When were Sears best years ?

[nh_yota]

In addition, the rise of big box competitors like Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, Menards, Kohls, Dicks, etc. didn't help either because those specialty retailers gave consumers other local options. Sears had a hard time fitting in the middle somewhere between the discount stores like Walmart/Kmart/Target and the specialty retailers.

In the retail world (and the greater business world in general) you either compete based on price or you compete based on quality. Sure you can get more granular than that but those are the two primary factors. I personally think that Sears could have survived as a middle-ground retailer if they provided better service and greater availability.

Look at Amazon - their biggest drawback is delivery time - but they've been addressing that with Prime 2-day shipping and same-day delivery in some markets. Sears could have pioneered the whole "buy online, pick up in store" feature way before anyone else did, but they dropped the ball on the whole online shopping concept.

 

[Schurkey]

Then they decided to cut back on hard lines, reduce tool and appliance selection, and tried to be another JC penny, which if course they did poorly.

Which is funny as hell, because James Cash Penney's legacy was doing it's best to become Sears. Look at the old advertising--JCPuny was pushing car parts, vehicle service, tools, stereos, computers--all the hard lines dominated by Sears. That failed big-time in '81 or '82 with the closing of the auto service and parts departments. Someone at Penney's figured out that the margin on car parts was about 50%, and the margin on dresses was 300% before the markdowns.

Yup, I remember the "Softer side of Sears" ads, where they pushed dresses and make-up, and **** like that. Looking for that 300% margin!

Both companies got what they deserved. JC Puny isn't much better-off than Sears any more. I won't set foot in either one.

 

[Zeke]

And on the theme just above, Sears depended on mall locations before more than just little specialty shops were next door. Then came places like ****'s Sporting goods that offered way more than a dept store could. Other examples are all the clothing chains, shoe stores, jewelry stores, and the list goes on. What did Sears have left that wasn't over represented down the mall?

Well, they had Kenmore, Craftsman and Die Hard which they are spinning off. They have a good line of work clothes and the usual kitchen appliance sections, but that's not gonna be enough.

What I understand is Sears was/is living off of consumer debt. Might still be but as sales dwindle, so does debt. Real estate is the other big asset.

Many of my points have already been mentioned, I'm just adding things up in one thought. And when someone said in this thread or elsewhere, the major stock holders are going to the bank, I think that about sums it up.

 

[Gttrucker]

They handled the Kmart deal poorly. Yes, getting a discount Chain was a good move, but the bought the one with the worst reputation. Kmart had screwed and soured millions. Sears should have rebranded them after the purchase.
I know business people will say the brand recognition was valuable, but in this case I think it was more negative recognition than positive.

 

[Zeke]

Actually, according to the article I cited, K-Mart had exactly the brand ID that the merger was looking for.

 

[Schurkey]

They handled the Kmart deal poorly. Yes, getting a discount Chain was a good move, but the bought the one with the worst reputation. Kmart had screwed and soured millions. Sears should have rebranded them after the purchase.
I know business people will say the brand recognition was valuable, but in this case I think it was more negative recognition than positive.

Do you think that Sears bought K-mapart?

 

[mnoeltne]

Personally, I think that both K-mart and Sears just got too big. They developed a large bureaucracy that couldn't change fast enough. They both did fine until they got really big.

Walmart is going through a little bit of that now. They got a little too big and ended up closing a bunch of stores and scaling back. You need to be fast and nimble, and all too often a big company can't do that.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Up until the Internet became mainstream in the mid 1990's. Sears was successful because it sold just about everything an average person needed in their daily life except for cars, gas and groceries. Sears was the original Amazon.com in the days before online shopping.

I firmly believe the main reason Sears crashed and burned is because they didn't embrace the Internet as early as they should have. Sears already had the infrastructure and logistics in place that would lend itself well to online shopping but management thought the Internet was a passing fad. They've been trying to play catch-up ever since.

