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Our Sears store is finally closing it's doors this month. It took long enough. 20 years ago I worked there, selling Packard Bell and Macintosh computers, as we

Our Sears store is finally closing it's doors this month. It took long enough. 20 years ago I worked there, selling Packard Bell and Macintosh computers, as well as vaccums. Who decided those departments should be merged, I don't know. Once in a while I'd sub at a smaller store about 45 minutes away, and cameras got thrown into the mix. I always liked the Sears Auto Center for tires, service, and Diehard batteries. Craftsman hand tools were decent until the mid-2000's when they started changing warranty policies. The power tools and lawn equipment were never really any good. If you buy a 'Craftsman' mower, you're getting the same Chinese-engined lawnmower that you buy at the same price point at any other store. Just like any other product these days. They used to have an entire part of the store dedicated to flat-screen TV's. As they cheapened, the area got smaller and smaller, until it was 4-5 sad TV's hanging on a wall. Just this last year they decided to fill that part of the store with mattresses. I noticed the store filling up with Craftsman, Kenmore, and other Sears-branded junk. Just low end stuff like cheap shoes, plastic utensils, and pots and pans. I figured distributors weren't willing to give Sears enough credit to stock the stores with stuff of any value. The store itself hasn't been kept up in forever. Most of the ceiling tiles are stained from leaks. the carpets are probably as old as I am, everything is broken, and it doesn't even feel like they turn the heat on in the winter.

