I went to pickup my stuff at my HomeTown store, I got the only 3/4"-drive socket set they had in stock. He told me he can't get anymore of them as Sears is discontinuing it! Some guy came in the other day with a 3/4"-drive ratchet (nice V-series too, he stripped out the teeth though) and he could not get a rebuild (obviously) or even a replacement ratchet for him.
I saw they still have 3/4"-drive you can order for shipping, so now would be the time before they are gone for good. Too bad they are china but they seem pretty solid.
I know it's not "the same as regular Sears", but didn't know Hometown was already that well-positioned to retain the branding and function without the rest of Sears in the future. Say goodbye to the 'hot deal' sales (from what I've seen of the Hometown website pricing) and the SYW points deals at that point, though.
Yeah, the hometown stores have contracts with KDC (as do most suppliers). Even though the stores are independently owned, corporate controls their inventory. I was asking him about the promo codes how they never work on the hometown site, and he said they should but nobody seems to be able to get them to work. I think it's just a miscommunication as when you read the fine print it only mentions "Sears" and not hometown/hardware/appliance/outlet...
The Hometown prices do fluctuate up & down a little during sales, but again all that is controlled by corporate, just as the in-store prices are. There's never any killer deals like the sears.com site. Also one annoyance is the inability to filter based on your store's stock. It lists all items and only once you go to the product page will it say if it's available or not.
EDIT - Forgot to add... When you buy online & pick-up in store (at least for the HomeTown), they get credit for full price. So even if it's an online-only deal, you use points & coupons and such, the owners still come out okay on the deal. If you buy in store and use a coupon / points and stuff, then that eats into (or basically probably kills) their commission...
I don't think the Sears.com site will go away even if all the stores disappear... It can still linger on as an online-only presence for quite some time, at least as long as the CEO keep collecting his paycheck...