When were Sears best years ?

[53chevy5]

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.

 

[CJM8515]

I think pre 1985 or so.

 

[Wanna Ride]

53chevy5; For me... mid to late 80's. But it's just about the same scenario as you described. That place was a really great store at one time, where you could wander the tool aisles admiring, for what seemed like hours. And then... You'd pass through another department and realize they had equally cool stuff in there too.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Early 70's through mid/late 80s.

The 3 big mall stores in the Metro Detroit area (Livonia, Oaklnad and Macomb) were consistently in the top 10 of ALL stores. The automotive department (which is a joke now) would sell several hundred 24 qt CASES of oil on a "Thrifty Monday" special. The first cold snap and there would be 30 or more cars lined up for a new battery. You could not believe how many thousands of gallons of Weatherbeater Exterior Paint were sold in a season that was really <6 months.

Softlines (clothing, etc) were never really strong, but they did okay.


(If you include 1 generation back in my and my wife's families, combined, we have about 80 years of Sears and Kmart experience.)

 

[theoldwizard1]

I got most of my tools at Sears during those days. My first house was all Kenmore, now only the vacuum cleaner.

I hate going to their because 99% of the time they don't have what I need. A couple of months ago, I went to 2 different stores for replacement C clamps and maybe pick up a few additional one. Neither store had 1 C Clamp in stock ! Last year when I wanted to buy a new roller cabinet to replace my old one I had to call 3 different store. The one said he had 2 in stock, but put me on hold until he could go in back and put eyeballs on them ! Great stock control !!

 

[Roddyo]

Hands down.....it was the Bob Villia years. During that time they came out with less than a dozen tools that you could literally replace an entire toolbox with.

 

[53chevy5]

Hands down.....it was the Bob Villia years. During that time they came out with less than a dozen tools that you could literally replace an entire toolbox with.

Thats right, I forgot about that. The Robo Grip was the only tool you needed

 

[rsanter]

50s and into the 60s
After that they cut back on May of the cool things they sold ( metal lathes and such) and my the 70s they were already cheapening things up a bit. Now at that time they were still good stuff but remember that in the. Late 70 to mid 80s there did CMAN Taiwan for a bit and were playing with some other overseas stuff.
Into the 80s they started selling that cheaper **** under the Sears name that didn't have a warranty.
Then through the late 80s and into the current time they are very behind from a buisness perspective. If you do not adapts change and keep with the times you will perish.
I think we can all see them perishing little by little as we watch

Bob

 

[Wakefield]

1950s and 60s-you could get anything from pocket radios to TVs and air conditioners-beehives and bees for them too! I think there were even chick hatching incubators in the special catalogs
18 foot long tents! Ted Williams sleeping bag
All kinds of clothing Kids' swimming pools
3 kinds of flashlight batteries! Three kinds of bike tires!
Hot dogs and root beer sold in the basement next to where the Allstate insurance man had his desk

 

[anndel]

Up until Kmart bought them out. I think they were pretty decent up to that point.

 

[bonneyman]

Early 70's through mid/late 80s.

 

[B_Bimmer]

Up until Kmart bought them out. I think they were pretty decent up to that point.

Kmart involvement was the first big lurch towards where we are today. Sears had a long glorious run as a bastion of American retail. I sure loved that store, and that catalog growing up.

 

[Schurkey]

From the day they opened, peaking post-WWII through about '75, tapering off until the late '80s. From the '90s until today, they're a heaping pile of ****, getting measurably worse as time wears on.

First Guess: Some time around '75 was when the (retail) profits began to plummet.

K-mapart bought Sears in '04--'05. Sears was vulnerable because they'd turned to **** a dozen years before the K-mapart buyout.

 

[terry603]

in the mid 70's sears was the number one retailer in the USA, Kmart was number two ...how far they have both fallen

 

[Mechanical Noise]

Sears best years were from the end of WW2 to the time they built the Sears Tower.

The end of the war kicked off the economic expansion which Sears played brilliantly. The Tower, as well as several other monuments to Sears executive egos, marked the time when Searsmen believed they had everything figured out.

 

[softailgarage]

Sears best years were from the end of WW2 to the time they built the Sears Tower.

The end of the war kicked off the economic expansion which Sears played brilliantly. The Tower, as well as several other monuments to Sears executive egos, marked the time when Searsmen believed they had everything figured out.

I think you nailed it. Sears tower was built in early 70's. I think anytime after 1980 is when the dung started rolling down the hill. I grew up on Sears, seemed like that was the only place to shop, well, except for Montgomery Wards. I remember when Sears was the only store at what is now South Coast Plaza, my first motorcycle was a '63 Allstate sold by Sears and Lord, how I hated those Toughskin jeans. The real problem is the current CEO, who is nothing but a glorified realtor Hell bent on destroying the Company. Why? Sears owns the land that every one of their stores are built on. That store at South Coast Plaza, back in the day was surrounded by nothing but bean fields, today its one of the biggest, most affluent shopping malls in the country and the property value is thru the roof, billions of dollars (Orange County).

