My local Sears store

Has little signs up showing where people are supposed to wait in line for their 8 p.m. opening. I had to laugh. Optimistic, much?

What's so sad is that you live in a city with a Sears store.
Sears died when it became the "Made in China Store". Sears line of North American made Craftsman tools, used to be the best value for professionals. Their hardware department used to be 1/4 of the main floor. After Sears became the made in China Store, their hardware department became a little bit smaller than ladies shoes. "Made in China" brand is cheaper at Target and Walmart. Why would anyone pay more for it at Sears?
[quote] Sears died when it became the "Made in China Store". Every store is the Made in China store.
Their big mistake was Discover Card. They had millions of loyal Sear card holders shopping there (that was the first card everyone got), and then they sent all those loyal customers a Discover Card and told them it was OK to go shop somewhere else. Pure stupidity. Imagine where they would be if they had kept their catalog operation going just a few more years. They could have caught the internet boom, moved the catalog online, and turned themselves into an Amazon. R2 mentioned the tools, but it wasn't just tools, Weatherbeater paint was the #1 paint brand, Die Hard batteries, were also #1, they introduced radial tires to this country--you can go on and on. They were a great company in their day.
At 10 PM last night there was line outside of Best Buy on East 86th Street & Lexington that went all the way to park avenue and then up to 87th Street.... what on earth were they giving away there that would make people wait?
Sears????? That old store is sitll open???? Where????
Lana%20Kane
Sears used to sell quality Western made goods and lower prices. When it became the Made in China store it could no longer compete with the 9 year old Chinese girls working at the Walmart owned factories, making stuff using stolen industrial designs and inferior raw materials and therefore started to decline. Had Sears held its ground and continued to sell quality North American, Japanese and European made goods, it may have survived.
I've been slowly building a collection of old Sears power tools (drill press, metal lathe, table saw, etc.) from the 30's and 40's, and most were made by Atlas, and the Craftsman versions are professional quality all the way. As good or better than the versions Atlas sold to their industrial customers. Heavy cast iron construction, ball bearings everywhere, oversized motors--you clean them up and they run like new. I walk through the tool dept. of my local Sears and just shake my head when I see the crap they sell now. I still buy their hand tools, especially their socket wrenches, but that's just because they're dirt cheap if you catch them on sale.
Sears and K-Mart merged, and K-Mart seems to be sort of forgotten whenever I read about their plans to fix Sears. I would have thought that of the two brands, K-Mart would have been the easier one to fix. Yeah, the stores were junky and full of crap, but so are Dollar General and Dollar Tree and all the other Dollar Stores, and those guys seem to make money hand over fist.
Sears steals American designs, rips off American inventors, remakes the tools in China and bankrupts American manufacturing. Fuck Sears.
The Craftsman brand today is just Crapman.
Isn't Kenmore stuff still considered great quality appliances?
No r12. I made a big mistake in thinking just that. Bought a Kenmore front loading washing machine Poor crap. Fell apart in less than 3 yrs and had a very small drum. Could only wash like 2 pairs of jeans at a time. Wasn't cheap either. Sears ruined that brand too Sears threw away all their good will for a quick profit. They're all but done for it. Plus, their car repair shops rip u off badly
The trouble with their car repair is that they hire nothing but rookies and then they quit as soon as they have enough experience to go someplace (anyplace!) else. You're basically letting them learn on your car, and you're paying for the privilege. I just hate running the gauntlet at the register. Between the extended warranty and the "would you like to apply for a Sears card" bullshit. Now they give you this gigantic receipt with a zillion coupons on the back, and the salesperson wants to give you another speech about them. I mean, take my money and let me get the fuck out of here.
Don't blame Sears for Kenmore. They buy the same washers, dryers, ovens that everyone else does, and they just put their own name on it. Your Kenmore oven is the same one you buy in Best Buy under a GE tag...
My local Sears had a sign saying "No Wagering".
