Author Topic: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...  (Read 1874 times)

WLJ

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #25 on: September 17, 2021, 11:51:07 AM »
^^^I think Sears leadership carefully planned this to enrich themselves personally, by selling off the brick and mortar assets and profiting off the real estate assets.

Maybe the ones after I left but the ones while I was there had zero clue. They were fighting Walmart, Circuit City/Best Buy, Lowes/HD, and the internet with a 1950s mindset. People will always shop at and be willing to pay more at Sears because it's Sears. SEARS!
« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 12:03:46 PM by WLJ »
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K Frame

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #26 on: September 17, 2021, 12:02:59 PM »
I was working there when that happened, to say it was a cluster * is an understatement. Upper management just couldn't wrap their brains around on why would people would order something over that soon to be gone fad thing called the internet when they could drive to Sears and happily pay more. When they started to see the writing on the wall they couldn't get pass viewing Sear's own attempt at an online store as merely something to draw people into the stores and nothing more. Sears management was struck in the 1950s. They couldn't understand Walmart let alone the internet.

Same with Montgomery Ward. They couldn't adapt because their corporate mindset was still stuck in the suburban 1950s.
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WLJ

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #27 on: September 17, 2021, 12:06:38 PM »
The "Too big to fail" mindset was very much at play.
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MechAg94

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #28 on: September 17, 2021, 12:19:32 PM »
I grew up in a small town.  Sears was a long way away.  I had no particular view that Sears was any better than anyone else. 

That said, when I first got out of college on my own, I bought a Sear automotive tool kit in a small plastic tool box.  Had most of the common tools you need to work on a car/truck.  I still have that and have used it quite a bit over the years.  There was a Sears Hardware near where I lived right after college (late 90's).  The tools I got there were okay.  The car batteries weren't that good (maybe I bought the cheap ones).
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Ben

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #29 on: September 17, 2021, 12:30:19 PM »
  The car batteries weren't that good (maybe I bought the cheap ones).

The old DieHards were my goto battery I guess into around 2000. At that point I saw a decline in quality.
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WLJ

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #30 on: September 17, 2021, 12:42:56 PM »
When I started there if you wanted a PC you had pretty much one choice in town, Sears.
Then came Circuit City, Best Buy, Computer City who were always cheaper.
Their solution?
Management: Tell them how much greater value they're getting by buying it from Sears.
Us: But it's the same computer for $200 more.
Management: But they getting greater value.
Us: What greater value?
Management: Sears
And then came internet shopping.
Management was stuck on the idea that people would without question pay more to have their receipt say Sears at the top.
Yep, too big to fail.
That mindset didn't fly in the 1990s once the internet got going but you couldn't tell them that.
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Bogie

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #31 on: September 17, 2021, 12:46:44 PM »
The thing with car batteries - there are only a few US and nearby companies that make them.
 
If you guy a Chinese battery, it has been sitting, for Bob only knows how long, on a container ship. Slowly deteriorating, since they start that when the acid hits the lead. I see a LOT of Walmart batteries that are only a year old that test bad. And I understand that Wally World is wonky about warranty stuff with them.
 
And... Our three-year batteries are now at $180.
 
If you drive a ford truck, or something that takes a 65 series,  you can get a Motorcraft battery at our stores for $170, and that's one heckuva battery.
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kgbsquirrel

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #32 on: September 17, 2021, 02:39:13 PM »
^^^I think Sears leadership carefully planned this to enrich themselves personally, by selling off the brick and mortar assets and profiting off the real estate assets.

Is Jack Welch on the board?  Enriched himself by dismantling General Electric and then moved on to Boeing and ruined them.

Hawkmoon

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #33 on: September 17, 2021, 02:44:03 PM »
Somewhere "back in the day," I bought a used Jeep, got it home, and found that one of the front wheels had a locking lug nut on it -- and, of course, the seller hadn't provided the clover-shaped insert to allow taking it off. Someone in my Jeep club suggested hammering an oversized impact socket onto it and then undoing the lug nut.

So I got out my set of Harbor Fright impact sockets, found the appropriate size, and hammered it onto the lug nut. The socket shattered. So I took a regular Craftsman socket of the same size (not an impact socket) and used that. It did the job just fine, and is still going strong more than 20 years later.

I've probably mentioned that my late wife was from South America. Her older brother was unusual among Chilean men in that he enjoyed tinkering with his cars himself. Somewhere, somehow, he had come into possession of a fairly good sized Craftsman automotive wrench set, which he carried in the back of the cab of his Chevy Colorado extra cab pickup. Keeping anything in a vehicle in Santiago is NOT wise and, eventually, some low-life broke into the truck and stole the tools. My wife reported that he was extremely upset, especially since it was no longer possible to find Craftsman tools in Chile.

So we bought a Craftsman tool set and shipped it to him for Christmas. I don't remember how we shipped it, but I'm sure the shipping cost more than the tools. But -- b-i-l was a happy camper, and I made a friend for life. (Until he passed away a couple of years ago).
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HankB

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #34 on: September 17, 2021, 03:05:47 PM »
Is Jack Welch on the board?  Enriched himself by dismantling General Electric and then moved on to Boeing and ruined them.
I don't think that's correct.