And they never got that right either.
Have you ever tried to use their website? It blows. THAT alone is enough to be the doom and gloom of any company in this era.

I'm not just bashing them, for sake of jumping on the bandwagon, because there was a time that I REALLY liked Sears, and was a loyal customer.

Their management team over the past 40 years has really destroyed what could have been an empire that succeeded tremendously for many decades to come. Can't really blame this on anything other than corporate greed and arrogance.

Same thing will eventually happen to WalMart. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it's coming. That one won't upset me near as much.

 

[LB-1911]

They handled the Kmart deal poorly. Yes, getting a discount Chain was a good move, but the bought the one with the worst reputation. Kmart had screwed and soured millions. Sears should have rebranded them after the purchase.
I know business people will say the brand recognition was valuable, but in this case I think it was more negative recognition than positive.

^

Do you think that Sears bought K-mart?

Just another one of those things people hear and take it as the truth...

November 17, 2004

Edward S. Lampert is frequently described as being reclusive, but the multimillionaire investor was front and center Wednesday as Kmart and Sears announced their $11 billion merger.

The 42-year-old Lampert, who is set to become chairman of the combined companies, was clearly the driving force behind the deal.

As Kmart's chairman, he owns nearly 53 percent of its stock through his ESL Investments hedge fund. He is also the largest shareholder in Sears. ESL holds a 15 percent stake in the retailer.


http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/newsmakers/lampert/

 

[theoldwizard1]

I'm 19 so I'm long past the glory days, but I did pick up a new ratchet there today just for fun to see how they are.

Go find an old one on eBay and compare.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Personally, I think that both K-mart and Sears just got too big. They developed a large bureaucracy that couldn't change fast enough.

The biggest problem in the past 5-10 years is Eddie Lampert ! He has no background in "retail" yet he insists on calling the shots.

I don't know how Sears Holding is organized, but as the Recession closed in Ford Motor Company quietly reorganized the company so that all of the land was owned by a holding company called Ford Land (Ford land had previously owned a lot of real estate, but not all of the ground that every Ford plant sat on,) Also all "intellectual property" (patents) is owned by another company. The "Motor Company" only owns what is inside of all of the buildings. If the Motor Company went bankrupt, those 2 assets could not be touched and the Ford family, which controls over 50% of the stock, would be in good shape.

The reason I mention this is because if Eddie can sell KCD IP (Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard, Intellectual Property), and declare Sears (the stores) bankrupt, he will make millions selling off the real estate.

 

[LB-1911]

The biggest problem in the past 5-10 years is Eddie Lampert !

The reason I mention this is because if Eddie can sell KCD IP (Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard, Intellectual Property), and declare Sears (the stores) bankrupt, he will make millions selling off the real estate.

Have fun peeling this onion......

In November 2003, Sears, Roebuck and Co. formed a Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC)*

− Through a “true contribution,” the real estate associated with 125 Full-line Stores was transferred to bankruptcyremote, special purpose entities, and then leased back to Sears, Roebuck and Co.

− The contributed stores were mortgaged

− Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates with a par value of $1.25 billion were issued and subsequently purchased by Sears Re

May 2006
Sears Re purchased $1.8 billion (par value)** of asset-backed securities issued by KCD IP,LLC

Who or what is Sears Re? *


•Sears Re was formed in 2001 for the purpose of:
− Providing centralized management of these insurance risks through a single entity to facilitate
efficient management of them; and
− Providing dedicated assets to meet the related insurance obligations

• Sears Re is a wholly owned captive insurance company

− Domiciled in Bermuda and regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority as a Class 3 insurer

− As an insurance company, it is required to maintain liquid investments to support its insurance
obligations


**https://www.moodys.com/research/Moo...ecuritization-issued-by-KCD-IP-LLC--PR_295237

*https://searsholdings.com/docs/investor/Sears_Re_Presentation_March_2014v2.pdf

 

[neonlazer]

When my dad got married in 77. I think he bough an entire craftsman store. LOL All still runs to this day.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[four.cycle]

Have you ever tried to use their website?

yes, and it's one of the worst. I don't even try to use it anymore. last few times people here posted URLs to Sears products, the pages either wouldn't load at all or the page would partially load and then start flashing (like a 3-year-old playing with the light switch.)
next time I try to use their website it will be snowing in hell.

