Sears closing stores

[Ritchie200]

Just read that Sears is closing more stores than they had originally scheduled due to a lackluster holiday.  They are also selling off assets and the automotive operation is up for sale.  Sounds a lot like Radio Shack's last years on life support.  They have been on a run to pare down and lean up for what seems like the last ten or twenty years.  The old ship may be too big to turn around and compete in today's hip Amazon-ian point and click market.  If they go the way of the buffalo, that will be another sad final chapter of some iconic names like Craftsman, Kenmore, Ted Williams, JC Higgens, Die-Hard, Silvertone, etc., etc...


sigh, I'm getting old...

Jim

[shooter]

Welcome to the post-modern world, if history is any indicator, we should be in the dark ages soon Mr. Holmes said; "an ounce of history is worth a pound of logic"

[Willabe]

sigh, I'm getting old...

Ha, I'm a dinosaur. 

[PRR]

> final chapter of some iconic names like Craftsman, Kenmore, Ted Williams, JC Higgens, Die-Hard, Silvertone, etc., etc...

Craftsman and DieHard will survive. I can buy Craftsman from Summit Racing; I think also one of the hardware chains. DieHard is too well known to die, maybe Pep Boys can buy the trademark and the current specs (most battery-brands all come from the same plant in Pennsylvania, to the brand's own specs).

Act fast, maybe you can buy the "Silvertone" brand! (Nah, LOUD in St Louis will out-bid you).

EDIT: "Today, Silvertone is a brand name used by Samick Music Corporation and was endorsed by Paul Stanley of KISS from 2003 to 2006."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvertone_%28instruments%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvertone_Records_%281916%29

BTW: Sears Parts Direct is a going operation carrying parts for non-Sears appliances and mowers. (Sadly not ALL the parts for my 1970s Sears tractor or radial-saw.)

[John]

The 'net is changing business, no getting around it. The brick n mortar stores all have a solid/dominant online presence now. RS hung on longer than I thought they would. You can buy cel phones and stereos anywhere. It was their component section, small though it might have been, that set them apart. Ebay and Amazon are the new Walmart and Kmart (and auction houses)

[Platefire]

I went in to my local Sears store to buy a part for my Sears Lawnmower I bought there. They told me the part was out of stock and wouldn't be be available for months. I went on line to Sears Parts Direct and found the part and had it within a week. Kind of hard to figure how the Local Sears store can't obtain the part but I can. Platefire

[thermion]

Kind of hard to figure how the Local Sears store can't obtain the part but I can

Sears wants to shut the stores down, they are a huge money loser. I'd bet they are hobbling their own staff to speed up the inevitable. Employee salaries, benefits, store rents, supply chain, utilities, insurance, etc etc must be eating them alive. Like radio shack they have to find their new niche (if there is one...) in a changing marketplace. Sorry to say but frankly I doubt there is one and their shareholders should run like hell while shares are still above $15.
I too went into sears recently to get a part for craftsman mower, luckily enough the guy had one and he just gave it to me. It will be a sad day when the last vestiges of this business approach are gone forever.

[P Batty]

There is another dimension to the Sears meltdown described in this PBS Article:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/column-this-is-what-happens-when-you-take-ayn-rand-seriously/

The part about Sears starts about halfway down.

I don't know about the Ayn Rand connection but the article implies that the disintegration of Sears started from the top.

[jojokeo]

Sad to read this thread. I still have a Harmony mandolin I saved for when really young and got through their old satellite catalog store waaaay back in the day. I've replaced the tuning pegs & bridge but it plays and sounds great.
 
Another store is Montgomery Wards...    I am still using my 22" rotary lawn mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine I bought almost 30 years ago only used only a couple of times for $100 I found out of a Recycler. I've only had to replace the front wheels and it still starts weekly on the first pull.
 
The Recycler was free advertising weekly paper type mag that was the eBay of it's time before eBay. I would scour it first thing in the morning with my coffee getting it from the nearby 7-11. Some of the things I found was a beautiful '87 black w/ maple Strat I got for $325 and a custom shop cream w/rosewood for I think $175? Then an old Fender '78 lefty maple neck 4-screw to a '71 cream body that had humbuckers in it for $125. Lastly a Silverface recapped Super Reverb for $350...all private party. Things aren't quite the same these days.
 
Now I'm wondering what and/or who's next?