Do you think Sears will pull off a Chapter 11 bankruptcy or are they headed for Chapter 7 and liquidation? Also, don't forget Siesta Mall and Retail Archaeology apparel and merchandise are now available: teespring.com/stores/retail-archaeology
That kinda hurts my heart. I was born in '70, and from '75 until about '80, the Sears Wish Book was so much fun to look through, at the toys and then-new electronics...
I worked at a Sears very briefly back in 2016. One thing that struck me was when we were first hired they gave us a background on the company, and one of the things they mentioned was how many millions of dollars more the company had spent on newspaper ads in 2015, as opposed to online ads. It was like the company was run by people who just didn't understand how to change with the times at all. They desperately wanted to modernize, but by that point they were too broke to do so and seemed to spend all their money on the wrong endeavors.
NoDeathforDinner by giving up on the catalog division they really screwed up. They could have easily transitioned to online sales and given Amazon a run for their money...it was like they refused embrace technology and the future in every way.
Don't worry! Those retired employees will lose their pensions but, the head CEO will walk away with millions. This is mismanagement that will effect not only Sears but, Kmart as well.
Same thing happened when I worked at JC Penney. New CEO Ron Johnson (worked wonders for Apple stores) came in and did away with all coupons and tried something called "fair deal" pricing. Basically the price of an item with the coupon applied. Customers revolted because they wanted their coupons. I saw my store go from packed on weekends and weeknights to a ghost town in less than a month. They got rid of him eventually but, had to pay his contract out (couple of million) PLUS the contracts of a team he brought with him.
JCPenney is not in great shape either, and there's only so much they'll be able to take from the end of Sears and KMart. Unlike Sears though, they still have at least the coming Christmas season to pull out of the downward spiral. If they don't, however, I foresee them as the next major chain to fall - probably sometime in 2019.
Eddie Lampert ought to be investigated. How is the way he ran this company not criminal? Reminds me of that scene in Goodfellas where they deliver the goods to the front of the bar and walk it out the back. Criminal.
Dennis W Exactly. He KNOWS EXACTLY what he's been doing the entire time he's been at the helm of the company. The FEDs and SEC need to throughly investigate his activities.
That company was due to die like all brick and mortar retailers. He had zero to do with it. As I said on other threads this was about sears missing the online bandwagon in the 90’s that other retailers understood. Even Walmart is now pushing online and delivery, has bought jet and owns VuDu streaming. They saw this and made themselves a point of pickup instead. I can order my groceries from the app and have them plop it in my truck. Win/win. Amazon can send me stuff from same day to 2 days with no delivery cost. These are reasons sears is dead as anyone under 55 shops online. Lol. Sears built as a catalog mail order then evolved into stores but failed to see the catalog and mail was actually the correct way. Boomer generation enjoyed malls but today they are downsizing and dying not shopping. The core shoppers 55 down to 21 find opening amazon app easier than driving to a store. Can’t blame Eddie for that failure. The ship sailed by time he came in. Lack of vision killed sears. Being in a huge and expensive mall anchor is a bad place to be. Malls are dead! Mall is online today.
I'd be interested in if Dark Phantom also understands the shell game Amazon has been running for decades. They keep hyping investors on 'market share' and expansion while their actual business model isn't making them money. It is almost like a pyramid scheme except in the fact that they are burying competitors while they kick the can of profitability down the road. I think when the check comes due unless Amazon can maintain that market share they are going to be in a very bad place. You also have the fact that only a moron buys certain things online. Appliances and furniture instantly come to mind, clothing for the most part as well. Food items are a grey area - entitled trash orders their produce online and then bitches that it isn't precisely the quality they want but are too fat, lazy and stupid to get off their sorry asses and go inside to find that mythical perfect bag of grapes they demand. Rational people order the dry goods and canned stuff, then go inside to get the fresh foods.
Any mall that has Sears as an anchor may need to repurpose the entire site. Housing is extremely short- and if that's not possible, a "Fulfilment Center" may be the only option. Bulldozer hire will see an upturn in the near future.
Problem is there aren't many brands wanting mall spaces as large as a Sears store. Meaning the space requires funds to modify the space either with a total tear down or at the very least splitting the two levels. Plus at many many malls Sears owns the building and land it sits on At a few malls like adventura in Florida the store is being redeveloped by the Sears property company
@jwathas so very true, the few malls thriving have tried to turn themselves into lifestyle centers with entertainment and restaurants gyms, etc Rather than just a bunch of stores
@jwathas churches in malls aren't usually a very good indication of a malls health, adding a church is usually just an attemp to fill vacant space but they don't pay nearly the same rent as other business usually, same goes for when libraries get added.
Hey. Your channel was recommended to me. And I just want to thank you. So many RUclipsrs now overedit their videos where they decide to edit out every single pause in between sentences. This is a problem because some people can't "digest" the information when this natural pause is removed. But you don't do that. I know, this is really random but I'm committed to getting the word out and thank you for not overediting.
It's called "jump cutting" and is used mostly by ADHD millennials and gen z-ers. And yes, is incredibly annoying. If they don't have some kind of stimulus every second, their attention drifts and they get bored and antsy.
Daleylife that’s probably because the ones you’re watching don’t do it in more than one comprehensible take. this is obviously a voice over so of course he wouldn’t be abnormally pausing
@@gemini4525 Well, RUclipsrs could do what any actor does and have a script or outline and spend some time rehearsing what they're going to say so they don't need to use the jump cut to string a sentence together. It's ridiculous.
We had two Sears stores in the area. They closed one earlier this summer which was in a very busy mall and still looked like it got decent business. They kept the one in an outdoor retail area that hasn't been updated since it was Broadway. I remember in the 90s Sears was like a one stop shop. You could buy clothes, shoes, a lawnmower, fake Christmas tree and a new TV and not have to leave the store. Now, you could throw a bowling ball down the main walkways of a store and not hit anyone.
Customer service that's one of the factors same thing with Macy's I go in there half the time you can't get anyone to help you I go in there just to pay a bill and I go straight to the women's shoe department that's where most of all the employees are at
Yes. I just spilled my guts a little on the other vid about the Arizona store. I think Sears is done, folks. They shut down all their Canadian stores last year. My guess is they'll be shutting down most or all of what's left of their American stores within the next 2 years.
There is no way they will make it through next year. Out of the three locations near me, one has closed down to become a big arcade, one is nearly abandoned and no longer getting new stock, and one that is still open and running relatively normally, as far as I know.
I'm sorry, but your comment doesn't make much sense. My comment is a general statement, coming and going covers it all. I know how long Sears has been around, in all my 51 years in Phoenix I've seen hundreds of stores come and go. Sears was one of the few that stood the test of time. But not for much longer.
Sears lasted as long as it did because it was the Wal-Mart/Amazon of the WWII and early-baby boomer generation. However, in retail these two generations are dead. Late-baby boomers and Gen-X gravitated toward discount stores such as K-Mart/Wal-Mart and Millenials went to Amazon. Gen-Z will likely continue the trend with order online and pickup at store groceries.
You sharing your story about you and your family used to shop at that Sears, me and my family we used shop at a Sears 20mins from my house back in the day. My family used to buy appliances, vacuums, car battery and I think tools. Looking back at that Sear that me and my family used to go to they remodel and made it into a Sear Appliance Repair center. Next to it they build a DSW and Nordstrom Rack. Crazy how it all changed. Let's see what happen with Sears now.
Cheap money helped develop too much square feet of retail space. What is scary is all the retirement funds tied to retail centers to deliver a return for pensions. I think it's bigger than 2007 housing bubble.
You just can't get that uniquely moldy smell anywhere else. I don't know what material they used in every Sears, but somehow they all have the same dingy smell.
Thing about big box stores (Sam's) with a built in auto center and it's probably an exception and not the rule is that they only smell of petroleum byproducts near that area, not the whole store...the rest of it smells like a warehouse full of stuff.
IMHO: This was Fast Eddie's plan all along, setting himself up as a principal creditor in order to be in a position to acquire Sears' most valuable assets at rock-bottom prices after a bankruptcy distribution of assets.
@Red Shift As well as Home Improvement. I work for that division and the section of the company made 16 million in profit. So him getting (potentially) Home Improvement, Kenmore, PartsDirect for 400 million is absurdly cheap. He'll make his money back in no time
So this Sears was built in the 1990's, and I bet it was never upgraded. Sears Holdings has been criminal in their lack of attention to their physical plants at both Sears and Kmart. The two words that best describe those stores are "Threadbare and Shabby." The past 20 years has been the slowest and longest "Going out of Business" sale ever.
I worked at a Sears in the 1990's and the interior of this store in the video is essentially identical to my old store in the 90s. And I should point out that the store I worked at was originally opened in the mid 1970's; in 1993, there was a major interior renovation on both floors to bring it up to date (for that time); new escalators and elevators were installed among other renovations. I'd agree with you that this store in the video was never upgraded since it opened. Ironically, that store I worked at is now one of those slated for closure by the end of November 2018 - that was announced a couple of months back.
rlm6213 i agree. I worked at one in Tulsa from 90-95 and they still had the same cash registers and pallets carts they had back then. I have done some walk throughs of the old store and I’ll miss it but the customer service has went downhill in recent years.
I am an employee and we found out today that our store is closing. I'm dreading the liquidation process. It's a sad situation, but it didn't come as a surprise.
R5: The CEO and upper management will escape with "golden parachutes", while the employees "go down with the Titanic". This is America now - employees don't mean SQUAT to corporations. A book called "The Social Contract" predicted this would happen decades ago.
No severance because I'm part time. But I'm going to stay until the end because my hours have already increased. Wouldn't make sense to look for another job right now, when most job openings would be seasonal. I'm seriously dreading the whole process though.
I noticed that Eddie was blaming the Sears retirees for the financial problems of the company by claiming that the money he had tocontribute to the fund could have been used to improve the store. So much for valuing the employees who once worked to improve Sears.
Eddie Lampert is living proof that capitalism can go to hell and die. He and his all belong in jail for their corporate greed. Seize his assets and lash him to a cross.
@Raymond Fleming, Eddie Lampert never understood the value of the retail sales associate. He thought he could do better using the internet to sell merchandise and now everyone can see that he was wrong. The true value of Sears was in the Sears people who built Sears into the powerhouse it once was and Eddie Lampert never understood that and never cared about the people!
AirCooledMan2006 Capitalism forever. Eddie Lampert will never have another CEO or high ranking position in any business ever again after the failure of Sears.
If what you said is true, he shouldn't have had Sears Holdings buying its own stock at $100 a share, but then again he didn't think that maintenance and updating stores wasn't important.
