Target would be a better acquisition for Amazon. Target has a better reputation and quite a few more locations than Sears. Sears should transition in to a REIT.
I used to work for Sears at the call center in Round Rock, TX about 10 years ago. I would set up onsite repairs for appliances. Was my first full-time job out of high school and I got to see just how huge the company was based on all the products they sold and handled. Sad to see their demise. Really not sure why they didn't transition their massive catalog shipping infrastructure into online sales. Could've been Amazon before Amazon.
They could have been a success at the ON-LINE thing. Hell, they invented Mail Order. I use to work for SEARS. In 1994, they brought in Arthur Martinez, a CEO with a record of pulling failing businesses out of bankruptcy. Martinez saved SAKS FIFTH AVENUE from Bankruptcy in the 1980's. The folks at the top at SEARS didn't want to work with Mr. Martinez. Giving up there Cushy Annual Bonuses was part of the strategy to Save Sears. They didn't budge, Mr. Martinez kind of gave up. SEARS could have been the BOMB in the ON-LINE Industry... They already had an infrastructure in place.
They were the Amazon before Amazon. Instead of online shopping, people ordered from Catalogs. If any retailer could have best adapted to Amazon online shopping and even beat them at it, it should have been Sears, because they knew how to do it.
Kevin Hitchcock For one thing, Sears signed 99-year lease agreements that weren’t and still aren’t that easy to get out. Execs back then would never even imagine something like “online shopping” would be a huge threat to store shopping.
I thought the same thing. Sears closed their catalog sales dept. a year before Amazon was founded. All they had to do was transition from catalog to online ordering and leave their fulfillment infrastructure in place. A major mistake, in my opinion.
With so much stuff left at the end of the liquidation sale it is no wonder why Sears is failing. There is not much public interest in the chain anymore.
My hometown Sears closed before it was cool for Sears to close stores, and this video reminds me of that liquidation: Very disorganized and eerie at the same time, especially going through an empty store where I had so many memories. I want to say I was the only customer on the second floor when I went.
Andy Sorensen Same at the one at Lincoln Mall. The mall closed (including the Sears) for the most part; at first they kept the Carson’s, since it was still drawing a fair amount of customers. Then it went through the tubes, and that closed as well. The other mall by me is in trouble, I think, since the Sears went out of business, as did the Carson’s. One’s bad enough, but when you’re a mall owner/management and you lose TWO anchor stores within a year of one another, it has to be alarming.
I worked for Sears for 7 years. Always overstocked on the wrong items. That's where there's so much crap left over. And yeah, those displays were probably sitting in the back. We had like a 500 sq ft room just for old fixtures and brackets. Liquidators are savages though, they come through and wreck the stores.
I bought several, they are awesome. I rebuilt my computer so it is now embedded in a table beside my desk instead of on my desk. Worked perfectly. I also scooped up a bunch of displays for the plexiglass panels and the riser screws. I'm about to have a field day.
as to the other fixtures, they were bought up by a contractor for another retailer. I did run a dumpster dive mission, and retrieved a shit ton of miscellaneous pliexiglass panels. Another pc build is in the works. I got all the hardware and fittings necessary for at least one more if not two more builds.
The Sears near me starts liquidation next week. They went from 2 floors to 1 floor a few years ago it was a mess for a year until they finally fixed up the 1 floor. Now that it is fixed up it is time to liquidate
Yep, they had just started the MANY SIDES OF SEARS commercials at the time I started working for them. Sad to see this Retailer go, they were once an American Institution.
Not very often you see a Sears the last man standing in a mall. Nobody wants to shop at Sears even at 90% off. They have to hang a sing up that says "FREE" to empty the store?
the problem with these liquidation sales like this are all sales final thats why the appliances are still there you dont wanna pay over a grand for something that if it doesn't work your basically screwed. and than you have to factor in the fact that even if is 90% off they jack the prices up before the liquidation than start with the "20-90% off your not saving anything.
Sears isn’t the one selling the fixtures. It’s the liquidator. They did this with Kmart, RadioShack, Circuit City, etc. They have to throw it away otherwise.
The liquidator also tends to bring in merchandise from other stores and sell it as "discount." Also liquidator raise prices and add extra fees (on fixtures) before the "discount."
This is what the liquidation sale at Sears at Westland Mall looked like. They were selling half-used cleaning supplies for $1-2 and dirty, stained chairs for $25.
I remember shopping at westland mall in Hialeah FL as a kid. I went in their store about 2 weeks ago and was sad to see how small the store had gotten. Their was some space on the ground floor that had been sold to (I think it was Gap) and they opened up a small walled off botique in the sears store. But I always remembered it being very busy there in Hialeah. Sad to see it go.
I was there as a kid, when it first opened, and It was So busy back in 79, How things change do to the internet and online shopping, I also remember that there was a Sears outlet store on southern Rd in Tempe, That was a sign them that they were going down hill, trying to sqeeze ever dollar out of their merchandise even then! lol
Usually when stores go into liquidation, the sales are run by an outside company (such as Gordon Brothers Group, Hilco Merchant Resources, Tiger Capital, Great American Group, and others). Often the liquidation company buys the merchandise and resells it, usually at prices to make as much money as possible for creditors. Often the liquidator will raise prices up to the full selling price and then gradually lower them as time progresses. Plus sometimes the merchandise in liquidation sales is often different from what was in the store before, as sometimes before a store closing sale the chain will move some of its goods to other stores that are ongoing and that the liquidation companies often bring in outside merchandise into the liquidation sale that may have been left over from a previous liquidation sale or reconditioned goods they bought elsewhere.
The SEARS back home is still open, keep waiting for them to drop the axe... 2:25 You should have grabbed one of those credit card imprinters, those have to be getting hard to find now
George V. Cohea I am under 40 and know how to work it. When I worked at Sears our system would go down from time to time and we reverted back to those for the day. Ha shows how out of date Sears was. This would have been around 2010 maybe so very late to be still using those things.