[quote]Sears threw away all their good will for a quick profit. That is what they all did. Most of the goods in nearly all of the stores are cheaply made, inferior products that are manufactured in China or somewhere in Asia. Most American products from the latter part of the 19th century through the end of the 20th century were well made and built to last. (And, let's leave automobiles out of this.) Then companies decided that they could produce what appeared to be the same goods overseas for less money, thus increasing profits. But, it is mostly crap that breaks or stops working at the drop of a hat. The American buying public went along for the ride, happily purchasing relatively inexpensive but poorly made products that people simply replace when they stop working with other inferior junk. But, part of the bargain for those cheap prices was that American jobs were shipped overseas thus severely undercutting our manufacturing and tax base. And, those jobs were sent to countries that do not have environmental regulations, thus further polluting land, air, and water. But the interconnection of all of this was lost on most Americans. They want what they (are told to) want and they want it NOW.
Brand name no longer means anything today.
R17, I know people whose idea of a family activity is to go to the nearest mall, Wal-Mart or Target and idly wander up and down the aisles. They impulse buy lots of crap, then they have yard sales to pass that crap onto another crap collector. An ex once asked me about my alarm clock. He wondered if I kept using things like that until they wore out. He seemed genuinely amazed that anyone would do such a thing.
I know how Sears feels - throwing a party and having no one show.
Cheryl
[quote]Most American products from the latter part of the 19th century through the end of the 20th century were well made and built to last. (And, let's leave automobiles out of this.) I think you could cut it off at about 1980.
My question is, given the now-visible downside of all this Chinese crap, why is there no reactionary movement in progress? You would think that anything American made would be flying off the shelf. You would think that giant banners would announce such products on the shelf. Where are the giant banners that pronounce: MADE IN THE U.S.A.?
Have you seen the average American, R22? Beyond help or caring.
As unfortunate as the situation is, it is unlikely to change any time soon if ever, because, as R23 points out, not enough people care individually to do anything about it collectively. Corporations, for their part and for their bottom line, played it brilliantly. They recognized from the outset that consumers' attitudes had shifted dramatically. No longer were they interested in items that were "made to last." Corporations surmised -- correctly -- that consumers wouldn't care if the items they had purchased broke somewhat quickly after getting them home because the things were inexpensive to start with and easily replaced. And, those same consumers likely would not factor in the replacement costs each time the item broke when making their buying choices. They counted on a "throwaway" mentality, and they were right. Moreover, people are generally apathetic about where items are made. And, even if people are somewhat more knowledgeable about this now, they are not going to really do anything about it. It is five weeks before Christmas and there are gifts to buy. People aren't really going to fight a war over where that blender was made. [quote]I think you could cut it off at about 1980. R21, I don't necessarily disagree. I was trying to be somewhat vague because it was in the middle of the 1980s that Chinese goods started moving into the US in any meaningful way for the first time in decades. And, that was right around the time that businesses started moving operations overseas. I would say by the 1990s it was a rush to get out of America and over to Asia.
R17
Quality European made goods are still available to those who wish it. Not at Sears though....
I never shop there. Except for the appliance department, where there seems to be 10 elderly salesmen standing around, it's impossible to find anybody to help you find anything. Plus the stores are so damn depressing.
[quote]Has little signs up showing where people are supposed to wait in line for their 8 p.m. opening. The trend this year seems to be the taped arrows on the floor trying to direct specific lines for specific door buster items - at Sears, Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy. All taped out in advance, of course. I'd hate to be the poor bastard whose job it will be to scrape the tread-upon tape up on Saturday.
When Sears bought Kmart and became the upscale version. It's one thing that Saks was the upscale version of Gimbals but Sears being the upscale version of Kmart, which was the upscale version of Kresge is too much
Unbelievably, there were about ten people waiting in line to get into Sears on Sunday morning.
I can't believe they are still going. Although I have fond memories of thier Christmas catalogues from the 70's, especially the toy section.
their
%3A%28
Hands down, the Sears in Yonkers has the best mens room action of any Sears I've been to in the area. Lots of married guido dick to be had while their clueless fraus shop. The Penneys in Co-Op City in the Bronx is great too. It's teeming with black dick, if that's your thang.