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
I still have my parents’ riding Craftsman mower from over 20 years ago and it runs like a top, so maybe at some point they made good mowers. It has an engine with a spin on oil filter like a car and I attribute the engine longevity to that. My Mom has been through like three riding Craftsman mowers since then and each one seems more cheap and crappy than the last. The latest one is like a playskool mower with the dumbing down of the controls and big colorful plastic levers.
- ganoushoreilly 7y ago
  Lowes recently started carrying The black and Decker version of Craftsman and they're pretty adamant about advertising the warranty is back. Then again, who knows if that's accurate. I try to pickup old craftsman tools (and matco / Snapon) when I go to garage sales. The older stuff was great.
- hinkley 7y ago
  Lots of brands are doing this. We had Corelle dishes as a kid and when I dropped a plate and it exploded on hitting the floor, we all stood there just staring at it because nobody in 8 years had broken a single dish from that set. Mine landed perfectly flat upside down, and buckled. The new ones are so thin you can practically see through them. I had a friend who went to yard sales looking for vintage Corningware dishes because the old ones were more shatter resistant. IIRC she claimed the old ones were stovetop safe as well, which was a surprise to me because I never knew anyone growing up who used them that way. I think Emile Henry may be the only ceramic cookware you can do that with today, and those are chonky. Light, but chonky.
  - wahern 7y ago
    Corning Pyrex used to be made of borosilicate glass (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass) and was similar to the type of glass used for lab equipment. The Chinese manufacturer who bought the Pyrex brand switched to cheaper and more prevalent soda-lime glass, which is arguably more drop resistant. There are manufacturers selling borosilicate glass cookware; just look for "borosilicate" when searching. There are at least a couple of brands that sell this on Amazon. Though thickness and overall durability is a different matter and perhaps even the modern borosilicate items still pale in comparison to older products.
    - hinkley 7y ago
      Yeah I got into this conversation with her after a hot 'pyrex' dish exploded and damaged the linoleum in my apartment. She suggested I go yard sale hunting for old Pyrex. I was talking about the white casserole dishes also made by Corning. Wikipedia says it's called pyroceram. Also says it was an accidental discovery while trying to invent something else.
  - okcando 7y ago
    I still get Corelle branded dishes, like you see at Walmart these days. I haven't broken one yet; they're remarkably durable compared to your usual ceramic pieces. That they're thin and light and a little translucent like china is just icing on the cake. I like them a lot. Can't say how they compare to the Corelle of old but they're definitely solid.
RHSeeger 7y ago
> I noticed the store filling up with Craftsman, Kenmore, and other Sears-branded junk. Such a shame; Craftsman used to be THE name in home tools. If one broke, you could bring it back for a replacement... forever.
- delfinom 7y ago
  Now you can buy quite a few (not all) Home Depot (Husky) or Lowes (Kobalt) tools and come with the free replacement for life warranty. Like sockets/wrenches which Craftsman was popular for, you can now buy from the other 2 guys with lifetime warranty and the quality is on par.
  - davio 7y ago
    Lowes is heavily showcasing Craftsman tools now. I'd expect Kobalt to disappear as a brand.
  - airstrike 7y ago
    Probably thanks to Stanley Black & Decker acquiring Craftsman
  - bluGill 7y ago
    Sort of. With the old sears they had all the replacements in stock with no hassle. I tried to warranty a Husky torque wrench once, they don't have that in store, so I get to hassle with contacting husky myself... I didn't the replacement same day to finish my project, so I went elsewhere and swore not to buy husky again because a warranty is meaningless if I can get a replacement when I need it.
  - imglorp 7y ago
    Shucks, even Harbor Freight has lifetime warranty on hand tools. At this point, I tend to get the cheap stuff first. If it survives your usage, great. If not, that's a sign to take the savings and get some quality for that one thing.
  - paulie_a 7y ago
    Harbor freight is pretty good. The problem with home Depot online is there are way too many options. Sometimes fewer options are better I like Wayfair much more for many things instead of home Depot. I can dial it in on the web search easily. If I am buying from home Depot I'm going to the store. And props to them they have excellent customer service with genuinely knowledgeable people. Good luck using their search
kirykl 7y ago
Kenmore refrigerators have somehow consistently maintained great scores from Consumer Reports. But I think they're actually made by Whirlpool however
- taylodl 7y ago
  I have a Kenmore refrigerator that's nearly 40 years old and still running great. I'm going to hate it when that thing goes and I have to replace it with today's junk.
  - shiftpgdn 7y ago
    I'm not sure where you live but the payback on a modern refrigerator is likely within a year due to electricity consumption costs. Old refrigerators are crazy inefficient.
