We all knew this day was coming . . .

[redmondjp]

. . . when they announce that your local Sears store is closing! Mine just announced last week that it will be closing in two months, and the clearance sale started last Friday.

I went in last night (the place was even deader than usual) and spent over an hour wandering the once-great tool section downstairs. Only 10% off on most items at this point, but you might have guessed 30% off based upon what was left. Apparently they haven't been restocking items for some time now.

I did come away with some American-made tools: two pin punches, one chisel, and some automotive inspection mirrors. There is just no sense in purchasing any Chinese-made Craftsman tools for me, since I won't have any place to warranty them anyways, and I know that the Harbor Freight store a few blocks away from Sears will still be there after the Sears closes.

It's sad for me - growing up in the 1970s, Sears was where our family got most of our clothes, household items, heck even our toilets, sinks and tubs were purchased through them, not to mention the lawn mowers and bicycles. And I could always count on my local Sears store for when I needed that odd 1 3/8" 1/2" drive socket for a pittman arm nut, or other individual tool that I didn't have in my set. And don't even get me started on the Christmas toy catalog that we used to spend endless weeks drooling over every fall!

I got my start in Craftsman tools with an 88-piece set while in high school, and during their annual National Hardware Sale, I added larger and smaller sizes to that set every year (and I am still using those same tools, or replacements thereof, today). Back in the 1980s, you got more of a discount, the more tools you bought, and you could get that discount on individual pieces. I really miss that!

I know this topic has been beat to death, but I had to share/vent/rant/reminisce about it. Yesterday could very well be the last time in my life that I purchase a new Craftsman tool (sniff)!

 

[d.mcfarland]

I actually like this post. You're right, it has been beat to death, but the way you share your personal story is what makes this one ok in my book. From the place to go as a kid, to the ghetto rigged place it is today.

Thank you for sharing your story.

 

[dewalt378g]

I'm right there with ya. I grew up in the 80's and as a kid got started on the Craftsman stuff. I remember a lot of that stuff you mentioned. Yep the toy catalog...wow. And don't forget the regular Sears catalog. Way way back in the day, before most of us, the catalog used to be the size of a phone book. In my day it was about 1-1/2" thick. Then over the years dwindled down to about half inch, that's the last I remember. Now it's no more.

In my area they've pretty much killed off all of the Sears Hardware stores too. Even though they were a little expensive, I really found them handy in a pinch because they had all kinds of odd bits like True Value/Ace but more of the things you actually need (lumber, plumbing, etc.) And when they would have tool closeouts or clearance items it was like JACKPOT!

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Here is,a few of my Sears firsts:
Had tropical.fish as a kid where did I buy them?
Sears
First tool set
First Shotgun
First leather vest with rawhide tassels
First and only Table Saw
First Router
Many sets of tires
First and only deep Freezer
First Couch set 3 piece
First and only Shop Vac
Probably many more just can’t think of them!

 

[Bryanthegreat]

They announced last week that my local Sears is also closing. I too have similar memories from my youth at this particular store. I honestly am going to miss it. I still have 2 near me but they are in areas I would rather not go to.

 

[Musicinabottle]

Our local to CDA Sears is already on it's way out if they are even still there. Sears here in my town is still around and the owner actually just bought two others down south. I so hear you. I grew up in the 1970s as well and we lived off Sears and Wards. Now everything is made in China and harbor freight like you said. It's never going to be the same and kids today just missed out!

 

[Wamsutta]

Threads like this remind me that I still need to get over to Sears to warranty a couple of things before they close.

 

[bonneyman]

Mine too! We'll be down to one mall location (on the other side of town) when they close the one closer to me by August 1st. Found out about it 3 days after the employees were told - I know someone who works there - and went over. The auto service building was already decimated!

 

[volunteers]

i went to that sears on 148th ave last friday to get rid of my giftcard, found nothing worth to buy

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[James-W]

It is rather sad they are sinking into oblivion. In the past the wife and I have purchased a lot of stuff from Sears. In recent years, not so much. We have Sears credit cards that we never seem to never use anymore.

Years ago the wife and I also shopped quite a bit at Montgomery Ward and they are gone too. I rather liked shopping at Montgomery Wards, we bought a washer and dryer from them that lasted well over 20 years.

JC Penny is about gone too, they are closing stores all over the place.

