But apparently a few states that have stricter gift card regulations (I'm sure California is one... no idea about Michigan) didn't allow Sears/Kmart to refuse to honor GCs as long as the stores are still in business. People in those states are allowed to bring their dead GC in-person to a store, and the employees can look up the value the old GC was supposed to have left on it, and load that value onto a new GC. I'm not sure if Hometowns have access to that system too, or if only a full-line Sears/Kmart can do it. An employee pointed this out on the layoff forum.
Kmart's store windows in NYC look like this now: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3TGIQ6gsFg/
The infamous plastic totes!
The HQ (Hoffman Estates) layoffs that I'd mentioned in the past couple weeks were apparently slicing most remaining departments in half, plus getting rid of ALL of the "Online Item Build" specialists and managers... these were the people who actually get new products added to the Sears/Kmart websites! It sounds like they're not planning on having much to add from now on, just a downward spiral of out-of-stocks.
SF apparel office reportedly lost 80% of its employees this month. "the only people left is just the clean up crew forced to get things in order before the fiscal year ends."
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/120dCyBu
"Most of the buyers were let go so there will be no more new product in the stores. They were allowed to buy a little bit of spring merchandise and then everything was shut down for buying. Means they are not planning on having any stores left by the summer."
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/128y4Kfp
bds said:
On the mailer, I specifically recognized the unique Craftsman vise-grip pliers set, which as I was talking about a couple weeks ago, doesn't have a release lever sticking out like others do. (Sears stopped selling this version, presumably due to supplier problems, and recently replaced it with a nothing-special release-lever version.) 
Thank you for posting this! I was about to place an order to a store in another state that I'd need to drive to next time I travel, but tried chat and had the same nice experience as you. $30 order, $2 OOP, shipped free.
I was almost ready to give up when they removed the PS option.
atlm:
hexen: nothing special, just chatted and asked if they could provide free shipping on an item.
fwiw i went platinum last year due to picking up a few tool cabinets as well as a washer/dryer combo and chat has been super nice to me. not sure if platinums getting more slack is a thing or not, but my parents bought more stuff than i did but split them up under two accounts and didnt go platinum and theyve chatted to ask for small things that ive already gotten away with and are denied. ive even chatted under their account and been stonewalled, so i know i said the right things in the right way. but that was always my theory. plus i dont argue with the reps and always ask nicely and wish them a good day when we're done. any way you look at it, its sears so ymmv
In the past, when chat would do free shipping, it usually had to be without any other freecash/coupons, cancelling out the savings; you had to go through the PS to do both together.Right, but it was supposed to be only using the existing contracts already in place before the SBD sale, so it seemed like adding a whole new retailer was more change than was intended to be allowed.
Another thought I had about the Northern Tool situation, why they'd have things Sears no longer has... perhaps the manufacturers of those tools are among the many companies no longer willing to risk Sears not paying them, so Sears can't get their stuff for Sears stores anymore, but they're able to get paid by NT in this case so they were willing to make more just for NT.