    - triceratops 7y ago
      A year sounds crazy optimistic. The new fridge would have to lower the power bill by $1000. That's as much as some households spend on all electricity in a year.
    - wrycoder 7y ago
      My 30 year old refrigerator uses about $9 worth of electricity per month. If I bought one which was twice as efficient, I’d save about $55 a year. That’s a 20 year payback (neglecting lost investment opportunity) for a $1100 model, plus the replacement hassle. So, I expect to run it until it breaks.
- froindt 7y ago
  I used to work in that industry. Sears had no manufacturing, so they contracted it out. I believe the design was their own, but I'm not positive. Whirlpool was commonly the manufacturer, though it varies by year. Other manufacturers could offer a lower price (attractive for Sears) but had other issues, so the contract commonly went back to Whirlpool.
wavefunction 7y ago
Craftsman and Kenmore still retain their reputations even if they don't match their quality of decades past. I inherited a Craftsman table saw with an electric motor from the 1960s that my grandfather used to finish his house at the time. All it needed were new belts and blades. More recently I purchased a house with a Kenmore Elite range whose only detriment from perfection is that it's an electric rather than gas range.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  I don't think either of those brands have maintained their reputation. Everyone knows Craftsman is overpriced junk riding on yesterday's heritage. People old enough to know Craftsman was a good brand know enough about tools to see they're junk now.
  - Blackthorn 7y ago
    Yeah. People are saying that Tekton is the new Craftsman (for hand tools anyway, they don't sell anything with a motor in it). I haven't seen anyone recommend actual Craftsman brand in a long time.
    - wavefunction 7y ago
      Y'all are probably right at least with Craftsman, I haven't bought any Craftsman products and haven't seen their products appear in my research on the best-of-breed for * tool. They do seem to be assembling their tools in America which is a plus for me.
    - bluGill 7y ago
      Tekton cannot be the new craftsman until I can get a replacement within one hour anywhere in the US on a Saturday. Craftsman was never as good as Snap-on (or other professional brands), but when (as anyone who works on their own stuff knows it isn't if it is when) I broke a tool there was a sears close by with a replacement so I could finish the job.
      - 7y ago
linuxftw 7y ago
I bought a craftsman mower from Sears in the late 00's. It had a Briggs and Stratton engine, it was a great unit. Sears has no identity anymore. It used to be the-place for appliances, automotive tools, and lawn equipment. Now it's like a Macy's with tools and lawn equipment. I'm planning on picking up some scratch and dent applicances at the Sears outlet soon. That's really all I interact with Sears anymore.
ssharp 7y ago
I don't know if Sears selling higher quality stuff would really matter. Departments stores seem almost entirely doomed to fail because of the combo of more specialty retail (buying clothes at a clothing store as opposed to department store), Amazon/ecommerce, discount retail (TJX family), and, of course, giants like Walmart being able to operate better. Stores like Target and Meijer are able to fill the void of shopper wishing to avoid Walmart so I don't see a ton of space for anyone else. Certainly Sears could have positioned itself better to evolve into something closer to Target but that ship sailed at least 20 years ago and Sears being mostly anchored to shopping malls didn't help its cause much. The Sears attached to my hometown's mall was shut down 2 or 3 years ago. The space is currently being destroyed so they can develop an outdoor entertainment space.
- SquishyPanda23 7y ago
  > Amazon/ecommerce, Ironically, Sears shut down its century-old catalog just as ecommerce was becoming viable. They had the infrastructure to be Amazon but they threw it away and Amazon had to build it all up from scratch.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    >They had the infrastructure to be Amazon Not really. A mail order catalog has very little in common with a modern eCommerce operation like Amazon's. It's a bit like saying that because Kodak was a photography giant they should have been able to win digital photography when, in fact, other than brand it's not clear what real assets and expertise they had to bring. (And brand can be a hindrance as well as a help if you're shifting businesses.)
    - steverb 7y ago
      Amazon's current operation had little in common with their modern operation. Sears had the order fulfillment and distribution know how.
      - pedasmith 7y ago
Fricken 7y ago
I'm not 100% sure why, but for me Sears has always been the trusted name in vacuum cleaners, and for a decade until Sears closed I went there for vacuum cleaner bags, every couple years or so. It never occurred to me to go to Sears for any other reason.