I have heard PayLess shoe stores are about to fold up too.

 

[Corndoggeh]

My local Sears is closing as well, the closest one is on the other side of the city. Found out when I drove by the mall and saw the big "Store closing" sign and I went "WHAAAAAAAAAT????"

Its sad to see it go because it was one of the few places that I could find big&tall shirts for good prices that actually fit me properly (long torso, big chest). It also gave me something to look forward to when I went to the mall when the SO wanted to shop at some other stores.At the same time I knew it was going to be happening eventually but I always thought that the Sears near me was one of the better off ones since the mall its at is the top grossing out of the other five.

Ill be stopping by this weekend and getting a couple of things, they should be hitting black friday and lower within a week or two.

 

[d.mcfarland]

Here is,a few of my Sears firsts:
Had tropical.fish as a kid where did I buy them?
Sears

Never knew they sold tropical fish. Kind of funny to think about that! A true one stop shop.

 

[tombell572]

I fully understand. For me, growing up in the 1950's, as a small boy, I would ride along with my Dad on Saturday mornings as he ran the usual errands. That generally included a stop at Sears, then a small store in Glen Cove, NY. They closed the Glen Cove store in the early '60's when a new, huge "modern" store was opened in Hicksville. I would buy my first tools there, which I still have, my first lawnmower when I bought my house, Kenmore appliances, clothes for my self and kids, Christmas family photos, the list goes on. For many years there was even an in-store McDonalds, something my own boys appreciated. They shut the Hicksville store last month. Never bothered with the clearance sales since I won't buy the offshore Craftsman products, but for many years Sears met the needs of my family and myself and did it well.

Tom B.

 

[jonesg]

Threads like this remind me that I still need to get over to Sears to warranty a couple of things before they close.

They'll give you Chinese replacement **** as a reminder why they failed.

I'm still trying get over Woolworths closing, memories of cheap lightbulb that don't work and melted chocolate in summer.

Never love something that can't love you back.

 

[L.Cheapo]

When I was an early teenager, I wanted to be a mechanic. At 14, I started working in an outdoor power equipment shop. I dusted shelves, swept floors, vacuumed, and washed new machines. Eventually I progressed to assembling new machines, then fixing them, and up the ranks from there. I got paid every Friday, and my dad and I would look through the Sunday Sears flyer over breakfast to see what tools were on sale so I could borrow less from my boss. Then he'd drive me over there and I'd buy them. You weren't buying much Snap-On working part time @ $4 or $5/hr, even in the mid 90s.

That store is still there, a shadow of its former self. About one third its original size, empty aisles and shelves, uncaring and unfindable employees, and the decline in quality of the merchandise they do have. I'm sure its only a matter of time before its gone too. Sad.

I still have and use all of those tools and continue to use them on a regular basis...except the RP ratchets and stinky handle drivers...which I methodically sneaked into my dad's toolbox when he wasn't around.

 

[Aberdale]

I spent a lot of time and money at Sears when first starting out. When we bought our first house, the first thing we bought was a new "Sears Best" Kenmore washer and dryer. Then a new mattress and box springs, and new draperies custom made through Sears drapery department. I even bought a Craftsman self propelled lawn mower.

I bought my first real set of tools from Sears around 1978. At Christmas, some had trouble deciding what gifts to buy for me. I just suggested they go to Sears and shop the tool department. Over time, I got a Craftsman roll-around tool box set, shop vac, drill, router, sabre saw, table saw, wood lathe, planer, and many more hand tools. This was on top of the things that the wife and I bought. All of this created a nice little shop that saw a lot of use as I fixed up/restored our first house. We even used Sears Weatherbeater paint.

I regularly bought Die Hard batteries, and often bought new tires through the Sears automotive center.

Looking back, it's surprising how much stuff I actually bought at Sears. Maybe more surprising, is knowing what a loyal customer I was, that eventually it all stopped because I found alternatives that I thought were better.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Sears was the Amazon of their day. It has always seemed to me that Sears was perfectly positioned to dominate internet sales with their catalog operation but they closed it down just when they should have been expanding it. Imagine the online operations of Amazon with the retail store infrastructure of a Sears store in every mall.

To me, there is a bit of an intangible thing that Sears had that any business would dream of having. That is the status of being "the first place you think of" for some product. Probably for many of us over the years, Sears was the first place we thought of if we needed a tool, an appliance, a grill, a battery or many other things.

