Things Become Extinct, But Wow ...

[User 11148]

Sort of a companion piece to our battles re: retirement: Sears, which draws nearer to its final, fatal spiral, is raising cash by selling its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker.

Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley in deal that could top $1 billion

I own Craftsman tools that my grandfather bought when he was a young man. Once I started driving (and therefore "needed" to occasionally work on cars), Craftsman tools made regular appearances in my Christmas-morning haul. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around Sears without Craftsman. What's next? Kenmore to Anthropologie?

 

[User 11148]

By the way, some estimates of Sears' pension shortfall peg it at $2 billion.

 

[Ace]

Kind of amazing that a store that was about 100 years ahead of its time with catalogue sales is becoming irrelevant.

 

[dixiehack]

Outside the C-suites, and probably not even there, who has stuck around Sears long enough to be vested in a pension?

BTW, don't forget they're dragging KMart to the grave with them.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I always got tickled when my grandfather - a carpenter in Big Smith overalls - used to go to the mall to Sears to buy tools. Invariably, he'd wind up parking by the women's department and we'd have to walk past the intimates section to get to the hardware.

(I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.)

 

[Songbird]

Radio Shack without Tandy electronic stuffs?

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

The Sears in my local mall is still open somehow. Ten years ago that mall was on life support.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Always liked the Craftsman guarantee that if your tool broke, you could bring it in and get a new one for free.

Brought in broken several rakes and snowshovels over the years and always got a new one.

 

[TigerVols]

Sears will continue to offer Craftsman merchandise; SB&D promise to boost R&D and quality control, so it might actually turn out better for us loyal fans.

 

[User 11148]

I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.

Last spring, as part of my do-it-while-I'm-young-enough kick, I bought an old sailboat with the idea that I'd take it out for weekend overnights on the lake*. To that end, I bought a 1970 Sears outboard motor on Ebay for $100. Of course it came in a mechanical mess -- among other things the connecting rod (which connects the piston to the crankshaft) was in two pieces -- but over a month or so I nursed it back to life. I was astounded to find that Sears Parts Direct: A) still has available those "exploded" diagrams for products so friggin' old; and B) still actually stocks some parts for such things. The parts they stock are, I assume, in use on more contemporary products. Still, that they keep track of those cross-listings was amazing to me.

*Still haven't overnighted yet, but am definitely going to this spring.

 

[HanSenSE]

I always got tickled when my grandfather - a carpenter in Big Smith overalls - used to go to the mall to Sears to buy tools. Invariably, he'd wind up parking by the women's department and we'd have to walk past the intimates section to get to the hardware.

(I wonder what will happen to Sears Parts Direct? That's a go-to resource for a lot - if not most - handymen and small repair shops around the country.)

There's a NSFW joke in that first paragraph waiting to happen ...

 

[User 11148]

SB&D promise to boost R&D and quality control, so it might actually turn out better for us loyal fans.

When I was in the toolmaking business with my father, our biggest customer manufactured Craftsman power tools (drills, routers, table saws, etc.) for Sears. Apparently Sears had the ultimate contractual responsibility for the production tooling (even though our customer designed, ordered and paid for it), because very often I'd have to stamp on the side of some die or fixture "PROPERTY OF SEARS". I wonder how much of that has changed.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Last spring, as part of my do-it-while-I'm-young-enough kick, I bought an old sailboat with the idea that I'd take it out for weekend overnights on the lake*. To that end, I bought a 1970 Sears outboard motor on Ebay for $100. Of course it came in a mechanical mess -- among other things the connecting rod (which connects the piston to the crankshaft) was in two pieces -- but over a month or so I nursed it back to life. I was astounded to find that Sears Parts Direct: A) still has available those "exploded" diagrams for products so friggin' old; and B) still actually stocks some parts for such things. The parts they stock are, I assume, in use on more contemporary products. Still, that they keep track of those cross-listings was amazing to me.

*Still haven't overnighted yet, but am definitely going to this spring.

