Question for you, Mak: What has caused Sears' downfall? In my observation, it's a HUGE management failure, starting around the last half of the 70's, with a failure to keep up with the times, failing to modernize the the stores, the products...everything. And then that what's his name guy bought in and gutted the corporation....... .................................................................................. Good luck Mak, in whatever venture you decide to pursue.... One suggestion: packaging/ mailing stores. This Pak Mail place has a store near us. Seems to be well-run..... https://www.pakmail.com/franchise/franchising I've got a nephew in the business, owning a store in Las Vegas. He does quite well. (Don't know what brand of franchise he runs, though....)
ok all of you 1> Poison_Ivy no I am not going to get a lawn care equipment - I don't even own a lawn mower/tractor - I have someone cut mine, don't need a pool - live next to the Country Club. I hate beer! never drink it 2> Krash Kadillak Down fall of Sears - there are smarter folks than me that could write volumes on the subject. but as an ex regional Merchant for them here is my snap shot at it a. 1970's into the 80's - Sears went on a buying quest for Financial services: Dean Witter & Coldwell Banker, it already owned Allstate. in 1986 Sears/Dean Witter launched the Discover Card making Sears the largest Credit Card Company in the US. At this point the company was more of a financial company than a retailer. They basically bankrupted the retail stores as they stripped the cash out to push to the financial side that was paying huge returns. b. In 1992 they brought in Arthur Martinez who in 8 years eliminated the Sears Catalog ( Losing millions for years) and rebranded the stores, and saved the store, at the time of his retirement in 2000 Sears was actually very cash rich, owned over 2% of all retail sq. footage in the US and was very profitable - and I will add a wonderful company to work for. Our fear at the time was that we were ripe for hostile take over - profitable, lots of cash, great name brands, owned a ton of land. but the stock price didn't reflect any of that. we lived by the 3C's compelling place to work, was #1 compelling place to shop #2 and a compelling place to invest#3. we had to live the 3 C's c. in 2002 we all told to take down the 3 C's, we eliminated 60% of the management at store level and were told that if we were not "transitional" we would have to go, no longer allowed any entrepreneurial freedom and by the end of the year the Esprit de Corp was in distant memory. I left in 2004. d. Then came the Kmart takeover and the company has been stripped of anything of value and the stores left to die on the vine. Sad to see it happen. But if you have a small local Sears store - you need to understand that it IS NOT the Sears that I am talking about it belongs to the "other" Sears - Sears Hometown and Outlet Co, (trades as SHOS) it is run more like the Sears of the 70's and 90's and the stores are OWNED by people like me and for the most part will do whatever they can to help a customer. Great organization that is getting a bad rep due to Sears Holdings. WOW that was just the tip of this iceberg - but enough for me 3> fannie apologize for the typo, I am trying to "Do The Best I Can With What I Have To Work With" love the sign thanks
If Sears Catalog would have hung on a few more years, they could have been on the forefront of the internet, went back to the early years of Sears Catalog of selling everything, except on line. They could have been Amazon.
Always been a Sears fan. Shopped at Sears for years, just recently last winter. Always had Craftsman Tools. Not every single one, but probably at least 75% Craftsman. Have some Craftsman Power Tools as well and my last two Lawn Tractors are Craftsman. Coincidentally, I just ordered some new Craftsman Deep Sockets last night (through Amazon though). Our local Sears Outlet also closed a couple of years back. It was in a newer plaza and was there for about 5 years, although I would always shop at the main Sears store in Roanoke. That said, I was not too happy with Sears Auto recently. I always do my own work, but needed a place for a tire adjustment. The place was strangely quiet and I may know why. What should have cost me only about $200 ended up them wanting somewhere around $45o. I questioned the price and in particular his math. I also mentioned a calculator, twice actually, but he did not volunteer to get me one. They also lied to me about a requirement. I got myself out of there without spending a cent. That was it for the Auto Dept. I'm done there. But hate to see the stores close. The Lynchburg, VA main store closed and the Roanoke store was eerily quiet last December. Hope they stay though.
BillT The store in Moneta was just like mine, a Sears Dealer store, met the owner a couple of times, believe he owned the plaza and put the store in during the recession, couldn't get the space rented, so he put it in, same deal 5 year contract and when it was up - he opted out, at least that's the story I was told. Lynchburg , again a dealer store, was a mess, they wanted me to take it over, I passed, it's to far from Harrisonburg, and didn't want to commit the time to 4 stores. Plus that whole situation was a mess. It is being run by Sears Hometown Corp. now, but it is also closing this month 5 years ago there were 14 Sears Dealers stores in Virginia - by July 1st there will only be 2, says something doesn't it There ad campaign " I don't work for Sears I own it" should say I don't work for Sears I closed it. very sad Roanoke, is still a Sears Holdings store - that's the Sears everyone remembers. Unfortunately the Sears today is not the Sears of yesterday. truly sad to watch. probably not long for the world - will most likely close
You may be right on the Moneta store. I always thought the guy running it was the guy who own it, but it very well could have been George, the owner of the plaza. The guy running it may have just been a worker. I only talked to him on the phone a time or two. You're right, it was built in or just before the Great Recession. Today it's an Antique Mall. They moved it from one building to that one. I believe it is run by his wife.
I just bumped into an interesting discussion over that stupid Supreme Court decision to have internet sales taxes levied the wrong way around, as I was looking up something else. If Sears decides going strictly on-line, that's one thing. Individuals, on the other hand, will be burdoned with even more red tape: https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopa...-collected-by-individual-states.411159/page-2
All done as of August 29th, all 3 are closed and emptied, it has been a tough & emotional 3 months - put 18 people out of work, some single moms, cleared over 37,000 sq. ft. of space, sold over 1.5 million worth of merchandise in 60 days, sold 3 fork lifts, 400 linear feet of peg board wall units, 500 feet of ware house racking; 2,000 sq. ft. of red; green & grey sport court, gave away 15 file cabinets, 13 computers & 6 printers; 7 office desks, tons of office chairs, staplers; clips board etc. threw away 19 registers; 8 old printers, miles of cat 5 cables; and just a ton of other stuff. With the number of stores closed this year, used retail equipment has NO value - so pretty much sucked it up and got out. Spent the past week with my grand daughter, son and daughter in law. So today is the 1st day that I have little or nothing on my plate. tomorrow I start my 3 week program of Efudex to fix my skin cancers, Efudex is a topical cream used for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma when conventional methods are impractical, such as in the case of multiple lesions or difficult treatment sites on the face or scalp. Doc says too many to either burn off or cut out - so the party begins!
Wow. So that chapter in your life has officially come to a close. Sorry to hear about your health issue. Hope it all works out.