If I needed a tool like a piston ring compressor today, I'm not sure where I'd go first. I'd have to look online to see who carried it. No "zero effort" "I know Sears will have it" kind of places anymore except for Amazon.

 

[driftpin]

And to think they once carried entire houses!
http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/sears/

Buy a home, build it, and furnish it. All at Sears Roebuck.

I was a 1950's kid, and that Sears Christmas catalog was just heaven on earth, I'd spend hours making lists of what I wanted, then rank the choices by desirability, and give the list to my parents.

I still have and use the 12 inch 240 V radial arm saw I bought new in the 1970's, still going strong. Most of my mechanic's tools are from that era, and still give me a day's work when I need them. I'm retired, so it's just doing stuff I want to do, now. Back when I was single, I didn't have the $ to spend to pay someone to do it, I had to fix it, or walk, when it was my vehicles. Sears was where I usually went to buy tools, though I do have other domestic tools, like S-K (3/4 inch socket set).

 

[davethorik]

I don't share the deep Sears nostalgia with a lot of other members, but I will damn sure miss Sears Hardware. The two I'm thinking of, in Fairlawn and Medina, Ohio, have both been gone a few years now, and I bought a wide variety of random tools from both places, the majority not even Craftsman to boot.

The Fairlawn location one day just wasn't open. I thought it was gone for good, after hearing the online rumblings, but eventually re-opened in a new space across the street to my surprise. It was short lived, though, as it was maybe open 3 weeks in New spot before closing for good, and had never been restocked since before the move. It was at the new location I snagged the 1 pc forged RP Craftsman USA bottle opener for like $3, there were literally hundreds of them there...i should have bought a case lol.

I drove by the Medina store one day while on the clock for a previous employer, it was in a plaza and they put a teeny STORE CLOSING sign by the road with 2 balloons, if I would have blinked I would have missed it. Guess where I took my lunch break that day? It was very picked over but got a few deals. I got the 2 piece set of Craftsman USA convertible snap ring pliers for $4 and a Nupla 3lb drilling hammer for $5 or $6.

 

[reader2580]

The last time I was in Sears was to replace a broken tool.

These days I never think of Sears when I am buying something. It doesn’t help that the nearest store is a 20 mile drive with all the closings. No store is going to survive if customers never think of that store when buying things.

 

[unknownroad]

Sears was the Amazon of their day. It has always seemed to me that Sears was perfectly positioned to dominate internet sales with their catalog operation but they closed it down just when they should have been expanding it. Imagine the online operations of Amazon with the retail store infrastructure of a Sears store in every mall.

I think their website development team has to carry some of the blame for their rapid decline in the past decade... holy cow did they make a mess of it. I know people in the Hot Deals section get a lot of stuff practically for free by working the system, but it sounds like a full-time job to deal with.

I picked up a 40-pc US-made thread-chasing set in our local store a couple weeks ago thinking it was the same one I'd seen online (it wasn't; I wanted a 48-pc), and my Wife volunteered to return it... She spent 45 minutes at the store waiting for the one visible employee to help two people ahead of her then complete the return. Insane.

 

[6PTsocket]

Never knew they sold tropical fish. Kind of funny to think about that! A true one stop shop.

In the early days you could buy a house. The pieces were shipped by rail. When you finished assembling the first load, they shipped another. Plenty of those houses,are still standing. I think they were called Craftsman style. I believe you could buy a burro for prospecting, along with everything else. The Sears catalog was the forerunner of buying online. The extent of what they carried was amazing.

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[shoe1]

When I was a kid mom and dad bought everything from sears in including kitchen cabinets. But I was a big deal to go to a real sears store somewhere. Most everything we had we ordered from the catalog. I the little town we lived in sears and wards both had catalog stores. You went in and looked at the catalog and they ordered it in for you and then you went in and picked it up. Then got where you called in order and they just shipped in to the store. Mom never had a real credit card till in her 50's see had a sears card, wards card, and a phillips 66 card when I was a kid and said that's all she needed.

 

[DadsTools]

In another thread not too long ago, I posted a long lament over Sears and tried to isolate why so many were angry and sad about what happened to this great institution. Posts in this thread say it all well.

