BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Dec 21 - 07:35 PM

Just this afternoon a friend and I were trying to figure out where some of the old standard department stores still have open locations. JC Penneys is at one mall, but closed at a couple of others; Sears is completely gone in our area. Dillard's is still both a department store and at a mall a few miles away is their regional outlet, and Macy's closest location to us has both the regular store and the "Backstage" outlet. (Macy's popped up where Foley's used to be. I loved Foley's.) You asked about a Sears in Pharr—that small city is in the very south of Texas at the US-Mexico border, adjacent to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The more populous city is south of the border and is probably what keeps that Sears open. Though after COVID shut down the borders, they probably had to pulls some strings to keep sales moving. This is probably why the El Paso store is also open. The two in Washington State are divided east and west; one over in the center (east of the Cascades) in Yakima, and one south of Seattle in Tukwila. That one is probably a pretty good hub for the region.

The only Montgomery Ward locations are the historic buildings (there is one in Fort Worth) - nothing to do with the store any more, just the shell of the original building with other businesses tucked in.

We don't have a shortage of stores selling furniture, tools, housewares, etc., the storefronts have changed. And a lot is online. Things change. I suspect here we're looking at the one-two punch delivered by Amazon and COVID-19.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Dec 21 - 06:33 PM

There still exist a handful of
brick-and-mortar Sears branch stores, according to
this special report.

One of them is in Pharr, Texas --
where in Texas is Pharr?

Massachusetts still has its Braintree location,
which I was unaware had survived --
they lost their Natick Mall location and so many others.
California seems to have a handful still open.
But for how much longer, who knows . . .

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 20 - 02:32 AM

Neiman Marcus is in bankruptcy, meaning they intend to survive if possible. I imagine it will be smaller iterations of many of these companies. Considering the glut of businesses still out there, many were teetering on the brink for the last decade or more.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 15 May 20 - 11:47 PM

I was in another Big Box the other day and noticed that Craftsman is still available. as I was not buying tools that day I did not inquire about the current warrantee. It really doesn't matter. They have stood behind their products so well that I may have been partially responsible for their bankruptcy.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 May 20 - 08:28 PM

How long is the list at this instant?

I mean, in the wake of coronavirus
and the impact it has had on retail and the economy,
how many other brick-and-mortar department stores are sinking?

J. C. Penney,
Neiman Marcus ...

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 05:13 PM

The Reuters news agency releases this report
on the negotiations last week.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: JMB
Date: 20 Jan 19 - 10:10 PM

Sears closed a lot of their stores across Canada late in 2017. I was an advertiser for the store closing sale at our local Sears. As for the trademark smell link leading to an article referring to the smell of light pretzels, well our local store had a strong odour of a mix between cheap and offensive perfume and something I couldn't figure out.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Jan 19 - 11:09 AM

Now there is federal agency getting in the act.

The agency in question would take on the pension plans.
Meanwhile the creditors can go after Edward Lampert now, it seems.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jan 19 - 01:03 AM

I stopped by my local Sears this week and learned that my store is staying open and that there has been a new offer by the owner and they think he'll separate Sears from all of the other businesses in the corporation. Toward that end Land's End is discontinued, everything was 90% off, and the fixtures were for sale. My daughter and I each bough a high-end dress form mannequin (she for sewing projects, me mostly for eBay) for about 10 cents on the dollar (I found these listed in a company that sells the fiberglass and aluminum dressmaker stands to stores - they retail around $395 each. We got them for $40.)

Sears is competing with Amazon, eBay, Zappos, all of those online vendors, but once you enter the store, it is compelling. I did make a couple of other purchases while I was there. It isn't my old Sears with the fabric, notions, patterns and other sewing items, and it doesn't have that fabulous candy counter that you had to be there to understand just how enticing it was. (Any of you remember that?) The Craftsman tools don't have as durable a warranty as they used to, but they're still pretty good. I still buy major appliances there. Or will, if it sticks around. The mid-range items sometimes have to be ordered and picked up a few days later, but they can still get you almost anything you're looking for.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jan 19 - 03:54 PM

Sears stores had a trademark smell ?