 

[theoldwizard1]

Up until Kmart bought them out. I think they were pretty decent up to that point.

They were on the way down, but that really accelerated the process.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Sears owns the land that every one of their stores are built on.

In many case, they (used to) own the land that the entire shopping center sat on !

 

[Virgil Cain]

Mid 1960s through mid 1970s.

The quality of tools was excellent during that era.

 

[Davefr]

1946-1952

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120421/ISSUE01/304219970/sears-where-america-shopped

 

[drink]

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 am thinking Sears did the best when they had total ownership of their own factories that made a lot of their own merchandise. As an example Sears had to sell their David Bradley factory to the Roper Corporation back sometime in the mid 1960's. It might have taken Sears until the 1980's to finish selling off some of the stuff Roper made when they were bought out by Electrolux. The steel used to make the garden tractors was much thicker in the 1960's and early 1970's but the quality engines got bigger until the late 1970's. Afterwards most of the garden tractors had less steel with bigger engines. The FF Series tractors were short lived in the early 1980's and they stopped making them. Hand tools and warranty were the best value I can think of.

Personally I had the most satisfaction from the 1960's thru the 1980's. However, I have been able to get some good deals from Sears to the present.

 

[dgithens1]

agree 60-mid 80s

 

[nh_yota]

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.

 

[Mechanical Noise]

As I see it, the most remarkable part of the story of Sears decline is Sears didn't see how vulnerable they were in the early 70s. Sears revolutionized retailing -- twice. First was the catalog operation, second was the huge expansion in large retailing stores in the 50s and 60s. Instead of being terrified of losing out in the next revolution, management went on complacent auto-pilot.

After that, they were one, two, three steps behind everyone else. The stores, themselves, were pretty good until the 90s. But retailing had again changed forever and Sears didn't see it coming.

 

[mikegt4]

I am thinking Sears did the best when they had total ownership of their own factories that made a lot of their own merchandise. As an example Sears had to sell their David Bradley factory to the Roper Corporation back sometime in the mid 1960's. It might have taken Sears until the 1980's to finish selling off some of the stuff Roper made when they were bought out by Electrolux. The steel used to make the garden tractors was much thicker in the 1960's and early 1970's but the quality engines got bigger until the late 1970's. Afterwards most of the garden tractors had less steel with bigger engines. The FF Series tractors were short lived in the early 1980's and they stopped making them. Hand tools and warranty were the best value I can think of.

Personally I had the most satisfaction from the 1960's thru the 1980's. However, I have been able to get some good deals from Sears to the present.

I don't think that Sears "owned" their own factories. They contracted others to produce things for them either as the manufacturer's existing product rebranded or to a Sears design. A friend of mine worked at an engineering firm back in the early 1970's that did design work for Sears for their electric hand tools such as Craftsman drills, grinders etc. Sears in turn would have a manufacturer produce them to their design.

 

[LB-1911]

I don't think that Sears "owned" their own factories. They contracted others to produce things for them either as the manufacturer's existing product rebranded or to a Sears design. A friend of mine worked at an engineering firm back in the early 1970's that did design work for Sears for their electric hand tools such as Craftsman drills, grinders etc. Sears in turn would have a manufacturer produce them to their design.

Some background on the Sears & David Bradley

Sears soon realized the possibility of offering farm machinery for sale through the catalogue and began looking around for a means to do just that.

In 1910, the Sears, Roebuck and Company purchased the David Bradley Company in an attempt to take advantage of the growing market for modern farm machinery and they changed the name of the David Bradley Manufacturing Company to the David Bradley Manufacturing Works.

In 1962, David Bradley was spun off by Sears into a relatively independent operation.

In 1964, David Bradley was merged into the Roper Corporation, and Sears was reduced to a minority owner in David Bradley equipment.

Still, Sears remained the largest single customer of the Bradley Division of the George D. Roper Corporation.

More @
http://wellssouth.com/?p=134

 

[woody 73]

As far as a business standpoint I don't know that answer? As far as a best for craftsman tools I would say from 1946 up to 1967.

 

[Rodbuster56]

I think that the mid 70's started the beginning of the decline for sears. I remember back then was when they started to get picky about honoring their lifetime tool guarantee. At least at the store in Joliet, it was like pulling teeth, dealing with the tool department. They would act like they were doing you a favor by replacing a broken tool. their extended warranty/maintenance plan was not worth the money you paid for it either!

 

[franzdom]

I LOVE threads like this!!!11

 

[bigfoot1964]

They sold houses out of catalogs too.