But now I'm over mourning the loss. I just had to accept the fact that the Sears we old timers grew up with and loved had actually died a couple of decades or so ago. It's been gone for some time now. You can mourn the dead for only so long, then life must go on.

My first clue something was wrong was when they started promoting the "Tool Territory" marketing campaign. You guys remember that? The Craftsman house brand was its stalwart standard, its nation's flag so to speak. I remember thinking how could the promoting of other tool brands in its stores to buy instead of Craftsman be a good thing????? The writing was on the wall.

Farewell, old friend. I will always remember you for what you once were.

 

[Maui]

Blame the MBAs. They're ruining this country:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html

 

[joel63]

Blame the MBAs. They're ruining this country:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html

Good article, thanks.

 

[zendriver]

Blame the MBAs. They're ruining this country:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html

Most every mom-and-pop store in America is gone.

It was the MBA's that killed them off?

Frankly if we are playing the "blame game", I blame Americans for the demise of sears.

They were the ones, who decided that they were going to buy their clothes from Kmart and then Walmart, their appliances from Lowe's and good guys, there TVs from Best Buy and circuit city, their tools from Harbor freight and then eventually most everything from Amazon and eBay.

Is it possible, that maybe it was just sears time was up?

That is not unprecedented in the history of business.




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[Maui]

MBAs helped kill Sears and a great number of other companies by sending their manufacturing work overseas to decrease manufacturing $$ at the expense of quality. These bean counters decided to compromise quality by having the lowest bidder on planet earth manufacture their tools for them so they could maximize their profits, the customer be damned. This also took jobs away from American workers, who are less able to spend as much money as they once could since their finances are now tighter than they were previously. This outsourcing helped give rise to China as a manufacturing powerhouse, who by the way now owns a large number of manufacturing plants in the US that were once were proud American owned businesses. The resulting rise of the steel manufacturing capability in China has also had a dramatic impact on our own steel manufacturing plants - many have been bankrupted in the past two decades. I used to work at one of those plants. China can produce the steel and ship it to our country at a lower cost than we are able to manufacture it domestically. If we gave it away at cost Chinese steel would still undercut our prices.

And people wonder why I hate MBAs.

Maui

 

[mark883]

Sears is a perfect lesson in *********** a business. Taken over by bankrupt K-Mart (K-mart *****, Rainman was right).

Sears should have OWNED the internet. Amazon should have been just another nameless .com footnote. Sears had all the expertise in catalog style marketing, sourcing, warehousing, delivery and distribution, and a computer system to back it all up. They should have been selling online in about 1999, no one could have stopped them. It appears that Amazon is simply creating what Sears had for years. (Yes, certainly updated for the times.)

Dumbasses.

 

[JR 42]

Ah, that makes me sad... they closed the Sodo store several years ago (now being used by Amazon, and probably also Starbucks). The Sears Auto down the street is finally being remodeled into... something else- they're building out another story or two on it right now.

The Shoreline store had shrunk the tool section down to almost nothing before it closed earlier this year- to double the size of the mattress department, and then to create a big dead area (not sure what they ended up putting there, I didn't make it back before they shuttered). I think the Sears Outlet might still be operating out of its location in the same building.

I have fond memories of the Sears in the small town I grew up in, I bought my first hand tools- basic Craftsman wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and eventually a socket set- for my first job at the age of 16, and still have most of them. At this point, there's not much they offer I'd care to own, and I've got no interest in driving to a giant mall north or south of Seattle to pick over the carcass.

JR

 

[Richard Cranium]

Our Sears Store in Union Gap, Wa. has put its store and parking lot up for sale, I guess if the sell them then they will either lease it back or close the store. Rich

 

[zendriver]

Sears should've been Amazon but it seems like most everybody hates Amazon so not sure why that would be a benefit.

Perhaps IBM should be making and selling iPhones, but for very many reasons they are not.

Sears is not the only business in history that time is passed them by.


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[texasprd]

I heard a few weeks ago on the radio that one (or more) of the stores here in San Antonio was being auctioned. Found an article that says 16 TX stores were being auctioned online, with bids due May 1. I wonder how that's going to work for employee benefits, logistics/stocking, etc.

I worked at Sears in the early/mid '80s while I was in college. I think about the full-timers that would have retired by now. I hope they weren't/aren't counting on a Sears pension - that's probably gone down the toilet...

