An arcade with a bar and restaurant.
5 Likes
The local sears, or at least the top floor, is apparently becoming a “Dave and Busters”, whatever that might be.
An arcade with a bar and restaurant.
You are too generous.
I was going to say “A Chuck-e-Cheese for grownups.”
17 Likes
Wonder what’s going to happen to the lifetime warranty on our Craftsman tools? Last time I broke a screwdriver (inappropriately using it to pry something) I just walked into Sears and they swapped it for a new one, no questions asked. My local hardware store carries Craftsman stuff now (post-Sears sell-off); I should ask them if they honor the warranty.
6 Likes
As a business, you don’t want to sell your assets such as the brand itself; you want to sell products with that brand clearly affixed. Once a business starts selling off assets, you know the end is nigh.
We always considered Sears and Montgomery Ward to compete in the same arena. Wards closed their retail operations in (I just looked it up) 2001; has it been that long already? Even then, I was rooting for Sears, mainly because of their good brands, all mentioned here (I had a Die Hard battery in my 69 VW last for 10 years or more). But I guess most or all of these old retailers are to fall victim to the Wall Streeters.
3 Likes
That bit was sarcasm over the short shortsightedness of it. They sold off the brands about 5 years ago.
They only looked recently to ditch Kenmore but ran into issues:
4 Likes
I was a little surprised that Lowes ended up with Craftsman. Pretty much the only thing I associate with Craftsman is the image of someone bringing in some rusted, decades-old widget of one kind or another and trying to get a new one because of “lifetime warranty”. But then, I’m not in the tool business.
2 Likes
The mistake they made was squandering many decades of good will they’d built with those brands by selling them to lesser manufacturers and then phasing out their legendary warranties. Sure, the Craftsman and Kenmore names still exist, but when the products aren’t worth buying, why bother with Sears anymore?
4 Likes
I have a hard time imagining any circumstance that would have resulted in Sears regaining profitability, but I wonder what would have happened if instead of making their stores shitty versions of Kohl’s with wildly overpriced crappy clothes and home goods always on “sale” and cheapening the Kenmore and Craftsman brands, they had gone the other way and made their appliances and tool lines premium again.
Instead of making Craftsman stuff more like Black & Decker garbage, they could have decided to compete with DeWalt & Milwaukee. Not saying it would have worked, but we know for sure that going the cheap route didn’t work for shit.
3 Likes
combined with Lampert’s lust for it is what killed them, they were done the day he came on board!
4 Likes
Search the part number on eBay, the smarter sellers populate their listings with all the cross-references, (then you add all those other numbers to your search too!)
One of our friends worked in the local shipping warehouse as a manager, and somehow never got to take time off because she was ‘needed’. I doubt she will get any credit for all those unused vacation days now.
2 Likes
Exactly this. I think they took exactly the wrong route – trying to pretend that their crummy outdated Kmart and Sears stores were still just waiting to be revitalized, somehow – instead of working on making their revered brands premium and trumpeting those legendary lifetime warranties. Instead, they hoped mom jeans would carry them into the next decade.
2 Likes
I just got a Sears charge and bought a new bed a month ago… I wonder what happens now? Will I suddenly owe someone the balance?
I used to love Sears, back 15 years ago, when Craftsman was all still made in the USA. I grew up with Craftsman tools, and I’m a millennial. I only own the US made stuff. After it started being made in China I refused to shop there. The quality became abysmal.
That man shit down the toilet a genuine good piece of America for a cheap buck. Fuck him.
I got a gift card for a few hundred dollars when I bought the bed. I was so disgusted with myself, trying to find something of value left in the tool dept, that wasnt Chinese- I actually gave the cashier my gift card, with about 77$ left on it, in disgust. I had no desire to buy another thing in there ever again. As in, I gave away free money. Out of sheer disgust.
Sears was a good company and sold good things before this asshole took over.
6 Likes
So after Eddie Lampert spent decades running Sears into the ground, and spent the recent years siphoning money out of Sears into other companies that he owns, he has now as chairman, out of sheer fiscal prudence, rejected his own offer to sell it to himself.
Something funny about that last step, even by the standards of his other machinations.
My guess is this will somehow turn out to facilitate some other creative way to channel the remaining money to him and him alone, without having to pay any of the value out to any of the creditors or shareholders.
7 Likes
You still can get them repaired or replaced, just not at Sears.
1 Like
Bizarre that the photo used is from a hole in the wall computer repair shop on Bowen Island here in BC. AFAIK it has very little to do with Sears, though I suppose they might have had some kind of local distributorship or something.
3 Likes
Well, that sucks, or doesn’t suck. I’m confused.
8 Likes
K-Mart put my father out of business, so I’m not unhappy to see them die. Sears, however, was such a useful store, and so woven into the fabric of the country, it is sad to see them go. I’ve lived in parts of the country where they were the only local source for certain kinds of merchandise; I think this closure will be harder on some parts of rural America than people expect.
5 Likes
Not shooped?!? 
Is that actually what happened? Did he reject his own offer?
Moreover, can one be the arbitrator of their own bid?
It boggles the mind how that can be legally or even rationally possible, but Donald Trump somehow got elected president. Any insanity might be possible now.
3 Likes