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  I know my mom had a Kenmore canister vacuum cleaner for decades before it finally broke -- it worked and despite being a plastic canister, it was clearly very well-made; she replaced it with a more "high-end" brand, I think a Sebo, that she doesn't like as much. I know they were always made for Sears by another company, just like Radio Shack's "exclusive" brands, but I don't know who made them in the 1980s. (It appears Panasonic had been making them during the 2000s, but some information I've found suggests that Panasonic got out of that business entirely in 2016.)
- mark-r 7y ago
  I gave up on Sears finally when I needed a vacuum cleaner part, something like a filter that would need regular replacement. I went to a Sears that had a parts department, and saw that they still sold the vacuum I had. But the parts department didn't have the part in stock - they suggested I could order it and wait for it to come in. I said no thanks, I could buy it online for half the price and have it shipped to my house, saving a trip back to the store.
rasz 7y ago
VWestlife did a walkaround video of a Sears mall about to be closed in 2017 - shows everything you just said about the place, old, decrepit, neglected, run like it was meant to lose money. "A last look at Sears - Route 22, Watchung NJ (built in 1965)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzAd_DtswM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzAd_DtswM
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  run like it was meant to lose money Sadly, that's why they're entering bankruptcy. The current CEO has little to no interest in keeping Sears alive, but they make a decent piggy bank.
- foogoloo 7y ago
  Ouch. That Sears is what I remember K-mart looking like in the 80’s. If that’s what most Sears have been like lately, then I’m not surprised they went under.
rascul 7y ago
> If you buy a 'Craftsman' mower, you're getting the same Chinese-engined lawnmower that you buy at the same price point at any other store. Craftsman (riding) mowers are made by MTD and use either Kohler or Briggs and Stratton engines. Pretty sure most of that is made in the US. I find MTD to be sub par, though.
taurath 7y ago
The department stores have the same sort of death spiral as malls - the quality drops, people stop going in, the quality drops again. I’ve never in my life felt going to a department store I’d be met by someone knowledgeable in an area other than makeup. One thing I’d have loved to see - an emphasis on customization and tailoring. Almost everyone could use a little custom tailoring for pants, blouses and shirts, and it does not scale online well at all as you need to be in person to get measured. If you like a shirt and it’s ill fitting, pay $15/20 for a cheap hem job and walk out feeling like a million bucks.
- mncharity 7y ago
  > One thing I’d have loved to see - an emphasis on customization and tailoring. [...] for pants [...] That was a startup two decades back. Built on automated pattern cutting. MVP was customized khakis. You'd enter detailed measurements on a website; machine-cut parts were assembled "manually" the next-ish day; then FedEx. Had a little tag with a number, so you could order "just like N, but let out a 1/2 inch". It was nifty. It was acquired by Levis, which mismanaged it into nonexistence. Last-ish factory in the US providing that assembly closed, plus the patent, and that was the end of that. IIRC. Perhaps in China? Years back, if you needed a new wardrobe of suits, it was worth a trip to HK just for that.
  - mywittyname 7y ago
    Do you really benefit much from having robots do the cutting? I suspect most of the skill and costs are in the assembly. Modern Tailor offers MtM clothing starting at like $50.
    - mncharity 7y ago
      It's mass-production sewing, just with non-uniform stock. The customized pattern cutting provides the customized fit. Instead of boxes full of identically-cut pieces to be assembled, there's a packet with someone's customized pieces. Which is why the US getting out of mass-production apparel manufacturing was a problem. Perhaps this was a niche in which US apparel manufacturing might have remained viable, with customization and shipping proximity supporting the extra US costs. It seems regrettable that the possibility wasn't better explored.
newnewpdro 7y ago
> The power tools and lawn equipment were never really any good. Not never, they used to be awesomely utilitarian and rugged, but that's back in 60s-70s. My dad still uses his all-steel construction Sears snowblower and had a Sears cast aluminum-housed 2-stroke chainsaw until seizing the motor with a bad mix of gas ~7 years ago :(. These were both from the 70s, fabulous tools, built to last. > Craftsman hand tools were decent until the mid-2000's when they started changing warranty policies. Yes, in my opinion when I started getting new Craftsman ratchets from Sears which appeared to be both refurbished and needed replacing just weeks after purchase, it was the beginning of the end. Prior to that, the writing was already on the wall when we couldn't easily get parts for the aforementioned snowblower and chainsaw from the service/parts department. It used to be a sure thing even in the 90s, 20 years after purchase!
kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
I have a Craftsman mower that won't die after 10+ years. Many Craftsman labeled products retained decent quality. The trick was to find those that were from high quality OEMs.

