What was the definite defining moment of the entire company existence of Sears?
30 replies (most recent on top)
Task scheduler. That was a sweet idea. Oh and of course merging Sears with Kmart. So many great ones it’s hard to choose.
Purchasing Pinstripe Petites!
I know their decision to outsource IT to India offshore was sure a great idea that actually cost them a whole bunch more money. They had an expectation that stateside IT would train the offshore folks before being let go. Called it Knowledge Transfer. Yeah, right. Didn't go over too well. The legacy systems knowledge walked right out the door taking their years of proficiency with them. 'Project Eagle' sure didn't fly. lol
Yes it was designed to PO the most number of customers, sorry my bad "Members", trying to redeem their points. Also, keeping them in the store longer in the lines at the cash wraps. Also, it was a great associate benefit rather than the 10-20% merchandise benefit.
Obviously Shop Your Way Rewards
Prodigy proto-Internet - if only they'd persist a few years more, but Ax from Saks came to destroy them...
The greatest thing Sears ever did was fulfill their raison d'être for almost one-hundred years (yes, I know the store is technically over one-hundred, but the ball got dropped a long time ago).
For many years, Sears provided a tremendous range of products - and services - to large swaths of the country that couldn't get these products anywhere else - at least for a reasonable price. First through the catalog and then through the stores.
They had a good run, but it's hard to stay on top for ever.
Adjusted for inflation, Sears stock peaked in 1967. A combination of more effective competitors, some truly bad management decisions, and changing tastes was enough to put an end to things.
Woolworth's is now called Foot Locker? I haven't seen one Do they still have the diners in the stores?
Foot Locker isn't doing well. It's closing all its C and D mall locations and even many of its A and B. Nike pulling out of FL was a disaster for both. Now they're crawling back into the marriage but it isn't going well.
The Woolworth company is still around, but now they are called Foot Locker.
@1zlv+1muakXnD I am really surprised. I thought Sears & Woolworth's shut down years ago.
No doubt the day I purchased a new appliance from Sears and they delivered the correct item. I didn't have to call someone to come out to take look at it for over a month either!
I myself will never forget the one time I went into a Sears store and someone had actually put toilet paper in the restroom. It was great!
Close.
I'm 68 years old, worked for Sears for 15 years, and I would never think of buying anything from Sears online
Sears online stuff isn't very good. Amazon has more selection, better pricing options, and more reliable. If they don't do a better job advertising themselves online, that will be going under too. Very few of the younger generation would even think of shopping on Sears online.
I never worked for Sears, but my mother worked for Woolworth's when she was in high school.
They don't have catalogs anymore.
Having worked at Sears many years ago, in the Pasadena store #1048 and in the Territorial HQ in Alhambra, I believe the greatest thing Sears did was to make general merchandise available to rural and remote underserved areas at a good price. The Sears catalog was probably one of the most anticipated and well-read publications of its time, and at its peak Sears could boast that one in eighteen people in the United States had worked at Sears at some time in their careers.
Sears is still the 7th oldest retailer in the US. It was the 8th oldest, but we can move Sears up one notch after Lord & Taylor's closing a few years ago. Sears.com continues despite the disappearance of almost all Sears full-line and SHO stores. Appliances in sears.com still say "sold by Sears." What actually goes on in that place is harder to know as there are fewer people, and those who remain grow ever more secretive. However, the place has not closed. Products are obviously moving from vendors to DCs to customers. Sears might stand a good chance to lease out what DCs they still own in an era where DCs are going up every day. If they could unload the Hoffman complex, or lease a redeveloped site, the company might stand a better chance of moving forward for a time in its much reduced form. Walmart stands a chance of being around in 2099. Amazon being around in 2131 seems a more distant prospect.
Agree. They tried to make a profit for themselves like everybody else in retail. Now other retailers have taken over the market they once had. Life moves on.
They sold merchandise like every other retailer. Yawn
Nothing. They were a department store. What great thing were they supposed to do? Alleviate the world of tyranny? Ridiculous question.
Probably when they used to make a display of 5 ugly sweater while using a minimum of 7 tables. LMAO
The construction of the Sears Tower which was completed 50 years ago this Spring. However, the tower proved how arrogant the company was about its future and how it honestly believed how nobody could do anything, or be anything bigger and better than it could. This could be looked at as the beginning of the downfall.
Close down
Partitioning of DB2 tables into more than 16 partitions.
It was a department store...........not our lord & saviour. Get over it.
Probably back when it sold everything, even houses!
https://thecraftsmanblog.com/the-history-of-sears-kit-homes/
Sitting by your empty cash register in the back of your empty Sears Store,
YES, Denise Denial,
your store is closing soon