Sears is gone

[Ickisrulz]

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

Not the wrenches. It doesn't look like any had tools at all if you look at their info:

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

[David2011]

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.

Full circle from the original Sears business plan.

I thought it would be great to be able to buy locally when I moved back to a major metro area after living in an isolated area for several years. Even if Amazon is a few bucks higher than the local price it’s still usually less expensive than driving 80-90 miles round trip and probably a stop at a restaurant. Unless I can get what I want at a nearby home improvement store or Tractor Supply I find myself ordering most of my hobby related products.

[Gregorious]

I worked there in the 90's and writing was on the wall. They did it to themselves, no sympathy here. It always amazed me how many employees there were total sycophants for the company and it's imbecile management. Glad I got out when I did. That being said, yes, I do wax nostalgic about what they used to be. I have a bunch of my grandfather's tools from Sears.

Same experience with them. Worked 5 years during college. Made me hate working with the public and all holidays, especially Xmas.

[abunaitoo]

We have almost nothing left here.
wallymart, target, macys, sam's, costco, best buy, home depot, lowel's, ace hardware, city mill, and that's about it for everyday stores.
Still some small stores hanging on, but I'm sure this chinese virus will kill them off, if they haven't gone under already.
Good thing is many tourist type shops going under.
We really have not much of a choice anymore.
amazon is doing a booming business here.
They even opened a small hub, and are planing to build a distribution center at the airport.
I also miss Radio Shack.

[VariableRecall]

I have a somewhat interesting perspective of Sears towards the end of its life. When I was in Elementary School in the 2000's I remember my local mall being quite popular in the few times I was there. Something I didn't realize until years later that Sears even back then was struggling. A great deal of the space felt open and slightly deteriorating. I remember that our Craftsman lawn mower was always an ornery creature whose handles started coming apart within a year or two of its purchase. My dad's old Craftsman tools were sturdy and reliable, but the newer stuff seemed to drop in quality a great deal. Over time, my parents found other places to shop instead that would give them better deals and better quality. Sears never really gave ME a good reason to go to it, other than nostalgia that I really couldn't fathom through experience. All I remembered from it was wide-open white linoleum, big shelves, and middling quality goods and services.

In retrospect, Harbor Freight, despite their nasty reputation, have been a big winner in all this. You KNOW it's Chicom trash, but you really can't beat the price when you need a tool or item desperately and you're likely to use it once or twice a year. For anything else to bridge your tool-gap, there's other stores just for that sort of thing.

From my perspective, I think that Sears' demise was well on its way long before I was born. All i have as evidence of their good old days are some quality tools and some entries in the history books.

Now I just hope that Costco sticks around, cause I LOVE that hotdog and soda combo.

[Gewehr-Guy]

To see how far they have fallen, all you have to do is look at one of their old catalogs from the 1940's to 50's. If they didn't have it, you probably didn't need it. It was as close to internet shopping as you could get in the old days. I have a couple catalog reprints from 1897 and 1908, fascinating reading and a good reference for antique goods.

[Winger Ed.]

We had a big mall anchor Sears near us. It was in its death spiral back in the 90s.

One Sunday, our washer conked out. I went to Sears to get another one.
This was a big Sears store in Dallas, with a huge warehouse in it, and a big distribution center was downtown.

I found the one I wanted, the sales person was all happy, and said I could come back and pick it up on Thursday.
I started laughing. The salesman looked at me, and asked, "What's so funny"?
I told him, "Dude. This is Dallas, Texas. Here, you don't have to wait until Thursday for anything".

I left, and bought a new washing machine on the way home.

[1hole]

.... intending to pay cash. The sales person told me I would get a price break if I took out a credit card so I did. Then I walked downstairs and paid it off.

Yeah, it appears that SEARS' college trained management came to realize there was more profit to be made in their "Revolving Charge" accounts than there was in their original price so constant Sales by credit became the norm. And the buying public slowly began to see through the curtain and left them in droves.

In effect, the basic plan was to recoup their inventory investment by selling at cost and the "friendly monthly payments" became their profit center. Then they learned that they could coast on quality and still make lots of money ... but they rode that puppy into the ground and whole thing collapsed around them.

It was K-Mart that bought Sears, not the reverse.

