Sears Appliance Sales Lose Heat

[whirlcool]

Anyone here ever belong to the "Craftsman Club"? It was a free membership program that Sears had. Enrollment was free. This got you what looked like a credit card with a number and you name on it. The backround art was a photo of somebodies workbench, complete with tools.

Just present this card with any purchase of any Craftsman tool and you got an instant 10% off the purchase price. Craftsman Club members also got special unadvertised sale fliers in the mail on their private tool sales. I used mine a few times. One time I bought one of their 120 piece metric tool sets and the Craftsman card took $40. off the purchase.

I wonder if Sears still has this? Last time I used it was at least 9 years ago.

 

[jerrod6]

I don't think any appliance business is as it was. Look at KitchenAid. Once it was acquired my Whirlpool the first thing they did was scrap the kitchenaid design and use a Whirlpool model, so there is at most no reason buy a kitchenaid because all you are getting is a Whirlpool. Same with Maytag, so if any specific Whirlpool design has design idea flaws every brand they make may get them.

People are a bit smarter today, so they are able to tell that Sears brand is nothing but a Whirlpool or LG often with less than the brand name offers.

None of these companies stands behind their product or offers direct service. Service is through a 3rd party which is not responsible for the product so you are at there mercy.

I am reminded of an old Joni Mitchell song from the album "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" The name of the song is "Harry's House. At the end of the song she repeats over and over....."nothing's any good.....nothing's any good....."the song ends while this repetitive phrase fades away.

 

[neptunebob]

I almost recently gave Sears a chance...

But there was no way I could because the Sears my family shopped for 40 years closed. I would have to go to the other side of the city to find a Sears. We do have the outlet stores nearby but not a regular Sears. I had to replace a garbage disposal and if Sears were around I would have bought Kenmore.

I went to HH Gregg to see if they had one. Nobody came by to ask if I needed anything and two clerks were outside smoking. I found the disposal display with a KitchenAid and a whirlpool and I was looking around wondering if someone would help me. I walked out slowly emptyhanded and they let me go out the door! Its a wonder people don't just steal and when they do, more power to them.

I ended up buying a "Badger" at Home Depot. But how does HH Gregg plan to stay in business?

 

[machinehead]

Educate me?

Fantastic, informative thread. I too have seen declining business (as in the showrooms sparkling and nobody cares, except the nail biting piraña sales folks-- not all are like that, but many I ran across) and wasn't sure why, till now. My cornfusion is, how did Sears screw up Whirlpool's relationship? They were inseparable for eons, no? I read through the whole post, but mayhap I missed that point...

 

[machinehead]

Duh!

Sorry, never mind-- just re-read that bit about replacing Whirlpool with LG, etc. yeah, that was not well thought out, from what I've seen about LG reliability...

 

[tolivac]

I used to be a member of the Craftsman Club.Let mine run out years ago.don't know if Sears still has it-I buy tools from Lowes,ad even Harbor Freight at this point-HF is another cutthroat competitor to Craftsman.Some of their stuff isn't too bad.

 

[alr2903]

Todays consumers are very savy.  They know the difference in appliances mfr by Whirlpool and knockoffs. We all played along for years.  Even Whirlpool has slipped with the Kenmore laundry equipment ( mostly because of energy regs). It will be a sad day when the tried and true 29 inch dryer is discontinued. I know they are available under other brand name labels. ( we have the admiral at present).  I am sure the profit margin is higher on LG than the Whirlpool.  Sad.  I do know Sears owns many of their properties. The real estate value has helped through this downward spiral.

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

To add to what Jerrod wrote, someone here recently mentioned how Whirlpool destroyed the ability of KitchenAid owners to keep their perfectly good 30 year old dishwashers running by eliminating the parts inventory. Ganavisher mamzerim.

 

[whirlcool]

We do have the outlet stores nearby but not a regular Sears.

The two Sears on the north side of Houston (Greenspoint & The Woodlands) closed some time ago. The Greenspoint Sears is now just vacant, like the rest of the mall. The Woodlands Mall, rather upscale Sears closed down two years ago. Nordstrom's came in and tore the Sears building down and built their own in the same spot.

So now in North Houston we only have a Sears Outlet store (which isn't even owned by Sears) and a large Sears Hardware store. So if people really wanted to shop a Sears store they'd have to drive at least 35 miles to find one.

In the meantime the oldest Sears store I have ever seen (probably built in the 30's) is still open in a rather bad part of town. It's a full line Sears store at that. I wonder how long it'll last.

You hardly ever hear anyone anymore say "I bought it at Sears."

 

[maytagbear]

Only thing

I buy at Sears any more is the detergent, and only if I'm out that way any way (no direct bus) and I hate to ask friends to go there. The cab is over 60.00 one way, and without tip!

Lawrence/Maytagbear