They should have reached into the pile of mothballs, dragged out and dusted off the old SILVERTONE name for tellys. I mean, if you're going to flame out, why not be retro about it??
The slow-motion meltdown of what used to be Sears, Roebuck & Co. is somewhat painful to this child of a Sears employee. My Dad spent his entire adult life working up the Sears ladder, from paint salesman in Huntsville, Ala. to store manager of the biggest Sears in Arkansas (N. Little Rock) before retiring at the top of his game in 1993. Whatever faults Sears had (and they had some - especially in clothes), it was a good store and treated its employees very well, with generous benefits. Plainly, Sears was good to my family growing up. But Dad saw the writing on the wall, and when Sears dangled buyouts in the early '90s, he bit.
IMO, what made Sears jump the shark was adding in name brands to compete with their own house names. Even if they were rebadged, Kenmore and Craftsman products were first-rate .... back in the day. And their service/repair support network had no peer. Diluting what made the brand, along with shooing off the good managers who made good money ... it has never been the same since.
I'm in agreement with those who say Eddie Lampert is only in it for the real estate. He's bleeding the stores to squeeze a buck. I'll eat my ratty ballcap if I'm wrong, but there is zero interest in a bounceback for either Sears or Kmart. Of curious note, there isn't a shareholder revolt; over the last 15+ years all I've heard are crickets .... while those with huge stock in other companies have brought out the torches and pitchforks over lesser corporate negligence!
In closing, here's a doozy of a what-if: had Sears not made the (highly stupid and short-sighted) decision to close the catalog operation in 1993, and held on for another five or so years, Sears could have become Amazon. Let that one settle in....
--Russell
The slow-motion meltdown of what used to be Sears, Roebuck & Co. is somewhat painful to this child of a Sears employee. My Dad spent his entire adult life working up the Sears ladder, from paint salesman in Huntsville, Ala. to store manager of the biggest Sears in Arkansas (N. Little Rock) before retiring at the top of his game in 1993. Whatever faults Sears had (and they had some - especially in clothes), it was a good store and treated its employees very well, with generous benefits. Plainly, Sears was good to my family growing up. But Dad saw the writing on the wall, and when Sears dangled buyouts in the early '90s, he bit.
IMO, what made Sears jump the shark was adding in name brands to compete with their own house names. Even if they were rebadged, Kenmore and Craftsman products were first-rate .... back in the day. And their service/repair support network had no peer. Diluting what made the brand, along with shooing off the good managers who made good money ... it has never been the same since.
I'm in agreement with those who say Eddie Lampert is only in it for the real estate. He's bleeding the stores to squeeze a buck. I'll eat my ratty ballcap if I'm wrong, but there is zero interest in a bounceback for either Sears or Kmart. Of curious note, there isn't a shareholder revolt; over the last 15+ years all I've heard are crickets .... while those with huge stock in other companies have brought out the torches and pitchforks over lesser corporate negligence!
In closing, here's a doozy of a what-if: had Sears not made the (highly stupid and short-sighted) decision to close the catalog operation in 1993, and held on for another five or so years, Sears could have become Amazon. Let that one settle in....
--Russell
. Over the past 5 years, I've bought a gas stove/oven, a washer and a dryer at my neighborhood Lowes. In each case, I compared prices to Sears and Home Depot online...the nearest Sears store is now about 12 miles from my home, Home Depot about 6 miles. Lowe's was the least expensive, though only by a few dollars - both Home Depot and Sears were close. I didn't even consider Best Buy because their selection was so limited.
