Goodbye Sears, you will not be missed.

The only reason I shopped at Sears was for their tools. Now I don't even do that since they are cheap crap.

I went in the buy a garage door opener years ago and was hassled to get one of their credit cards (VISA). I had the old sears card that was no longer valid. I got 10% off and I got a $10k credit limit. The girl said, "ooooohhhh look at you!" I thought she was going home with me. The interest rate on the card is 29.9%. Really? I have used it once or twice and paid in full. They have since dropped the credit limit to $2k.

CVS isn't going anywhere, though i suppose at some point, Walgreen's is going to bite the big one. It's hard to stay competitive when your competitor is literally across the street from you at every one of your locations, and has one of the nation's largest prescription drug retail programs backing it.

T.J. wrote: Sears/K-mart, JCPenny's, Best Buy, Radio Shack, CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot and Lowes. They are all zombies just waiting to be put down.

Not around here! Sears/K-mart are fading slowly into senility and death, agreed. We only go into Sears to return stuff we bought from the Lands End catalog when it doesn't fit.

Best Buy seems to have reached their maximum potential, but they're not overextended in this area. The Shack is trying keep up, but it's not so much that they did it badly, but that their target market has almost completely disappeared from society.

CVS and Walgreens are all over the place and they are still building more of each. They seem to be having some kind of corporate dick-swinging contest that I doubt is sustainable. However, at the moment, all the stores I pass are fairly busy. Home Depot and Lowes seem to have reached detente with each typically staked out one side of town, and have given up trying to leapfrog each other so badly.

the only thing that Sears has to offer is the tool section.. went in there to exchange my 12 year old (and very well used) Craftsman Professional 3/8" swivel head long handle ratchet because the plastic lever for switching directions finally decided to break on it.. they didn't have my exact one in stock, but the guy let me exchange it for a slightly more expensive similar one with an offset swivel handle- and it even has a metal switch on it.. seems better made than the old one ever was so far..

but after being in the store and looking around, i'm starting to get the impression that it's time to dig thru my screwdriver drawer and find all the flat head ones that have mangled ends and exchange them before it's too late..

For Christmas, my company used to give out gift cards to the mall. I always spent mine at Sears, but now they give out generic Visa prepaid cards. I do have a few chipped Phillips head screwdrivers I may trade in. I can't remember the last time I was in the mall....

they are doing a life-raft type operation, spinning off successful businesses away from the core company. (kinda like how Circuit City did with Carmax before CC folded.)

So, lands end, maybe Craftsman itself...

I detest the malls as do many men and therefore have not traded in my selection of lifetime Craftsman screwdrivers with boogered tips, etc. Guess I'm stuck since the one here closed. Oh, well.

I went into sears to buy a 36mm socket for the mini. They had one. That works.

IMO, companies that once thrived on Mail Order catalogs have died or are dying.

Montgomery Wards died years ago.

Sears/Kmart is being killed by Wally World and other various box stores depending on location.

JC Penny is being killed off by Macys, Carson Pirie Scott, etc.

It's sad, but true.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: IMO, companies that once thrived on Mail Order catalogs have died or are dying. It's sad, but true.

Indeed.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Montgomery Wards died years ago.

Once my dad owned a JC Penney gas powered lawn mower. I thought that was funny.

Auto World died and was reborn, and is worth checking out. They still have everything you need to keep AFX and Thunderjets slot cars running: http://www.autoworldstore.com/

Sears sucks. My mother - a widow in her late 60's - went there for a dryer because that's where Dad always bought appliances. They sold her a $399 dryer and charged an additional $300 for delivery and an "installation kit" that consisted of a power cord and a 6-foot section of dryer vent tubing, which the installer split during installation and left that way. I went to the store and spoke with a manager, but they refused to do anything to help. I did get the satisfaction of telling him that even drug dealers and pimps know better than to steal from old widow women, and he would certainly burn in Hell.

Double satisfaction when the store went out of business a year later. I am normally not happy to see people lose their jobs, but man, was I happy to see those thieving bastards lose theirs.

Not that I'm still mad about it or anything.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Montgomery Wards died years ago.

Once my dad owned a JC Penney gas powered lawn mower. I thought that was funny.

My uncle once worked at a JC Penny automotive department. Still had a full set of Penny's wrenches when I worked for him.

T.J. wrote: Sears/K-mart, JCPenny's, Best Buy, Radio Shack, CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot and Lowes. They are all zombies just waiting to be put down.