My father decided he wanted to get us all Nooks for Christmas for no real reason. Sears advertised the newest model could be had for $39.95 on Thursday night at 8pm. I don't think he had a real concept of "Black Friday" shopping at all. So he announces at 7:30 we are all loading up in the car to head to Sears to pick up our cheap Nooks. The front parking lot was jammed full, but the side entrance only had maybe 40 or so people in line. Then he declares we might as well wait in the car until the doors open to "let the other people clear out." So we did....five of us watching in horror as these people jammed themselves in to a Sears. We entered on to the second floor in the clothing area. ergo, my mother decides she wants to look at Land's End coats because they are 50% off. Both of them were shocked no one else was around. After the both pick out coats, my dad says it is time to go get our Nooks. We walked into what might have been the scariest scene I have ever witness. People pushing and shoving to get tiny flat screen TVs. I watched two women argue about how many electric griddles (9.99) you were allowed to purchase at once. The one actually yelled that if there was no Sears policy about buying 7 griddles at once, there was at least a MORAL issue with taking that many. My dad waited in the designated line for over an hour to get his damn FIVE Nooks he was so sure he was going to purchase. Turns out, the store only had 5 total, and they were all taken by one family who probably didn't need winter coats from Land's End. The upside? I grabbed the last Rival Slow Cooker Buffet (three large crockpots on one long thing...you can use all of them at once or separately) for $19.99. I have to admit it was sort of a thrill. Never need to do it again.
First%20and%20Last%20Thanksgiving%20Shopping%20Trip
I literally had an orgasm climbing over other people to buy a discounted toaster oven.
Sears frau
It's entirely possible that we'll be losing two American retail icons-- Sears and JCPenney-- in the next year.
When I was a child in the '70s I used to love when the Sears Christmas catalog would arrive. And then as I got older I would look at the men's underwear section. My grandmother always used to call K-mart "K-mart's."
It's been 25 years since I've been in a Sears store. I do remember back in the 70's and 80's one of the big standalone Sears stores in my city had a notorious men's room on the 2nd floor. It was like walking into a Club Baths. Then they demolished that store to build skyscrapers. End of an era.
After they discontinued the catalog, what did rural people with outhouses use to wipe themselves? Back to corncobs?
[quote]My grandmother always used to call K-mart "K-mart's." My Greek friend's mother used to say in her heavily accented, broken English "Sophia, when you take me to the K Market"?
[quote]My grandmother always used to call K-mart "K-mart's." Was she retarded?
Sears, Sears, Sears where America shops. You think Roebuck is mad, because they chopped his name off. I think Roebuck and Piere and Scott and John Oates must hate it.
I worked at Sears one summer about 5 years ago. It was the most depressing place I've ever worked. It was a second, temporary (they didn't know that) job. I was only there 4 hours a day working in the cash office and they kept yanking me away from my post to watch these horrible, blurry, mandatory training films featuring the fat-asses from the Sears home office (including the CEO!) talking about "dignity" and "honesty" and other bullshit they had no business preaching to workers making minimum wage while standing on their feet all day. The place was grim, grim, grim. I've never looked at it the same since.
worker%20bee
R41, how do you think Pierce, Fenner, and Smith feel?
Anomynous%20
[quote]preaching to workers making minimum wage while standing on their feet all day. How dare a company pay you what the job is worth. Translation: If you were worth more, you'd be getting paid that. Get over it douche
R44 - Hey fuck face, I was one of the very few lucky ones who DIDN'T have to stand on my feet out on the floor and my position made more, so I felt for them. Asshole.
Not%20a%20sociopath%20like%20R44.%20
EVERYTHING is made in China, from Sears crap to "luxury" clothing. I bought these shirts from a high-end retailer because I was at a work event fundraising thing - quite expensive, but they were nice and they were...MADE IN FUCKING CHINA. The stores was either J.Crew or FCUK, I forget. I was like "fuck it" and aside from suits which I have to wear all day, I just buy the cheapest Chinese clothes I can find from the shit stores like Target, etc. If I had more income, I'd buy those made in America jeans but they're like $200 bucks.