Sears is going down...

DIGGER27

In Memory Of
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears

Their Craftsman line looks like it is close to being sold, Diehard and Kenmore won't be far behind.
Won't help, the head guy has been more into making money for himself and the other stockholders than taking care of their stores, stocking levels, customers or employees for years.
This has actually been the longest, slowest going out of business sale of any super sized retailer in history.
K Mart will be gone before it is all over too.

A shame, for us older types we remember how iconic this store was.
Need anything....go to Sears.
Tools...Craftsman had a replacement warranty like no others.
Appliances...Kenmore, of course.

At one time you could order just about anything from their catalogue, even a complete house, and that catalogue had a prime place in many outhouses back in the day because used as toilet paper that thing would last for quite a while.

Now they are a sickly version of this once mighty company, their stores look horrible and they are bleeding cash and can't stop it, won't stop it.
Like a sick, catatonic relative hooked up to life support with no hope of recovery.
The end is near, another year or two and it will be over for this company that began in 1886 with their catalogue and started to open stores in 1925.

I always did wonder what suspiciously happened to Roebuck.



https://www.thestreet.com/story/138...tml?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo&ref=yfp
 
Won't help, the head guy has been more into making money for himself and the other stockholders

The primary concern for any CEO is to maximize shareholder wealth. That isn't my opinion, that is the truth. While his intentions were correct, the manner in which he went about it was absolutely wrong. Your best option to maximize shareholder value is to get people into the stores, not playing financial shell games to make it look like things are good. You don't need to see the company financials to know things aren't going good for the company. All you have to do is walk into a store.

I remember as kids, my sisters and I would wait anxiously on the day after Thanksgiving for the Sears Christmas Catalog. It was the best day of the year up to that point (Christmas obviously being the best). It is just one more piece of my childhood fading away. Sad.
 
The primary concern for any CEO is to maximize shareholder wealth. That isn't my opinion, that is the truth. While his intentions were correct, the manner in which he went about it was absolutely wrong. Your best option to maximize shareholder value is to get people into the stores, not playing financial shell games to make it look like things are good.

Exactly my point, it was all done wrong...but hindsight is always 20-20.
Might have gone another way with a different leader with vision, maybe.
Amazon and other internet companies have done a job on most big box retailers but they were so big with such huge value in their name and so many loyal customers they might have had a chance to adapt and change into a 21st century company in some form and stick around...but now it is too late.
 
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The primary concern for any CEO is to maximize shareholder wealth. That isn't my opinion, that is the truth. While his intentions were correct, the manner in which he went about it was absolutely wrong. Your best option to maximize shareholder value is to get people into the stores, not playing financial shell games to make it look like things are good. You don't need to see the company financials to know things aren't going good for the company. All you have to do is walk into a store.

I remember as kids, my sisters and I would wait anxiously on the day after Thanksgiving for the Sears Christmas Catalog. It was the best day of the year up to that point (Christmas obviously being the best). It is just one more piece of my childhood fading away. Sad.

I worked for a fortune 500 company that let over 20 of their top salespeople go just so they could meet their quarterly profit projections.
Then projected lower numbers the next quarter....because they are looking to add about 20-25 salespeople.

I know this is a fact because I was one of the 20 national sales representatives that they let go:mad:
 
Sears lost me years ago. My wife and I were rehabbing our house and went there for pricing on all the appliances we needed...(Stove,fridge,dishwasher,hoodfan, washer,dryer). The salesperson didn't seem interested at all in speaking to us. I think the fact we were very young, and how could we have that kind of cash to spend. But we did...and we didn't spend it there. I remember as a kid looking through their wishbook around Christmas. Boy, the things I wanted. Mini bikes, bb guns, fishing poles.... Very sad they have gotten to this point. K-Mart is a shambles also, (haven't been there in years). They ruined Lands End too.....:(
 