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago

I still have my parents’ riding Craftsman mower from over 20 years ago and it runs like a top, so maybe at some point they made good mowers. It has an engine with a spin on oil filter like a car and I attribute the engine longevity to that. My Mom has been through like three riding Craftsman mowers since then and each one seems more cheap and crappy than the last. The latest one is like a playskool mower with the dumbing down of the controls and big colorful plastic levers.

ganoushoreilly 7y ago
Lowes recently started carrying The black and Decker version of Craftsman and they're pretty adamant about advertising the warranty is back. Then again, who knows if that's accurate. I try to pickup old craftsman tools (and matco / Snapon) when I go to garage sales. The older stuff was great.
hinkley 7y ago
Lots of brands are doing this. We had Corelle dishes as a kid and when I dropped a plate and it exploded on hitting the floor, we all stood there just staring at it because nobody in 8 years had broken a single dish from that set. Mine landed perfectly flat upside down, and buckled. The new ones are so thin you can practically see through them. I had a friend who went to yard sales looking for vintage Corningware dishes because the old ones were more shatter resistant. IIRC she claimed the old ones were stovetop safe as well, which was a surprise to me because I never knew anyone growing up who used them that way. I think Emile Henry may be the only ceramic cookware you can do that with today, and those are chonky. Light, but chonky.
- wahern 7y ago
  Corning Pyrex used to be made of borosilicate glass (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass) and was similar to the type of glass used for lab equipment. The Chinese manufacturer who bought the Pyrex brand switched to cheaper and more prevalent soda-lime glass, which is arguably more drop resistant. There are manufacturers selling borosilicate glass cookware; just look for "borosilicate" when searching. There are at least a couple of brands that sell this on Amazon. Though thickness and overall durability is a different matter and perhaps even the modern borosilicate items still pale in comparison to older products.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    Yeah I got into this conversation with her after a hot 'pyrex' dish exploded and damaged the linoleum in my apartment. She suggested I go yard sale hunting for old Pyrex. I was talking about the white casserole dishes also made by Corning. Wikipedia says it's called pyroceram. Also says it was an accidental discovery while trying to invent something else.
- okcando 7y ago
  I still get Corelle branded dishes, like you see at Walmart these days. I haven't broken one yet; they're remarkably durable compared to your usual ceramic pieces. That they're thin and light and a little translucent like china is just icing on the cake. I like them a lot. Can't say how they compare to the Corelle of old but they're definitely solid.

RHSeeger 7y ago

> I noticed the store filling up with Craftsman, Kenmore, and other Sears-branded junk. Such a shame; Craftsman used to be THE name in home tools. If one broke, you could bring it back for a replacement... forever.

delfinom 7y ago
Now you can buy quite a few (not all) Home Depot (Husky) or Lowes (Kobalt) tools and come with the free replacement for life warranty. Like sockets/wrenches which Craftsman was popular for, you can now buy from the other 2 guys with lifetime warranty and the quality is on par.
- davio 7y ago
  Lowes is heavily showcasing Craftsman tools now. I'd expect Kobalt to disappear as a brand.
- airstrike 7y ago
  Probably thanks to Stanley Black & Decker acquiring Craftsman
- bluGill 7y ago
  Sort of. With the old sears they had all the replacements in stock with no hassle. I tried to warranty a Husky torque wrench once, they don't have that in store, so I get to hassle with contacting husky myself... I didn't the replacement same day to finish my project, so I went elsewhere and swore not to buy husky again because a warranty is meaningless if I can get a replacement when I need it.
- imglorp 7y ago
  Shucks, even Harbor Freight has lifetime warranty on hand tools. At this point, I tend to get the cheap stuff first. If it survives your usage, great. If not, that's a sign to take the savings and get some quality for that one thing.
- paulie_a 7y ago
  Harbor freight is pretty good. The problem with home Depot online is there are way too many options. Sometimes fewer options are better I like Wayfair much more for many things instead of home Depot. I can dial it in on the web search easily. If I am buying from home Depot I'm going to the store. And props to them they have excellent customer service with genuinely knowledgeable people. Good luck using their search

kirykl 7y ago

Kenmore refrigerators have somehow consistently maintained great scores from Consumer Reports. But I think they're actually made by Whirlpool however

taylodl 7y ago
I have a Kenmore refrigerator that's nearly 40 years old and still running great. I'm going to hate it when that thing goes and I have to replace it with today's junk.
- shiftpgdn 7y ago
  I'm not sure where you live but the payback on a modern refrigerator is likely within a year due to electricity consumption costs. Old refrigerators are crazy inefficient.
  - triceratops 7y ago
    A year sounds crazy optimistic. The new fridge would have to lower the power bill by $1000. That's as much as some households spend on all electricity in a year.
  - wrycoder 7y ago
    My 30 year old refrigerator uses about $9 worth of electricity per month. If I bought one which was twice as efficient, I’d save about $55 a year. That’s a 20 year payback (neglecting lost investment opportunity) for a $1100 model, plus the replacement hassle. So, I expect to run it until it breaks.
froindt 7y ago
I used to work in that industry. Sears had no manufacturing, so they contracted it out. I believe the design was their own, but I'm not positive. Whirlpool was commonly the manufacturer, though it varies by year. Other manufacturers could offer a lower price (attractive for Sears) but had other issues, so the contract commonly went back to Whirlpool.