I agree. I was disgusted that he would dare blame the retirees who EARNED their right to a pension after working for decades for Sears. These retirees were the ones generating sales for Sears, NOT stripping the company to profit off the assets.
I worked in sears auto for almost 6 years. From 2009-2015, I've watched the store go from being profitable with lots of customers and employees to a company that completely failed. Eddie lampart is a crook, he ruined sears and he will sell everything off and get richer.
i remember sears always smelled like fresh popcorn. anybody else remember stores like sears and jc penney having candy counters? i went through a lot of chocolate covered raisins as a kid shopping with my mom and aunt
I wonder how many of those people (assuming they aren't simply a bunch of bit actors) are still working for them today, or are pensioners now VERY worried about what's going to happen to their pensions...
Nope....not at all. Just employees playing on the team. Lots of companies have the same things and some have Choirs too. Nothing malevolent there. Scientology is most certainly a cult though.
I live in Brazil and Sears had stores here since (i believe) the late 1940s and closed the last one in the mid 80s. I remember visiting the stores as a kid with my family and how many products carried the Sears brand back then, from tools to appliances and even clothing (I had Sears polo shirts and socks, that I remember). This is an experience kids nowadays won't have: to shop with the family, Christmas shopping and the decorated stores, the smells and the lights. Sad.
The shoe section of Sears was always old and outdated in terms of layout. I loved it! It was always easy to find shoes I wanted to get. Lots of other stores insist on a gallery. No! I don't want that! I want rows and rows of shoes, and the shoes were often laid out really well. The only department store that comes close: Kohls. After a while though, I realized something. "Why do I want to buy this here?" There were items you could buy elsewhere, often for cheaper. Their kitchen items were cheaper and a higher quality at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. You can buy electronics at Best Buy for cheaper. Home improvement stores stole away the appliances. Sears extended warranty? Not worth it. Sears had its tools... for a while. Then, they dropped in quality, which led people to say "don't buy Craftsman anymore". I miss having Sears for my shoes, though. However, I do understand why they are having problems. The whole place felt outdated, even compared to Walmart. Sears is middle-class-ish, so they should look better than Walmart
Sears used to be the go to department store for anything you wanted except groceries. I bought many Craftsman tools and and garden supplies there. The Sears here is a ghost town. When I drive by, there are maybe a half a dozen cars it the huge parking lot. They probably won't be around for Christmas 2019.
Yeah it was one of the stores to go to for sure. My late father, and late stepfather both bought plenty of Craftman tools there over the years, many of which I still own, and use to this day, and for me Craftman tools going forward just won't be the same. Also as they break, and wear out I've been replacing them with Stanley tools, along with some basic Walmart specials & harbor freight stuff for things like hammers, mallets, crowbars, etc.. where cheap, and cheerful is good enough, as I'm only fixing, and working on stuff around my home.
One of mine fully closed about 2 years ago now, and turned into a Sears Hometown store (mostly appliance repair) down the road, and other one is struggling to stay open even in a mall that's doing decent business. Far as clothes we did some of that growing up when they had sales, but my father being a welder, and heavy equipment mechanic by trade would get a lot of his boots from sears, as they where the only place he could walk into, and pick a pair of Wolverines off the shelf that fit him right, and not have to special order them.
Commodorefan64 harbor freights tools have increased in quality considerably in the past few years. It’s much better than the craftsman stuff is today. The old craftsman stuff was much better than it is now, the professional line is better but limited. I like that harbor freight generally has several variations of each thing, from the super cheap “only gonna need it once or twice” to the more expensive “almost professional” grade stuff and most hand tools there I believe have a lifetime warranty but I’m not sure how that works.
Don't hold your breath on those liquidation clearances. It took weeks for Sears Canada to have any decent bargains, and by the time that happened the store was picked clean. On the bright side, I bought a mannequin torso. We still use it to display t-shirts at comic conventions.
I find it funny that your video made it to my suggestions. I used to work for a Sears. The "life time warrantys" don't mean anything even now. There is so much I could tell you. But the truth is, it IS bad management that ruined the once great company. The employees are the ones that will be effed in the end. The higher ups will just continue on, not a care in the world. It's a damn shame.
My first job at 16 was at a Sears when I was in high school. It was at the now abandoned South Town Mall in Ft. Wayne, IN. It was one of the last anchor stores at that mall for the longest time until it too was closed down. Have a lot of fond memories of my experiences there.
In Alexandria, Virginia, their is a Sears still opened connected to a dead, closed mall. I don't think this Sears gets many shoppers. Haven't been their in years. Millenials don't shop at Sears
The Sears we used to shop at recently closed at Southland Shopping Center in Middleburg Heights Ohio. Sears also had DeanWitter Caldwell Banker.and the Discover Card. Not to mention the Dental and Optical Department.
actually if you have money to risk, I'd buy Sears shortly after the probable default notice on Monday. Let it fall to about 15-17 cents a share then grab whatever you can afford to risk. Day traders feed on stocks like this and can actually push it back up to 33-37 cents a share. But remember, this is about the same as playing black on the roulette wheel.
3 for a dollar sale. They been below a dollar all month and a stock is typically delisted with 30 days below a buck. I say typically as some exceptions have happened.
Bittersweet ending for me. I remember always going there as a little kid and my dad buying me a Charmander shirt that I wore in Kindergarten. Now the location just closed a couple months ago. Lots of memories in that store. RIP Sears I love you 😭😭😭
I don't own a car any more but when I did I had nothing but good experiences with the Sears auto center, they replaced my unreliable car battery with a Sears Die Hard battery and that was the best investment I ever made for my car, that battery always got my old clunker car started in the harshest Northeast winters when the temperature was below zero.
i'm surprised they can get the "as seen on TV" merchandise. Who in there right mind would send stuff to Sears to sell. Makes me think of a local Mom and Pop grocery store near that closed last year. It got to the point that the supply truck would ask how much cash they had and showed them what they could get for the shelves.
Sad times as so many memories of my childhood in the early 80's revolved around Sears. I really can't see what at this point could really turn things around. It's actually amazing they've lasted this long and they've certainly tried to keep going despite its grim outlook, but it just seems the writing has been on the wall for a few years now. These stores are a shell of its former greatness back when it was king of stores for just about anything a family needed and I can definitely attest to that. I'm sorry to see what looks to be its sad ending.
I can't believe a store that OWNED catalogue shopping for so many years couldn't have easily made the transition into online shopping. You were already able to do it so I need to know how in the hell did they fuck that up?! And who else remembers the excitement of getting that wish book. It had that smell and you couldn't wait to start circling! That was the best!
Last year when the oven in our house went out, my parents went shopping for one. I said "don't go to Sears" explaining that they might not be around for long. When I got home I saw a brand new oven and ask where they got it from. They said "Sears!" I face palmed . . . There's even a "lifetime warranty" we'll see how long that lasts.
a few years back my parents had their MonkeyWards (what we always called Montgomery Wards) chest freezer finally die on them they had bought in the mid 90's, so I went over to their house, and helped them look up prices online, and my mother said yeah lets call K-Mart, and get that Kenmore they have on sale for cheap, and I warned them because both Sears, and K-Mart where shaky ground, but I went with them anyways, and helped one of the store employees load it on the truck, and the thing still works for now, but like the MonkeyWard no one will be around when i does die, to claim the warranty, and I'll be stuck helping my mother look for another one. sigh!
I have a Kenmore oven, purchased in 2007. Stock was trading at 180.00 a share when I purchased the unit. Different times. Would I buy a new oven from Sears? Not likely.
So what's next? After Sears Kmart and others die, is Walmart or Target going to start a toy/tool branch? Is Amazon going to start opening physical stores? Or will we really have to buy everything online and hope it's what we eanted... How will we "try before we buy" or at least see the physical product.
@@jjsjeffjjsjeff So does Harbor Freight. There are plenty of tools places. Toy stores not so much, but they're not great since their prices are always ridiculous.
Weird, well managed stores that have what you need (Home Depot, Target) aren't experiencing this... I wonder what the difference could be? Also, to quote literally anyone with business sense. "YOU'RE LIVING IN THE PAST OLD MAN!"
If Sears has $25 million to give bonuses to executives after closing over 100 stores, why is the company telling thousands of laid off employees they don't have the money to pay their severance?
@@gordontaylor2815 Electrolux has contracts with Frigidaire as well. Monday we we're scheduled to do Kenmore stoves all day, but Sears Mysteriously called Friday and said don't make Kenmore stoves. Electrolux is fine
In the late 1990s, I had trouble with the tires I’d recently bought and they refused to honor my roadhandler warranty. They also acted really nasty toward me after I demanded they honor it. Because of that and several other nasty salespeople, I stopped shopping there until around 2010. I bought a kenmore dryer in 2010 and the delivery/install guys gave me a bunch of trouble with a bunch of stupid excuses why they couldn’t install it. When I told them to just take the damn thing back and I’ll get a refund that they changed their tune and went ahead and installed my new dryer. Little did I realize the back of the dryer had a huge dent in it until I moved in 2017. I encountered this lousy attitude at their stores in New Jersey; Knoxville, TN; Oak Ridge, TN; Dallas, TX and St. Louis, MO. That’s why I stopped shopping at Sears.
Watching this is a trip, this was the same year I quit working for Sears and all of the fixtures and products bring me so much nostalgia to look at. It's funny you can always look into a closed store and tell if it was a Sears.
By the way the find it centers are always broken because they are in a tiny enclosure and never dusted out. They overheat and shut down, and the managers don't know where the key is 99% of the time.
It really is crazy to think about how many difficult periods of the US economy Sears was able to survive during those years. The Great Depression of the early 20th century comes to mind. It is sad to see the company become a shadow of its former self.
I live in the Tampa bay area, the two Sears stores I frequent in Countryside mall in Clearwater and at Citrus Park mall in Tampa are both quite busy, though it has been a few months since I went in to one of them, it was nice to shop freely without feeling crowded. Sad to see Sears so lonely, I too grew up with Sears and Kmart , my heart breaks to see part of my childhood disappear.
I am sad to see this. I will miss Sears. I have memories of my mom taking us kids to Sears to shop. Many appliances came from them. They were our go to for clothes, toys, eyeglasses, even some candy. I remember they had a candy shop with chocolates similar to what you would find at Fannie Mae. Sad to see them go, but they have been dying a slow death for quite some time.
