Sears is shutting its last store in Illinois, its home state

CNBC ^ | September 16, 2021 | Lauren Thomas

[Fledermaus]

Backwards. They bought the Kmart holding company. The Sears holding company still owns tons of real estate. Merger more the word. Old Kmart and Sears stores are still leased.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

They did. My mom lives in an old Sears Roebuck house.

[Fledermaus]

Yep

[GOYAKLA]

“I remember Sears and Roe, when they started, didn’t have a buck to their name!” Tributes to Redd Foxx.
****
Charmin, put Sears out of business!

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Does ACE sell Craftsman?

[Fledermaus]

IBM almost followed. Xerox did.

[TomGuy]

self-checkout counters at Walmart

A couple of years ago at the local Walmart grocery during the busy holiday season, I was motioned to go through a self-checkout, but one of the store clerks was doing the checking.

I couldn't help but chuckle because nearly every 3rd item she tried to scan, the machine balked.

The local 'superstore' has gone nearly all self-checkout, with only one clerk checkout manned. If they only knew how much business that is costing them.

[SkyDancer]

I’ve double scanned by accident and caught it right away; the in-charge person came and took it off the screen. I watch what goes up on it.

[Fledermaus]

They had a lot of catalog stores in rural areas. Order there, even layaway, and pick up.

We had one in a small Ark town even when there was a big Sears store 40 miles away.

[al baby]

https://www.craftsman.com/find-a-retailer?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyLP1rNWE8wIVwxrnCh2Gvw4yEAAYASABEgJ43fD_BwE

[Fledermaus]

They loved the jeans.

[unread]

Maybe your right, but I seen several stories like this one...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-ap-kmart-sears-merger-story.html

[Revel]

Kenmore was only a name. Sears never made appliances. They bought from another company and then had “Kenmore” slapped on them. For a long time most of their appliances were actually whirlpool. If you went to Sears to lookup part numbers then the parts actually had whirlpool numbers. You could then use those numbers to buy the parts cheaper from whirlpool parts distributors.

[Revel]

Lowes only slaps the name on the tools. They are not the same as Craftsman tools. The cordless tools do not even take the same batteries.

[UB355]

Ace hardware sells craftsman tool i believe

[Fledermaus]

Yes, Whirlpool made them. I worked in a factory one summer in college. We made refrigerators. I put in plugs before insulation. Black plugs Whirlpool, white plugs Kenmore.

[ealgeone]

you could get a chemistry set from Sears back in the day. had that and a microscope from there.

[SamAdams76]

If they had just had SOMEBODY with vision, they could have dominated the web niche that Amazon currently does.

That 1993 Sears catalog you posted is very telling. The spine of it had the 1-800 numbers to call but no URL.

The following year, 1994, Jeff Bezos would found Amazon.com and the rest is history.

Had there been a Sears.com in 1993, they could well have been where Amazon is today.

[Revel]

Whirlpool use to be about the best. Of course nothing is good anymore.

[skimbell]

A local/regional-used to be hardware but is trying to be a big box store now-Menards, carries Craftsman.
We have another local/regional outfit, Blaine's Farm & Fleet that carries some Craftsman stuff also.