The Sears at the Lloyd Center in Portland is closing this April. I wonder if they're also going to liquidate literally everything in the store. Maybe I'll try to film there before it closes and post a short video (probably not much narration, though)
Our Sears (Canada) Store at our Mall just shut down yesterday, its last day of liquidation. Me and My Mom went to look for shoes on its 4th day, yet everything was disorganized. They had large brown boxes full of plastic "Sears" logo clothing hangers for FREE!
Chris Lemaster They’re In Chapter 11 right now, but that often leads to Chapter 7 (there ARE cases where a company can come out of Chapter 11, but it oftentimes leads to 7).
@@jenniferclark9842 Now with the Sears stores closed due to the Coronavirus, they will most likely file for Ch. 7 bankruptcy very soon. I imagine that they would probably skip the liquidation sale, keep the doors locked, and sell their merchandise off to some other companies.
This store is actually pretty big. Now that Metrocenter has closed its basement, the space is probably pretty similar. It's larger than the other stores like Superstition and Chandler. When Chandler opened in 2002, many of the salespeople in Brand Central came from Fiesta because the newer housing would mean good money. From Sue and Ray in refrigerators, to Eddie and Judy in cooking, Patsy in plumbing, and Renee and Pam in vacuums, they all migrated. Renee had the scary experience of an attempted kidnapping at Fiesta. She's a real fireball and faught them off since no one helped. The management mostly came from Superstition except Norm, who came from Fiesta. When he was loss prevention manager at Los Arcos, customers who thwarted in their shoplifting and scams would go so far as to try and run him over in the parking lot. Even in those days, us younger people (at the time) called Fiesta Mall, "The Ghetto Mall." Strangest interaction between me and an employee from Fiesta Mall was when one of their employees who was gay came and even waited for me to return from lunch to see if he had a shot. It took me saying hi for him to realize he didn't. I think he cjecked because I worked in draperies and helped him on the phone.
1993 they advertised Come See The Softer Side of Sears. Now its the Deader Side of Sears. Last January a mall in Alexandria, Virginia closed, but the Sears remains open all by itself. The owners plan to tear the mall down and building a shopping center in its place.
I worked in a Sears a few years ago that ultimately ended up closing terminating my employment. I can honestly say that it was depressing for everybody to see a store like that. Every single Sears that closes looks like this. I am not exaggerating. The displays are all likely from when the store opened. All of the fixtures are ancient and broken. The POS system barely runs. It's really quite sad. It is the end of an era but honestly I can say that Sears definitely deserves it. A few other general complaints about Sears (my store) that screwed them : They pay 7.25 to all of their entry level employees to this day in my city, that is nowhere near competitive for retail or fast food Managers (in my store) were not overseen regularly, my store manager didn't exist if you had an issue. He would hide in his office and sit on his phone (true story) I came into his office multiple times after paging for him and caught him doing nothing on his phone When I started working there before the store truly started to collapse, there were ACTUAL salespeople in the Appliances department. They ended up cutting the commission pay scale which severely decreased pay and they all left. Literally three dedicated, hardworking salesmen left within a few months and the store had to scramble and figure out what to do The technology in the store never worked (wifi, POS, iPad POS they forced salespeople to use) The store was dirty, carpet had never been professionally cleaned in the 40 years the store was open
I was going to mock Sears here, but we just bought a fridge from them that was about half its retail price. I lied, I'm going to. Sears: You can get paid for napping Sears: The only safe place on Black Friday Sears: Not worth the effort to come up with a third joke I sound mean, but eh.
Went to a Sears in Canada a few days before it closed. Most of what was left was XXL clothing, and blinds. So many blinds! You bought all the blinds they had you could have opened a blind store.
The Sears where I live is still open, but I don't go in it anymore. Sadly the nearest Kmart that I can think of is about 2 hours away. All the ones that were near me closed over the 5 years. As a kid in the '80s I never would have thought there would be a world without Kmart.
In a way it's so sad to see all of these stores closing but in another you understand how time changes everything and there's no escaping that. What was cool to do today will not be cool to do tomorrow and when companies don't adapt they fall behind. Of course the other big factor is that our economy is crap where the value of a dollar does not carry the weight that it use to when buying power is concerned.
Wow, this one brings back memories for me. When I first moved to Arizona in 1992, my first job was at SEARS. I worked at the one at LOS ARCOS MALL, Scottsdale. Across from the PAPAGO PLAZA which is on it's way out. SEARS hired me in May of 1992, I worked there right up till the end. The store closed in 1997. YES, this is how SEARS liquidates, EVERYTHING gets Sold Off !! The old desk you mentioned was like one in my office, I worked in Visual Display. Those were STEEL CASE, they were from the 1960's and built like Battle Tanks ! The Los Arcos SEARS opened in 1969 and originally had two floors. Sometime in the 1980's the store consolidated to the first floor. DISCOVER CARD Services took the second floor and ran a Customer Service Call Center up there. I attempted to buy one of the Manequins ( SP? ) myself for a Halloween prop in my yard. They were sold off fast, before I could snag one. It is sad to see SEARS fall, they were the ones who pretty much invented Mail Order back in 1886. I grabbed about ten of those old 1993 Spring / Summer Sears catalogs when we closed the Catalog Pick-Up center in 1994. They were Sealed in wrap and never opened. Sold each one on EBAY and did pretty good. I got from about $89.00 up to $158.00 each for them ! Amazing, people do collect this stuff.
What's a "Sears"? None near me anymore - and I live in their hometown of Chicago... I get emails with coupons for "your local Sears store", what local Sears store?
The sears at Whitemarsh mall near Baltimore is still running smooth, mostly because its connected to the inside so people walk through the inside top level and buy stuff before going in
The Sears in Hicksville here on Long Island which is one of the largest Sears locations and is a standalone will be closing this year as well, it was just announced. Really is a shame, and when I needed boots last year they actually were the only store to have a very good selection and decent prices, compared to Kohl's and Target. Honestly would rather see Target go out of business, they are overpriced on everything and have a lousy selection. Sears has come through for me numerous times when I've needed things. But consumers these days would rather go by how a store is styled than actual selection and prices. At least we'll have other Sears locations on Long Island for now in Sunrise Mall, Smith Haven Mall, Green Acres Mall, and the other stand alone location not too far away from me in Garden City. For folks in Ocean County (NJ) their only Sears location in already struggling Ocean County Mall in Toms River will be closing. I hope Sears somehow survives. The ones here on LI do get business though mostly only on weekends.
