Sears: The Most Hated Company in America?

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My Sears observations

As a child we didn't buy anything from Sears except for some clothes. I never really liked Sears much for many years.
As I aged I found much of what I wanted at Sears. The only Sears I go to is in Oakbrook Mall. I buy an occasional shirt, a tool and my Whirlpool water filter. Generally I find what I need. I started to like Sears. I suppose I still do.
However, recently the store is devoid of all staff. I was upstairs and could not find any staff at all. I was wondering what people were thinking as I walked in circles trying to find someone to help me. This confuses me. Anyone who knows that store knows that it is a showplace. Everything is always in perfect order. It is just so strange that the building has virtually no staff at all.
On top of it they recently cut the building in half. Maybe now I will find sales staff as the building is more compact! I guess that's one way of solving that problem.

TARGET surprises me. They have what I need. They have their act together.
 
I remember when the Sears Oakbrook store opened. They carried horse saddles and farm implements right inside the store in addition to clothing, electronics, hardware & appliances. That was in 1964.

What did they do to cut it in half? That location was always at the end of the mall on the north side. Did they develop Oakbrook Center more to the north? I haven't been there in about 15 years or so.
 
Not trying to open a new can but...

...had this thread been about R.H. Macy & Co. I could have really run my mouth off. I worked for the California Division as an "executive" (a term that means nothing outside of a department store) when the division was on top of the world. Sales were phenomenal. The Midwest division was showing decent profits as well as was Bamberger's. Their weekly Sunday newspaper supplement "Macy Magazine" was the first thing many people pulled from their paper. I got that blasted supplement 3 weeks before the public and had friends call me and ask if they could get a preview (aka "get a life!) Yet through all of this Macy's was ruthless in their pursuit of more money.

Store management was required to do report after report called R.I.P.E plans. This stood for Review, Intensify, Plan and Exploit...the emphasis being on exploit. Regardless of how great business was, sales results with huge increases were always met with "if you achieved a 50% increase then you could have easily got 75% with more effort."

POS register terminals were wonderful tools to track everything about sales, but for Macy's managers at storeline they were the way to track the hourly usefulness and productivity of sales staff. The axe never stopped swinging and probably continues today. Macys put those people through a Maytag wringer trying to squeeze every penny out of them they could.

Towards the end of my "sentence" I remember attending a meeting in San Francisco and the question was asked why the head of the company Ed Finkelstein was planning on taking Macy's private much to the dismay of many financial experts. I distinctly remember what we were told his answer was..."I'm sick and tired of having people looking over my shoulder and having to report everything I'm doing." Macy's declared bankruptcy a short time later.

Although I rarely visit Sears, I never shop at Macy's. I attribute their current "success" to overpriced quality items supplemented with garbage like a "Tools of the Trade" frying pan "regularly priced" at $59.99 on "sale" for $19.99 with an additional 10% off when you use your Macy's charge. 5 will get you 10 this final price is what the item was intended to sell for complete with a healthy margin. The fact that Macy's eradicated many of the Country's fine department stores like Marshall Field's is yet another can of worms.

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Sears Oakbrook

The building is being cut as we speak. Physically it is the same shape on the outside. However when you go into the building and (for example) you want to go to mens' wear on the first floor, you hit a wall. The main floor feels like a sliver of its old self.
On the outside you can see how they are punching out for new storefronts on the mall-side.
Oakbrook has added quite a few new stores on the periphery. I have to admit they do a good job. In virtually every store remodel, they gut the building to the girders and start anew. They have a TESLA car store which is fun.
They have kept the outdoor-mall model.. Thank God! And are really modernizing the fountains and landscaping.
Mark Shale went bust... I bought my good stuff there. I was not happy about that one.
 
Oakbrook to the North

To the North there is (what I call ) the NORDSTROM wing.
Yes, heavily expanded to the North with a double-decker outdoor mall.
The BEST thing about Oakbrook (and I am sure you know this) - is that during Winter, everyone flees to Yorktown Mall and I have Oakbrook all to myself for Christmas shopping.
(It's my secret, don't tell a soul ! :- ) )
 
If there were ever two retailers that don't go hand in hand, it would be Sears and Tesla.