"it will be around forever"

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jan 19 - 08:11 PM

Bloomberg dot com's take on this whole mess.

I'm gonna go looking for a photograph of this Mister Lampert
that isn't from as far back as the year 2004.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jan 19 - 11:05 AM

The parties concerned met for talks
starting yesterday, Monday 14 January, in the morning.
They talked for twelve hours
and agreed to continue talking
beginning at either 9 AM or 9:30 AM this morning.

So the suspense, if you can call it that, continues.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jan 19 - 09:41 AM

Sears ceased to be relevant in our part of Ontario some years ago, overtaken by Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, and Internet shopping. The last things I remember buying there were socks and underpants (the only garments for sale at Sears in which I would be caught dead at a dogfight), and a range hood. That was back about 2010.

Eaton's went the same way, and before it Simpson's, Morgan's, and a whole whack of local and regional department stores. The catalogue kept Sears on life support for a few years, but then the Internet happened and it was all over.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jan 19 - 05:45 PM

The latest story comes from the Associated Press.

The photo on file, and on display, dates from 2004,
and fourteen years on
I am thinking that Eddie Lampert probably
doesn't look so young anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 14 Jan 19 - 12:36 PM

One of my earliest memories was playing under the dining room table in my grandparents home - a lovely oak table with niches relating to the extentions. Occupation: cutting out pictues from the old Sears catalog and putting them in the niches, by category. Pre-school when there was no other pre-school in our community. In the late 30s, early 40s when a working man could afford a nice solid 4 BR home with ground for a huge vegetable garden. And went to Sears for almost everything.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 05:54 PM

I don't know about all this. Is the horse dead?
Are people picking meat off dead bones here?

The cost of going broke

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 11:56 AM

Liquidation was to have been pursued this week, specifically 8 January.
Then it was decided to give a little more time for offers and counter-offers.
So an offer was made this week,
and the bankruptcy court resumes with this case
on Monday 14 January.

Jan. 14 bankruptcy auction

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Nov 18 - 12:19 AM

Kenmore has been built by Westinghouse for decades.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Nov 18 - 12:11 AM

Yesterday, Lady Hillary and I went to our local Sears Outlet Store to price dishwashers. Even though it was Black Friday, their prices were significantly higher than the big box stores in the area. The salesman did not know the products he was supposed to be representing and he gave us some wrong information. The one fact we gleaned from our visit is that Kenmore appliances are now owned by Westinghouse.

we ended up buying a Bosch floor sample from Best Buy--free delivery and installation because of the initially higher list price. Final cost -- about 60% of list.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 04:50 PM

I remember the drive downtown from West Seattle, past Harbor Island, and along the waterfront to the huge Sears building where we bought appliances and toys and probably other things that I don't remember from all of those years ago. Now I think that building is Starbucks HQ. There was a Montgomery Ward further north and up the hill, off of 1st or 2nd Avenue, if I recall the streets correctly. And there was a J.C. Penny's on California Ave in West Seattle where we went to buy fabric and patterns. There was also a Kress or Newberry's dime store (or probably one of each on California, they often times were opposite each other) down there. All gone. I could recognize the layout of the dimestore with the double sets of stairs down to the basement even if they became something else over the years. Like knowing a building was an IHOP or a Dairy Queen or a Sonic Drivein.

When we moved to Everett, there was a Sears and a Penny's and Kress and Newberrys downtown, and I think a Monty Ward also. But then the malls happened and stuff moved down there and abandoned the downtown. I never liked the mall stores as well as the downtown stores.