Some friends of mine deal in office furniture and store fixtures - they actually went to one of these Sears store closing clearance sales, and bought a number of the nicer desks, office chairs, file cabinets, etc to resell through their store. This particular Sears sold the stuff as a lot VERY cheap because no one else wanted it and the managers didn't want to dispose of it themselves.
We bought a full nice comforter set at that sears about a month ago for $19..it has seriously been emptied since then! It looked incredibly full in December
I love what you do man, especially sears stuff. I actually worked at a sears a few years ago, and our store got slated for liquidation, which I still worked at thru most of it. If you have any questions about what it was like from a workers perspective, I'd be more than happy to answer!
Sorry i am late with this, but i have a few questions, what department did you work in when it closed, and how was it like to see a place you worked at sell everything and close.
Back when I was a kid (can't believe I'm starting to say that), I remembered seeing the "everything for 99 cents" sign at the 99 Cents Store and took it literally to mean that EVERYTHING in the store is on sale for 99 cents, including the fixtures and shelves. Back then I would never thought of a retail store actually doing that and literally selling everything they have, let alone in a Sears. Shows how much retail has declined since then (pre-2007)...
The sears in my town closed a couple of years ago and since they owned their own building ended up selling it back to the mall. The mall ended up making a completely new wing full of new to market stores out of the old sears space.
im surprised my sears is still open. the mall it is attached to has been closed since 2009, and the only stores left are the anchors which is the sears and bon ton. Though the sears may still be open because they own space and if they were to close it, they probably wouldnt be able to milk any money from it.
That family in the publicity at the end, is so perfect it's a bit scary. Also she looks like the lady from Jurassic World 1 and Black Mirror's Nosedive. Hell, looks like the same character XD
Actually, those red buckets/Easter baskets at 1:20 were part of a give away promo from about three years ago. The damned things showed up with no explanation, as part of a members only promotion. They all sat around untouched for ages.
Aww, this makes me sad. I worked at Sears for a while - we closed in October 2017. We sold EVERYTHING - even the ugly, falling apart binders we found in the office.
The prices on those refrigerators didn't scream " liquidation" to me. Even worse they're FLOOR MODELS! Problem here is regardless of the bullshit unemployment numbers and Wall street rallies, there's a lot of people like me who haven't been able to afford to shop at Sears for years even at these so-called discounts. I don't even bother with these store closing sales. The merchandise is crap and the prices are no bargain for what you get. Like buying an open box item at Best Buy. Overpriced, used up, ripped off.
Digital Dynamic The UE numbers are rigged. They DON'T usually include those individuals that have stopped looking for a job after their benefits run out, or those that are part timers, and many of those people work several jobs too. Wall St isn't relevant at all to Main Street and hasn't been for many many decades now.
I'm working there doing the store closing advertising right now. It closes on the 28th. Our last advertising day is the 21st. We're moving to the KMart in Tolleson.
I was by there last night. Everything is now gone. The last retail has been moved upstairs. Some of the bed mattresses are still there, but all the retail space has been emptied, fittings and all. They probably won't even get to the 28th closing day. The rest of the merchandise will probably be gone by today. The store fittings all have sold tags on them.
I was at the last day of a local Kmart a few months ago and the "deals" weren't that great, even for the last day. Only a handful of things were 90% off as they advertise...for most everything else you were lucky to break 50%. Needless to say there was more stock left sitting than I had expected.
Just curious how many people were left working there. Also it'd be funny to go to a Sears Liquidation and you end up buying a floor tile instead of their merchandise.
+Abandoned PKB mostly my phone and sometimes hidden camera glasses. In this particular video though I only use my phone. I'm also very sneaky, I've gotten pretty good at this ☺
This looks just like when I went to the Macy's liquidation sale at my local mall, they were selling EVERYTHING. It was a bit depressing. The biggest thing was I was looking for kitchen appliances, but even at 50-75% off, it was STILL more expensive than walmart and target.
Sad to see a store that was the go to store die like this. I went to our local Sears a couple years ago at Christmas time and it was sad. They were liquidating and the store just looked terrible, a shell of it's former self.
These liquidation sales are all the same. Just like Circuit City. They raise the prices really high then make it 50% off or more. A lot of people are too dumb to realize they are really paying the retail price after the discount. Maybe you can get a good deal on something but doubtful. Great video!
They did that at the KMart that closed near me a couple months ago. Hiked the original prices on a bunch of items (like, ridiculously so) and then "marked them down". Very disappointing. Still managed to get a few actual deals.
My wife and I just had our Sears hometown store close due to several circumstances,lower profit margins on merchandise,renting is probably the biggest money lost with rent going up every year you need to own the building to make it.On line shopping from Amazon is another huge decline in Sears sales,amazing how they get tax breaks from Uncle Sam.
I went to Madison Wisconsin, the two sears there, west towne and east towne stores used to be single floor sears stores, but were converted into other stores, while the sears is 1/3 of the size, but remodeled. It weird seeing these stores and then the new ones, it like two different sears corporation. I can also send you the videos of that, since you are pretty far from Wisconsin and Chicago flagship store.
The last two sears Locations in my area of Eastern Canada just ended liquidation yesterday, they were some of the last open in Canada. All will be shuttered completely on the 31st.
I went in Sears yesterday near my home , it was sad to see the inside of the store , its not announced at this time , I would say by August it will be closed , they have less merchandise than the store you filmed , truly sad ....
Sears is a lesson in inconsistency. The one by is is considered to be a better performing one and is well stocked with multiple full time associates in some departments. Yet you can go to another and have no merchandise and no workers.
I should mention too that our Sears opened in the early 50s and was a stand alone store - our mall was built around the store, so it shows how popular it once was. It's kind of sad really.
Madison More No there just shutting down a bunch of stores like cutting of a finger to save the hand like sears is cutting store's in order to stay of float against the growing threat of online retailer's.And to save money and to help pay of mounting debt.