 

The Tesla showroom here is in the swankiest high-end faux-downtown-style retail, restaurant, residential, hotel and theater complex in town where most slebs choose to stay when in the area performing.

 

I'm seeing more and more Model S sedans out on the roads here.  A dark blue one lives across the street from us.  One place I doubt you'll ever see one is in a Sears parking lot.
 
Interesting to note...about a month ago I was at the Big Lots near me, not exactly the place where the elite meet and this one's no flagship store. This Big Lot's is in a half-deserted strip mall with no other adjacent businesses still open. Parked near the entrance was a brand new copper colored Bentley Continental Silver Spur with paper plates, one of the lesser-priced models but still around $200,000. Just goes to show you, you never know.
 
You described perfectly the locations Big Lots the type of location our Big Lots is located.

I haven't been to Chicago (outside of ORD) in seven years. I am glad they have a Nordstrom in Oakbrook. Fits the place well. I always liked Oakbrook in winter. The elegant decorations and more upscale stores. To me Yorktown is just a regular suburban mall. When Wieboldt's closed I stopped going there.

We dont't shop Macy's at all anymore. It's overpriced for what you get. I swear some of the same merchandise is available at JCP rebranded and less money. For the same money you could shop Saks Fifth Ave and bring home better stuff.

I am just waiting to hear Macy's announce that they will be closing the State St store. It's the last real vestage of the original Marshall Field & Co. Now THAT was a store.
 
Speaking of Sears brands. I just saw a commercial for Ace Hardware, they now sell "Craftsman" chainsaws.  I remember before the death knell of Western Auto they sold "Diehard" car batteries and "Roadhandler" tires.  Need a refrigerator right now? Kenmore basics top freezers are at K Mart.  alr
 
Lowe's has agreed to buy Orchard Supply

From the 6/17/13 Wall Street Journal:

Lowes has agreed to buy the struggling West Coast hardware chain Orchard Supply for $205 billion. In the story on page B2, Lowe's would acquire at least 60 of Orchard's 91 stores, plus an option to buy the rest. Orchard is expected to propose the deal Monday in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy hearing.
 
Out of the Fire....

....Into the frying pan!

If there is any chain that should not take over a troubled brand, that chain is Blowes.

I could go into our local Blowes with two sheriff's deputies and a court order and still not get served.

Give me Menard's any day. I hate their mind-numbing little earworm of a jingle that is forever blasting through the PA system, but you can find sales help, and that help knows where things are. Very often, they even know what the things do, and why you would do well to choose one over another.

The very best you can say for Blowes is that it's not Home Depot, which isn't much. Christmastime is always very interesting here in Waterloo, IA - Menard's is a madhouse, and Home Depot? You could fire a howitzer through the joint and not harm anyone - there's no one in there to hit.
 
"Craftsman" chainsaws

As with everything Sears sells one often doesn't know who makes the branded product. In the case of chainsaws Craftsman saws are made by Poulan which is the lowest consumer line of the 3 lines of "Electroluxe" saws (Husqvarna & Jonsered being the mid and upper model lines). They are an adequate homeowner saw buy one can do better for the same money. The Sears model # will start with a "234" if its a Poulan.

Many of the Ace hardware stores here in MN are also Stihl dealers so they don't elect to sell the Craftsman saws. Stihl is an interesting company as they realize the importance of only selling their products through a servicing dealer, so you can't buy their products in a big box store. This is both a shot in the arm for the independent retailer and the customer gets better sales and after-sale support as well.
 
Well, I think Lowe's owning OSH will be an improvement over the current situation.  OSH has been a real disappointment in recent years, and it's all because of Sears being their parent company.

 

It might be the lesser of two evils, but I'll take Lowe's influence over Sears' any day.

 

The fact that OSH has survived the big box invasion is pretty amazing.  They are a home-grown operation, literally, and the first store, which was their only store up until the 70's, is still there on the outskirts of downtown, and even though it's a piece of motley no-nonsense 1947 architecture, it's still known as the "Main Store" for the chain and its vintage neon sign still functions.  A group of local men with various agricultural-related interests began OSH as a co-op in 1931.  Even though Lowe's might be taking over, it's better than seeing a local institution disappear completely.

