One by one the icons fall

Went by one of the few remaining Sears stores yesterday. Everything was on sale. One of my first jobs was at Sears, selling small appliances and electrical when I was in high school. Many of my tools are Craftsman, bought with my employees discount.

According to this article, the company may liquidate at any moment, going the way of Toys R Us.

I understand change is inevitable, but I'm sad to see some of these icons fall.

[wdfifteen]

Woolrich just closed it’s doors after 200 years. Yes, kind of sad.

[Evans, Marv]

Just wore my Woolrich shirt I've had since 1972 this morning. I've got a few more Woolrich items including a really beautiful wool hunting jacket. I used to buy lots of things from Sears also & it's sad to see them going. In some cases I'm mystified long established businesses couldn't adapt to the current market.

[Chocaholic]

Between Amazon, Walmart and Home Depot...they didn’t have a chance.

[Racerbvd]

[QUOTE=Evans, Marv;10297270]Just wore my Woolrich shirt I've had since 1972 this morning. I've got a few more Woolrich items including a really beautiful wool hunting jacket. I used to buy lots of things from Sears also & it's sad to see them going. In some cases I'm mystified long established businesses couldn't adapt to the current market.[/QUOTE]
More like Wouldn't. Very sad indeed.

[unclebilly]

Interesting fact about SEARS...

Sears was knocked out by Amazon and Online Shopping.

Sears invented catalog shopping which is analogous to online shopping.

[ckelly78z]

I used to look forward to the Sears Christmas Catalog showing up to look at all the cool new toys.

Sad, but the last time I was in a Sears store was about 1.5 years ago to pick up my new 54" Craftsman tool cabinet base unit. What an excersise in futility from the absent knowledgible workers, to the archaic ordering system, to the long delivery time, to the absolutely inept loading personell (I had to tell her how to operate the tow motor properly).

[onewhippedpuppy]

Evolve or die, that is the lesson here. Sears ended up selling overpriced crap via an outdated business model. Such is life.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Interesting fact about SEARS...

Sears was knocked out by Amazon and Online Shopping.

Sears invented catalog shopping which is analogous to online shopping.

Sad but true. Sears was once really popular out here in the sticks. You could go into town and order a new snath at the hardware store and wait, and then go see if it came in a couple of times, or just mail an order to sears and it would be on the train in about a week. They’d send a card letting you know it was in.

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Interesting fact about SEARS...

Sears was knocked out by Amazon and Online Shopping.

Sears invented catalog shopping which is analogous to online shopping.

Indeed they did. Sears sold mail order houses in kit form and they were pretty solid.

[Evans, Marv]

The Sears store in this area closed down about six months ago. The last time I was in there some time before, half the shelves were empty. I asked a sales lady when they were going to close the store. She said she didn't know. I felt bad because it was just a shell of days gone bye. There is a Sears parts outlet also where they sell parts and merchandise like mowers, generators, edgers, etc., and I asked the guy there if the possible closing was going to affect them. He said, "We're a part of Sears Holding, and they're never going out of business." I think I'll call tomorrow out of curiosity to see if they're still there.

[Jeff Higgins]

A good buddy, fellow Pelican and R Gruppe-er, quit his pretty damn decent position at Microsoft a couple of years ago to go to work for Sears. They were just then (talk about a day late and a dollar short) starting to try to gear up some semblance of an on-line presence. Oh, granted, there was obviously already a Sears website from which one could order, but they were looking to challenge Amazon and resume their rightful place in American retail. I think he quit in less than a year, pronouncing the whole thing worse than hopeless. What a shame.

[aigel]

They were mismanaged and dysfunctional over 15 years ago. I would only buy tools there, and even that was a challenge. More than one store I'd frequent would be out of items on the shelf regularly. Nothing worse than staring at the price tag for your item and an empty shelf above it, when you have a car up on jackstands ...

Good riddance in my book.

G

Out here we have a beautiful neighborhood called Magnolia, where I swear about half the houses look like this. Nice price, too.

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[A930Rocket]

Haven’t been to one in years and it was to buy tools.

The nearest one to our house closed some time in the past 3 years. It’s been that long since I’ve driven by.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

but they were looking to challenge Amazon and resume their rightful place in American retail. I think he quit in less than a year, pronouncing the whole thing worse than hopeless. What a shame.

I've ended up on the Sears website a couple of times via google when trying to find something, and it was less than useless.

[GH85Carrera]

There was a Sears just a block away from the high school where I graduated. I often went in there before or after school and hung out for a while in the tool department. Way better than any toy store around for me. The had an intercom system that was likely a tube based amp, and it had a horrid very high frequency squeal. I had to walk around with my fingers in my ears (literally) to stand to be in the there. Various employees and the manager came over and asked me why I was walking around with my fingers in my ears, as it likely looked stupid. I told him there was a horrible squeal from the intercom. They were all older men, and could not hear anything. One manager mention several high school kids had mentioned it before., but since he could not hear it, we must be imagining it.

[flatbutt]

Sears is a huge anchor presence in our local mall. I can't imagine what can fill that space. Home Depot is already there along with WalMart, Penneys and Macys.

[mocha07]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

Indeed they did. Sears sold mail order houses in kit form and they were pretty solid.

Youngest daughter,owns a 1904 Sears home now.