Years ago the Montgomery Ward in the town I lived in was a standalone store with two floors and had blue siding on the upper part of the building and the 1980s style signage. I thought it was awesome but it closed along with the rest of the stores when Montgomery Ward went out of business in 2003.
In Portland, Oregon, the old Montgomery Ward regional warehouse is still standing. It was renamed Montgomery ParK (literally, two letters on the sign were changed) and is now an office building. It would be interesting to know if something similar happened elsewhere.
Danny Bosarge I'm not really sure. I heard a few rumors that it was but we checked it out and there weren't any signs of it closing. It was pretty busy too.
I'm guessing they gave notice to the four stores that are still running (at least when I was there on 12/23). Don't know what would be behind breaking a lease in this situation.
Retail Archaeology - I see, well maybe check out the mall after the Dillard’s is closed, it sounds like it’ll close once the anchor stores are gone and the remaining smaller stores move out.
My grandmother shops at Sears in Puerto Rico still well she did before hurricane Maria and still goes to Sears optical. Yes before hurricane Maria in 2017 sears optical in Puerto Rico was still open and still operating. This is primarily because people my grandmother's age around 80 to 100 years old still go to Sears to get their glasses. And yes people in Puerto Rico live to be 100 or older. My grandmothers sister lived to be 103 years old before she died
charger master yes it is a very long time to go shopping at Sears and Kmart. I'm pretty sure my grandma sister spent plenty of time in Sears because it was in her shopping mall. The reason why she live that long was because she was very healthy and she lives in Puerto Rico where they never get sick. You don't hear of the flu you don't hear of the common cold you don't hear of what we get over here. There's no snow in Puerto Rico so no reason to be stuck inside getting sick.
Lucas Nencetti your right there's is a Sears in my city at Chicago which yeah we get these artic cold weather Atleast i would say once every year we just came out of a 2 week of negative below or below 10 degrees and I do already hope for spring to arrive we are seeing 50 degrees this week thankfully i do enjoy the outdoors and the sears we have in Chicago it seems to be the last in our location near buy i did go in there time to time in the summer me and my dad went to. A sears in Wisconsin that was closed already to inspect a trailer so that they can haul it of and that was really the last time i been at a Sears or around it and there are 3 Kmarts left in our city which i do go to Kmart quiet often though there is a target near by to but there was something special about Kmart to me that had me walking in there store.
i wonder how much the mannequins were going for?? The prices on ebay for those things are though the roof could have bought them and resold them for 4x the amount paid for. Specially the full body ones
One of my friends owns a local record store, he just updated a lot of his fixtures with fixtures he bought at a Sears that has gone out of business here.
My local sears has way more stuff. Its crazy. They had signs for high discounts but most of their stuff was overpriced . I suppose they will just sell the merchandise to a reseller when it closes.
Really enjoy your videos ! Sad to watch an iconic retailer go down the pan . In your opinion how has Sears come to this ? Obviously they took their eye of the ball but at what point did it stop being current
The end of an era in retail. Seeing Sears go out like this.
It's depressing
It's pretty sad.
Amazon could still save it.
Target would be a better acquisition for Amazon. Target has a better reputation and quite a few more locations than Sears. Sears should transition in to a REIT.
@@jeffha4057 An REIT? What's that?
I used to work for Sears at the call center in Round Rock, TX about 10 years ago. I would set up onsite repairs for appliances. Was my first full-time job out of high school and I got to see just how huge the company was based on all the products they sold and handled. Sad to see their demise. Really not sure why they didn't transition their massive catalog shipping infrastructure into online sales. Could've been Amazon before Amazon.
My friend worked for sears in NJ for years
They could have been a success at the ON-LINE thing. Hell, they invented Mail Order. I use to work for SEARS. In 1994, they brought in Arthur Martinez, a CEO with a record of pulling failing businesses out of bankruptcy. Martinez saved SAKS FIFTH AVENUE from Bankruptcy in the 1980's. The folks at the top at SEARS didn't want to work with Mr. Martinez. Giving up there Cushy Annual Bonuses was part of the strategy to Save Sears. They didn't budge, Mr. Martinez kind of gave up. SEARS could have been the BOMB in the ON-LINE Industry... They already had an infrastructure in place.
They were the Amazon before Amazon. Instead of online shopping, people ordered from Catalogs. If any retailer could have best adapted to Amazon online shopping and even beat them at it, it should have been Sears, because they knew how to do it.
Kevin Hitchcock For one thing, Sears signed 99-year lease agreements that weren’t and still aren’t that easy to get out. Execs back then would never even imagine something like “online shopping” would be a huge threat to store shopping.
I thought the same thing. Sears closed their catalog sales dept. a year before Amazon was founded. All they had to do was transition from catalog to online ordering and leave their fulfillment infrastructure in place. A major mistake, in my opinion.
Sad. My childhood is disappearing.
With so much stuff left at the end of the liquidation sale it is no wonder why Sears is failing. There is not much public interest in the chain anymore.
My hometown Sears closed before it was cool for Sears to close stores, and this video reminds me of that liquidation: Very disorganized and eerie at the same time, especially going through an empty store where I had so many memories. I want to say I was the only customer on the second floor when I went.
Andy Sorensen Same at the one at Lincoln Mall. The mall closed (including the Sears) for the most part; at first they kept the Carson’s, since it was still drawing a fair amount of customers. Then it went through the tubes, and that closed as well. The other mall by me is in trouble, I think, since the Sears went out of business, as did the Carson’s. One’s bad enough, but when you’re a mall owner/management and you lose TWO anchor stores within a year of one another, it has to be alarming.
I worked for Sears for 7 years. Always overstocked on the wrong items. That's where there's so much crap left over. And yeah, those displays were probably sitting in the back. We had like a 500 sq ft room just for old fixtures and brackets. Liquidators are savages though, they come through and wreck the stores.
Some of those fixtures would make great console/gaming shelving
SHADOSTRYKR i was thinking the same
I was thinking the same thing while I was walking around.
building a mega computer on one set of shelves is option also.