 

[Rickster]

Bought my first toolbox from Sears, still have it; two drawer black & woodgrain Ralley Box. My first roller cabinet was a gift from my wife, Now resides in my son's garage. Still have my first power drill another Craftsman gift from my wife. I remember roaming the tool aisles looking for Christmas gifts for my dad & brother. It was a different time........

 

[INSP380]

When I smell popcorn..... I think of Sears. Something about walking into our old store, the tool and garden section and smelling the same smell. The displays were awesome, as a kid and a adult. Great memories with my Dad and both Grandads....It was fun

Steve

 

[zendriver]

Well, at one time, it appeared that Sears beats Amazon, but it did not last long - for many reasons beside the usual Corporate incompetence.

At the turn of the century, Sears turned to the web in earnest. A July 2000 press release boasted that sears.com sold home electronics, computers, office equipment, appliances, cookware, baby products, school uniforms, gifts, toys and sports memorabilia. Amazon, meanwhile, had only just begun branching out from books, offering software, video games and home improvement products in November 1999.

At that time, however, Sears' problem was not so much Amazon as Wal-Mart, which had become the nation's largest retailer in the 1990s. Barbara Kahn, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School, told CNN in 2004 that when the Arkansas-based company "came along with its great service and low-prices, other retailers started to innovate more with products and service. Sears and Kmart simply trudged along and thought that was good enough."

Read more: Who Killed Sears? 50 Years on the Road to Ruin | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/news/downfall-of-sears/#ixzz5EUApMNw2
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[xin]

MBAs helped kill Sears and a great number of other companies by sending their manufacturing work overseas to decrease manufacturing $$ at the expense of quality. These bean counters decided to compromise quality by having the lowest bidder on planet earth manufacture their tools for them so they could maximize their profits, the customer be damned. This also took jobs away from American workers, who are less able to spend as much money as they once could since their finances are now tighter than they were previously. This outsourcing helped give rise to China as a manufacturing powerhouse, who by the way now owns a large number of manufacturing plants in the US that were once were proud American owned businesses. The resulting rise of the steel manufacturing capability in China has also had a dramatic impact on our own steel manufacturing plants - many have been bankrupted in the past two decades. I used to work at one of those plants. China can produce the steel and ship it to our country at a lower cost than we are able to manufacture it domestically. If we gave it away at cost Chinese steel would still undercut our prices.

And people wonder why I hate MBAs.

Maui

All by design, dismantled the country.

 

[ScottsGT]

Sears was our Friday night outings back in the '70's when I was a kid. Sears, dinner then home. Or dinner, Sears then home.
The smells also ring strong in my memory. Dads go to spot was the candy counter for those pecan caramel drops. Each of us would get a small bag of our choice. Funny how I hated those candies dad always got when I was a kid. Bought some a few years back for nostalga's sake. Damn, tasted pretty good!
Tires, appliances, tools to clothes. Yea, I was that kid that mom took to the "Husky" section of the boys clothes.
If it wasn't in the store, mom called the order in and we went there and picked it up.
I remember walking through the shotguns out on display on the green carpeted boards in Sporting Goods. Salesman told me I wasn't old enough to touch them. Guess that's why I'm a gun nut now. Ted Williams was the brand for a lot of items. Brother even had the Spirit of '76 ten speed.
Frankly, I quit going to Sears when I moved to my current town 28 years ago because the store is still in the highest crime area in town. Kicker is, a few years back during the first round of shut downs, the closed the newer store in a safer location.

 

[Soda Jerk]

My first credit card, at the age of 18, was from Sears. The rumor was it was one of the hardest cards to get, so I thought, what the heck, give it a try. They had a push on applications in the store one day, so I
filled it out, and a manager actually came and talked to me about it. I said it would be mostly for tool purchases and would be a nice option to have. He said he would see what he could do, and about 3 weeks later came a card with a whopping credit limit of $100.
Dad had a car reupholstered there back in the 60's. Always thought that was wild.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Never knew they sold tropical fish. Kind of funny to think about that! A true one stop shop.

I don’t know if the fish were available at all stores or what stores. But I do remember during 1968-1970 they did have a pet centre where I lived. I also remember I had a much older cousin who was a floor walker. Don’t know if ever caught anyone.