I remember, as a small child, going with my parents to the Sears in Galveston, TX. The first thing that struck you was the smell of fresh popcorn coming from the center of the first floor. I didn't care much for the popcorn, but they sold a certain candy that I loved. I don't remember the name, but 60 years later, I still remember its taste. I would eat it on our way home back to Texas City. That Sears has been gone for maybe 20 years, now. Building is still there.
It was just announced that they're working out a deal to stay open through Christmas. Some stores will close immediately, and they'll have a little time to try and find a buyer. More than likely, they'll be gone by the new year.
Sears won't even survive to Halloween. And all that Christmas crap shown here? Kick that fucking shit to the curb! It's OCTOBER! WAIT YOUR FUCKING TURN, CHRISTMAS! What happened to waiting until after Thanksgiving? Let the other holidays have their turns first! FUCK CHRISTMAS! Hell, I'm actually thinking of quitting Christmas altogether because of the stores breaking that crap out so early! It's capitalism gone too far! I'll just order Chinese food and celebrate Chairman Mao Zedong's birthday instead. I'll kick the Christmas traditions of my parents and grandparents to the curb. Fuck all this tradition and heritage bullshit! It's nothing but dead people's baggage; quit carrying it! Did YOU make it up? NO? It was PASSED to you? Well, pass it the fuck back!
I used to get my school clothes at our Sears, they actually had a building at one time in my city, then they moved to the mall once that got built. I have so many memories in that original store. Its a farmers market store now, but I will always remember sears being in there.
Kmart brand might be bought, I can see it coming back in a limited capacity. Did you hear about that Sears concept store in Illinois that opened recently, 60k sq feet had actual customers at it. Too little too late.
Always feel bad for the employees and admire them continuing to go through the motions day to day with no certainty whether or not they will soon be out of work.
Boomboxes, no wonder they are going under, its not 1993 anymore and $2 shop Pony ripoffs. I love your videos and the Christmas display is totally ghetto and cheep. But on the positive side, what a tidy and well stacked store. It is obvious like you said the employees are saints and getting shafted by incompetent executives.
I'm old enough to remember Montgomery Wards, a store that was much like Sears. Now but a memory. We sometimes sit around and talk about the number of retail stores that "used to be" on Main Street, USA.
Don’t count of that good of deals. Usually the most common liquidators (Hilco, Tiger, Hudson, Gordon Brothers, Great American, et al), that retailers hire usually raise prices up to the full non-sale selling price and then gradually lower them as time progresses and inventory shrinks. Sometimes they even bring in outside merchandise as well. Always compare prices elsewhere before buying at a liquidation sale.
I'd so go to a dying Sears just to buy any old PCs they have. I don't want the parts inside, though. I'd love to gut the cases and turn them into sleeper rigs for gaming. Something that looks like an old PC outside but inside, it has parts that can run Fallout 4/76 on max settings. If I could get an old VGA monitor for older games that don't display properly on modern monitors, better; I'd just have to use a HDMI-to-VGA adapter. The store can pull out the hard drive and wipe whatever sensitive information is on there if they need, and from there they could let me have the PC and do whatever I want with it. I'm not interested in the contents of the computer itself, just the case. If it's an old PC with a floppy drive, though, I might rig that drive to work as a SD card reader with floppy disk cases working as caddies.
you just wonder why all the department store go into bankrupty in USA, the only word american people have in mouth is reduction and coupons. that show how rich can be USA :))))
I swear---I haven't seen a Seiko product in a thousand years! Yeah, looking back at Sears recently has brought back some intense childhood memories for me. Today's young adults and youth will never understand what Sears Roebuck and Company meant to those of us who remember their heyday. Thank you for this look back.
I'm a bit torn between blaming upper management or simply a shift in consumer purchasing. People today buy things online. When they don't then they go to Walmart or Costco. All retail is hurting, Sears just happens to be larger, and thus needs more shoppers to stay afloat.
So true, plus if we see something in the store we don't have the same urgency that we must buy it that day. We go home think about it, look at reviews and look online to see who has the best price.
sandman9601 While true something to note that is not every store has the item people want or need, and nobody wants to waste their time and gas either. Physical retailers and online shopping can go hand in hand together well, but as you notice most retailers didn't bother until it's too late. Just a usual case of poor business decisions.
I'm surprised they lasted this long. Our SEARS here in Colorado Springs looks like that and has since I have lived here (2007 to now). I bought a Kenmore Dishwasher last year and the kid asked if I wanted the warranty I laughed and said "I don't think that be worth anything because you are going out of business". The kid was nice, let me pick my area for the cheaper tax rate (in CO you pay taxes based on where you live for sales tax). I tried to buy a microwave but their prices were higher, and they had nothing in stock so I went out to my car and ordered on Amazon...with free 2 day shipping for a lot cheaper. It's sad, but anyone with eyes have seen SEARS slowly going under so it shouldn't be a surprise.
I worked at Sears for a few years (Fiesta Mall also in Mesa AZ). My old location is gone now but I have fond memories of my time there. Farewell Sears. We hardly knew thee
Sears has already closed at every mall within a 100-mile radius of me. In fact, the closest mall lost both Sears and Younkers (Bon-Ton) at exactly the same time, leaving them with only one anchor. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they do file for bankruptcy within literally hours of the time I posted this comment. Most likely chapter 7, because they've already dumped so many valuable brands and properties that, in my mind anyway, chapter 11 is no longer feasible. BTW, that table/nook set at 9:40 is the exact same one I've seen at literally every single Kmart that ever has existed, and never seems to sell. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some now-closed Kmarts where one of these table/nook sets is still sitting abandoned and unwanted.
Hi from Canada. It will be sorry for Sears to leave this plane of existence and only be a memory for those who shopped there. I do really miss Sears Canada. I guess that creep Lambert can goodbye to all that money he foolishly invested in Sears and should feel guilty on stealing money from Sears Canada!
Donald Ingram No. He’s going to make money one way or another. He also owns the liquidation company that takes care of the “going out of business” sales.
I remember shopping at Sears as a young boy. It was just one of those retail chains that you could not fathom would go bankrupt. My first real job was busting tires in the Automotive area and later as a salesperson in Lawn and Garden. UP until recently, I bought most of my tools from them. They always had American made tools at the professional level and the entry level. Every single one of my tools (electric and otherwise) still work. Once Black and Decker took over most of their Electric Craftsman line, they began making other things in China/Taiwan and that seemed to be the beginning of the end. Don't get me wrong, their USA made hand tools were not the highest quality but I promise, there was no other company that made tools at that level, at that price point. I later bought the professional line (along with some Snap On) hand tools for work and took my entry level hand tools home. I still have those entry-level tools and use them all today... 20 plus years later.
Eh well we lost the one at my local mall.. Park Place now has a giant white wall where Sears once stood. Supposedly a karaoke/arcade/bowling alley thing is going into it..
It has been over a year since Sears Canada went bankrupt. Ironically enough some Sears Canada stores were once Eaton's stores. It seems to take years for struggling malls that are still in business to fill anchor tenant spaces these days.
Is that Lucky Strike? Because my local (in my area) shopping center had one move into Shirokiya's 2nd floor (don't worry the original business moved to the basement and became a kind of revolving food court [revolving in the sense the vedors change everyvonce in a while]). Ironically the first floor of the original store became a new concept food court too. (Yaaaay, more food vendors)
8:16 I worked at a Sears store during a closing sale. They had stored excess racks and fixtures in the old portrait studio, optical, and hearing aid places. Once those fixtures got moved out to get sold, the portait studio became the scrap metal place.
I think Fast Eddie realizes that his sucking Sears & Kmart dry to line his pockets is over. I grew up going to Superstition Springs Mall & Fiesta Mall. The weekends, you could not even walk in the stores without it looking like a mob scene. Sad to see, as my early memories are at this store also. #fasteddiesucks #savethekmarts #savethesears
One of my favorite retail jobs was working for Sears just before 2010. I blame the fall still one Lambert and the leadership seeing whats happening know and seeing first hand the things that happened while i worked at Sears. We were good in one regard that our 2nd floor was storage and a break room but just like our local kmart leaking roofs were always a problem and other maintenance problems since our store was built in 1972 and opened just a bit before the mall that we were attached to opened. I remember the time we had an electrical fire in my department (electronics), luckily in our case the electrical breaker panel was near by and we were able to kill power before it caused any damaged besides some singed shelves, but after 3 days the company hires an electrician to examine the cause he determined it was bad wiring and wanted to rip up part of the floor to redo the wiring for that section of outlets where we had TV's connected too. He tells us this information and then leaves, 3 weeks later the company emails us saying that they spoken to they have spoke to the electrician and did not agree with his assessment and told us to reconnect everything back but limit what we have on that set of outlets without breaking our "plan o grams. So we had to run heavy duty extension cables to reach the area with the destroyed outlet which really made the department look good. I still remember when they wanted to "update" the look of the stores. We had to come in one night and disassemble all of electronics so they could replace the carpet (next week was going to be the appliances department). after about an hour we had everything moved. we sat around for 2 hours and no contractors showed up, luckily we had a phone number from them and called, turns out they were refusing to come because Sears hadn't paid them per their agreement. So we had to move everything back. This isn't the ONLY horror story from this time frame. Our Kmart had it worse, as their grocery store team mates came in they laid off every single person that day as they came in, ran a clearance sale on these areas and from that day in 08 till the day she closed in 2017 they had tarps hanging from the ceiling blocking off the grocery store area. Luckily T-mobile owns that building now but that place had the worst of leaks. This is why i don't think Sears will be around much longer but i'll have the memories of my old store which is now a Burlington and all my old teammates that i still keep in contact with.
The only reason I came to sears was because of lands end, and their clothes are pretty cute. I don’t really remember going to the actual sears (appliances, furniture) but it’s still so sad that it’s closing. At least they still have their online store up :)
Sears was my first job when I was in high school. Terrible job and management, I'm surprised they lasted so long, they finally closed in September I think.
The Sears recently closed over at Metro Center Mall and I honestly was pretty bummed out since my parents loved going to that Sears and I had some good memories of going to Sears. Seeing this Sears reminded me a lot of that Sears before its closing. Thank you for sharing this!