I have several appliances here purchased at Sears and lots of lots of tools, as Joe mentioned. I've bought household goods there, and my son seemed to favor their t-shirt section when he was in high school. I've in more recent years ordered a number of things online and had them delivered to the store. I think they've been changing, just not fast enough to suit many shoppers.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 04:27 PM

I was born in Detroit, and all the Sears stores there were modern and boring, even in the 1950s. I moved to Racine, Wisconsin, in 1958. Racine had an old-style Sears and Roebuck store on Main Street downtown. It had wooden floors and tables full of "dry goods" that had a certain old-time smell. That store didn't last long, though. By the early 1960s, it was vacant - replaced by a modern, sterile Sears store on the outskirts of town.

But to the end, the tool departments at Sears have been paradises for tinkerers like me. I've always loved the quality of Craftsman tools, and it was a good day when I fulfilled my dream of having a 245-piece Craftsman socket set. Better yet was the day when I acquired a shiny red Craftsman garden tractor. Oh, and have I told you about my 10-inch Craftsman miter saw? Now Craftsman is sold by Lowe's and by Ace hardware, so Craftsman tools will go on without Sears.

But the Lowe's and Ace tool departments don't compare to what you could find in a good Sears. And no doubt, the special sales on tools won't be as good. I wonder if my lifetime warranties will last a lifetime, once Sears is gone.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 03:33 PM

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

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 04:12 PM

Well, I haven't personally done anything to stave off Sears' impending doom. I doubt I've spent $1,000 in their stores over my entire lifetime, and the rise of Walmart, Amazon, etc. has nothing to do with it. I just never liked them.

But I did always park at the Sears end of the parking lot on those rare occasions when I'd visit the local mall. It was always easier to find a parking spot near Sears' building because nobody else wanted to shop there either.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:54 PM

And here is a stockholders'-viewpoint news report, Stalking Horse bids and all.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:48 PM

Another news report on store closings in Massachusetts (but to the west).

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:32 PM

The latest report from bankruptcy court, regarding Sears, (CNN)
is that Sears has the blessing of the court judge
to put a number of its brick-and-mortar stores
on the auction block.


This post is being submitted at a public computer
at a FedExOffice [formerly known as the late lamented Kinko's]
at the township line between
Framingham and Natick, Massachusetts,
near the braided highway interchanges of three strands:
State Route 9,
State Route 30,
and the MassTurnpike section of Interstate 90.

Those who recognize this neighborhood,
will recall that it is a big one for retail shopping
(and today, Black Friday, that is especially true).

The Natick Mall, right near that township line,
has a large Sears store as one of the mall's physical anchors.
And that store now has a big yellow banner wrapped around one corner,
rather like the yellow-and-black Police Line Do Not Cross tape:
but this banner says For Sale.

When Sears will let go of a location this central,
then anything is, literally, up for grabs.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Oct 18 - 03:54 PM

I was once flown into a town in the middle of Alaska which existed I think due to mining, since abandoned, though when I was there there were about a dozen residents including a postmistress. There were several sizable houses there and I was told they'd been ordered as kits out of the Sears catalog. Some catalog!

When I was a lad, My big birthday present (combined with Bar Mitzvah from the family) was an electric typewriter, clearly made by Smith Corona like Mom's, only with a Sears logo on it. My father's best friend had told us of the "Sears rule" i.e. don't buy anything from Sears with moving parts. Accordingly, while still in the store, we opened the typewriter box and unpackaged the typewriter, which weighed a ton, unfolded the cord and plugged it in. The typewriter did not work!

Got it sorted and used it for years. I still have a Kenmore dishwasher which has worked flawlessly for many years despite having a lot of plastic in it.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Oct 18 - 11:57 AM

The Wall Street Journal looks back on Sears & Roebuck
in the light of its
filing for bankruptcy.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 03:42 PM

Thats funny I went out to pay my respects to Sears one last time today.
My grandfather worked for Sears catalog making the drawings for the ads.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 01:44 PM

Further signs of the decline and fall:
Sears on the stock market.

Sears, Chicago, and penny stock

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 03:55 AM

My DIL in Toronto, Canada, has a Sears Kenmore sewing machine which goes like a little beauty. I don't know how old it is or when she first had it, but from memory (not always reliable, as we know) I think it may have been a hand-me-down machine from a family member.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 09:41 AM

Yes, the Sears and Roebuck catalog does harken back to an age when luxury was defined as having an outhouse with two holes instead of just one.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 09:32 PM

The "Big Books" are no longer published. When they quit publishing them we had to start buying toilet paper.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 02:03 PM

It is a long, long time
since I was young enough to get my last look
at a Sears ink-and-paper mail-order catalog.

Those things were huge.
Doorstops, almost.

Do they still print those out
or has the printed Sears catalog
gone the way of the dodo?

Certainly, as Rapparee pointed out,
I still receive mail-order catalogs in my mailbox;
but they are little skinny ones,
fastened with a pair of staples in the middle.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:48 AM

Lady Hillary picked up a late 1940's JC Higgins bicycle at our regional rummage sale. We were able to date the model through archived Sears catalogs on line and are busily restoring it for rental to movie and television production companies as a period prop. The payback from one day's rental should cover the cost of purchase and restoration.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:20 AM

Sears, Roebuck used to sell pets via the catalog, including descented skunks. You could buy a corset, a girdle, a shotgun, a carriage, even a house (a spouse was found elsewhere). Need a new stove? -- Monkey Ward will sell you one! Need coal to fire that stove and the train yard is too far away? -- order it from the catalog! You could order an electric blanket if you were a soldier in Korea from Sears. Seeds to sewing machines, it was available from "the book." Even bibles: you could get The Book from The Book and sometimes it was a tossup which was better.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:08 AM

thats fact jack

my grand dad used to draw ads for the Sears catalogue

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:08 AM

Sears tried to be all things to everyone; they nearly killed Lands End. Amazon is Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward or Spiegels but with an online catalog.

As I couldn't find what I wanted in town I recently ordered a pair of chrome heavy-wire shelving units from Amazon. They came by mail, about 70 pounds (32 kg), and I didn't even know the Post Office would deliver something that heavy!

But just as in the days of printed catalogs, you take your chances that the item will fit/meet your needs. Printed catalogs are still with us; just see your mailbox!

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:03 AM

Here's a list that includes one of the malls I've shopped at over the years. I think our closest store is still open. For the time being.

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 08:50 AM

Weren't they primarily a mail order firm for most of their existence?

So isn't this simply a return to business as usual?

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 10:58 PM

I think there have been three lists of Sears stores to be closed in 2018, but I haven't been able to find a comprehensive list of all of them. As far as I can tell, it's over 150 stores closing. Our local store is a contract "hometown" store, and it shows no signs of closing - but three corporate stores are closing in nearby Sacramento. I think that leaves one corporate store left in our area.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 10:42 PM

They've had the website for years, I've ordered several things they delivered to my local store for pickup. They've had some tough times and some strange bedfellows as they attempt to stay relevant to the marketplace. I still prefer to buy my fridges, stoves, washers and dryers there. Lawnmowers. The list would grow if I think about it longer. Or at least that's where I start looking. Craftsman tools aren't what they used to be, and it has been decades since they sold cloth and patterns, but that was a place I used to go for sewing supplies. JC Penneys and Sears.

Subject: BS: brick-and-mortar Sears: the end?
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 10:07 PM

This sneaked up on me.
I'm just now catching up on the stories in the media
with all the store locations being closed by Sears.

Apart from the fact
that I should get out more,
this is making me reflect.

What used to be "sears & roebuck"
has had physical retail locations as far back as I can remember.

Now Sears has a website, naturally,
for the post-computer Internet age.

And all sorts of convoluted deals
are going down with the business entity.
Too complex for me to take in.

I just see the stores of my childhood closing, closing, closing.