 

[airshow]

They sold houses out of catalogs too.

Yes, remember reading about that......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

 

[Lassen Forge]

Mid 60's. When you would walk into a Sears store and smell the popcorn. What they didn't have in the store you could order in the catalog and it would be there in a matter of days. And the quality - was GOOD. SR&Co stood for that - high quality at good prices. And whatever you needed (or thought you needed) you could get.

By the 80's they were starting a downhill slide - they tried to bring it back with the "softer side of sears" campaign when they tried to change from the department store everyone knew and loved to a clothing store to compete with the other clothing stores in the malls they were in.

By the time they were in the 2000's it was over. They went cheap with their skilled labor and instead of hiring the best and brightest, they hired who the PC police said would make them "look good" and get them EEO points. My other half worked with a woman who, before she came west, ran their IT division in Chicago - this woman was VERY talented - at playing the EEO game. What she was lacking in - was IT and software skills, tho to talk to her she was the best of the best.

Sears? They stuck a fork in it when they dissolved SR&CO. It's just taken this train a while to stop, once they gutted the motor out of it. And that my friends is a heartbreaker.

 

[Gttrucker]

Then there's the fiasco that happened to the comedian Ron White who made Sears auto service look bad with his jokes for years. Google it. It's probably on YouTube

 

[Art From De Leon]

Then there's the fiasco that happened to the comedian Ron White who made Sears auto service look bad with his jokes for years. Google it. It's probably on YouTube

I don't know how common it was for a wheel to come off, after Sears got thru servicing a vehicle, BUT, once you handed over your keys to them, it took forever to get your vehicle back, AFTER they subjected you to all the items that "needed repair, because of safety issues".

**** SEARS

 

[jd_1138]

I don't know how common it was for a wheel to come off, after Sears got thru servicing a vehicle, BUT, once you handed over your keys to them, it took forever to get your vehicle back, AFTER they subjected you to all the items that "needed repair, because of safety issues".

**** SEARS

MIL kept taking her GMC Acadia to Sears for oil changes even though I told her to go to the local Chevy dealership. Her GMC was still under warranty.

The a-holes at Sears sold her on a radiator flush and ****** flush even though both services were not due yet for like 30k miles. And they broke the plastic around the radiator. I had to turn into a ***** to get the service manager to pay for it. Never did get an apology out of the egotistical a-hole.

 

[rjvjeepster]

Sears's auto service is/was terrible. Overpriced, and won't touch anything modified. Takes forever. The Diehard batteries are **** too, never got more than 2 years from one. Tire prices and selection sucked too.

 

[jd_1138]

Mid 60's. When you would walk into a Sears store and smell the popcorn. What they didn't have in the store you could order in the catalog and it would be there in a matter of days. And the quality - was GOOD. SR&Co stood for that - high quality at good prices. And whatever you needed (or thought you needed) you could get.

Yeah it was cool to have a one stop place for basically everything besides groceries. At Sears, Penney's or Montgomery Ward's you could buy clothing (get a suit tailored even), shoes, tools, shop equipment, sporting goods, appliances, small appliances, jewelry/watches, eye glasses, furniture, bedding, lawnmowers, toys, etc..

Nowadays, the average consumer goes to Wally World and chokes on low quality Chinese imports and they go to Best Buy for appliances. Wife's best friend recently bought a house (they had been renting), and she bought a stove with microwave, dishwasher, fridge at BB. They screwed up and forgot to bring the microwave, and they threw away (smashed together with the flattened cardboard) all the owner's manuals instead of neatly putting them on the table in the kitchen. Amateur hour.

