky and snap on tools. i still have the sears hand tools, but when they are done, it goes into the trash bin.

[Petrol & Powder]

Here's a pretty good explanation of the whole Sears/Kmart fiasco:

https://www.babson.edu/academics/exe...sad-sad-story/

Sears was dying LONG before 2005 but that story picks up the tale in the middle of the mess.

[FergusonTO35]

Somewhere out there is the store that will drive a stake through the heart of Walmart.

And it can't come soon enough!

[Mal Paso]

It must be old new stock because Craftsman wrenches are not currently made in the US.

This would have been less than 4 years ago. I got them at Orchard Supply after Lowes bought them. Craftsman took up the whole side of an isle and was the usual Craftsman collection. They had the 18mm combination I needed for $15 or a 20 something piece USA set 6-24mm long handle high polish and ignition wrenches to bring up the numbers on sale for $55. I put the new set in the utility truck and the old wrenches in the Subaru so it would have to be after the fire.

[jonp]

Little known fact about Sears. Since they had the corner anchor in many malls you could enter the Sears and then enter the mall by passing through. All the mall entrances had "No Weapons or Firearms" signs at the entrances but not Sears. Sears management in one of the few good decisions they made steadfastly refused to put them up as a remembrance of their history when they were once one of the largest sporting goods and firearm dealers in the USA. You could still put on a CCW, enter the Sears and then enter the mall all legal.

By the end of 2022 they will be down to about 2 Dozen locations nationwide. The once fallback of liquidating prime real estate went bust with the destruction of the malls and combined with the increasing online buying was a double whammy they couldn't figure out how to get out of. I did call the 800 number for the new Craftsman when I broke a Made In USA socket. Gave the lady the number off the socket and a few weeks later a free one arrived in the mail so the lifetime still is in force.

Sears, JC Penny, Montgomery Wards, Woolworths. All could not figure out how to adapt to changing times and are gone along with an era where you could order anything from tools to a car through the catalog and have it delivered.

I had heard that the Craftsman name was bought and a plant being built in TX to make tools here ?

Some are assembled in SC. I think there are plans to get them up and running throughout the country but quite a number are "Assembled here from Globally sourced materials". Still, they are creating jobs and trying to get stuff made here. Sears never made their own tools. All were made by someone else to their specs. I have a set of box end wrenches, the large set up to 1 1/2in, that are great quality. I managed to bend the 1 1/4in one and have no idea what I was reefing on to bend that thing. Still, although the tool is bent a little there isn't a mark on it

https://www.craftsman.com/support/where-its-made

[jonp]

[QUOTE=Winger Ed.;5108838]

Craftsman brand is now at Lowe's exclusively it appears....all ChiCom.

Either Ace or True Value hardware stores have them too.

I also found out they won't warranty the old school Craftsman tools, only their new ones-----
but only if they have that EXACT! part number in stock to swap ya out with.

If ya have a old 3/8ths ratchet and it breaks,,,, you're out of luck.
The new ones have a different part number.

I don't think that's true. Lowes or Ace won't swap them but you can still call the 800 number and get a new one no questions. Just give the part number off the broken one and a new one will arrive in the mail. I did it after going to Lowes with a broken socket and the person there told me to call the 800 number online.

Ace or True Value had Craftsmans in stock long before Lowes. The local one carries a full line of hand tools.

[Ickisrulz]

All could not figure out how to adapt to changing times and are gone along with an era where you could order anything from tools to a car through the catalog and have it delivered.

That era of ordering anything from a catalog and having it delivered is still here and becoming (became?) the preferred way of shopping. The only difference is that the catalog is online. Yes, you can order a new car online and have it delivered to your home.

[jonp]

That era of ordering anything from a catalog and having it delivered is still here and becoming (became?) the preferred way of shopping. The only difference is that the catalog is online. Yes, you can order a new car online and have it delivered to your home.

But you can't buy a home and it's not Made In USA. Your right, though.

[Ickisrulz]

This would have been less than 4 years ago. I got them at Orchard Supply after Lowes bought them. Craftsman took up the whole side of an isle and was the usual Craftsman collection. They had the 18mm combination I needed for $15 or a 20 something piece USA set 6-24mm long handle high polish and ignition wrenches to bring up the numbers on sale for $55. I put the new set in the utility truck and the old wrenches in the Subaru so it would have to be after the fire.

Standard Craftsman wrenches have been made overseas since 2010. I read that the Craftsman industrial wrench line is made here in the US. Of course the wrenches are all made by contract manufacturers and rebranded.

[blackthorn]

No more Sears in BC. The one here closed a few years ago. Prior to that service deteriorated badly. I can recall going to the store in Burnaby on the coast and looking at firearms. That all changed, also I bought many sets of tires from the automotive department, until one day I sat from 9:30 Am to 4;30 Pm waiting to get a set of 4 snow tires mounted as I had been promised would happen. When I noticed workers getting ready to go home I asked what was going on and was told I had to come back Monday as they had run out of time. Told the service manager that was not acceptable and he asked me what I expected him to do, so I told him I expected him to put on a set of coveralls and see that I got what I had been promised. No go, so told him to stick the tires where the sun don't shine, left and went to Firestone for my tires. Never went back to their automotive section for anything ever again. Toward the end, if you could even find a clerk, they were to busy talking to each other to provide service. Yep---Sears did themselves in!

[Stephen Cohen]

Yes, those that don’t adapt to change go the way of the dinosaurs.

Exactly what I told my first wife. Alas poor Rondasaurus. Regards Stephen

[Winger Ed.]

Their auto dept. repair shop here was famous for ripping you off.

If you went in for a front end alignment---- you also needed brakes, shocks, and a front suspension rebuild.
They'd take all that stuff apart to show you too.
But if you didn't buy the rebuild, they didn't put your car back together either, because it was 'un safe'.

You had to pay up, or have it towed out.

After they got sued and lost a few times, they figured out the error of their ways on that though.

[David2011]

It must be old new stock because Craftsman wrenches are not currently made in the US.

Craftsman tools are currently manufactured in 14 states in the US with factories opening “soon” in Virginia and Texas.

[Ed K]

Times change. What's a lifetime warranty? Maybe you can get a Craftsman tool replaced... Maybe you can get your Dillon press repaired... Times change.