My second earliest memory is my mother taking me into an urban Sears store, possibly Cincinnati's only Sears store at the time, when I was two or three years old. When I was old enough to read, the Sears Christmas catalog was my most cherished reading material, and I virtually memorized it. It's sad to see what's been done to the company in the last 20 years, especially since Eddie Lampert took over. All but one of Cincinnati's Sears stores have already closed or are in store closing sales. Don't expect great price cuts except on low volume items. The one I've visited a couple times recently is well-kept, but the strange assortment and display of merchandise and the aged look could not have helped. It's also incongruous to see a store with big store closing sale signs that also has signs offering jobs, signs promoting "Shop Your Way", and signs advertising a Sears-branded Visa card. It's hard for me to see how Chapter 11 will work for very long. Even brilliant management with unlimited credit would have trouble keeping it going, assuming the need to turn a profit, due to the lack of experienced people and capable people remaining at headquarters and in management, the horrible management structure, the skepticism of potential store employees, the constant state of free fall due to store closings, suppliers who will try to avoid dealing with Sears, and the degradation of Sears' once iconic store brands.
Bored employees + employees knowing they'll be out of a job soon = why the heck not decorate for Christmas now. Besides, it seems that it's fair game nowadays to have Christmas decoration supplies in stores in October, so there's that too...
Good point. My local & childhood Kmart closed in early December 2014, leaving employees without a job just weeks before Christmas unless they transferred to another Kmart
Costco has Christmas decorations for sale right now. I rather enjoyed looking at them while I waited for my prescription yesterday. I love Costco, that's a business model worth imitating. 💙
I actually agree with that, im from Australia and saw one of our large department stores setting up an entire floor full of christmas decorations in mid September, as someone thats been in retail for many years, i can tell you now, noone buys christmas decorations mid September, so devote an entire floor to it?
Your Superstition Spring store is huge. The one near me in Everett Washington is about half that size and is now one of only 3 in Western Washington State. They did away with electronics several years ago. The only departments they have left are Mattresses, Jewelry, Tools, Appliances, Fitness, Clothes, optical, lawn and garden. Our store is also neat and clean, the help has been great, and I've actually found done good deals on tools and appliances recently. Of course I don't expect any support at this point from Sears, but black and Decker says they will honor the warrantees on tools. I think they may survive, but if they do it will be like Radio Shack, with only very small store footprint.
Agreed, by this point they just have a public perception of being terrible Plus for years their clothing buyers seem to just buy generic things in a quest to appeal to everyone, but then end up appealing to no one since anything they sell you can find similar elsewhere That's why target is investing so much in developing house brands to attempnto sell things unique to just them
Best thing they should have done would have been to basically start over with a new name new businesses plan back when Sears and Kmart merged I thought maybe a store focusing on made in America, or eco friendly product could have maybe worked as that was back before Wal-Mart and others have started to try to fill that void.
They should have rebranded everything as S-Mart(Shop Smart Shop S-Mart), and done all their stores like upscaled Dollar General stores with a nice clean layout, and friendly staff, as Dollar stores the past 25 years, or so have seemed to be doing very well.
@@CommodoreFan64 S-Mart, Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart. That's actually pretty catchy. Anything that would have signaled, hey were doing something new. Kinda what Target is trying to do by totally remodeling a bunch of stores, BEFORE sales slump and before the stores just feel terrible on the inside like pretty much every Kmart that is still in business. Does anyone know what the K in Kmart ever stood for?
M M I did a quick search, and came up with this. Well officially, it doesn't stand for anything. BUT the U.S. company's founder was named Sebastian Spering Kresge... So it's though that unofficially the letter "K" could represent the founder, who opened two different department stores before Kmart was officially born.
As the guy at the channel “Cinema Wins” would say “Beautiful Beard Win” When I shot footage of the last Sears in Utah a couple weeks ago I was actually surprised they had working “Find It” computers and one really old price check machine that still said Sears Grand on it.
Sad to say, but Sears needs to close. They missed out on the opportunity to be as successful as Amazon. They just never kept up with the changes in retail. I think it is to late to save Sears.😣😣
It’s sad. I worked at Sears in Toronto, Canada from 2012-2014. It was my first job. By mid 2014 they started cutting hours drastically (full timers were working max 15 hrs a week, part timers were down 4hrs a week). It sucked because the employee could tell it was going bankrupt, but managers wouldn’t tell us. I worked with soooo many pensioners, my heart breaks just thinking about where they are today 😪
Sears Holding as well as their acquisition of Kmart was a bad move. They're dead! I don't even think they'll make it to Christmas unless they have some massive holiday liquidation sale. That kind of a promotion will bring a lot of people generate a lot of Revenue but at the same time it's over! These guys are dead!!
Sears Canada liquidated over the course of a holiday season, so I expect the same playbook is going to be followed here in the U.S. (and with KMart as well, unless someone is interested in them as a separate property which I don't see happening).
You've got it backwards...KMart actually bought Sears. Eddie Lampert's company was originally called KMart Holdings; but then it purchased Sears out of bankruptcy and it became Sears Holdings...
Kmart Holdings bought the Sears company because Sears was bankrupt later the parent company becoming Sears Holdings or rather the Sears Holdings Company
Compared to the Sears stores I have seen in the past few years this store is exceptionally clean and packed with merchandise. I've seen false walls to hide how much of the store is not in use and missing ceiling panels at other stores.
There's a lot of malls that are going to implode come Monday. When suburban blight sets in, and unemployment spikes, and commercial real-estate markets start to hemorrhage so much money it drags the economy down, I hope all the folks who bought cheap Chinese crap from Amazon and Wal-Mart will keep in mind that they had a hand in it...
Sears and K-Mart were struggling long before Amazon and the internet were really a threat to their bottom line. The financial problems are what led to the merger back in the early 2000s. It also doesn't help that Sears made the K-Mart purchase in a leveraged buyout when they didn't have the cash on hand to pay out for it.
Maybe if I ever got a pay increase after being there for 4 years I could shop other places besides Walmart. Not all of us are smart enough, and $ to go to college and get ass loads of money Ya I shop at Walmart.
So sad to see it go. The stuff they carry can be bought cheaper, elsewhere. I remember, as a child, circling what I wanted for Christmas, out of the catalog. My mom shopped there, a lot. Last time I went to Sears, it was Sears outlet & I got some $9 Levi's. Love that table. Epic beard. Thanks for the great videos.
Poor Sears. I remember there used to be one at the Scarborough Town Centre that we used to go too pretty often. Then we just sorta...stopped. There wasn't ever really any reason for us to go in. Once Sears Canada croaked it was gone by the end of last year, but I had a chance to wander around it a couple times in various states of liquidation. So surreal seeing all the signs and fixtures blocked off and devoid of the usual products. They still haven't replaced the store since it closed; it was the middle-sized of three anchors at that mall, so they've just got it walled off and wallpapered over with this kitschy flower wallpaper that doesn't fit the fancy modern aesthetic of the mall at all. They hold the odd event in front of it, but that's it.
One of the funniest things I ever heard involved Sears. I overheard two men talking; one old and crotchety and the other middle aged and mentally challenged to some degree. The less daft man was droning on and on about how he loved to go to Sears with his dad and finally the old bastard had enough of listening to this guy’s blathering. He shouted, “God damnit shut the hell up! You ain’t never been to Sears! You’re too damn poor to go to Sears!” The dumb dude just sank his head and never made a peep again. 😂
![BRASIL vs. PERÚ [4-0] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 10](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tbyOJKXfQnI/mqdefault.jpg)
Do you think Sears will pull off a Chapter 11 bankruptcy or are they headed for Chapter 7 and liquidation? Also, don't forget Siesta Mall and Retail Archaeology apparel and merchandise are now available: teespring.com/stores/retail-archaeology
Like i said, just like montgomery ward, they will begin liquidation by late december
After Xmas....Sears/Kmart is gone! I mean completely GONE!!
That kinda hurts my heart. I was born in '70, and from '75 until about '80, the Sears Wish Book was so much fun to look through, at the toys and then-new electronics...
I think the chances of them staying open with a chapter 11 are slim to none and slim is getting on the last bus out of town!
7
I worked at a Sears very briefly back in 2016. One thing that struck me was when we were first hired they gave us a background on the company, and one of the things they mentioned was how many millions of dollars more the company had spent on newspaper ads in 2015, as opposed to online ads. It was like the company was run by people who just didn't understand how to change with the times at all. They desperately wanted to modernize, but by that point they were too broke to do so and seemed to spend all their money on the wrong endeavors.
Matter a fact I don't think I've EVER seen an online SEARS ad. That's part of what what messed them up.
NoDeathforDinner by giving up on the catalog division they really screwed up. They could have easily transitioned to online sales and given Amazon a run for their money...it was like they refused embrace technology and the future in every way.
Lotus 1-2-3 never got that mailmerge function working for telegrams and Morse code...
I half expected to see a tumbleweed roll by you...wow. It's such a shame to see these once bustling large retail stores dead like this.
Look for the Family Guy video about an abandoned Sears.
Funny and true
Don't worry! Those retired employees will lose their pensions but, the head CEO will walk away with millions. This is mismanagement that will effect not only Sears but, Kmart as well.
That is the part that really Peeves me
This already happened in Canada with our sears , the pensioners got screwed.......
Same thing happened when I worked at JC Penney. New CEO Ron Johnson (worked wonders for Apple stores) came in and did away with all coupons and tried something called "fair deal" pricing. Basically the price of an item with the coupon applied. Customers revolted because they wanted their coupons. I saw my store go from packed on weekends and weeknights to a ghost town in less than a month. They got rid of him eventually but, had to pay his contract out (couple of million) PLUS the contracts of a team he brought with him.
JCPenney is not in great shape either, and there's only so much they'll be able to take from the end of Sears and KMart. Unlike Sears though, they still have at least the coming Christmas season to pull out of the downward spiral. If they don't, however, I foresee them as the next major chain to fall - probably sometime in 2019.
He can't, the vendors will demand money.
Eddie Lampert ought to be investigated. How is the way he ran this company not criminal? Reminds me of that scene in Goodfellas where they deliver the goods to the front of the bar and walk it out the back. Criminal.
In my opinion Lambert is a CROOK
He's a Goldman alumnus.
"You've gotta pick a pocket or two, boys..."
Dennis W
Exactly. He KNOWS EXACTLY what he's been doing the entire time he's been at the helm of the company. The FEDs and SEC need to throughly investigate his activities.
That company was due to die like all brick and mortar retailers. He had zero to do with it. As I said on other threads this was about sears missing the online bandwagon in the 90’s that other retailers understood. Even Walmart is now pushing online and delivery, has bought jet and owns VuDu streaming. They saw this and made themselves a point of pickup instead. I can order my groceries from the app and have them plop it in my truck. Win/win. Amazon can send me stuff from same day to 2 days with no delivery cost. These are reasons sears is dead as anyone under 55 shops online. Lol. Sears built as a catalog mail order then evolved into stores but failed to see the catalog and mail was actually the correct way. Boomer generation enjoyed malls but today they are downsizing and dying not shopping. The core shoppers 55 down to 21 find opening amazon app easier than driving to a store. Can’t blame Eddie for that failure. The ship sailed by time he came in. Lack of vision killed sears. Being in a huge and expensive mall anchor is a bad place to be. Malls are dead! Mall is online today.