 

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I don't think Sears Canada is going to last much longer. I was reading in the Toronto Star that they've just sold the leases to two of their biggest Toronto stores, Yorkdale Mall and Square One. I think Yorkdale is going to be a Nordstrom.  So far they're keeping their flagship downtown Toronto store but you could shoot a cannon thru it and not hit anyone just like all their other stores across the country.  They have already sold the downtown flagship store in  Vancouver which will become a Nordstrom as well as their largest suburban Calgary store at Chinook Centre purportedly to be a Nordstrom as well. .Nordstrom will be opening their first Canadian stores shortly and Target just moved into Canada a few months ago so the whole retail scene here is in flux.  Sears way overbuilt here, then took over the old Eaton stores, then opened all those Sears Home stores often within blocks of their regular mall stores and the parking lots are empty. I could never figure out how the hell they keep those stores open when so few people even go in them. 
 
It seems weird in a way Nordstrom is taking over previous Sears properties. In our local high end mall Nordstrom is replacing Sears. But Nordstrom demolished the Sears store and is building a new store on the same property.
 
That whiney woman with her TOL 31 cu. ft. refrigerator is too stupid to live. She needed to get on the phone after the first time and demand a new box or her money back. She is talking about all of her spoiled food. She could have found dry ice and kept all of it. I am glad that she posted the video. Everyone needs to be aware of the disastrous Sears repair practices with long waits, no parts and often incorrect diagnoses. Having appliances made overseas and not having parts on hand to fix them just sucks.

Just as an aside, I will mention that one of the factors in the Social Security fright mongering is that it will run out of money. Well, people without jobs don't contribute to Social Security and that complicates the problem. Think about this as you hear politicians talk about wanting to reduce benefits or raise your retirement age. Everyone here is affected by this so you have an interest in bringing more jobs back here. Fewer and fewer workers have pension plans with guaranteed benefits so Social Security is all that most people will have as they work until they drop. We used to have a large manufacturing base in this country. We invented mechanical refrigeration and automatic washers. Now look at the sorry state we are in all because corporations don't want to pay workers a living wage. The Upton family that owns Whirlpool has one of their spawn in Congress. You get two guesses as to his party affiliation and the first does not count.
 
Self-Defeating Behavior

What I want to know is:

When corporations succeed in their goal to reduce us all to minimum-wage, twenty-hour-a-week burger flippers and shelf stackers, who will be able to afford their products and services?

Very few, that's who. This will have to end, or at least get better, because the only logical outcome is corporations going belly-up for lack of customers.

One of the things I'd like to see in this county is a President with the cojones to take on Big Money about its lack of social responsibility - its tendency to send jobs overseas and pay no or few taxes, and still demand huge quarterly profits.

Maybe Hillary. Now there's some cojones.
 
My latest experience with Sears;

I got an email about Sears deal of the day, which was their laundry soap (extra large size) was $26 now $13.49. So I figured I would stop by my local Sears and pick up a box simple right?

I go in the store pick up a box check number and go to check out. That's $26, no its the deal of the day, no it's not on sale, call the department manager he comes over with his ipad and checks it and says sorry sir that is regular price. Again I told him it was emailed to me as the deal of the day. Call the store manager again the same, I asked if they had computers in the store that I could go online and show them he said yes. So we go to the appliance department and I used the computer and there it was big as life! Well, well, they don't always update the systems they are sometimes behind, I told him the deal of day is only for one day so this is an issue. A in and out shopping trip turned into a 30 minute mess!

Don't get me wrong I love Sears but I think it's time for Sears & JCPenney to leave the room. Interesting that Whirlpool Corporation has been investing monies in Lowe's, HH Gregg, and other retailers. I also believe that Whirlpool is concerned that Sears switching off vendors for the bottom dollar may associate the inferior products with the Whirlpool family name.
 
Late yesterday afternoon my wife had an appt at the JC Penney's hair salon and afterwards did some shopping in the store.  She said that if it hadn't been for the clerks the store would have been deserted.  How sad is that?
 