I bought several, they are awesome. I rebuilt my computer so it is now embedded in a table beside my desk instead of on my desk. Worked perfectly. I also scooped up a bunch of displays for the plexiglass panels and the riser screws. I'm about to have a field day.
as to the other fixtures, they were bought up by a contractor for another retailer. I did run a dumpster dive mission, and retrieved a shit ton of miscellaneous pliexiglass panels. Another pc build is in the works. I got all the hardware and fittings necessary for at least one more if not two more builds.
The Sears near me starts liquidation next week. They went from 2 floors to 1 floor a few years ago it was a mess for a year until they finally fixed up the 1 floor. Now that it is fixed up it is time to liquidate
wish they still made ads like the one at the end. Superb.
Yep, they had just started the MANY SIDES OF SEARS commercials at the time I started working for them. Sad to see this Retailer go, they were once an American Institution.
Not very often you see a Sears the last man standing in a mall. Nobody wants to shop at Sears even at 90% off. They have to hang a sing up that says "FREE" to empty the store?
Dennis W
Yes.
Maybe have an Eddie Lampert dunk tank.
Rosco P. Coltrane That is an awesome idea!
the problem with these liquidation sales like this are all sales final thats why the appliances are still there you dont wanna pay over a grand for something that if it doesn't work your basically screwed. and than you have to factor in the fact that even if is 90% off they jack the prices up before the liquidation than start with the "20-90% off your not saving anything.
my sears is still open and the mall its attached to closed in 2009.
Rosco P. Coltrane Every dollar made goes to a charity.
Thanks Eddie Lampert! Your leadership has been absolutely the best money could buy!
Sears isn’t the one selling the fixtures. It’s the liquidator. They did this with Kmart, RadioShack, Circuit City, etc. They have to throw it away otherwise.
The liquidator also tends to bring in merchandise from other stores and sell it as "discount." Also liquidator raise prices and add extra fees (on fixtures) before the "discount."
Mister Hat They did that at Gander Mountain last year. They brought in toys and other junk.
Who is the liquidator? I don't quite get that
@@Rogue849 Liquidator = A company hired to sell off the remaining stock in an effort to make the company the most money possible.
Come see the deader side of Sears.
"SEARSSsssss DAYSSSssss"...... Are Gone
Wesley Tremblay I'm sure it will all be gone by the end of the year.
This is what the liquidation sale at Sears at Westland Mall looked like. They were selling half-used cleaning supplies for $1-2 and dirty, stained chairs for $25.
They must have forgotten to slap a price tag on that "thank you for shopping at Sears" sign.
I remember shopping at westland mall in Hialeah FL as a kid. I went in their store about 2 weeks ago and was sad to see how small the store had gotten. Their was some space on the ground floor that had been sold to (I think it was Gap) and they opened up a small walled off botique in the sears store. But I always remembered it being very busy there in Hialeah. Sad to see it go.
While your browsing for a NEW refrigerator, think about opening up a SEARS credit card
I was there as a kid, when it first opened, and It was So busy back in 79, How things change do to the internet and online shopping, I also remember that there was a Sears outlet store on southern Rd in Tempe, That was a sign them that they were going down hill, trying to sqeeze ever dollar out of their merchandise even then! lol
Usually when stores go into liquidation, the sales are run by an outside company (such as Gordon Brothers Group, Hilco Merchant Resources, Tiger Capital, Great American Group, and others). Often the liquidation company buys the merchandise and resells it, usually at prices to make as much money as possible for creditors. Often the liquidator will raise prices up to the full selling price and then gradually lower them as time progresses. Plus sometimes the merchandise in liquidation sales is often different from what was in the store before, as sometimes before a store closing sale the chain will move some of its goods to other stores that are ongoing and that the liquidation companies often bring in outside merchandise into the liquidation sale that may have been left over from a previous liquidation sale or reconditioned goods they bought elsewhere.
The SEARS back home is still open, keep waiting for them to drop the axe...
2:25 You should have grabbed one of those credit card imprinters, those have to be getting hard to find now
I doubt you could find a valid embossed credit card these days or anyone under 40 that knows how to use an imprinter properly.
George V. Cohea I had to use one of those about 12 years ago, when I worked at Sports Authority one Christmas.
George V. Cohea I am under 40 and know how to work it. When I worked at Sears our system would go down from time to time and we reverted back to those for the day.
Ha shows how out of date Sears was. This would have been around 2010 maybe so very late to be still using those things.
The Sears at the Lloyd Center in Portland is closing this April. I wonder if they're also going to liquidate literally everything in the store. Maybe I'll try to film there before it closes and post a short video (probably not much narration, though)
Cascade We’re from Portland as well! Hi!
Our Sears (Canada) Store at our Mall just shut down yesterday, its last day of liquidation. Me and My Mom went to look for shoes on its 4th day, yet everything was disorganized. They had large brown boxes full of plastic "Sears" logo clothing hangers for FREE!
Sears Holdings= Slowest Liquidation Sale Ever and slowest Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
LOL
Chris Lemaster They’re In Chapter 11 right now, but that often leads to Chapter 7 (there ARE cases where a company can come out of Chapter 11, but it oftentimes leads to 7).
@@jenniferclark9842 Now with the Sears stores closed due to the Coronavirus, they will most likely file for Ch. 7 bankruptcy very soon. I imagine that they would probably skip the liquidation sale, keep the doors locked, and sell their merchandise off to some other companies.
This store is actually pretty big. Now that Metrocenter has closed its basement, the space is probably pretty similar. It's larger than the other stores like Superstition and Chandler. When Chandler opened in 2002, many of the salespeople in Brand Central came from Fiesta because the newer housing would mean good money. From Sue and Ray in refrigerators, to Eddie and Judy in cooking, Patsy in plumbing, and Renee and Pam in vacuums, they all migrated. Renee had the scary experience of an attempted kidnapping at Fiesta. She's a real fireball and faught them off since no one helped. The management mostly came from Superstition except Norm, who came from Fiesta. When he was loss prevention manager at Los Arcos, customers who thwarted in their shoplifting and scams would go so far as to try and run him over in the parking lot. Even in those days, us younger people (at the time) called Fiesta Mall, "The Ghetto Mall." Strangest interaction between me and an employee from Fiesta Mall was when one of their employees who was gay came and even waited for me to return from lunch to see if he had a shot. It took me saying hi for him to realize he didn't. I think he cjecked because I worked in draperies and helped him on the phone.