I'd be interested in if Dark Phantom also understands the shell game Amazon has been running for decades. They keep hyping investors on 'market share' and expansion while their actual business model isn't making them money. It is almost like a pyramid scheme except in the fact that they are burying competitors while they kick the can of profitability down the road. I think when the check comes due unless Amazon can maintain that market share they are going to be in a very bad place. You also have the fact that only a moron buys certain things online. Appliances and furniture instantly come to mind, clothing for the most part as well. Food items are a grey area - entitled trash orders their produce online and then bitches that it isn't precisely the quality they want but are too fat, lazy and stupid to get off their sorry asses and go inside to find that mythical perfect bag of grapes they demand. Rational people order the dry goods and canned stuff, then go inside to get the fresh foods.
Any mall that has Sears as an anchor needs to already be looking for a new tenant.
Any mall that has Sears as an anchor may need to repurpose the entire site. Housing is extremely short- and if that's not possible, a "Fulfilment Center" may be the only option.
Bulldozer hire will see an upturn in the near future.
Malls since 2011 have really been playing russian roulette having a sears with the tons of store closure rounds.
Problem is there aren't many brands wanting mall spaces as large as a Sears store.
Meaning the space requires funds to modify the space either with a total tear down or at the very least splitting the two levels.
Plus at many many malls Sears owns the building and land it sits on
At a few malls like adventura in Florida the store is being redeveloped by the Sears property company
@jwathas so very true, the few malls thriving have tried to turn themselves into lifestyle centers with entertainment and restaurants gyms, etc
Rather than just a bunch of stores
@jwathas churches in malls aren't usually a very good indication of a malls health, adding a church is usually just an attemp to fill vacant space but they don't pay nearly the same rent as other business usually, same goes for when libraries get added.
Hey. Your channel was recommended to me. And I just want to thank you. So many RUclipsrs now overedit their videos where they decide to edit out every single pause in between sentences. This is a problem because some people can't "digest" the information when this natural pause is removed. But you don't do that. I know, this is really random but I'm committed to getting the word out and thank you for not overediting.
I appreciate the natural flow of the video as well. Much easier and more pleasant to watch than videos that are edited to death.
well your gonna love me then LOL I have no IDEA HOW to edit videos yet but I am going to start my channel next month
It's called "jump cutting" and is used mostly by ADHD millennials and gen z-ers. And yes, is incredibly annoying. If they don't have some kind of stimulus every second, their attention drifts and they get bored and antsy.
Daleylife that’s probably because the ones you’re watching don’t do it in more than one comprehensible take. this is obviously a voice over so of course he wouldn’t be abnormally pausing
@@gemini4525 Well, RUclipsrs could do what any actor does and have a script or outline and spend some time rehearsing what they're going to say so they don't need to use the jump cut to string a sentence together. It's ridiculous.
We had two Sears stores in the area. They closed one earlier this summer which was in a very busy mall and still looked like it got decent business. They kept the one in an outdoor retail area that hasn't been updated since it was Broadway. I remember in the 90s Sears was like a one stop shop. You could buy clothes, shoes, a lawnmower, fake Christmas tree and a new TV and not have to leave the store. Now, you could throw a bowling ball down the main walkways of a store and not hit anyone.
Customer service that's one of the factors same thing with Macy's I go in there half the time you can't get anyone to help you I go in there just to pay a bill and I go straight to the women's shoe department that's where most of all the employees are at
The "Sears Centennials" portion is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension.
Yes. I just spilled my guts a little on the other vid about the Arizona store. I think Sears is done, folks. They shut down all their Canadian stores last year. My guess is they'll be shutting down most or all of what's left of their American stores within the next 2 years.
There is no way they will make it through next year. Out of the three locations near me, one has closed down to become a big arcade, one is nearly abandoned and no longer getting new stock, and one that is still open and running relatively normally, as far as I know.
The Sears centennial was mega gay.
Haunting as fuck. It's like the ending in The shining, but in retail...BRRRRRR....
Like the death of the nation it once supplied....
I've seen so many stores come and go over my lifetime, I'm surprised Sears has lasted this long.
Max Mills Sears has been around since the 19th Century!
I'm sorry, but your comment doesn't make much sense. My comment is a general statement, coming and going covers it all. I know how long Sears has been around, in all my 51 years in Phoenix I've seen hundreds of stores come and go. Sears was one of the few that stood the test of time. But not for much longer.
Sears lasted as long as it did because it was the Wal-Mart/Amazon of the WWII and early-baby boomer generation. However, in retail these two generations are dead. Late-baby boomers and Gen-X gravitated toward discount stores such as K-Mart/Wal-Mart and Millenials went to Amazon. Gen-Z will likely continue the trend with order online and pickup at store groceries.
I wonder why Wal-Mart made the test of time but not Kmart! Maybe adding groceries helped Wal-Mart.
You sharing your story about you and your family used to shop at that Sears, me and my family we used shop at a Sears 20mins from my house back in the day. My family used to buy appliances, vacuums, car battery and I think tools. Looking back at that Sear that me and my family used to go to they remodel and made it into a Sear Appliance Repair center. Next to it they build a DSW and Nordstrom Rack. Crazy how it all changed. Let's see what happen with Sears now.
Cheap money helped develop too much square feet of retail space. What is scary is all the retirement funds tied to retail centers to deliver a return for pensions. I think it's bigger than 2007 housing bubble.
You just can't get that uniquely moldy smell anywhere else. I don't know what material they used in every Sears, but somehow they all have the same dingy smell.
My local one smells like tires
I thought I was the only person that thought of that too. Some of the sears in Southern California have that smell too
Thing about big box stores (Sam's) with a built in auto center and it's probably an exception and not the rule is that they only smell of petroleum byproducts near that area, not the whole store...the rest of it smells like a warehouse full of stuff.
That's the smell of a rotting corpse, the corpse of a once-great American retailer. I've smelled it many times in the last couple decades.
I've gotten the vibe that I'm at a Goodwill in the less-than-ideal side of town.
IMHO: This was Fast Eddie's plan all along, setting himself up as a principal creditor in order to be in a position to acquire Sears' most valuable assets at rock-bottom prices after a bankruptcy distribution of assets.
You would think he would have done it a little faster he has been trying to save sears for over a decade.
I believe you are correct. Sears and Kmart were robbed.
@Red Shift As well as Home Improvement. I work for that division and the section of the company made 16 million in profit. So him getting (potentially) Home Improvement, Kenmore, PartsDirect for 400 million is absurdly cheap. He'll make his money back in no time
So this Sears was built in the 1990's, and I bet it was never upgraded. Sears Holdings has been criminal in their lack of attention to their physical plants at both Sears and Kmart. The two words that best describe those stores are "Threadbare and Shabby." The past 20 years has been the slowest and longest "Going out of Business" sale ever.
I worked at a Sears in the 1990's and the interior of this store in the video is essentially identical to my old store in the 90s. And I should point out that the store I worked at was originally opened in the mid 1970's; in 1993, there was a major interior renovation on both floors to bring it up to date (for that time); new escalators and elevators were installed among other renovations. I'd agree with you that this store in the video was never upgraded since it opened.
Ironically, that store I worked at is now one of those slated for closure by the end of November 2018 - that was announced a couple of months back.
rlm6213 i agree. I worked at one in Tulsa from 90-95 and they still had the same cash registers and pallets carts they had back then. I have done some walk throughs of the old store and I’ll miss it but the customer service has went downhill in recent years.
I feel bad for the Employees.......
I am an employee and we found out today that our store is closing. I'm dreading the liquidation process. It's a sad situation, but it didn't come as a surprise.
My Sears is closing too. I hope the employees are ok
R5: The CEO and upper management will escape with "golden parachutes", while the employees "go down with the Titanic". This is America now - employees don't mean SQUAT to corporations. A book called "The Social Contract" predicted this would happen decades ago.
@@mzkitty will you get a severence pay? Like some sort of incentive to stay with the ship and do work until it goes under?
No severance because I'm part time. But I'm going to stay until the end because my hours have already increased. Wouldn't make sense to look for another job right now, when most job openings would be seasonal. I'm seriously dreading the whole process though.
I got goosebumps with that 100 Years commercial. Wasn’t alive at the time but I have that nostalgia feeling.
I noticed that Eddie was blaming the Sears retirees for the financial problems of the company by claiming that the money he had tocontribute to the fund could have been used to improve the store. So much for valuing the employees who once worked to improve Sears.
Eddie Lampert is living proof that capitalism can go to hell and die. He and his all belong in jail for their corporate greed. Seize his assets and lash him to a cross.
@Raymond Fleming, Eddie Lampert never understood the value of the retail sales associate. He thought he could do better using the internet to sell merchandise and now everyone can see that he was wrong. The true value of Sears was in the Sears people who built Sears into the powerhouse it once was and Eddie Lampert never understood that and never cared about the people!
AirCooledMan2006 Capitalism forever. Eddie Lampert will never have another CEO or high ranking position in any business ever again after the failure of Sears.
If what you said is true, he shouldn't have had Sears Holdings buying its own stock at $100 a share, but then again he didn't think that maintenance and updating stores wasn't important.
I agree. I was disgusted that he would dare blame the retirees who EARNED their right to a pension after working for decades for Sears. These retirees were the ones generating sales for Sears, NOT stripping the company to profit off the assets.
I worked in sears auto for almost 6 years. From 2009-2015, I've watched the store go from being profitable with lots of customers and employees to a company that completely failed. Eddie lampart is a crook, he ruined sears and he will sell everything off and get richer.
He timed it perfect with covid arrival. Perhaps he knew something,
Wow these movie night racks came from the closed K-Marts
i remember sears always smelled like fresh popcorn. anybody else remember stores like sears and jc penney having candy counters? i went through a lot of chocolate covered raisins as a kid shopping with my mom and aunt
I grew up going to Sears and Kmart it’s so sad what has happened to them.
Eddie Lampert has partly to do with it if not the majority of the issues with Sears and Kmart
It really isn't sad. Sears did it to themselves.
What makes me sad is all the jobs will be lost and all the memories I have going to Sears and Kmart. I can careless about the CEO of Sears.