 

[rjvjeepster]

I think Sears wanted $200 just to assemble the coil overs for my Jeep. (not even install, just compress the springs/shocks/top plate). They always tried to sell the 4 wheel alignment, when only the front is adjustable anyway.

 

[Mechanical Noise]

I think Sears wanted $200 just to assemble the coil overs for my Jeep. (not even install, just compress the springs/shocks/top plate). They always tried to sell the 4 wheel alignment, when only the front is adjustable anyway.

Seems like, from about 1980 to 1995, Sears was getting slapped with multimillion dollar lawsuits for some sort of **** every couple of years. I remember one in which they were sued for charging for wheel balancing on fancy automated wheel balancers but the internal counters of the wheel balancers showed far fewer jobs than the customers paid for. I think Sears got rid of those balancers.

Oh, and just about everybody who came to the auto center needed new RoadHandler shocks.

Bad publicity, not to mention the word of mouth from people who actually got scammed.

 

[winlinmac]

Sears's Best Years Are Yet To Come

That's in a Parallel Universe I mean...

 

[rjvjeepster]

Sears's Best Years Are Yet To Come

That's in a Parallel Universe I mean...

In the Parallel Universe vintage tools are worthless because the new Chinese ones are way better than the American ones they replaced

 

[Gila Monster]

I don't know about the best years, but they started going downhill fast around the early 2000s. It's funny because that's now 16 years or so. When someone says "early 2000s" , it seems like a short time ago.

Up until then, I still thought they still were a good bang for the buck and mostly American made for their tools.

 

[laser3kw]

I would dream about their tools, stare at their guns, knives,watches, etc thinking it had to be the best store ever.

many boys "grew up" staring a portions of the Sear's catalog

I say this even though my mom used to buy my brother and me clothes there,

Remember "Toughskins"? They were sold with a guarantee that you would out grow them before they wore out. The local Sears store hated to see my mom come in with another pair that I wore out! She got her moneys worth.

 

[winlinmac]

I thought my comment was sarcastically implied
Let's see what Sears has in store at the end of this year. There's word of Craftsman Industrial (US-made) hitting store shelves.

In the Parallel Universe vintage tools are worthless because the new Chinese ones are way better than the American ones they replaced

 

[anndel]

Sears's Best Years Are Yet To Come

That's in a Parallel Universe I mean...

that would be called bizarro Sears

 

[anndel]

many boys "grew up" staring a portions of the Sear's catalog


Remember "Toughskins"? They were sold with a guarantee that you would out grow them before they wore out. The local Sears store hated to see my mom come in with another pair that I wore out! She got her moneys worth.

Yeah, I used to stare at the Craftsman section along with the woman's underwear section of the catalog when I was a kid.

 

[mrvm]

I knew it had to be bad for the bottom line at Sears when I could get quality name brand tools (knipex), parts, clothing (levi), etc with little out of pocket expense by working the website with points, codes, coupons for store pickup or free sywr max forever renewed shipping. Shopping online at Sears was great while it lasted as the free **** from HF made it barely worth it to roll in there. HF has all the low-buck tool business now as it appears lots of people want the disposable get-her-done tools rather than high quality tools Sears used to sell before the 90's.

 

[laser3kw]

Yeah, I used to stare at the Craftsman section along with the woman's underwear section of the catalog when I was a kid.

Now there was marketing genius! Get ever boy to associate Craftsman tools with scantily clad women! Who'd thunk that would ever work!

 

[53chevy5]

Quote:
I would dream about their tools, stare at their guns, knives,watches, etc thinking it had to be the best store ever.
many boys "grew up" staring a portions of the Sear's catalog

I wasn't going to go there

 

[Empty Pockets]

I graduated High School in the middle 70's. While I remember the the catalog as a kid, and going to the store in downtown Elgin, Illinois, as a kid, IMO Sears' best days were from the early 70's to the mid 80's.