The Sears at My Local Mall is Closing. I'm going to check it out before It closes for good. I love your Dead mall Videos! Keep up the good work! 👍
1993 they advertised Come See The Softer Side of Sears. Now its the Deader Side of Sears. Last January a mall in Alexandria, Virginia closed, but the Sears remains open all by itself. The owners plan to tear the mall down and building a shopping center in its place.
I worked in a Sears a few years ago that ultimately ended up closing terminating my employment.
I can honestly say that it was depressing for everybody to see a store like that. Every single Sears that closes looks like this. I am not exaggerating. The displays are all likely from when the store opened. All of the fixtures are ancient and broken. The POS system barely runs. It's really quite sad. It is the end of an era but honestly I can say that Sears definitely deserves it.
A few other general complaints about Sears (my store) that screwed them :
They pay 7.25 to all of their entry level employees to this day in my city, that is nowhere near competitive for retail or fast food
Managers (in my store) were not overseen regularly, my store manager didn't exist if you had an issue. He would hide in his office and sit on his phone (true story) I came into his office multiple times after paging for him and caught him doing nothing on his phone
When I started working there before the store truly started to collapse, there were ACTUAL salespeople in the Appliances department. They ended up cutting the commission pay scale which severely decreased pay and they all left. Literally three dedicated, hardworking salesmen left within a few months and the store had to scramble and figure out what to do
The technology in the store never worked (wifi, POS, iPad POS they forced salespeople to use)
The store was dirty, carpet had never been professionally cleaned in the 40 years the store was open
I was going to mock Sears here, but we just bought a fridge from them that was about half its retail price. I lied, I'm going to.
Sears: You can get paid for napping
Sears: The only safe place on Black Friday
Sears: Not worth the effort to come up with a third joke
I sound mean, but eh.
Went to a Sears in Canada a few days before it closed. Most of what was left was XXL clothing, and blinds. So many blinds! You bought all the blinds they had you could have opened a blind store.
The Sears where I live is still open, but I don't go in it anymore. Sadly the nearest Kmart that I can think of is about 2 hours away. All the ones that were near me closed over the 5 years. As a kid in the '80s I never would have thought there would be a world without Kmart.
In a way it's so sad to see all of these stores closing but in another you understand how time changes everything and there's no escaping that. What was cool to do today will not be cool to do tomorrow and when companies don't adapt they fall behind. Of course the other big factor is that our economy is crap where the value of a dollar does not carry the weight that it use to when buying power is concerned.
Wow, this one brings back memories for me. When I first moved to Arizona in 1992, my first job was at SEARS. I worked at the one at LOS ARCOS MALL, Scottsdale. Across from the PAPAGO PLAZA which is on it's way out. SEARS hired me in May of 1992, I worked there right up till the end. The store closed in 1997. YES, this is how SEARS liquidates, EVERYTHING gets Sold Off !! The old desk you mentioned was like one in my office, I worked in Visual Display. Those were STEEL CASE, they were from the 1960's and built like Battle Tanks ! The Los Arcos SEARS opened in 1969 and originally had two floors. Sometime in the 1980's the store consolidated to the first floor. DISCOVER CARD Services took the second floor and ran a Customer Service Call Center up there. I attempted to buy one of the Manequins ( SP? ) myself for a Halloween prop in my yard. They were sold off fast, before I could snag one. It is sad to see SEARS fall, they were the ones who pretty much invented Mail Order back in 1886. I grabbed about ten of those old 1993 Spring / Summer Sears catalogs when we closed the Catalog Pick-Up center in 1994. They were Sealed in wrap and never opened. Sold each one on EBAY and did pretty good. I got from about $89.00 up to $158.00 each for them ! Amazing, people do collect this stuff.
You keep saying you're surprised by how much stuff is left. If people wanted to buy that junk, Sears wouldn't be closing.
What's a "Sears"? None near me anymore - and I live in their hometown of Chicago... I get emails with coupons for "your local Sears store", what local Sears store?
Greg Karris go to Vernon Hills, there's one at Westfield Hawthorn that still does well
It’s a department store, like Carson’s or Macy’s. They were often “anchor” stores in malls.
The sears at Whitemarsh mall near Baltimore is still running smooth, mostly because its connected to the inside so people walk through the inside top level and buy stuff before going in
YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP! LOOOOLOLOLOL
The Sears in Hicksville here on Long Island which is one of the largest Sears locations and is a standalone will be closing this year as well, it was just announced. Really is a shame, and when I needed boots last year they actually were the only store to have a very good selection and decent prices, compared to Kohl's and Target. Honestly would rather see Target go out of business, they are overpriced on everything and have a lousy selection. Sears has come through for me numerous times when I've needed things. But consumers these days would rather go by how a store is styled than actual selection and prices. At least we'll have other Sears locations on Long Island for now in Sunrise Mall, Smith Haven Mall, Green Acres Mall, and the other stand alone location not too far away from me in Garden City. For folks in Ocean County (NJ) their only Sears location in already struggling Ocean County Mall in Toms River will be closing. I hope Sears somehow survives. The ones here on LI do get business though mostly only on weekends.
Some friends of mine deal in office furniture and store fixtures - they actually went to one of these Sears store closing clearance sales, and bought a number of the nicer desks, office chairs, file cabinets, etc to resell through their store. This particular Sears sold the stuff as a lot VERY cheap because no one else wanted it and the managers didn't want to dispose of it themselves.
We bought a full nice comforter set at that sears about a month ago for $19..it has seriously been emptied since then! It looked incredibly full in December
I love what you do man, especially sears stuff. I actually worked at a sears a few years ago, and our store got slated for liquidation, which I still worked at thru most of it. If you have any questions about what it was like from a workers perspective, I'd be more than happy to answer!
Sorry i am late with this, but i have a few questions, what department did you work in when it closed, and how was it like to see a place you worked at sell everything and close.