That Sears Choir shot though!!! Holy crap
I wonder how many of those people (assuming they aren't simply a bunch of bit actors) are still working for them today, or are pensioners now VERY worried about what's going to happen to their pensions...
New version of that song, "We are Bankrupt" :)
Okay that "Sears Centennial Choir" is straight up out of the Scientology playbook.
Nope....not at all. Just employees playing on the team.
Lots of companies have the same things and some have Choirs too.
Nothing malevolent there. Scientology is most certainly a cult though.
Aw I know, just takin' the piss :)
And now I'm singing that ol' scientology favorite "We Stand Tall"... ack!😫
I live in Brazil and Sears had stores here since (i believe) the late 1940s and closed the last one in the mid 80s. I remember visiting the stores as a kid with my family and how many products carried the Sears brand back then, from tools to appliances and even clothing (I had Sears polo shirts and socks, that I remember). This is an experience kids nowadays won't have: to shop with the family, Christmas shopping and the decorated stores, the smells and the lights. Sad.
The shoe section of Sears was always old and outdated in terms of layout. I loved it! It was always easy to find shoes I wanted to get. Lots of other stores insist on a gallery. No! I don't want that! I want rows and rows of shoes, and the shoes were often laid out really well. The only department store that comes close: Kohls.
After a while though, I realized something. "Why do I want to buy this here?" There were items you could buy elsewhere, often for cheaper. Their kitchen items were cheaper and a higher quality at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. You can buy electronics at Best Buy for cheaper. Home improvement stores stole away the appliances. Sears extended warranty? Not worth it.
Sears had its tools... for a while. Then, they dropped in quality, which led people to say "don't buy Craftsman anymore".
I miss having Sears for my shoes, though. However, I do understand why they are having problems. The whole place felt outdated, even compared to Walmart. Sears is middle-class-ish, so they should look better than Walmart
It was your filming of this sears that i discovered your channel 2 years ago and i glad to be one of your followers every since.
Sears used to be the go to department store for anything you wanted except groceries. I bought many Craftsman tools and and garden supplies there. The Sears here is a ghost town. When I drive by, there are maybe a half a dozen cars it the huge parking lot. They probably won't be around for Christmas 2019.
Yeah it was one of the stores to go to for sure. My late father, and late stepfather both bought plenty of Craftman tools there over the years, many of which I still own, and use to this day, and for me Craftman tools going forward just won't be the same. Also as they break, and wear out I've been replacing them with Stanley tools, along with some basic Walmart specials & harbor freight stuff for things like hammers, mallets, crowbars, etc.. where cheap, and cheerful is good enough, as I'm only fixing, and working on stuff around my home.
One of mine fully closed about 2 years ago now, and turned into a Sears Hometown store (mostly appliance repair) down the road, and other one is struggling to stay open even in a mall that's doing decent business. Far as clothes we did some of that growing up when they had sales, but my father being a welder, and heavy equipment mechanic by trade would get a lot of his boots from sears, as they where the only place he could walk into, and pick a pair of Wolverines off the shelf that fit him right, and not have to special order them.
It's a toss-up whether they'll be around for January 2019.
anonUK If they are around I'm thinking it will be all the store closing sales trying to get rid of stock.
Commodorefan64 harbor freights tools have increased in quality considerably in the past few years. It’s much better than the craftsman stuff is today. The old craftsman stuff was much better than it is now, the professional line is better but limited. I like that harbor freight generally has several variations of each thing, from the super cheap “only gonna need it once or twice” to the more expensive “almost professional” grade stuff and most hand tools there I believe have a lifetime warranty but I’m not sure how that works.
Don't hold your breath on those liquidation clearances. It took weeks for Sears Canada to have any decent bargains, and by the time that happened the store was picked clean. On the bright side, I bought a mannequin torso. We still use it to display t-shirts at comic conventions.
I find it funny that your video made it to my suggestions. I used to work for a Sears. The "life time warrantys" don't mean anything even now. There is so much I could tell you. But the truth is, it IS bad management that ruined the once great company. The employees are the ones that will be effed in the end. The higher ups will just continue on, not a care in the world. It's a damn shame.
My first job at 16 was at a Sears when I was in high school. It was at the now abandoned South Town Mall in Ft. Wayne, IN. It was one of the last anchor stores at that mall for the longest time until it too was closed down. Have a lot of fond memories of my experiences there.
In Alexandria, Virginia, their is a Sears still opened connected to a dead, closed mall. I don't think this Sears gets many shoppers. Haven't been their in years. Millenials don't shop at Sears
Millennials def killed sears
Another Factor just look at Ford not manufacturing cars after 2022 the car was a connecting feature in the style of consumerism
Makes me so sad - I used to love shopping at Sears (and K-Mart too), and I have such good memories there...
and no employees around either? I'm getting misty because the Sears I liked is closing, and it was a bigger Sears in a very busy mall
The Sears we used to shop at recently closed at Southland Shopping Center in Middleburg Heights Ohio. Sears also had DeanWitter Caldwell Banker.and the Discover Card. Not to mention the Dental and Optical Department.
I worked for Sears for 38 years in Georgia and then in San Diego. I am sorry to see what condition the stores are in now. I enjoyed working for Sears.
There stock fell to 29 cents a share.
They’re going bankrupt Monday ha ha ha ha
actually if you have money to risk, I'd buy Sears shortly after the probable default notice on Monday. Let it fall to about 15-17 cents a share then grab whatever you can afford to risk. Day traders feed on stocks like this and can actually push it back up to 33-37 cents a share. But remember, this is about the same as playing black on the roulette wheel.
3 for a dollar sale. They been below a dollar all month and a stock is typically delisted with 30 days below a buck. I say typically as some exceptions have happened.
@Herbert N if you want to lose money go ahead
Only a matter of time until the NYSE no longer tracks them.
Bittersweet ending for me. I remember always going there as a little kid and my dad buying me a Charmander shirt that I wore in Kindergarten. Now the location just closed a couple months ago. Lots of memories in that store. RIP Sears I love you 😭😭😭
Wow that song in the end!
I don't own a car any more but when I did I had nothing but good experiences with the Sears auto center, they replaced my unreliable car battery with a Sears Die Hard battery and that was the best investment I ever made for my car, that battery always got my old clunker car started in the harshest Northeast winters when the temperature was below zero.
Home department really does look like ROSS. No more name brand mixers, coffeepots, toasters, etc. Just "as seen on TV."
i'm surprised they can get the "as seen on TV" merchandise. Who in there right mind would send stuff to Sears to sell. Makes me think of a local Mom and Pop grocery store near that closed last year. It got to the point that the supply truck would ask how much cash they had and showed them what they could get for the shelves.
i will truly miss sears i used love shopping at sears they had everything you could ever want or need at reasonable prices
Sad times as so many memories of my childhood in the early 80's revolved around Sears. I really can't see what at this point could really turn things around. It's actually amazing they've lasted this long and they've certainly tried to keep going despite its grim outlook, but it just seems the writing has been on the wall for a few years now. These stores are a shell of its former greatness back when it was king of stores for just about anything a family needed and I can definitely attest to that. I'm sorry to see what looks to be its sad ending.
I can't believe a store that OWNED catalogue shopping for so many years couldn't have easily made the transition into online shopping. You were already able to do it so I need to know how in the hell did they fuck that up?!
And who else remembers the excitement of getting that wish book. It had that smell and you couldn't wait to start circling! That was the best!
Last year when the oven in our house went out, my parents went shopping for one. I said "don't go to Sears" explaining that they might not be around for long. When I got home I saw a brand new oven and ask where they got it from. They said "Sears!" I face palmed . . . There's even a "lifetime warranty" we'll see how long that lasts.
Your parents are still living in 1975. LOL
a few years back my parents had their MonkeyWards (what we always called Montgomery Wards) chest freezer finally die on them they had bought in the mid 90's, so I went over to their house, and helped them look up prices online, and my mother said yeah lets call K-Mart, and get that Kenmore they have on sale for cheap, and I warned them because both Sears, and K-Mart where shaky ground, but I went with them anyways, and helped one of the store employees load it on the truck, and the thing still works for now, but like the MonkeyWard no one will be around when i does die, to claim the warranty, and I'll be stuck helping my mother look for another one. sigh!
jwathas I agree you should be, but with it looking like Sears is going to file Chapter 7, I doubt that will ever happen for you sadly.
warranties are a gimmick anyay!
I have a Kenmore oven, purchased in 2007. Stock was trading at 180.00 a share when I purchased the unit. Different times. Would I buy a new oven from Sears? Not likely.
Oh trust me, it was sad to see the Sears in the area where I live go... and my mom used to work there... October 16, 2018
So what's next? After Sears Kmart and others die, is Walmart or Target going to start a toy/tool branch? Is Amazon going to start opening physical stores? Or will we really have to buy everything online and hope it's what we eanted...
How will we "try before we buy" or at least see the physical product.
Walmart has a large toy section in their stores and online
Also Amazon is ironically opening up brick and mortar locations as an experiment
@@jjsjeffjjsjeff So does Harbor Freight. There are plenty of tools places. Toy stores not so much, but they're not great since their prices are always ridiculous.
Walmart toys are cheap knock offs of name brands. '
Weird, well managed stores that have what you need (Home Depot, Target) aren't experiencing this... I wonder what the difference could be?
Also, to quote literally anyone with business sense.
"YOU'RE LIVING IN THE PAST OLD MAN!"
If Sears has $25 million to give bonuses to executives after closing over 100 stores, why is the company telling thousands of laid off employees they don't have the money to pay their severance?
That explains why my job stopped making Kenmore stoves recently
Hopefully your job has someone to pick up the slack because Sears ain't gonna be selling stoves anymore real soon!
@@gordontaylor2815 Electrolux has contracts with Frigidaire as well. Monday we we're scheduled to do Kenmore stoves all day, but Sears Mysteriously called Friday and said don't make Kenmore stoves. Electrolux is fine
michael clark
That's a very ominous call I think.
hey Michael....stop hogging my space LOL
Some Chinese firm will buy the brand name and sell an inferior product with that logo.
In the late 1990s, I had trouble with the tires I’d recently bought and they refused to honor my roadhandler warranty. They also acted really nasty toward me after I demanded they honor it. Because of that and several other nasty salespeople, I stopped shopping there until around 2010. I bought a kenmore dryer in 2010 and the delivery/install guys gave me a bunch of trouble with a bunch of stupid excuses why they couldn’t install it. When I told them to just take the damn thing back and I’ll get a refund that they changed their tune and went ahead and installed my new dryer. Little did I realize the back of the dryer had a huge dent in it until I moved in 2017. I encountered this lousy attitude at their stores in New Jersey; Knoxville, TN; Oak Ridge, TN; Dallas, TX and St. Louis, MO. That’s why I stopped shopping at Sears.