I think Penney's has lost most of their customer base to Target and WalMart. It's sad, but those two stores have more than Penney's and people have less money to spend.

As to the stores being empty, I think somehow that hours are going to have to be cut back.
 
Crazy Woman in Video

The sentence that struck me funny was that if she was living Paycheck to Paycheck, how would she feed her children....

I hope she would have a little more sense than to purchase the 3K+ frig if she was that tight on money... ROFLOL!

Malcolm
 
Ralph,

The news about Orchard Supply Hardware's bankruptcy and the pending Lowe's acquistion was news to me. How sad. The 15 years I spent there in store management and as a buyer at the corporate offices were some of the best of my working years. As someone who went through three previous owners, Grace Industries, Wickes Furniture and Sears I can assure you contrary to the newspaper reports, OSH will probably not, in the long run, continue as it is. The current state of Orchard actually has little to do with Sears. The purpose of the Sears acquistion was to infuse the "Orchard Culture" into Sears' failing chain of 364 free-standing hardware stores. Although everyone at Corporate worked very hard to make that happen it was "Mission Impossible."

The reason Orchard Supply fell into decay was that the Culture died. During the years I was there everything (and I mean everything) we did was to facilitate the customer. We never lost track that our paychecks were from our customers. I remember incentive (bonus) checks that said "A Gift From Your Customers." I once did a small radio spot on Orchard and repeated the company's motto..."take good care of your customers and they will take good care of you." The result was a highly-respected retail operation with a very loyal customer base. No one company including Sears killed the Culture, people did.

And as far as OSH remaining what is is or once was, it's like they say on Bravo..."watch what happens."
 
It's a crying shame that the paychecks our elected officials receive do not have a similar slogan like, "From Your Constituents." I have heard members of Congress being very rude to constituents. It makes me just itch to remind them that they are public servants paid with the same tax money as welfare recipients and that they should treat their bosses, the people who elect them, with more respect.
 
Tom, to your point directly above, if you're not watching David Letterman's "Stooge of the Night" segment, you might want to.
 
I went to Sears in Rolling Oaks Mall in San Antonio about a month ago, I wasn't impressed with the quality of the merchandise. I bought a pair of jeans that was on sale but everything else didn't seem up to par. I looked at towels and they looked like they would tear apart on the first washing, looked at sheets too and thought I'll pass. The store was clean but the display of merchandise was pitiful. I bought my towels at Pennys at a better price and quality. About a year ago I went in the Sears in Austin and it was DIRTY, staff talking on cell phones about their plans for the evening and what time they get off work. Displays were a mess and DIRTY. It was awful. I didn't want to be seen coming out of that store, and that's a horrible way to feel.
 
SEARS OAKBROOK

Growing up in Elmhurst, Sears Oak Brook was the store my parents went to. I think it opened in 1962. That mall was built that year. Although it's really grown and changed. The Oak Brook Theater isn't even still there! I got my first job there in 1970. I was only 15 but said I was 16. Impossible to get away with in today's information age. But at 15 I was a bus boy. Who remembers when the big or "A" Sears stores had Sears Coffee House Restaurants right in the store? They also had a candy and popcorn counter, both long since gone. Those were the only 2 departments 16 year olds could work in.

I live in Colorado now but get back to the Oak Brook area about twice a year. Last summer I walked through but the store was still as it was, size wise. There were few customers and even less employees. Kinda sad for me but I saw the writing on the wall that Sears' days are numbered. Everything has a beginning and and end I guess. But last week when my water heater went out, I went straight to Sears and bought a new Kenmore. I had good service and same day installation. Sears, back in the day, was good to me and I'll still shop there for certain things.
 
I also remember the third Crate & Barrel store opened in Oakbrook around 1970 or so. They had a huge chalkboard hanging from the ceiling showing the names of ships scheduled to dock in Chicago and what kinds of goods they were carrying. This was back in the days where Crate & Barrel was a store that carried nice items for a very reasonable price, not like today.

When I was a senior in high school I worked sales in the men's shop at Marshall Field & Company for about 6 months. Now that same location inside the store is women's cosmetics. We sold a LOT of Pendelton shirts out of that place.
 

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