wavefunction 7y ago

Craftsman and Kenmore still retain their reputations even if they don't match their quality of decades past. I inherited a Craftsman table saw with an electric motor from the 1960s that my grandfather used to finish his house at the time. All it needed were new belts and blades. More recently I purchased a house with a Kenmore Elite range whose only detriment from perfection is that it's an electric rather than gas range.

linuxftw 7y ago
I don't think either of those brands have maintained their reputation. Everyone knows Craftsman is overpriced junk riding on yesterday's heritage. People old enough to know Craftsman was a good brand know enough about tools to see they're junk now.
- Blackthorn 7y ago
  Yeah. People are saying that Tekton is the new Craftsman (for hand tools anyway, they don't sell anything with a motor in it). I haven't seen anyone recommend actual Craftsman brand in a long time.
  - wavefunction 7y ago
    Y'all are probably right at least with Craftsman, I haven't bought any Craftsman products and haven't seen their products appear in my research on the best-of-breed for * tool. They do seem to be assembling their tools in America which is a plus for me.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    Tekton cannot be the new craftsman until I can get a replacement within one hour anywhere in the US on a Saturday. Craftsman was never as good as Snap-on (or other professional brands), but when (as anyone who works on their own stuff knows it isn't if it is when) I broke a tool there was a sears close by with a replacement so I could finish the job.
    - 7y ago

linuxftw 7y ago

I bought a craftsman mower from Sears in the late 00's. It had a Briggs and Stratton engine, it was a great unit. Sears has no identity anymore. It used to be the-place for appliances, automotive tools, and lawn equipment. Now it's like a Macy's with tools and lawn equipment. I'm planning on picking up some scratch and dent applicances at the Sears outlet soon. That's really all I interact with Sears anymore.

ssharp 7y ago

I don't know if Sears selling higher quality stuff would really matter. Departments stores seem almost entirely doomed to fail because of the combo of more specialty retail (buying clothes at a clothing store as opposed to department store), Amazon/ecommerce, discount retail (TJX family), and, of course, giants like Walmart being able to operate better. Stores like Target and Meijer are able to fill the void of shopper wishing to avoid Walmart so I don't see a ton of space for anyone else. Certainly Sears could have positioned itself better to evolve into something closer to Target but that ship sailed at least 20 years ago and Sears being mostly anchored to shopping malls didn't help its cause much. The Sears attached to my hometown's mall was shut down 2 or 3 years ago. The space is currently being destroyed so they can develop an outdoor entertainment space.

SquishyPanda23 7y ago
> Amazon/ecommerce, Ironically, Sears shut down its century-old catalog just as ecommerce was becoming viable. They had the infrastructure to be Amazon but they threw it away and Amazon had to build it all up from scratch.
- ghaff 7y ago
  >They had the infrastructure to be Amazon Not really. A mail order catalog has very little in common with a modern eCommerce operation like Amazon's. It's a bit like saying that because Kodak was a photography giant they should have been able to win digital photography when, in fact, other than brand it's not clear what real assets and expertise they had to bring. (And brand can be a hindrance as well as a help if you're shifting businesses.)
  - steverb 7y ago
    Amazon's current operation had little in common with their modern operation. Sears had the order fulfillment and distribution know how.
    - pedasmith 7y ago

Fricken 7y ago

I'm not 100% sure why, but for me Sears has always been the trusted name in vacuum cleaners, and for a decade until Sears closed I went there for vacuum cleaner bags, every couple years or so. It never occurred to me to go to Sears for any other reason.

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
I know my mom had a Kenmore canister vacuum cleaner for decades before it finally broke -- it worked and despite being a plastic canister, it was clearly very well-made; she replaced it with a more "high-end" brand, I think a Sebo, that she doesn't like as much. I know they were always made for Sears by another company, just like Radio Shack's "exclusive" brands, but I don't know who made them in the 1980s. (It appears Panasonic had been making them during the 2000s, but some information I've found suggests that Panasonic got out of that business entirely in 2016.)
mark-r 7y ago
I gave up on Sears finally when I needed a vacuum cleaner part, something like a filter that would need regular replacement. I went to a Sears that had a parts department, and saw that they still sold the vacuum I had. But the parts department didn't have the part in stock - they suggested I could order it and wait for it to come in. I said no thanks, I could buy it online for half the price and have it shipped to my house, saving a trip back to the store.

rasz 7y ago

VWestlife did a walkaround video of a Sears mall about to be closed in 2017 - shows everything you just said about the place, old, decrepit, neglected, run like it was meant to lose money. "A last look at Sears - Route 22, Watchung NJ (built in 1965)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzAd_DtswM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzAd_DtswM

inferiorhuman 7y ago
run like it was meant to lose money Sadly, that's why they're entering bankruptcy. The current CEO has little to no interest in keeping Sears alive, but they make a decent piggy bank.
foogoloo 7y ago
Ouch. That Sears is what I remember K-mart looking like in the 80’s. If that’s what most Sears have been like lately, then I’m not surprised they went under.

rascul 7y ago

> If you buy a 'Craftsman' mower, you're getting the same Chinese-engined lawnmower that you buy at the same price point at any other store. Craftsman (riding) mowers are made by MTD and use either Kohler or Briggs and Stratton engines. Pretty sure most of that is made in the US. I find MTD to be sub par, though.

taurath 7y ago

The department stores have the same sort of death spiral as malls - the quality drops, people stop going in, the quality drops again. I’ve never in my life felt going to a department store I’d be met by someone knowledgeable in an area other than makeup. One thing I’d have loved to see - an emphasis on customization and tailoring. Almost everyone could use a little custom tailoring for pants, blouses and shirts, and it does not scale online well at all as you need to be in person to get measured. If you like a shirt and it’s ill fitting, pay $15/20 for a cheap hem job and walk out feeling like a million bucks.

mncharity 7y ago
> One thing I’d have loved to see - an emphasis on customization and tailoring. [...] for pants [...] That was a startup two decades back. Built on automated pattern cutting. MVP was customized khakis. You'd enter detailed measurements on a website; machine-cut parts were assembled "manually" the next-ish day; then FedEx. Had a little tag with a number, so you could order "just like N, but let out a 1/2 inch". It was nifty. It was acquired by Levis, which mismanaged it into nonexistence. Last-ish factory in the US providing that assembly closed, plus the patent, and that was the end of that. IIRC. Perhaps in China? Years back, if you needed a new wardrobe of suits, it was worth a trip to HK just for that.
- mywittyname 7y ago
  Do you really benefit much from having robots do the cutting? I suspect most of the skill and costs are in the assembly. Modern Tailor offers MtM clothing starting at like $50.
  - mncharity 7y ago
    It's mass-production sewing, just with non-uniform stock. The customized pattern cutting provides the customized fit. Instead of boxes full of identically-cut pieces to be assembled, there's a packet with someone's customized pieces. Which is why the US getting out of mass-production apparel manufacturing was a problem. Perhaps this was a niche in which US apparel manufacturing might have remained viable, with customization and shipping proximity supporting the extra US costs. It seems regrettable that the possibility wasn't better explored.

newnewpdro 7y ago

> The power tools and lawn equipment were never really any good. Not never, they used to be awesomely utilitarian and rugged, but that's back in 60s-70s. My dad still uses his all-steel construction Sears snowblower and had a Sears cast aluminum-housed 2-stroke chainsaw until seizing the motor with a bad mix of gas ~7 years ago :(. These were both from the 70s, fabulous tools, built to last. > Craftsman hand tools were decent until the mid-2000's when they started changing warranty policies. Yes, in my opinion when I started getting new Craftsman ratchets from Sears which appeared to be both refurbished and needed replacing just weeks after purchase, it was the beginning of the end. Prior to that, the writing was already on the wall when we couldn't easily get parts for the aforementioned snowblower and chainsaw from the service/parts department. It used to be a sure thing even in the 90s, 20 years after purchase!

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

I have a Craftsman mower that won't die after 10+ years. Many Craftsman labeled products retained decent quality. The trick was to find those that were from high quality OEMs.