 

[garthg]

This is coming from a formerly loyal Sears customer. Sears is history. I say this even though my mom used to buy my brother and me clothes there, I have a Kenmore washer/dryer, Craftsman tools, Kenmore gas grill, Diehard battery charger, etc. etc. I remember the catalog, and even the Sears Industrial catalogs of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Sears is still good on parts, however. I just recently ordered new burner bars for my Made-in-China Kenmore gas grill and had them within a week of my order. They weren't cheap but I'll get another five years out of this grill. We'll see if this kind of service sustains.

Here's a well-written article that summarizes the history through the Lampert times. There are some details of the forming of the Sears/Lampert-ESL history of which I wasn't aware.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120421/ISSUE01/304219970/sears-where-america-shopped

 

[jd_1138]

Back when the country actually built products in the USA -- even value to mid value lines of tools and products. Until the mid 80's or so.

I know a guy whose dad was a store clerk from the late 1920's up until when he retired in the mid 1970's. He worked for Montgomery Wards for the last 20 years of his career and was in the store clerk union. No Sears catalog was allowed in their house (Sears is non-union). His dad had a garage full of Powr-Kraft tools, and there were always 2 or 3 Montgomery Wards catalogs throughout their house.

Those were proud years for our country.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I am thinking Sears did the best when they had total ownership of their own factories that made a lot of their own merchandise.

I am not 100% certain, but I don't think Sears EVER owned any of the factories, at least not 100%. Whirlpool made there washers and dryers for as long as I can remember (back in the 50s my Dad sold washers and dryers at Sears). Sears "convinced" Whirpool to buy Roper in 1989 because they could not get priority on gas and electric stoves.

DieHard batteries were made by one of the big name brand battery companies. Compressors were made by DeVilbiss or Campbell Hausfeld. I can't remember the company that made Easy Living and Weatherbeater paint.

Radial tires were made by Pirelli or Michelin. Other tires were made by General. Shocks were made by Gabriel.

Craftsman hand tools were made by various companies over time. Power tools were made by Skill or Black & Decker or other major names.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I know a guy whose dad was a store clerk from the late 1920's up until when he retired in the mid 1970's. He worked for Montgomery Wards for the last 20 years of his career and was in the store clerk union. No Sears catalog was allowed in their house (Sears is non-union). His dad had a garage full of Powr-Kraft tools, and there were always 2 or 3 Montgomery Wards catalogs throughout their house.

Those were proud years for our country.

Just the opposite in my house ! Dad started working there in the late 40s and was there until the late 80s/early 90s.


Got my wife at Sears ! (There were quite a few of those !)

 

[Gttrucker]

Its a shame, but you're right. They are on their way out.
I suspect part of the problem is their heads swelled when they were the #1 retailer and the acted like they don't have to do anything to stay there (top companies always seem to get cocky and stop caring what people really want or need)
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.
Now they have no identity. They don't stand out in any area. It's just bad management that got them here.
They've lost most of their hard line customers and opened the door for lots of hard lines competitors, and they will never rule in soft lines.
My one hope is that craftsman will survive. Hopefully some one will pick that up and continue it, but the liability of millions of tools they have to warranty might threaten even that.

 

[Zeke]

RE: the buyout, I found this published by CNN Money in 2004,

"One [name] will probably fade out of existence," Barnard said, adding, "Don't be so sure that Sears is the one that survives. Kmart is a discount store name and perhaps more able to compete with Wal-Mart on that basis than Sears."
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/

 

[Rodbuster56]

A couple of other things that I remember. It seemed like sears would put on sales for mufflers, etc in their automotive departments, but yet you would always get charged for "extra" parts and services that the mechanic said you needed. They would go so far as to state that these "extras" were required by law, or they couldn't let your vehicle leave the shop. Sears also got investigated for a "bait and switch" scheme, where the products that would be advertised in their sales papers, would not be "available". The sales person would then try to up sell the customer to a more expensive product, which strangely enough, they would have plenty of!

 

[nh_yota]

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.

 

[anndel]

Kmart involvement was the first big lurch towards where we are today. Sears had a long glorious run as a bastion of American retail. I sure loved that store, and that catalog growing up.

Agreed, I loved that catalog and couldn't wait to receive it in the mail and opening it up to the Craftsman tool section.

 

[rjvjeepster]

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.

I agree. I think Sears began the decline as soon as they had to start playing catch up....first Walmart....then the Internet and then Amazon. They didn't position themselves very well to compete with any of those, they figured nothing could really have a large impact on them.

The Kmart deal was a last ditch effort. Apparently Eddie Lampert is not very strategic. I've read that his management style is all over the place and not many people have authority to make changes to anything, which doesn't seem to be working.

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.