It was Jim McNerney - a guy who wanted to succeed Welch at GE but was passed over - who left GE and went to 3M (where he didn't do well) and then moved to Boeing. (Where things didn't go well under him either.)
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grampster

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #35 on: September 17, 2021, 03:15:43 PM »
That notion that "service" would outbid price infested a lot of management who couldn't read the handwriting on the wall.  I was an insurance agent for the largest and actually the best one state insurance company for 37 years.  It was the 2nd largest insurance company of its designation in the country.  (Reciprocal Exchange) 

Our board members bought into the notion that we needed outside leadership rather than company mustangs who rose to the top.  That occurred about a little over half way through my 37 years.  That began a never ending in and out of failed highly edumacated execs screwing things up over and over while they began to centralize a very successful decentralized branch organization.  As a result, as there was no more input from the regions that was paid attention to, all decisions were made by the centralized system ran by those who never had a clue what it was that made us so successful because they came from outside the company with a lot of stupid ideas.  They continued to preach the service aspect (that was going away) because the centralized system didn't have a clue, while raising prices saying that price doesn't matter when you have good service.  Irony was our best product as a result.  Most of the idiots had their master's degrees from business schools as well.  Human Resources also centralized hiring and began requiring degrees rather than ability.  My retirement day was the happiest day in my working life.
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K Frame

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #36 on: September 18, 2021, 08:01:55 AM »
Someone mentioned guns at Sears...

They were still carrying guns into the mid 1970s at the Sears store near me in Central Pennsylvania. I remember seeing rows of Ted Williams shotguns and rifles. I don't recall them carrying handguns, though.
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Hutch

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #37 on: September 18, 2021, 09:18:14 AM »
My first turnbolt centerfire rifle was a Ted Williams (Win 70 blind magazine) Sears sold me for $140 (plus tax, of course)

IMHO, the best thing about Sears was that you could go into one of their parts warehouse stores and buy repair parts for about anything they sold, not to mention the scratch-and-dent appliances. Those were the days….
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Ben

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #38 on: September 18, 2021, 09:22:11 AM »
I got curious and instead of waiting till the next time I drove to Oregon, just looked it up on the interwebz.

The Sears in Ontario, OR is called a Sears Hometown Store. A locally owned "Sears" store. That's a new one on me.

https://www.searshometownstores.com/home/or/ontario/3379
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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #39 on: September 18, 2021, 10:42:26 AM »
I got curious and instead of waiting till the next time I drove to Oregon, just looked it up on the interwebz.

The Sears in Ontario, OR is called a Sears Hometown Store. A locally owned "Sears" store. That's a new one on me.

https://www.searshometownstores.com/home/or/ontario/3379

The Hometown stores have been a thing for a while now.  However, many of them have closed in recent years, too.  The one where we used to live in Lebanon, OR closed before we moved here to NC.  The one just up the road from us in Sawmills, NC closed a couple of years ago.  I suspect the remaining ones across the country will be gone soon.
Like many in this thread have stated, I also have fond memories of the big Sears and Monkey Wards stores from my youth.  Too bad their management teams couldn't (or wouldn't) keep up with and adjust to the changing times.
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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #40 on: September 18, 2021, 10:52:03 AM »
Too bad their management teams couldn't (or wouldn't) keep up with and adjust to the changing times.

On that, I have always thought that there was a missing niche market that Sears, etc. could have easily filled. There are SO many times that I would liked to have first seen and handled something that I bought online, even if it meant taking more time than clicking the "buy" button. Sears could have become a hybrid of brick and mortar and internet where they kept minimal stock on hand of a myriad of items that people could actually see in person, then order right there for next day delivery.

I mean, that has sorta always been done with things like big appliances. You go to the store, check out the display, then buy it and arrange delivery and install. You could use the same demo model for a ton of other stuff.

Maybe that's just me and there really isn't such a market. People are now buying cars sight unseen like they are an Amazon purchase. That's something I could never do for a big ticket item like that, but I might be in the minority.
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HankB

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #41 on: September 18, 2021, 12:57:28 PM »
I got curious and instead of waiting till the next time I drove to Oregon, just looked it up on the interwebz.

The Sears in Ontario, OR is called a Sears Hometown Store. A locally owned "Sears" store. That's a new one on me.

https://www.searshometownstores.com/home/or/ontario/3379
Some years back, a Sears Hometown Store opened up with much fanfare nearby. Relatively small place, some tools, but IIRC mostly Kenmore home appliances.

The Kenmore home appliance brand had already gone downhill by that time, so the store got little traffic and didn't last long.
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Jim147

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #42 on: September 18, 2021, 01:34:50 PM »
Every manufacturer does or has made the Kenmore appliances you see in the store. Many used it as a testbed for things that wouldn't do on their name brand products.
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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #43 on: September 18, 2021, 05:52:49 PM »
The Hometown stores have been a thing for a while now.  However, many of them have closed in recent years, too.  The one where we used to live in Lebanon, OR closed before we moved here to NC.  The one just up the road from us in Sawmills, NC closed a couple of years ago.  I suspect the remaining ones across the country will be gone soon.
Like many in this thread have stated, I also have fond memories of the big Sears and Monkey Wards stores from my youth.  Too bad their management teams couldn't (or wouldn't) keep up with and adjust to the changing times.

The Sears at valley river center mall in Eugene, OR is so gone the attached building was demolished. 

lee n. field

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Re: For God's sake, just put it out of its misery already...
« Reply #44 on: September 18, 2021, 06:06:30 PM »
Every manufacturer does or has made the Kenmore appliances you see in the store. Many used it as a testbed for things that wouldn't do on their name brand products.

When our drier died a few years ago we ordered a new one from Sears.  I forget the maker of the old one.  The new one turned out to be the exact same thing, with Kenmore branding.  The new lint filter we had bought, was exactly the same.

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