My local Sears in Golf Mill Mall just a few days ago started advertising a store closing. RIP childhood
Watching this is a trip, this was the same year I quit working for Sears and all of the fixtures and products bring me so much nostalgia to look at. It's funny you can always look into a closed store and tell if it was a Sears.
By the way the find it centers are always broken because they are in a tiny enclosure and never dusted out. They overheat and shut down, and the managers don't know where the key is 99% of the time.
SEARS 1893-2018 RIP MY FRIEND.
They might just trudge along until the end of the decade knowing ya boi fast eddie
It really is crazy to think about how many difficult periods of the US economy Sears was able to survive during those years. The Great Depression of the early 20th century comes to mind. It is sad to see the company become a shadow of its former self.
Steven Fanale Well, it's 2019 and they are still around
Your channel is one of my favorite things on RUclips, awesome job on this video!
Did Eddie Lampert downvote this video? XP
I live in the Tampa bay area, the two Sears stores I frequent in Countryside mall in Clearwater and at Citrus Park mall in Tampa are both quite busy, though it has been a few months since I went in to one of them, it was nice to shop freely without feeling crowded. Sad to see Sears so lonely, I too grew up with Sears and Kmart , my heart breaks to see part of my childhood disappear.
I am sad to see this. I will miss Sears. I have memories of my mom taking us kids to Sears to shop. Many appliances came from them. They were our go to for clothes, toys, eyeglasses, even some candy. I remember they had a candy shop with chocolates similar to what you would find at Fannie Mae. Sad to see them go, but they have been dying a slow death for quite some time.
You sir, have a beard a dwarf would be proud of! Or perhaps a ZZ Top cosplayer.
*B A R U K K H A Z A D*
I remember, as a small child, going with my parents to the Sears in Galveston, TX. The first thing that struck you was the smell of fresh popcorn coming from the center of the first floor. I didn't care much for the popcorn, but they sold a certain candy that I loved. I don't remember the name, but 60 years later, I still remember its taste. I would eat it on our way home back to Texas City. That Sears has been gone for maybe 20 years, now. Building is still there.
Same in the 70's. The fresh popcorn and the candy stand. I remember it well.
It was just announced that they're working out a deal to stay open through Christmas. Some stores will close immediately, and they'll have a little time to try and find a buyer. More than likely, they'll be gone by the new year.
Sears won't even survive to Halloween.
And all that Christmas crap shown here? Kick that fucking shit to the curb! It's OCTOBER! WAIT YOUR FUCKING TURN, CHRISTMAS! What happened to waiting until after Thanksgiving? Let the other holidays have their turns first! FUCK CHRISTMAS!
Hell, I'm actually thinking of quitting Christmas altogether because of the stores breaking that crap out so early! It's capitalism gone too far! I'll just order Chinese food and celebrate Chairman Mao Zedong's birthday instead. I'll kick the Christmas traditions of my parents and grandparents to the curb. Fuck all this tradition and heritage bullshit! It's nothing but dead people's baggage; quit carrying it! Did YOU make it up? NO? It was PASSED to you? Well, pass it the fuck back!
I used to get my school clothes at our Sears, they actually had a building at one time in my city, then they moved to the mall once that got built. I have so many memories in that original store. Its a farmers market store now, but I will always remember sears being in there.
Kmart brand might be bought, I can see it coming back in a limited capacity. Did you hear about that Sears concept store in Illinois that opened recently, 60k sq feet had actual customers at it. Too little too late.
Glad to come across a fellow Arizonan and one with a quality video. I am definitely going to be following you.
You have a pleasant voice
Always feel bad for the employees and admire them continuing to go through the motions day to day with no certainty whether or not they will soon be out of work.
Boomboxes, no wonder they are going under, its not 1993 anymore and $2 shop Pony ripoffs. I love your videos and the Christmas display is totally ghetto and cheep. But on the positive side, what a tidy and well stacked store. It is obvious like you said the employees are saints and getting shafted by incompetent executives.
I'm old enough to remember Montgomery Wards, a store that was much like Sears. Now but a memory. We sometimes sit around and talk about the number of retail stores that "used to be" on Main Street, USA.
As sad as this is, if Sears declares bankruptcy, there are going to be some AMAZING liquidation deals this Christmas!!!
They may not make it until Christmas. I wouldn't buy anything that you expect a warranty with.
Don’t count of that good of deals. Usually the most common liquidators (Hilco, Tiger, Hudson, Gordon Brothers, Great American, et al), that retailers hire usually raise prices up to the full non-sale selling price and then gradually lower them as time progresses and inventory shrinks. Sometimes they even bring in outside merchandise as well. Always compare prices elsewhere before buying at a liquidation sale.
I'd so go to a dying Sears just to buy any old PCs they have. I don't want the parts inside, though. I'd love to gut the cases and turn them into sleeper rigs for gaming. Something that looks like an old PC outside but inside, it has parts that can run Fallout 4/76 on max settings. If I could get an old VGA monitor for older games that don't display properly on modern monitors, better; I'd just have to use a HDMI-to-VGA adapter. The store can pull out the hard drive and wipe whatever sensitive information is on there if they need, and from there they could let me have the PC and do whatever I want with it. I'm not interested in the contents of the computer itself, just the case. If it's an old PC with a floppy drive, though, I might rig that drive to work as a SD card reader with floppy disk cases working as caddies.
you just wonder why all the department store go into bankrupty in USA, the only word american people have in mouth is reduction and coupons.
that show how rich can be USA :))))
A Sears just closed near my house. There were no good sales at all. Actually, the prices were somewhat insulting.
I swear---I haven't seen a Seiko product in a thousand years! Yeah, looking back at Sears recently has brought back some intense childhood memories for me. Today's young adults and youth will never understand what Sears Roebuck and Company meant to those of us who remember their heyday. Thank you for this look back.
I'm a bit torn between blaming upper management or simply a shift in consumer purchasing. People today buy things online. When they don't then they go to Walmart or Costco. All retail is hurting, Sears just happens to be larger, and thus needs more shoppers to stay afloat.
So true, plus if we see something in the store we don't have the same urgency that we must buy it that day.
We go home think about it, look at reviews and look online to see who has the best price.
sandman9601 While true something to note that is not every store has the item people want or need, and nobody wants to waste their time and gas either.
Physical retailers and online shopping can go hand in hand together well, but as you notice most retailers didn't bother until it's too late. Just a usual case of poor business decisions.
I'm surprised they lasted this long. Our SEARS here in Colorado Springs looks like that and has since I have lived here (2007 to now). I bought a Kenmore Dishwasher last year and the kid asked if I wanted the warranty I laughed and said "I don't think that be worth anything because you are going out of business". The kid was nice, let me pick my area for the cheaper tax rate (in CO you pay taxes based on where you live for sales tax). I tried to buy a microwave but their prices were higher, and they had nothing in stock so I went out to my car and ordered on Amazon...with free 2 day shipping for a lot cheaper. It's sad, but anyone with eyes have seen SEARS slowly going under so it shouldn't be a surprise.
I'm going to miss Sears :(
I worked at Sears for a few years (Fiesta Mall also in Mesa AZ). My old location is gone now but I have fond memories of my time there. Farewell Sears. We hardly knew thee
This store is on the closing list now... there is no point to finish the Christmas decorations
Sears has already closed at every mall within a 100-mile radius of me. In fact, the closest mall lost both Sears and Younkers (Bon-Ton) at exactly the same time, leaving them with only one anchor. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they do file for bankruptcy within literally hours of the time I posted this comment. Most likely chapter 7, because they've already dumped so many valuable brands and properties that, in my mind anyway, chapter 11 is no longer feasible.
BTW, that table/nook set at 9:40 is the exact same one I've seen at literally every single Kmart that ever has existed, and never seems to sell. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some now-closed Kmarts where one of these table/nook sets is still sitting abandoned and unwanted.
Hi from Canada. It will be sorry for Sears to leave this plane of existence and only be a memory for those who shopped there. I do really miss Sears Canada. I guess that creep Lambert can goodbye to all that money he foolishly invested in Sears and should feel guilty on stealing money from Sears Canada!
Donald Ingram No. He’s going to make money one way or another. He also owns the liquidation company that takes care of the “going out of business” sales.
I remember shopping at Sears as a young boy. It was just one of those retail chains that you could not fathom would go bankrupt. My first real job was busting tires in the Automotive area and later as a salesperson in Lawn and Garden. UP until recently, I bought most of my tools from them. They always had American made tools at the professional level and the entry level. Every single one of my tools (electric and otherwise) still work. Once Black and Decker took over most of their Electric Craftsman line, they began making other things in China/Taiwan and that seemed to be the beginning of the end. Don't get me wrong, their USA made hand tools were not the highest quality but I promise, there was no other company that made tools at that level, at that price point. I later bought the professional line (along with some Snap On) hand tools for work and took my entry level hand tools home. I still have those entry-level tools and use them all today... 20 plus years later.
Eh well we lost the one at my local mall.. Park Place now has a giant white wall where Sears once stood. Supposedly a karaoke/arcade/bowling alley thing is going into it..
The one at where I live was turned into a plaza
It has been over a year since Sears Canada went bankrupt. Ironically enough some Sears Canada stores were once Eaton's stores. It seems to take years for struggling malls that are still in business to fill anchor tenant spaces these days.
Is that Lucky Strike?
Because my local (in my area) shopping center had one move into Shirokiya's 2nd floor (don't worry the original business moved to the basement and became a kind of revolving food court [revolving in the sense the vedors change everyvonce in a while]). Ironically the first floor of the original store became a new concept food court too. (Yaaaay, more food vendors)
those are always so expensive
8:16 I worked at a Sears store during a closing sale. They had stored excess racks and fixtures in the old portrait studio, optical, and hearing aid places. Once those fixtures got moved out to get sold, the portait studio became the scrap metal place.
I think Fast Eddie realizes that his sucking Sears & Kmart dry to line his pockets is over. I grew up going to Superstition Springs Mall & Fiesta Mall. The weekends, you could not even walk in the stores without it looking like a mob scene. Sad to see, as my early memories are at this store also.
