OMG Haven't been on the forum as often as the past, cause I am closing all 3 of my Sears Hometown stores, contracts are up and not signing on for another 5 years. after 47 years in retail I am bailing out! but in the meantime it has been an absolute sh-- storm. past 5 days have done a months worth of business (good but the work and effort involved is incredible) The Staunton VA store made front page news as Sears 1st opened the a store in the town in 1938, and has been in it's current location since 1965 - makes me feel bad that its closing on my watch, but none of the stores alone could support anyone that has a family - so rather than try to sell them I'm just closing them all. feel bad for my staff, I'm putting 18 folks out of work - but for the most part they are good folks and shouldn't have an issue finding another job, at least I hope not. will take care of them the best I can with closing bonus. but OMG have been working like I was in my 30's for the past 3 weeks, I am whooped. When the dust settles guess I will have to figure out what I want to do when I grow up - it won't be retail I'll tell you that. thanks for listening
It's sad how people are modernizing in a negative way. I loved visiting SEARS with my parents, when I was a little kid, as well as Montgomery Wards and Radio Shack. If my parents were to order everything from Amazon, we would have spent even more time hanging around at the house waiting to move out. That's one of the fun parts of going shopping is that you do something different. Well, I guess if modern shopping is about trying to get through obese persons in electric wheelbarrows adjacent from another in narrow (for them) aisles and duking it out with others trying to cheat you out of your parking space, especially when Fannie and Grizz film it all, I can understand the temptation of getting all your stuff on-line. On-line selling might be something for you, if you've got storage space. I hear people don't make bad money, at it
Contrary to popular opinion, selling on-line is a HUGE amount of work. I did it for several years with moderate success, but had time for nothing else.
That's sad. I wonder what the fate of Hometown stores around the country is. With Sears closing lots of stores and Lowe's and other places carrying Craftsman tools, they probably can't hold on much longer.
I'm sorry to hear about the closures, but it sounds like you're making a sound decision. I too remember the days when I would go shopping with my folks. It's something I try to do with my kids now. I always try to make it an adventure. My Dad has been a Craftsman man as long as I can remember, they used to be something special, a cut above the rest. But now that they are owned by someone else they're just another brand that makes marginal tools and are no longer supported by the life time guarantee that brought them so many loyal customers.
Instead of imposing tarifs on imported German steel, especially when the Germans don't produce their own anymore, they should impose tarifs on junk like those Crapsman tools. Over time, I saw this happening over here, also. When I first arrived, when you looked into a store window, you would see nothing but brands like Hazet and Gedore. Now, when you look into the same window, you see only that slipshod junk from Made in Hitshole of which you can tell apart from a mile away, literally
Yep. Kind of sad to see this happen. It seems like it's a common theme though. Tools aren't the only thing that this seems to be occurring with.
It seems, there are a handfull of people making big money pushing junk. Big enough money for lobbying, even. Life was much more prosperous, when we didn't have all that
It's driven by the consumer. If people bought quality tools instead of the cheap junk, then there wouldn't be a market it for it. Here in the states, we have a store called Harbor Freight. Nothing but Chinese made junk. However, go in there on a Saturday and the place is packed.
It's a Lemming circle. Once enough people start buying junk, they start the snowball rolling, taking down others, through massive job losses. Outsourcing was also responsible for sudden poverty and contributed greatly to the junk-buying spiral or should I say, Swirlee
Frannie not sure what I want to do when I grow up? don't think I can be a fireman. retail certainly is NOT my 1st choice - Have worked minimum of 45 hours a week for at least the last 30 years so can not see just retiring, so really don't know at this point.
Do like most every other retiree does. Get yourself a sprinkler and a riding lawn mower, so that you could swill beer and spend your afternoon mowing the lawn every other day. Then dig yourself a swimmingpool-sized hole in your garden, so that you can build yourself a swimming pool, in order to swill beer by the poolside on the days your lawn is growing. What's a "Frannie"? A French transmission, or something?
