From its start as the catalog that graced the interior of outhouses across the nation to a towering skyscraper in Chicago to anchor store in numerous malls, the latest projection of its own future from the once mighty Sears is bleak.
They’ll join a long list that includes A&P, Montgomery Wards and other department stores too numerous to name, except… here.
CEO is not a retail guy. A hedge fund manager that drove the business in the ground.
It’s more complicated than that, Helo. My company is no longer extending them a credit line for our products. That’s death to a retailer. We had to do the same with Circuit City. Too much exposure and we still got burned.
I remember the 60s though. The Wish Book. And going into the store was a kids dream come true.
It seems like all of the traces of our youth are vanishing rapidly. The performers, the media sources, the retailers…..
OK. I’m old now. Is it 5 o’clock yet?
Remember that big white egg chair with the awesome 8 track stereo in it? Never mind.
when Sears bought K-Mart things started to go down hill and just like all big corporations they want to make money but it’s the customers that must pay for the stupid mistakes the CEO’s and management make. I worked for K-Mart distribution center here in Calif. 30 years ago-it was a great place with good benefits but left for greener pastures and so on. Now all the stores are closing-haven’t been in a Sears since Mom & Dad were alive- to expensive for my tastes… oh well, goodwill is still open LOL heeehe.. 🙂
It don’t matter to me. I always Liked Montgomery Wards better anyways….
@willysgoatgruff
I bought the bitchinest pair of blue corduroy bell bottoms from Monkey Ward’s with my own money back in the 60s. Earned the money mowing lawns with a manual rotary mower. Parents wouldn’t/couldn’t buy them for me.
Sears owned the catalog business.
They could have been the Amazon of the 2000s, if they had moved their catalogs to the web, cut costs through smart inventory control and negotiating good deals with vendors, and gave a positive customer experience.
But they did none of those.
Retail bidness may be over…..but the real estate holdings are enormous.
Bought my junior prom dress there in 1972. Loved that dress and the memories!
Fox Business, especially Stuart Varney, refer to this period as the Retail Ice Age. I think they are right. Dinosaurs dropping like flies.
That was sort of a clunky last sentence.
Big mall stores like Sears real estate isn’t worth that much. If a mall has a sears and a penneys and a Macy’s there’s no foot traffic. They’re prime to be bulldozed and probably turned into apartment complexes. So it’s just worth the price of the acreage. Building of no value. It’s an expense to demo and hauled away.
Fond childhood memories of visiting the downtown Sears to do school and Christmas shopping. RIP.
“Sears owned the catalog business… But they did none of those.”
It’s the vision thing.
Kodak owned a big damn chunk of the photo business. They freaking INVENTED digital photography but didn’t run with it because… film. Like the guy who refused to quit making buggy whips because they were still good for beating dead horses, Kodak rode film into the dirt. RIP Sears, et al.
@PHenry:
Yeah, but that acreage is often in primo locations and worth a nice piece of change.
@plutonium kid
Agreed about location.
…and the stand alone K-Mart stores real estate.
I blame Toughskins
I think they are dying, and probably won’t last five years. The only things holding Sears together were the Craftsman, Kenmore and Lands End brands. They just sold Craftsman, so there is no more reason to go to Sears to buy tools. If they sell either other brand the death will come much faster.
@plantsman:
god, i hated those jeans. you could hardly bend your knees when they were new. plus, you were a “faggot”(traditional, grade school definition) if you still had them after about 2nd grade.
Sears was also caught cheating in their automotive departments!
KMart was the KOD. Why they did that, I’ll never know. But I know that everything at Sears is now translated into spanish, there are grocery store looking shopping carts, and it’s expensive yet nothing in there is worth the price.
They should have stuck to catalogs or went online like Monkey Wards did.
I have no idea why/how but FIngerbutt is still in business, too!
Oh! Funny story- Back in the day when I was a low-thousandaire, I had every major credit card begging me to open accounts with them. All except Sears. They were the only ones who turned me down. Ain’t that some shit?
Meanwhile, I had a credit score of 850. LOL! Who’s laughing NOW, bitch?! 😀
Other than the parts department, I have no use for Sears.
That has been clear for years.
My wife has been getting killer deals on
clothes sales from J.C.Bennys online.
They’ve tried to reopen 2 sears catalog
stores here in the last decade, neither have
lasted longer than a year or two.
Wont be sad to see them go. Upper management has made it clear many times that they are far-left and despise us Conservatarians.
Fuck ’em.