Leaving Nascar and bullying customers over a $3 socket doesn't seem like good business but they're still going while Sears and Sears Hardware are a memory so "the way it ought to be" clearly isn't profitable.
Sears used to nickel and dime customers on everything.
I once bought a store display of a power tool, and it didn’t come with directions.
When I called and asked for directions, I was charged for a replacement “manual”, and then a higher coat for shipping, and the manual turned out to be an improperly photocopied copy of the manual, rather than an actual manual.
Simply emailing me a PDF should have bern possible, but that was not offered. (Even though most power tool manufacturers at the time offered online options for manuals).
The saw that replaced the saw I purchased from display was basically the same saw with a different color scheme, so a catalog from that would have worked fine.
Apparently, keeping replacements for things like catalogs, wasn’t an actual Sears Parts” service.
Later, I purchased a pair of Facom pliers that didn’t cut wire properly, and the Sears employee just put the pliers back on the shelf.
My mother also tried yo buy a washer and dryer from Sears, and literally every possible thing was an extra fee, from delivery, to extended warrantees, to delivering and installing the appliance.
All the extra fees added $1000 or more to the washer and dryer purchase, or would have.
Then Sears refused my mother’s credit card application to get the discount offered for opening a card, because Sears got my mother confused with my sister.
My mother had to then sort the credit issue out.
After sorting out the credit issue, she refused to go back to Sears, and actually purchase the washer and dryer though, because she considered Sears dishonest scumbags, because of all the extra charges, and barely wanted to set foot in a Sears again.
Sears may have offered good prices, and discounts on some items, but they screwed customers over on other items, and customers knew, and started shopping elsewhere.
Kmart, under the same ownership, did similar, or had crappier versions of stuff made to sell under store brands, sometimes at the same prices as the better options available elsewhere.
Basically, both stores screwed customers over, and customers left.
