I’ve been there to buy things like cargo shorts and gym clothes. Pretty sure I’ve bought stuff there this year. My previous Kenmore dishwasher was great - it lasted for more than 15 years and might have lasted longer - it died shortly after being moved during a kitchen renovation. I wish the fridge would die. I hate the design, (side by side), but it still works great. It’s more than 15 years old as well.
I remember the catalogue days - we were living in Somalia - and we bought a lot of stuff from them.
@surfcity and @Mom2jl I had forgotten about the Lemon Frog shop. I remember buying my first pair of hip huggers in that department. My siblings and I would longingly stare at the candy counter. Coming from a large family my Mom never let us buy anything from the candy counter. We spent many hours flipping through the Sears catalog.
Our Sears closed down 2 months ago. Haven’t shopped at Sears in recent years except getting my eyeglasses. H used to get tools there but has switched to Home Depot for many years.
I think Sears store credit card was the first store card we got in the mid 80’s. Somewhere along the line, it became Sears Mastercard by Citi. I don’t used the card much, just enough to keep the card open since it has a long credit history.
So, should I hurry up and use up all the Citi Thankyou rewards points asap? Or likely Citi bank will continue the card under its own name and reissue new cards and the points remain?
I worry about ours too. We just lost one anchor when Bergners (BonTons) went under. The place is getting sad. I know I don’t go to the mall as much anymore but on a cold winter day, I do love to pop in.
Eddie Lampert had made one last bid to keep it afloat; the company deemed the financing package he put together too small.
Lampert seems to have done the most simplistic of calculations, and thought the real estate made it so that he was getting Sears for less than nothing. While discounting the risk too much. It would be why he was never interested in the actual stores or trying to make them viable. The REIT they spun off did very well, but like a lot of people, he didn’t see malls going to pot quite as fast as they did. A Sears in Greensboro leased out half their store to Whole Foods. Wonder who picks up all this real estate?
Sad, that it coincides with Amazon becoming the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world yesterday, after it surpassed Microsoft.
Sears was a huge deal when I was young. I hate to see it go under but they let their stores go to pot. The quality of merchandise went down, the service disappeared and the actual ambience of the store went down. Felt like you were shopping in a basement. I think Penny’s is heading that way too.
BTW Macy’s cancelled my card a couple years back also.
Well, my sister’s Sears facility announced on Dec. 15 that they were closing as of 12/31. Out of 115 employees, 14 remain. They kept about half of the accounting department, a couple other people and let everyone else go. My sister survived the layoff, and now she and the people who are left work from home. Suspect it will fairly shortly turn into a mop-up operation.
Kmart and Home Depot are the only big box retailers on my daughter’s island of 50,000 people. If Kmart closes I don’t know what the families will do for affordable clothing and housewares. A lot of mainland retailers won’t ship down or or tack on a large charge.
I am surprised someone hasn’t come up with a way to utilize all of the empty big box stores and grocery stores that litter America. I realize malls themselves are in trouble - but anyone want to turn them in to fitness clubs, or make them mini-malls for small business owners, or indoor crafts markets… what about funding for them to be housing the homeless?
Court gives Sears new life, allows Chairman Eddie Lampert one more chance, by 4pm today to save retailer.
Sounds like the court is giving Lampert more time on his bid to buy the company out of bankruptcy. He has to put up $125 million as a deposit by 4 pm today. The court originally rejected his bid because it didn’t cover bankruptcy costs. He said that the bankruptcy had gotten too costly. It sounds like they will hold an auction later this month, and then compare Lampert’s bid to whatever they can get to liquidate. If his bid is better, Sears may end up surviving, although who knows in what form.
Our local vacant Kmart has been repurposed into a multiscreen movie theater. They did not have to tear down the building - they just did interior remodeling.
I don’t think I have ever been in a Sears department store. Even when I was growing up, it was definitely uncool to get your back to school clothes from Sears. I don’t think they survived well in Southern California to begin with.
However, I am a frequent shopper at the Sears Appliance Outlet, buying scratch and dent stuff for my remodeling jobs. Guess they won’t need an outlet anymore
For Craftsman tools (which are no longer Sears-exclusive; the brand is owned by Stanley Black & Decker and is sold at non-Sears retailers shown at https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy ):