Local Sears Hometown store closing.

[bradfordwhite]

90 were announced at the end of May.

Sears store closing list: At least 90 Hometown stores to close

Dozens of Sears Hometown locations all around the country have started advertising store closing sales.

www.ksdk.com

 

[bradfordwhite]

Local

Driving past and saw the signs.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Sales Floor was half empty

These don't look like all that great of deals.

We really need those snow shovels and the snow thrower.

 

[repairguy]

That’s definitely a deal on the 23,500 btu window air conditioners. They are priced at $700 here and they are an off the wall brand I’d never heard of.

 

[DADoES]

 
The one here is not on the list.  It's the only source for appliances in this town other than a rent-to-own outfit and a home improvement with extremely limited choices.  The next entire county west also has no appliance dealer.

 

[combo52]

$600 + for those basic dryers? If that 40% off they greatly inflated the original price.

 

Wonder if the automotive center is having a blowout tire sale,   LOL

 

John L.

 

[bradfordwhite]

agreed

"$600 + for those basic dryers? If that 40% off they greatly inflated the original price."

It seems I've seen the Amana version at Lowes for less at regular price.

----

A town without an appliance dealer just isn't a town, imo. The first appliance store I remember around 1975 was an old 50s built Sears in "downtown" with display windows on the street showing all the Kenmore washers. Only a few years later it would close and move to the mall. Old story repeated in numerous places no doubt.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

We lost our Sears store in 1994, it opened in 1954 and I think was the first satellite store outside Illinois.

 

[iej]

It’s a shame to see these stores go. We lost a few in recent years too. Debenhams a UK chain, which had bought into the irish market in 2006, taking over a Roches Stores collapsed during the pandemic and took out a whole load of our most iconic big old Main Street department stores, some of which are really nice buildings that occupy very prominent locations in Cork and Dublin and so on.

Cleary’s, one of Dublin’s most loved department stores also vanished forever just before the pandemic. It was the place generations went to see Santa.

We still have some, but they’re mostly Brown Thomas, which is very upscale and part of the Central and Signa portfolio of luxury department stores, which owns Selfridges in the UK, Rinascente in Italy, Illum in Denmark, Globus in Switzerland and KaDeWe in Germany. They also own Arnotts, which is a bit broader range but not where you’d go for appliances and we’ve M&S and so on, but the big old icons of Main Street are fading fast. Their buildings remain, but they’ll probably never be big grand old department stores ever again. That era is over.

Cleary’s back in 1932:

 

[ea56]

The first Sears store in Santa Rosa, Calif opened in 1948. It was torn down in 1979 and replaced with much larger two story Sears store that opened in March 1980. This store closed about two years ago.

Eddie

A look back at the glory days of Sears in Santa Rosa

Take yourself back in time through these retro photos from the Press Democrat vault.

www.pressdemocrat.com

 

[ea56]

The first Sears store in Oakland, Calif opened in 1930. It was the 350th store in the Sears chain. So the Sears that opened in Hampton, CT in 1954 wasn’t the first satellite Sears opened outside of Illinois.

Eddie

Sears Roebuck Building - Oakland - LocalWiki

localwiki.org

 

[bradfordwhite]

"...Kmart, which once had more than 2,000 stores, is now down to just three locations. "

The one nearby is still standing with the Kmart sign on front...and a big for sale/lease sign off to the side.

 

[gizmo]

3 Kmarts left??

Wow!

Kmart Australia, which used to be affiliated with Kmart USA but has been separate for decades, is very successful, and has 323 stores in Australia and New Zealand.

They are known for very low prices and 'surprisingly good for the price" quality. They are quite well liked, with online communities of "Kmart fan" groups that show of their Kmart bargains - often clever home decorating ideas combining Kmart items with a bit of dressing up, to create something that looks too good to have come from Kmart.

 

 

[bradfordwhite]

Lots of fond memories of Kmart, especially from the 70s and early 80s. Walmart has mostly taken over that though, in my small town that Kmart was actually needed as the nearest Walmart is 1/2 hour away.

 

[mrsalvo]

Does anyone know why WalMart never got into the appliance sales in a big way? Sometimes I would see a very select handful for sale at Sam’s Club but hardly any selection. I remember seeing back in the 80’s-90’s White-Westinghouse washers dryers. I would have thought they would have done well in sales given all their locations. They could have even come up with their own brand name.

Last time I was in a Sears store before close out, it was appallingly filthy. Certainly didn’t want to stay there much less but anything. One of the dirtiest stores I ever walked into. Also staff was on their phones talking about plans for their evenings could have cared less to help customers. I guess they saw the handwriting on the wall. Home town stores weren’t much cleaner. Sad.
To my knowledge there’s no Sears around here.

Barry

 

[bradfordwhite]

Most likely because they are a heavy, bulky hassle which can't be stacked on a shelf and don't make $ per the square inch/foot of floor and shelf space that they take up compared to smaller items.

Walmart does carry some compact appliances and of course counter top kitchen appliances. The customer can move those on their own and they can be stacked while on the sales floor.

I remember going to a Menards store a few years back when I lived in an area where there were such stores and noticed that the major appliance dept. was shrinking. I asked the sales guy and he said major appliances were going to be primarily online because for the square footage they take up on the floor they are poor performers.

And that's true. A single washing machine compared to a shelf display with 6 shelves full of products. As a retailer, one would much prefer to deal with small products than a bulky item.

 

[jamiel]

Majapps in a discount store is a tough add---recall that KMart and Woolco into the 80s sold major appliances. Commission sales, bulky, fragile (relatively) and challenging to handle. Traditional department stores had an entire staff (often called Operations) handling the bulky stuff (appliances/furniture/...)

 

[iej]

Yeah, major appliances require a lot of floor space and are hard to move and need a lot of serious logistics for warehousing and delivery. Margins are also fairly tight on most of them, which is why they’re increasingly going to big box specialist retailers and online.

They’re not that attractive as a product to sell in mixed retail like department stores or similar.

I remember big department stores with AV and appliances sections and you could even *smell* the late 20th century television’s freshly made electronics running warm on display and hear that whir of CRTs.
They’re very impressive tech, but flat, light and boring these days. No more enormous picture tubes and scary voltages inside.

There was no risk of a 1990s widescreen TV being stolen. You’d nearly have needed a forklift for some of them!

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I suppose until suddenly yet another one closes, it’s gotta be what’s still the last Sears store around…

I don’t believe I’ll ever hear of another <span style="font-size: 14pt;">K mart</span>, open or closed, surely everyone of those have long folded…

In fact, that one by me for a couple years has made it as a successful Kroger!



-- Dave