I can see the others, but CVS and Walgreens or Home Depot and Lowes? They may individually suck, but it's just because they are part of stable duopolies who each have no motivation to be any better than their counterpart.

My pick in the retail death pool is JCPenney. They have no clue what they are anymore, they have tried to be everything in between Lord and Taylor and Old Navy over the past 10 years. They'd have been gone years ago if they'd had any brands that were attractive acquisition targets.

Radio Shack will always be around but they will only sell cell phones and associated crap. The ones in my area are 90% there already.

Sears is in big trouble. The store, the employees, and the systems are more screwed up every time I go there. I don't really think its the employees fault, but they can barely figure out how to deal with non-standard orders, and the brand pushes the online sales, coupons and loyalty points so hard that every other customer is trying to make some complicated transaction that the employees get completely lost trying to accomplish. Twice this year UPS has delivered me items from Sears that I had already picked up in the store. Sears' brands still have value, but only so long as you can assume that Sears will be able to honor the warranties, and that is becoming more precarious by the day.

Hey, my 6" Craftsman metal lathe rocks. And I can still get parts for it. From Atlas-Clausing Corp.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: IMO, companies that once thrived on Mail Order catalogs have died or are dying.

I think you are correct, and I think its a sign of complacency. Who should have been able to transition into online retailing better than a company that existed for a century on mail order?

"Computers? Heck, nobody wants to order their foundation garments on a computer!"

Nostalgia post: Back in the late 60s/early 70s you could buy an authentic Meyers Manx body from Sears, complete with the Manx badging. I knew a guy who built one as a sports car, not an off-roader - lowered, wide tires, Konis, modified Corvair engine, short windshield, it was quick!

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: IMO, companies that once thrived on Mail Order catalogs have died or are dying. Montgomery Wards died years ago. Sears/Kmart is being killed by Wally World and other various box stores depending on location. JC Penny is being killed off by Macys, Carson Pirie Scott, etc. It's sad, but true.

How true.When I was a kid, the Sears catalog showed up about October-ish and it was called 'The Wish Book'. That was the start of the Christmas season for us. Generally the last 1/3 was all KINDS of toys.

There are pics of them from at least 1992 floating around, I think it (the big edition that got mailed out) finally got killed about 1997.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Montgomery Wards died years ago.

Once my dad owned a JC Penney gas powered lawn mower. I thought that was funny.

Right out of college I bought a set of Penny's ratchet wrenches and sockets. I still have a lot of them and they kick Sears ass for quality. They were also selling the lawn mowers at that time. I also bought a Penny's life time battery. They regretted that and didn't carry them for very long.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Montgomery Wards died years ago.

Once my dad owned a JC Penney gas powered lawn mower. I thought that was funny.

My dad had a JC Penney moped, not unlike this.

I put Michelins on the Trooper several years back, I bought them at Sears, they had a different name on the sidewall (forget exactly what they called them). Exact same tire as the M/S's but ~$100 cheaper. Those days have been long gone.

i had a Mongomery Ward's 10 speed bike in my teenage years, from about the age of 12 until i got my license at 16.. paid $75 for it brand new and put it thru hell riding it everywhere all year long. after a couple of years it was stuck in 9th gear and i didn't care enough to fix it.. i credit that bike for making my legs strong enough to break the school 400 meter dash (or whatever the closest distance is, i don't consider "running" a sport worthy of my attention) in gym class one day..

Posted yesterday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/sears-closing-stores_n_6037036.html

Closing 100 stores and laying off almost 5500 people.

Sears denies that closure report, but I think I believe it. There were pretty well confirmed reports back around June that their suppliers were operating on a 'cash up front' basis for their Christmas stuff. When that happens, it means they quit extending credit because they don't think they will get paid when everything shakes out.

The 'World's Most Redneck Mower (TM)' which is now in my brother's possession, was a Monkey Ward's from probably 1981. It was made by MTD, although I don't think MTD went by that name at the time.

Curmudgeon wrote: How true.When I was a kid, the Sears catalog showed up about October-ish and it was called 'The Wish Book'. That was the start of the Christmas season for us. Generally the last 1/3 was all KINDS of toys. There are pics of them from at least 1992 floating around, I think it (the big edition that got mailed out) finally got killed about 1997.

We got them, and may still. My kids would go nuts when that thing arrived.