Exactly my point, it was all done wrong...but hindsight is always 20-20.
Might have gone another way with a different leader with vision, maybe.
Amazon and other internet companies have done a job on most big box retailers but they were so big with such huge value in their name and so many loyal customers they might have had a chance to adapt and change into a 21st century company in some form and stick around...but now it is too late.
Walmart's the same. After 12 years I gave up fighting. The managers called me "Trouble", trying to humor me. I said, and still say, we could have been the best store and most desirable employer in a 100 mile radius. The biggest downfall was SWAS- Store Within A Store. They basically took the Dept's. away from the dept. mgr. and turned it over, as well as other Dept's. to one ass. mgr. The main office reasoning was "to reacquaint the manager with dept. practices and procedures and to work with the dept. mgr." I quickly realized it was so the dept. mgr. could "train" the new managers who were hired from outside sources- some never having worked for the company. They also were able to override ANY decisions and control and basically kill each dept.
 
Remember shopping in K Mart when they were doing good in the 60's?
They would announce a blue light special and many would hurry over to the area where they had that stupid looking blue spinning light to see what the deal was.

Tell kids about this and how they used to do retail back then and they would just laugh now.
 
I know this is a fact because I was one of the 20 national sales representatives that they let go:mad:

CEO's don't necessarily make the best decisions to reach their goals. Not sure if it is the board, or the shareholders that look only at the bottom line and not the numbers that go into tabulating that bottom line. When I worked in the financial industry, I was more interested in the all of the components that factored into the bottom line. The low level, granular numbers are what really tells the story about the health of a company, not the high level, bottom line numbers. You can always get the numbers you want with "creative" accounting.
 
As a boy I remember on our farm walking out our long lane to our large rural mailbox. It seemed like several times a week there would be packages from Sears or Montgomery Wards in it. My Grandmother never did go to town for shopping and always ordered everything through the mail. My Grandfather's blacksmith shop matched one I saw in a 1900 Sears catalog reprint.
 
Last time I exchanged a broken craftsman tool, a few years ago, the replacement was made in China. That ended my craftsman tool buying. So they've been going down hill for a long time.

I do remember browsing the catalog's bra section as a young lad though :laughing: this was before the internet ruined everything.
 
Last time I exchanged a broken craftsman tool, a few years ago, the replacement was made in China. That ended my craftsman tool buying. So they've been going down hill for a long time.

I do remember browsing the catalog's bra section as a young lad though :laughing: this was before the internet ruined everything.

This used to be a great experience pre-China.
I exchanged a few broken tools in my time and they cheerfully handed me the good stuff.
I know somebody that found one of their old hammers in a basement once.
Handle was broke, the head was pretty much somehow shattered but there was still a few of the Craftsman letters there you could still make out.
He was going to toss it but I said take it in and see what happens, you might be surprised.

Soon after he did you should have seen the smile on his face when he showed me the brand spanking new tool they gave him for that piece of junk.
 
After quite a few years my Craftsman tape measure broke. So off I go to Sears hoping to buy another just like it and hoping they would replace it with the warranty. (just this past Sunday) I was surprised that they did not have any Craftsman tape measures in any size. Had to buy a Stanley which they did carry. Sad to see a store that was once set the standard for dept. stores barely able to stay in business. :(
 
Remember shopping in K Mart when they were doing good in the 60's?
They would announce a blue light special and many would hurry over to the area where they had that stupid looking blue spinning light to see what the deal was.

Tell kids about this and how they used to do retail back then and they would just laugh now.

I remember as a teenager checking to see what they were selling when the blue light went on, and I remember the smell of fresh popcorn as some stores back then sold bags of fresh popcorn near the front of the store.

I just did a search online and it looks like the blue light specials are back.

bluelightkmart.jpgbluelightkmart2.jpg

Calvin was a Blue Light special ? :laughing::laughing::laughing:
calvinkmart.gif
 
I remember having a wish list for toys when I was a kid, I was into science stuff and got a telescope, microscope, and chemistry set among other toys when I was a kid.