#fasteddiesucks
#savethekmarts
#savethesears
Let’s make Sears great again
One of my favorite retail jobs was working for Sears just before 2010. I blame the fall still one Lambert and the leadership seeing whats happening know and seeing first hand the things that happened while i worked at Sears. We were good in one regard that our 2nd floor was storage and a break room but just like our local kmart leaking roofs were always a problem and other maintenance problems since our store was built in 1972 and opened just a bit before the mall that we were attached to opened. I remember the time we had an electrical fire in my department (electronics), luckily in our case the electrical breaker panel was near by and we were able to kill power before it caused any damaged besides some singed shelves, but after 3 days the company hires an electrician to examine the cause he determined it was bad wiring and wanted to rip up part of the floor to redo the wiring for that section of outlets where we had TV's connected too. He tells us this information and then leaves, 3 weeks later the company emails us saying that they spoken to they have spoke to the electrician and did not agree with his assessment and told us to reconnect everything back but limit what we have on that set of outlets without breaking our "plan o grams. So we had to run heavy duty extension cables to reach the area with the destroyed outlet which really made the department look good.
I still remember when they wanted to "update" the look of the stores. We had to come in one night and disassemble all of electronics so they could replace the carpet (next week was going to be the appliances department). after about an hour we had everything moved. we sat around for 2 hours and no contractors showed up, luckily we had a phone number from them and called, turns out they were refusing to come because Sears hadn't paid them per their agreement. So we had to move everything back. This isn't the ONLY horror story from this time frame. Our Kmart had it worse, as their grocery store team mates came in they laid off every single person that day as they came in, ran a clearance sale on these areas and from that day in 08 till the day she closed in 2017 they had tarps hanging from the ceiling blocking off the grocery store area. Luckily T-mobile owns that building now but that place had the worst of leaks. This is why i don't think Sears will be around much longer but i'll have the memories of my old store which is now a Burlington and all my old teammates that i still keep in contact with.
I work for Sears , have been for 27 years. Should I leave now or ride it through? My pension? Arrrgggghhhh ! 😢
Run!!!! 🏃
Mom worked 9 long years there. Our Mall just lost Sears and is a shell of its former self. I could never have imagined this now.
SEARS files bankruptcy, stock market crashes, CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER, MASS HYSTERIA!!!
Cats and dogs lol
The only reason I came to sears was because of lands end, and their clothes are pretty cute. I don’t really remember going to the actual sears (appliances, furniture) but it’s still so sad that it’s closing. At least they still have their online store up :)
Sears was my first job when I was in high school. Terrible job and management, I'm surprised they lasted so long, they finally closed in September I think.
The Sears recently closed over at Metro Center Mall and I honestly was pretty bummed out since my parents loved going to that Sears and I had some good memories of going to Sears. Seeing this Sears reminded me a lot of that Sears before its closing.
Thank you for sharing this!
I believe Metro Center's Sears has a few videos on the same channel as this one is.
Well, they just declared bankruptcy today...
My second earliest memory is my mother taking me into an urban Sears store, possibly Cincinnati's only Sears store at the time, when I was two or three years old. When I was old enough to read, the Sears Christmas catalog was my most cherished reading material, and I virtually memorized it. It's sad to see what's been done to the company in the last 20 years, especially since Eddie Lampert took over.
All but one of Cincinnati's Sears stores have already closed or are in store closing sales. Don't expect great price cuts except on low volume items. The one I've visited a couple times recently is well-kept, but the strange assortment and display of merchandise and the aged look could not have helped. It's also incongruous to see a store with big store closing sale signs that also has signs offering jobs, signs promoting "Shop Your Way", and signs advertising a Sears-branded Visa card.
It's hard for me to see how Chapter 11 will work for very long. Even brilliant management with unlimited credit would have trouble keeping it going, assuming the need to turn a profit, due to the lack of experienced people and capable people remaining at headquarters and in management, the horrible management structure, the skepticism of potential store employees, the constant state of free fall due to store closings, suppliers who will try to avoid dealing with Sears, and the degradation of Sears' once iconic store brands.
Christmas decorations shouldn't be up before Thanksgiving and October is way to early
Bored employees + employees knowing they'll be out of a job soon = why the heck not decorate for Christmas now.
Besides, it seems that it's fair game nowadays to have Christmas decoration supplies in stores in October, so there's that too...
Good point. My local & childhood Kmart closed in early December 2014, leaving employees without a job just weeks before Christmas unless they transferred to another Kmart
Costco has Christmas decorations for sale right now. I rather enjoyed looking at them while I waited for my prescription yesterday. I love Costco, that's a business model worth imitating. 💙
there are 0 kmarts in my area @@davinp
I actually agree with that, im from Australia and saw one of our large department stores setting up an entire floor full of christmas decorations in mid September, as someone thats been in retail for many years, i can tell you now, noone buys christmas decorations mid September, so devote an entire floor to it?
Your Superstition Spring store is huge. The one near me in Everett Washington is about half that size and is now one of only 3 in Western Washington State. They did away with electronics several years ago. The only departments they have left are Mattresses, Jewelry, Tools, Appliances, Fitness, Clothes, optical, lawn and garden. Our store is also neat and clean, the help has been great, and I've actually found done good deals on tools and appliances recently. Of course I don't expect any support at this point from Sears, but black and Decker says they will honor the warrantees on tools. I think they may survive, but if they do it will be like Radio Shack, with only very small store footprint.
Sears is a dead brand, I don't think it could ever come back. Even if they had unlimited capital it wouldn't be enough.
Agreed, by this point they just have a public perception of being terrible
Plus for years their clothing buyers seem to just buy generic things in a quest to appeal to everyone, but then end up appealing to no one since anything they sell you can find similar elsewhere
That's why target is investing so much in developing house brands to attempnto sell things unique to just them
Best thing they should have done would have been to basically start over with a new name new businesses plan back when Sears and Kmart merged
I thought maybe a store focusing on made in America, or eco friendly product could have maybe worked as that was back before Wal-Mart and others have started to try to fill that void.
They should have rebranded everything as S-Mart(Shop Smart Shop S-Mart), and done all their stores like upscaled Dollar General stores with a nice clean layout, and friendly staff, as Dollar stores the past 25 years, or so have seemed to be doing very well.
@@CommodoreFan64 S-Mart, Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart. That's actually pretty catchy.
Anything that would have signaled, hey were doing something new. Kinda what Target is trying to do by totally remodeling a bunch of stores, BEFORE sales slump and before the stores just feel terrible on the inside like pretty much every Kmart that is still in business.
Does anyone know what the K in Kmart ever stood for?
M M I did a quick search, and came up with this.
Well officially, it doesn't stand for anything. BUT the U.S. company's founder was named Sebastian Spering Kresge... So it's though that unofficially the letter "K" could represent the founder, who opened two different department stores before Kmart was officially born.
As the guy at the channel “Cinema Wins” would say “Beautiful Beard Win”
When I shot footage of the last Sears in Utah a couple weeks ago I was actually surprised they had working “Find It” computers and one really old price check machine that still said Sears Grand on it.
Sad to say, but Sears needs to close. They missed out on the opportunity to be as successful as Amazon. They just never kept up with the changes in retail. I think it is to late to save Sears.😣😣
It’s sad. I worked at Sears in Toronto, Canada from 2012-2014. It was my first job. By mid 2014 they started cutting hours drastically (full timers were working max 15 hrs a week, part timers were down 4hrs a week). It sucked because the employee could tell it was going bankrupt, but managers wouldn’t tell us. I worked with soooo many pensioners, my heart breaks just thinking about where they are today 😪
Sears Holding as well as their acquisition of Kmart was a bad move. They're dead! I don't even think they'll make it to Christmas unless they have some massive holiday liquidation sale. That kind of a promotion will bring a lot of people generate a lot of Revenue but at the same time it's over! These guys are dead!!
Sears Canada liquidated over the course of a holiday season, so I expect the same playbook is going to be followed here in the U.S. (and with KMart as well, unless someone is interested in them as a separate property which I don't see happening).
K mart Australia is still strong
You've got it backwards...KMart actually bought Sears. Eddie Lampert's company was originally called KMart Holdings; but then it purchased Sears out of bankruptcy and it became Sears Holdings...
Kmart Holdings bought the Sears company because Sears was bankrupt later the parent company becoming Sears Holdings or rather the Sears Holdings Company
Compared to the Sears stores I have seen in the past few years this store is exceptionally clean and packed with merchandise. I've seen false walls to hide how much of the store is not in use and missing ceiling panels at other stores.
There's a lot of malls that are going to implode come Monday. When suburban blight sets in, and unemployment spikes, and commercial real-estate markets start to hemorrhage so much money it drags the economy down, I hope all the folks who bought cheap Chinese crap from Amazon and Wal-Mart will keep in mind that they had a hand in it...
the stuff they sell at sears is made in China too
Sears and K-Mart were struggling long before Amazon and the internet were really a threat to their bottom line. The financial problems are what led to the merger back in the early 2000s. It also doesn't help that Sears made the K-Mart purchase in a leveraged buyout when they didn't have the cash on hand to pay out for it.
Maybe if I ever got a pay increase after being there for 4 years I could shop other places besides Walmart. Not all of us are smart enough, and $ to go to college and get ass loads of money
Ya I shop at Walmart.
+That’s right1111 me too
Apparently, the world also ended when Kmart closed.
So sad to see it go. The stuff they carry can be bought cheaper, elsewhere. I remember, as a child, circling what I wanted for Christmas, out of the catalog. My mom shopped there, a lot. Last time I went to Sears, it was Sears outlet & I got some $9 Levi's. Love that table. Epic beard. Thanks for the great videos.
I think sears should sell Kmart
Let some one fix it up
I believe Kmart is doomed!
Steve Holsten give it a chance
Poor Sears. I remember there used to be one at the Scarborough Town Centre that we used to go too pretty often. Then we just sorta...stopped. There wasn't ever really any reason for us to go in. Once Sears Canada croaked it was gone by the end of last year, but I had a chance to wander around it a couple times in various states of liquidation. So surreal seeing all the signs and fixtures blocked off and devoid of the usual products.
They still haven't replaced the store since it closed; it was the middle-sized of three anchors at that mall, so they've just got it walled off and wallpapered over with this kitschy flower wallpaper that doesn't fit the fancy modern aesthetic of the mall at all. They hold the odd event in front of it, but that's it.
One of the funniest things I ever heard involved Sears. I overheard two men talking; one old and crotchety and the other middle aged and mentally challenged to some degree. The less daft man was droning on and on about how he loved to go to Sears with his dad and finally the old bastard had enough of listening to this guy’s blathering. He shouted, “God damnit shut the hell up! You ain’t never been to Sears! You’re too damn poor to go to Sears!” The dumb dude just sank his head and never made a peep again. 😂