It's insane the number of parts they've got available. It reminds me of Quadratec - where you can order every single part needed to build a complete Jeep CJ-7 (or any other Wrangler variant).

Also, you need to post about the sailboating and the overnight. It sounds awesome.

 

[apeman33]

Two full-line Sears stores between Topeka and the I-25 corridor: Wichita Towne East and Garden City.

What's really odd is that the only reason that Metcalf South Mall in Overland Park hasn't gone the way of the dodo is that the Sears store there does really well. The last time I was at that mall, it was pretty much Sears and about half a dozen mom-and-pops. I think the food court only had two places to eat.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I go back far enough that I remember J.C. Penney's selling the "Penncraft" tool brand. They were an acceptable substitute for Craftsman, perhaps a touch less expensive. There are still some of them in my father's toolchest, and when I get one out it is perceptibly beefier than my own, newer hand tools.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Outside the C-suites, and probably not even there, who has stuck around Sears long enough to be vested in a pension?

BTW, don't forget they're dragging KMart to the grave with them.

Worked for Sears right out of college from 1985-1999, so I had a vested pension with them. About 5-7 years ago, they offered a lump sum payout, and I jumped on that knowing I would be getting cents on the dollar when they went belly up.

Early on when I was a management trainee, you worked every part of the operation to learn it, and one of my favorite memories was working the returns desk and seeing all the lawnmowers and weedwhackers get returned in the fall after being used all summer under the Craftsman return anything at anytime policy.

They were the T-Rex of retail that got completely eaten alive by WalMart and never figured a way to compete in the 3 decades since. They closed most of the catalog operations in the 90s before the internet came of age where they could have made that a viable option. They owned Allstate, Coldwell Banker and Dean Witter when I was there, and disposed of all them--maybe those deals made sense at the time from a financial standpoint, but it left them with only the dying retail operations. They were always a fish out of water from the 90s on--a company that was resident in the suburban mall that could never compete in the 'soft' lines with their mall competitors--apparel and such--and didn't need to be in those locations to sell their strength--Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools. Now, their real estate is one of their one things of value from a corporate books perspective.

I enjoyed my days there. Spent the latter half of my time in human resources administration where we did some pretty cool stuff that was pretty highly regarded in the HR function. But, I felt their time was ticking even when I was there at the end, and am actually surprised they've survived this long. And will be just as surprised if they make it through 2017.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Fifty years from now we'll be going "Wow" about Walmart. Something else with a better model will supplant it one day, much like Walmart supplanted Sears over the last 25-30 years.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

If they'd invested in the retail side maybe they wouldn't have fallen so far behind. But Eddie Lampert went with the slash and burn, cut cut cut and its been a train wreck. Their capital expenditures are embarrassing compared to Walmart or Target. Not dissimilar to many newspaper exec's philosophies.

 

[Roscablo]

It may sound funny but I actually have a good deal of bigger items from Sears. My lawn mower, a Craftsman, still going strong after about five seasons. Our patio furniture is from there. The last TV I bought I got from there (best price and all). We had a Kenmore washer and dryer set that lasted 12-plus years and we only replaced them because we wanted a bigger capacity. Our local Sears went away when the mall did a renovation. An appliance only Sears opened there in its place. So I haven't done any Sears shopping in the past few years, but they've had good stuff right up until the end. Which does appear to be near.

 

[Riptide]

It may sound funny but I actually have a good deal of bigger items from Sears. My lawn mower, a Craftsman, still going strong after about five seasons. Our patio furniture is from there. The last TV I bought I got from there (best price and all). We had a Kenmore washer and dryer set that lasted 12-plus years and we only replaced them because we wanted a bigger capacity. Our local Sears went away when the mall did a renovation. An appliance only Sears opened there in its place. So I haven't done any Sears shopping in the past few years, but they've had good stuff right up until the end. Which does appear to be near.

That's still the great thing about Sears: You can buy a refrigerator and a washer/dryer, then walk 30 feet and buy a riding mower and a chainsaw. All of that stuff right there on the sales floor.