Most of my appliances are from Sears -- best quality for the best price. And tires for my car have often come from Sears.

For four years I worked for a licensed business (Sears Optical, actually USVision) within the Sears store at Fox Run Mall In Newington, NH.

This Sears location is closing -- which will be interesting because it was the single remaining of the original anchor stores for Fox Run mall.

Personally, I hate malls and only go to one if it's for something I can't get elsewhere. Haven't been to Fox Run for at least four years, maybe longer. I don't do recreational shopping except at yard sales. Don't have any money anyway.

Sears did try to evolve with the market, but I think for the past decade or so, a lot of their profitability was from selling overpriced warrantees and service contracts. Their service (for the appliances) certainly changed and not for the better.

I'm old enough to remember the seasonal "big books" and when Sears was primarily a mail order business. A lot of the stores then were "catalog stores" -- you went there to peruse the catalog or to order the products which were then delivered to the store for pickup. Sears tried... They also tried to be all things to all customers, but Amazon did it better. (Even if a lot of people "shopped" Sears to look at the physical products they later ordered from Amazon or other online retailers.)

We shop differently now...and even the malls themselves are failing.

Linn