As a kid, my dad would not use anything but Craftsman tools, Weatherbeater paint, Die Hard batteries, Road Handler tires and mom loved her Kenmore appliances. After the mid 80's, that all went away.

My first major tool purchases were made at sears, and all were wearing the name, "Craftsman". Today, with the decline in the quality of the Craftsman line, and the race to bottom in their other lines, I rarely visit a Sears store, as there are plenty of other alternatives.

Sears is dead to me

 

[shockwave]

For me it was the 80's-early 90's I remember watching this old house with my dad and getting craftsman from Sears

 

[zendriver]

We'd like to think that corporate bigwigs and rich investors have at least some sort of business knowledge because we figure that's what got them to the top.

In reality I think the average person would be shocked how dumb and detached from reality some "business leaders" really are.

LOL, these "dummies", know exactly what they are doing.

They know full that Sears/Kmart and it's brick-and -mortar baggage, willnever be able to compete with Walmart/Amazon, so they are wisely milking it for every thing they can get, which is hell of a lot.

The retailer also said it expected that proceeds from the spinoff of some of its real estate will lead it to report a second-quarter profit of between $155 million and $205 million, which has also helped shore up its cash position. Investors sent Sears' stock up $1.38, or 6.5 percent, to $22.93 in premarket trading.

Sears Holdings also announced the extension of a $3.28 billion credit line. The company said the credit line, along with $2.7 billion in proceeds from the sale of more than 200 properties to a real estate investment trust it spun off, gives it more financial flexibility.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/03/sears-sales-fall-sharply-in-2q-as-it-spins-off-real-estate.html

 

[zendriver]

IMO, they started going downhill, when they stopped advertising women's underwear, in their catalogs and sales flyers.

 

[demeter008]

With Sears circling the toilet, one part of me says that they had it coming and the other is really sad about it. I remember when I was a kid in the 80's wearing out the Sears & Roebuck catalog admiring all the wonderful things they had. I would dream about their tools, stare at their guns, knives,watches, etc thinking it had to be the best store ever. Later on I remember them quitting the main catalog due to printing costs, I was sad but understood. By the mid to late 90's I could drive to Sears and actually buy the stuff I dreamed about as a young kid. My first 500 piece tool kit and tool box proudly all put together for my first tech job then laughing at all the fools who would pay 4x more tool truck tools.

Now here I am never going to the store because it's just not worth the trip for me anymore, I can get the same tier of quality stuff at Bomgaars just down the road and better appliances locally. Tools aren't the only thing they sell of course so as a Store in general with clothes, appliances, auto and tools, when were their best years? I would say the 90's in my lifetime.

I got the greater part of my devices at Sears amid those days. My first house was all Kenmore, now just the vacuum more clean.

 

[drink]

I graduated High School in the middle 70's. While I remember the the catalog as a kid, and going to the store in downtown Elgin, Illinois, as a kid, IMO Sears' best days were from the early 70's to the mid 80's.

As a kid, my dad would not use anything but Craftsman tools, Weatherbeater paint, Die Hard batteries, Road Handler tires and mom loved her Kenmore appliances. After the mid 80's, that all went away.

My first major tool purchases were made at sears, and all were wearing the name, "Craftsman". Today, with the decline in the quality of the Craftsman line, and the race to bottom in their other lines, I rarely visit a Sears store, as there are plenty of other alternatives.

Sears is dead to me

Do you remember how Sears would have a huge display of train sets and race car sets in the toy department during the holiday season? It was one of the highlights of my childhood. Going shopping at Sears and playing in the toy department was an all time favorite thing. Does Sears still have a toy department?

 

[Corndoggeh]

Its so weird that you all talk about how poorly Sears and Kmart are doing (and maybe its the hispanic population here where I live) but the Sears here always has a constant flow of sales with no sign of problems. I know they're doing crappy but the Sears here definitely doesn't show it.