Back when I was a kid (can't believe I'm starting to say that), I remembered seeing the "everything for 99 cents" sign at the 99 Cents Store and took it literally to mean that EVERYTHING in the store is on sale for 99 cents, including the fixtures and shelves. Back then I would never thought of a retail store actually doing that and literally selling everything they have, let alone in a Sears. Shows how much retail has declined since then (pre-2007)...
The sears in my town closed a couple of years ago and since they owned their own building ended up selling it back to the mall. The mall ended up making a completely new wing full of new to market stores out of the old sears space.
You are a true historian. This documentation you are doing is important work and I'm looking forward to your book. I hope I can buy it.
So glad you made this (I was asking for it on Twitter)
im surprised my sears is still open. the mall it is attached to has been closed since 2009, and the only stores left are the anchors which is the sears and bon ton. Though the sears may still be open because they own space and if they were to close it, they probably wouldnt be able to milk any money from it.
That family in the publicity at the end, is so perfect it's a bit scary. Also she looks like the lady from Jurassic World 1 and Black Mirror's Nosedive. Hell, looks like the same character XD
Great video! Have been looking forward to your next Sears video.
Once again! Great video to watch!
Actually, those red buckets/Easter baskets at 1:20 were part of a give away promo from about three years ago. The damned things showed up with no explanation, as part of a members only promotion. They all sat around untouched for ages.
Aww, this makes me sad. I worked at Sears for a while - we closed in October 2017. We sold EVERYTHING - even the ugly, falling apart binders we found in the office.
The prices on those refrigerators didn't scream " liquidation" to me. Even worse they're FLOOR MODELS! Problem here is regardless of the bullshit unemployment numbers and Wall street rallies, there's a lot of people like me who haven't been able to afford to shop at Sears for years even at these so-called discounts. I don't even bother with these store closing sales. The merchandise is crap and the prices are no bargain for what you get. Like buying an open box item at Best Buy. Overpriced, used up, ripped off.
Digital Dynamic
The UE numbers are rigged. They DON'T usually include those individuals that have stopped looking for a job after their benefits run out, or those that are part timers, and many of those people work several jobs too. Wall St isn't relevant at all to Main Street and hasn't been for many many decades now.
I'm working there doing the store closing advertising right now. It closes on the 28th. Our last advertising day is the 21st. We're moving to the KMart in Tolleson.
I remember when we sold that at Sears in Abilene, TX 10:09!
I was by there last night. Everything is now gone. The last retail has been moved upstairs. Some of the bed mattresses are still there, but all the retail space has been emptied, fittings and all. They probably won't even get to the 28th closing day. The rest of the merchandise will probably be gone by today. The store fittings all have sold tags on them.
I was at the last day of a local Kmart a few months ago and the "deals" weren't that great, even for the last day. Only a handful of things were 90% off as they advertise...for most everything else you were lucky to break 50%. Needless to say there was more stock left sitting than I had expected.
they will just move it to another store that's closing and try to sell it again
Just curious how many people were left working there.
Also it'd be funny to go to a Sears Liquidation and you end up buying a floor tile instead of their merchandise.
Chris Castillo there weren't a ton of employees. Like just enough to handle the amount of customers that were in the store. Thanks for watching!
when a compnay goes into liquidation that is done by an other comnpnay. that was hired by sears corpate.
all sears employess where already let go.
What kind of camera do you use/how do you not get kicked out for filming openly?
+Abandoned PKB mostly my phone and sometimes hidden camera glasses. In this particular video though I only use my phone. I'm also very sneaky, I've gotten pretty good at this ☺
Retail Archaeology seems like a Samsung Galaxy S7 camera because that's how mine looks like.
love your channel, was hoping someone would make a video on fiesta mall. sucks it went to shit because it was the best hangout spot when i was a teen
Kmart is closing in Portland.
Man that liquidation is disorganized.
This looks just like when I went to the Macy's liquidation sale at my local mall, they were selling EVERYTHING. It was a bit depressing. The biggest thing was I was looking for kitchen appliances, but even at 50-75% off, it was STILL more expensive than walmart and target.
Sad to see a store that was the go to store die like this. I went to our local Sears a couple years ago at Christmas time and it was sad. They were liquidating and the store just looked terrible, a shell of it's former self.
These liquidation sales are all the same. Just like Circuit City. They raise the prices really high then make it 50% off or more. A lot of people are too dumb to realize they are really paying the retail price after the discount. Maybe you can get a good deal on something but doubtful. Great video!
They did that at the KMart that closed near me a couple months ago. Hiked the original prices on a bunch of items (like, ridiculously so) and then "marked them down". Very disappointing. Still managed to get a few actual deals.
My wife and I just had our Sears hometown store close due to several circumstances,lower profit margins on merchandise,renting is probably the biggest money lost with rent going up every year you need to own the building to make it.On line shopping from Amazon is another huge decline in Sears sales,amazing how they get tax breaks from Uncle Sam.
Our Sears looks just like this one, too. Everything is spread out and looks like they pulled everything out of the back storage.
I went to Madison Wisconsin, the two sears there, west towne and east towne stores used to be single floor sears stores, but were converted into other stores, while the sears is 1/3 of the size, but remodeled. It weird seeing these stores and then the new ones, it like two different sears corporation. I can also send you the videos of that, since you are pretty far from Wisconsin and Chicago flagship store.
I can remember playing some facemaker game in there when I was a child in the very early 80's. Not sure if I've been back since..
this is what a liquidation sale looks like. Generally everything ends up selling, as prices continue to be marked down until it all moves.
The gate looking out to the darkened mall was pretty creepy….have you been in that mall filming from the other side?
The last two sears Locations in my area of Eastern Canada just ended liquidation yesterday, they were some of the last open in Canada. All will be shuttered completely on the 31st.
I Woulda Loved to buy some of the displays. Some seemed pretty cool.
Thanks for another great video!
The one nearest me here in Maine got the ax just recently. It will be closing in April. Bets are the JCP in the same Mall is next.
