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Another Sears Bites the Dust

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morton

I live for the CABE
I had mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't think this store (York, PA) would last the new year. Sadly I was correct. It's closing was announced today.

About 2 years ago they started having some great sales on some of the bike items they carried like wireless speedos at $9, balloon tires for $5.50. I stocked up and started making regular visits but the sales soon ended.

But you could see the store was slowly dying. First the auto department went away and they filled that area with cheap looking seasonal merchandise. Then it finally hit me that the Craftsman tools were all made in China...ugh. I can buy that crap at flea markets for less.

At times the tool department, garden department, and seasonal department were staffed (sic) with only 1 person, And usually this person had little knowledge of any of the products.

The few bikes they carried were cheap looking and priced about $40 to $50 higher than chinamart.

At one time I bought a lot of things from Sears because they had a local repair shop if anything you bought needed parts or repair but that went away years ago.

They became a textbook example of retail failure.....high prices, poor service, and limited inventory.

Goodbye JC Higgins
 
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Yep!
That last Sears in Chicago went down too.
That's pretty sad.
We've still got our local store here in Costa Mesa, California.
But, I got a feeling, it's days are numbered.
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The end of an era for sure.
 
Yeah, so much for the lifetime warranty on all the craftsman hand tools I've bought over the years. Used to be able to bring in a broken tool and they would exchange it, no questions asked and no receipt necessary. I guess the "lifetime" part of the warranty was for Sears lifetime, not mine or the tool's.
At least I don't break them very often.
 
Craftsman Tools are still being sold in farm stores and hardware stores near me. ACE is one such hardware store and they just replaced Craftsman Tool for me. Don't throw your tools away because the Warranty is still good on them. Roger
 
Yeah, so much for the lifetime warranty on all the craftsman hand tools I've bought over the years. Used to be able to bring in a broken tool and they would exchange it, no questions asked and no receipt necessary. I guess the "lifetime" part of the warranty was for Sears lifetime, not mine or the tool's.
At least I don't break them very often.

We still hear this about those Radio Shack Lifetime tubes on audio groups...
 
Death of a store counts as end of a lifetime, and then, everything that used to be junk gains collector's value.
When we were kids, JC Higgins, Ted Williams, Sears (Hawthorne, etc.) weren't badges of honor - they were pock marks of having parsimonious parents.

How many of your google searches turned up a Sears bot with a higher price than reality - the cancer and the cause as one - I for one would rather that bot die a noble death.

On the fly fishing boards, Gander Mountain is the latest cadaver, but they forgot how they lamented death of their local fly shop when Gander Mountain arrived 15 years ago.
My Uncle ran a Sears automotive center - my cousin had the coolest cars.
 
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I sold the above house that I lived in for over 20 years, this winter. It was a Sears Roebuck Catalog home, ordered from their catalog and built in 1926. The only original material that did not come from Sears was the concrete, mortar and bricks. Everything else , from the plaster, trim and every last board was shipped from the Sears plant in Ohio.
Every board was pre-cut, ready for the homeowner to assemble, once delivered by rail , to their lot.
There was a rail yard directly behind my house , now gone. My neighbor has lived there since 1952 and knew the original owner, who was a builder. There are several other Sears homes on our street. His plan was to build an entire subdivision of different style Sears homes, but went under during the depression. His only legacy was they named our street after him.
This house has undergone many changes through the years. I built the the front porch and canopy over the door back about 15 years ago, the original canopy sadly, was torn off. The original porch replaced by a concrete monstrosity. Someone else added a second floor addition over the dining room on the right side.
Interestingly, so many owners of Sears homes defaulted on their loans during the depression, that Sears was the largest holder of mortgages in the country. Rather than foreclose on their customers, that bought everything from Sears, they simply voided all of the mortgages! What business would do that today? That proved to be a very shrewd move by Sears, that gained them loyal customers for life. Just before I moved I sold my favorite Sears bike, this one, under the Ranger.
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