[Scrounge]

To see how far they have fallen, all you have to do is look at one of their old catalogs from the 1940's to 50's. If they didn't have it, you probably didn't need it. It was as close to internet shopping as you could get in the old days. I have a couple catalog reprints from 1897 and 1908, fascinating reading and a good reference for antique goods.

Yep. Need an anvil? A lathe? A fence? You could get it all from Sears. But, as they say, that was then, and this is now. What have you done for me lately? Not very much. Buhbye!

[1hole]

BTW, I remember the catalog, out in the outhouse of my maternal grandfather's farm! LOL.

Yeah, it was great to not waste that big ol' catalog back when it was cheep black and white newsprint paper. Then they went full color and the pretty new clay coated paper was too slick to be good for much of anything but kindling.

[pcolapaddler]

One of the last things that I bought from Sears was a set of jumper cables.

Newly married and on a tight budget. My wife had needed a jump in her car a couple of times. I was working as a boat mechanic at the time and had plenty of experience with crummy cables around the shop.

The local Sears auto center had a pretty good set - heavy guage cable, solid clamps, long enough to reach across a full size car or truck with room to spare. They cost the princely sum of about $35. I still have them some 30+years later.

Some of the craftsman stuff from Lowe's looks like an improvement over years past. They're not snap on, but better than they were.

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[downzero]

I agree, I grew up buying tools at Sears also. It bothered me to see how bad the quality became for the last 10 years or so before they finally went under. Maybe if the Craftsman brand could have spun off, before the failing department store took it down with it, it could have made a go of it. I won't be caught dead with a product with the Craftsman name on it that comes from Lowe's or the like.

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Craftsman was spun off and sold years ago. Unfortunately they were foolish enough to take tool production to China, so the name means nothing now.

[gifbohane]

Anyone remember Montgomery Ward. It died in 1997. Was a giant in appliances and anything else. "Monkey Ward"

[Idaho45guy]

Anyone remember Montgomery Ward. It died in 1997. Was a giant in appliances and anything else. "Monkey Ward"

I'm sitting at a giant wooden desk with a black top from the 1950's that was my mother's manager desk when she worked at Mongomery Ward. She worked there until our local store was forced out of business by a WalMart coming into town. She then worked at WalMart as a department manager for another 15 years. She never made as much at WM as she did at Montgomery Ward, despite retiring from there.

[jim147]

Monkeyward was part of the final nail in the coffin. I can't remember the year but the head of sears and head of whirlpool went golfing. They decided to bring back A&E service.

I'm not saying anything bad about the techs but they were sent out with no truck stock to speak of and you could even tell them what was needed and they wouldn't bring it. They would come look at it and then ship you the part. Then when you got the part you call them to get on the schedule to get the part put on and hope they sent the right part and it is what was wrong.

[Winger Ed.]

Anyone remember Montgomery Ward.

There was a big one close to us.
It closed up early, late 80's maybe.

When all the good stuff had been sold, and they were clearing out everything else at about a 80-90% discount-
My Mom went in, and she was going to come out with something....

To help me out, she got several packages of underwear for me.
They were big enough to fit a 55 gallon barrel.
In the long run, and so they wouldn't go to waste--- I had a 20 year supply of cleaning patches.

[gbrown]

Yeah, Ward's left us about the 90's. Spent some time in that place. Sears left us about 2 or 3 years ago. Loved the original one, near downtown. 3 Levels. Remember going down to the basement level, Sporting Goods, seeing a barrel of WWII German or Italian rifles for a few dollars. Wish I was old enough to buy them back then. I have a knife that I bought back in '65 or so, with the Craftsman logo. Pretty good steel, holds an edge well. Use it as a skinner, works very well. Own several J.C. Higgins 22RF, made by Marlin or High Standard, solid shooters. They had good stuff, just couldn't figure out ecommerce. Sad to me that companies cannot adapt to what today's reality is. We older guys have good memories of what was, the younger generations want it now, and quickly. Some are adapting to that, some are not. It is what it is.

[jim147]

Their appliance part side had no problem doing the online side. Sometimes the prices beat what I could do as a dealer. Why the rest of the store failed was on them.

[rondog]

I remember when Sears was THE place to go for all parts for Willys Jeeps.

[VariableRecall]

Anyone remember Montgomery Ward. It died in 1997. Was a giant in appliances and anything else. "Monkey Ward"

Man, I was still wearing diapers by that point in time!