I went in Sears yesterday near my home , it was sad to see the inside of the store , its not announced at this time , I would say by August it will be closed , they have less merchandise than the store you filmed , truly sad ....
My grandpa used to shop at RadioShack, True value, and sears, only sears is left in our town.
Sears is a lesson in inconsistency. The one by is is considered to be a better performing one and is well stocked with multiple full time associates in some departments. Yet you can go to another and have no merchandise and no workers.
Crazy thing there is still a Sears store open in Shoreline WA
It's so sad I'm 49 and grew up at Sears it was a powerhouse in my time. Very sad
Are all the Sears stores in the US closing this month? Most of the Canadian ones are, including the one where I live.
I should mention too that our Sears opened in the early 50s and was a stand alone store - our mall was built around the store, so it shows how popular it once was. It's kind of sad really.
Madison More No there just shutting down a bunch of stores like cutting of a finger to save the hand like sears is cutting store's in order to stay of float against the growing threat of online retailer's.And to save money and to help pay of mounting debt.
Years ago the Montgomery Ward in the town I lived in was a standalone store with two floors and had blue siding on the upper part of the building and the 1980s style signage. I thought it was awesome but it closed along with the rest of the stores when Montgomery Ward went out of business in 2003.
In Portland, Oregon, the old Montgomery Ward regional warehouse is still standing. It was renamed Montgomery ParK (literally, two letters on the sign were changed) and is now an office building. It would be interesting to know if something similar happened elsewhere.
Madison More All the Sears in Canada are dead. Sears Canada is dead.
Just for the record; keep up the good work.
Is Dillard’s closing
Danny Bosarge I'm not really sure. I heard a few rumors that it was but we checked it out and there weren't any signs of it closing. It was pretty busy too.
the sears at metrocenter mall in Phoenix Arizona announced that it's closing
When does this store close? When does the mall close?
+skyvator I asked around a lot while I was there. The only thing anybody would tell me is sometime in January for both the mall and Sears.
I'm guessing they gave notice to the four stores that are still running (at least when I was there on 12/23). Don't know what would be behind breaking a lease in this situation.
Will you be filming the last day of Fiesta mall before it’s closed for good?
+Marth I thought about maybe trying to do a live stream, but I'm having a really hard time tacking down and actual close your day.
Retail Archaeology - I see, well maybe check out the mall after the Dillard’s is closed, it sounds like it’ll close once the anchor stores are gone and the remaining smaller stores move out.
Is anything still open in the mall
:56 nice compressor....I wonder if it’s on sale? Sometimes they don’t discount big stuff like that
I think sears closes on January 28 but all man my sears is busy and not closing
“Sears Liquidation sale.” At the one I went to, none of the items were priced to sell. Same with the Blockbuster store closing I went to.
My grandmother shops at Sears in Puerto Rico still well she did before hurricane Maria and still goes to Sears optical. Yes before hurricane Maria in 2017 sears optical in Puerto Rico was still open and still operating. This is primarily because people my grandmother's age around 80 to 100 years old still go to Sears to get their glasses. And yes people in Puerto Rico live to be 100 or older. My grandmothers sister lived to be 103 years old before she died
Lucas Nencetti wow 103 that's quite a long life span for a person.
charger master yes it is a very long time to go shopping at Sears and Kmart. I'm pretty sure my grandma sister spent plenty of time in Sears because it was in her shopping mall. The reason why she live that long was because she was very healthy and she lives in Puerto Rico where they never get sick. You don't hear of the flu you don't hear of the common cold you don't hear of what we get over here. There's no snow in Puerto Rico so no reason to be stuck inside getting sick.
Lucas Nencetti your right there's is a Sears in my city at Chicago which yeah we get these artic cold weather Atleast i would say once every year we just came out of a 2 week of negative below or below 10 degrees and I do already hope for spring to arrive we are seeing 50 degrees this week thankfully i do enjoy the outdoors and the sears we have in Chicago it seems to be the last in our location near buy i did go in there time to time in the summer me and my dad went to. A sears in Wisconsin that was closed already to inspect a trailer so that they can haul it of and that was really the last time i been at a Sears or around it and there are 3 Kmarts left in our city which i do go to Kmart quiet often though there is a target near by to but there was something special about Kmart to me that had me walking in there store.
We got a Sears and a Kmart here in Key West
+Lucas Nencetti That's nice that they're healthy, now how about getting a functional economy running?
Show the dillards clearance center next time? That would be great!
I bet Sears will soon end up like Montgomery Ward, they no way to it, they will declare bankruptcy in December.
Joseph Tafur
Unlike Montgomery Ward, Sears Holdings might not come back as an online retailer.
Joseph Tafur I agree with you, I don't see Sears or Kmart making it into 2019.
Joseph Tafur Montgomery ward is still in business as a catalog store got one in the mail a few months ago.
Montgomery ward is not the same company as the stores, Fingerhut or someone is operating under that name .. they bought it in BK court
I think that the whole company will be gone by june 2018
NascarFan1795 maybe by the time the 2020s comes.
NascarFan1795 this is just sad bro child hood memory being erase and what r they building a freaking medical college what a joke. College is scam
It’s July now
You were only off by four months. That's pretty good.
Not quite. They're mostly gone now though.
Those display cases are a good buy. These would be perfect for a Flea Market indoor. I brought ones rougher than these and paid 25.00 for them.
Is this the mall across the street from six flags great adventure?
Lots of good shelves for hoarders/collectors.
i wonder how much the mannequins were going for?? The prices on ebay for those things are though the roof could have bought them and resold them for 4x the amount paid for. Specially the full body ones
What about the Dillard’s location
How Many Floors Was This Store
One of my friends owns a local record store, he just updated a lot of his fixtures with fixtures he bought at a Sears that has gone out of business here.
We have both Sears and Kmart in Frederick Maryland.
My local sears has way more stuff. Its crazy. They had signs for high discounts but most of their stuff was overpriced . I suppose they will just sell the merchandise to a reseller when it closes.
Really enjoy your videos ! Sad to watch an iconic retailer go down the pan . In your opinion how has Sears come to this ? Obviously they took their eye of the ball but at what point did it stop being current