Goodbye Forever Sears!

[shovelhead]

Sears was it's own worst enemy. The corporate decision to rid it's stores of well paid sales professionals in their stores, replacing them with low paid help was one of many failures. And no, I was not one of them nor ever did work for Sears. I started buying tools at Sears when I was about twelve, the store just amazed me at that time.

The "new" face of Sears at that time was ill trained and in many cases didn't gave a damn about the products they sold, all they were concerned with was getting their hours in. My final "WTH" moment came about when I attempted to have a Craftsman power tool replaced as their recall notice stated. Their "register operator" refused to replace it, took a phone call to the store manager to get that handled.

Sears and Mongomery Ward were our "go to" place via catalog stores, catalog orders or an infrequent trip to a large city while living in the rural Southwest in the 70's/80/s. By the late 90's that had turned 180 degrees, it became a fight to get a problem resolved whether a warranty or a maintenance agreement issue performed.

Their ill-advised cheapening of the products they were known for like Craftsman tools, their ending the long relationship with Whirlpool for appliances also led to their downfall. Probably the bad publicity surrounding the Sears Auto Centers in the early 2000's didn't help either.



My opinion the K-Mart merger was the death rattle for the chain, that and the Board of Directors figuring that their real estate holdings were more valuable than stores that actually sold merchandise.

[JBMcB]

Sears was it's own worst enemy. The corporate decision to rid it's stores of well paid sales professionals in their stores, replacing them with low paid help was one of many failures.

That is also what happened to Circuit City. My coworker was working the car stereo installation department when it happened. All the high-earning sales staff, whom were high-earning because they made a ton of sales, were let go in the span of a month. The following quarter was one of the worst the store ever had, and sales never fully recovered.

[Richard]

Sears was it's own worst enemy. The corporate decision to rid it's stores of well paid sales professionals in their stores, replacing them with low paid help was one of many failures. And no, I was not one of them nor ever did work for Sears. I started buying tools at Sears when I was about twelve, the store just amazed me at that time.

The "new" face of Sears at that time was ill trained and in many cases didn't gave a damn about the products they sold, all they were concerned with was getting their hours in. My final "WTH" moment came about when I attempted to have a Craftsman power tool replaced as their recall notice stated. Their "register operator" refused to replace it, took a phone call to the store manager to get that handled.

Sears and Mongomery Ward were our "go to" place via catalog stores, catalog orders or an infrequent trip to a large city while living in the rural Southwest in the 70's/80/s. By the late 90's that had turned 180 degrees, it became a fight to get a problem resolved whether a warranty or a maintenance agreement issue performed.

Their ill-advised cheapening of the products they were known for like Craftsman tools, their ending the long relationship with Whirlpool for appliances also led to their downfall. Probably the bad publicity surrounding the Sears Auto Centers in the early 2000's didn't help either.



My opinion the K-Mart merger was the death rattle for the chain, that and the Board of Directors figuring that their real estate holdings were more valuable than stores that actually sold merchandise.

Sears is kinda like the malls,they owned so much real estate that they could not or did not flow with the movement of their base outside of the mail order aspect.

They were able to hang in there because of the real estate unlike many others.

They offered me the position of overseeing the automotive centers in the SE in the late 90s when all of that was starting to go down,I told them to let me hang out for a few weeks and then make a decision,after I figured out where all of that was actually originating I walked.

I was also offered the keys from a sub set of one of the big 3,I walked from that also and they were also bankrupt by 2009.

Those days were not about quality products or customer service,it was all about taking a commodity and squeezing it for maximum return with creative financing and moving money around.

It is not just Sears or Circuit City or whoever else,it was us as a country when we decided to become a consumer society and the death knoll was the switch to technology based over dirty manufacturing.

Circuit City’s main revenue was derived from Europeans coming over here and filling suitcases with electronics to bring back over there because they were expensive because of tariffs.

They were coming over here with 15 - 20k in cash to buy,this country was selling electronics cheaper then anybody could buy them for in their country of manufacturer.

Sears and everybody else was cause and effect,they were just able to hang in there longer because of the value of their real estate,when that part was removed from the equation,they were done.

Amazon started out as a book store,Sears started out as a man on a train selling watches shoes to say what replaces Amazon 40 years from now.

As a nation it is our fault,it’s just easier to point to that physical location because we can see that.

When we become a nation of consumers instead of builders,something has to give.

Notice the quality of goods we consume now? We traded quality for cheap,but how much are we really saving if we cannot feed our family on a single wage earner,we traded a big screen TV at the expense of our neighbors ability to feed their family.

When the internet first came out,I had a auto salvage yard and used to list hard to find parts,people were not going online to find the parts,they were going online to find things cheaper.

I get the same thing now with customers and parts needed to repair their commercial equipment,I tell them how much the part is and the first thing they say is,that sounds expensive,let me go online and find it cheaper.

They actually buy their own part thinking they are saving $20 but yet it cost them an additional $165 for that hour for me to come back and install it,so they spent a $145 in order to save $20.

We want good customer service,quality merchandise but we want it now and we want it for $20,these companies are just giving us what we demand.

As a company you cannot hire somebody at a livable wage and provide good customer support when your customers demand you sell your products cheaper then everybody else in the world.