Someone put some vintage catalogs online for different stores including Sears, maybe you can find some of the toys you wished for and hopefully got.
:iwish: :laughing:

Here is a Sears Christmas catalog from 1964 -

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/1964_Sears_Wishbook/index.htm

Here is the page where you can access other years and other store's vintage catalogs -

http://wishbookweb.com/
 
CEO's don't necessarily make the best decisions to reach their goals. Not sure if it is the board, or the shareholders that look only at the bottom line and not the numbers that go into tabulating that bottom line. When I worked in the financial industry, I was more interested in the all of the components that factored into the bottom line. The low level, granular numbers are what really tells the story about the health of a company, not the high level, bottom line numbers. You can always get the numbers you want with "creative" accounting.
C.E.O's are nothing but Corporate Terrorist!! That's what I have been calling them for years.
 
C.E.O's are nothing but Corporate Terrorist!! That's what I have been calling them for years.

I will grant you that it is true for many, but not all. When you have a malignant narcissist in charge that will put his/her own image/personal wealth above so they can keep up with the other CEOs in their umm... waving contest, that is a problem.

A lot of CEOs are much like professional athletes. They measure their self worth by how much they get paid, not how they perform. If someone is making more than they are, it is a personal affront to their self worth.

CEO's get paid a ton of cash because there are not a lot of people who can do the job. It is the whole supply and demand. Any one can sweep a floor so the labor costs are minimal. Very few people can run a company. Sadly, Boards are paying CEOs based upon their name as opposed to what they can do. Because a CEO had success in one company and or industry, doesn't mean they can do the same in other companies and industries.
 
Last time I exchanged a broken craftsman tool, a few years ago, the replacement was made in China. That ended my craftsman tool buying. So they've been going down hill for a long time.

I do remember browsing the catalog's bra section as a young lad though :laughing: this was before the internet ruined everything.

Haha! Glad I wasn't the only one! Like good Lord, there's a whole book of hardly clothed women!" :laughing:

On another note, I bought a cordless drill from Sears decades ago, following in my fathers footsteps since he always went to Sears for tools. I knew about the lifetime warranty so it seemed good to me. Drill combo was like $80 with 2 of those huge slide in rechargable batteries. Long story short, few weeks later batteries wore out fast, wouldn't hold a strong charge, wore down in about 10 minutes after fully charged, so I figured I'd take them back. Well, "nope, can't return those"... I'm like "Wha...?"

So I look at buying replacement batteries and one pack was like $40 and the dual pack which is what I got with the drill combo was like $70. Needless to say that was crazy since I only paid $80 for the whole thing, so Home Depot became my go to place now for tools.

Anytime since I've went to Sears, it was because they had something cheaper that I just ordered off the internet to pick up there. A microwave last summer, a prelit christmas tree last winter. Their prices are way higher than they used to be as well, who do they think they are...Best Buy? :laughing:
 
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I will grant you that it is true for many, but not all. When you have a malignant narcissist in charge that will put his/her own image/personal wealth above so they can keep up with the other CEOs in their umm... waving contest, that is a problem.

A lot of CEOs are much like professional athletes. They measure their self worth by how much they get paid, not how they perform. If someone is making more than they are, it is a personal affront to their self worth.

CEO's get paid a ton of cash because there are not a lot of people who can do the job. It is the whole supply and demand. Any one can sweep a floor so the labor costs are minimal. Very few people can run a company. Sadly, Boards are paying CEOs based upon their name as opposed to what they can do. Because a CEO had success in one company and or industry, doesn't mean they can do the same in other companies and industries.
True to some degree. But when they fail. They should give back. Not collect a Golden Parachute.
 
Sears, Kmart, Montgomery Ward, Woolworths and JCPenny were the big stores back in the day, now they're all very close to being gone for good
 
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