Have you been in a Sears store lately?

I walked through Sears last December on the way to another store in a mall. It was pretty sad, a lot of cheap clothing that looked like it would fall apart after a couple washings.

There were people there, but no one spending enough to keep the plac eopen. The automotive area was empty, and you could get your car serviced with no appointment and no waiting.

That is how it seemed to me. The tools section was deserted. Shelves were only about 10%-20% stocked. It looked like they were just running the inventory down in preparation for a going out of business sale.
I see that over the past couple of years the CEO’s hedge fund has lent the company over a billion dollars with the proviso that he gets paid back before share holders and creditors. The CEO owns 60% of the stock, too.
The writing is on the wall.

Got an oil change there last week. Walked around inside and there were not many people there, shoppers or salespeople. Also seemed to be a lot less merchandise for sale than I remember and they spread it out more to look like it was more. I don’t think they are doing well but it was kind of early in the morning right after they opened.

Same goes for the whole mall it is located in however. The only time it has anything resembling a crowd is the month before christmas.

Been years and it was pathetic then. I recently went inside one of the very last K-mart stores for miles and it actually looked better than the last sears I was in. I do miss the good ole days when you could buy worn out craftsman tools at a yard sale or thrift store and turn them in for new ones.

No, ours closed a couple years ago. It made me sad.

It’s been that way for a while in the one by me. Some years ago we were going to go to Sears to get my college age son a coat. He said dryly, “Do you think we ought to call and tell them we’re coming?”

It has gotten even worse lately. When I went to buy a vacuum cleaner there last Fall, there was no salesperson on the whole top floor!

I rarely walk into a Sears store any longer. It’s just too depressing. For my entire adult life I was devoted to Sears when it came to tools. Back when I was 17, I purchased a hammer, and some 2 Years later the wooden handle split. A friend told me that Sears guaranteed all of their tools (except chisels and punches) for life, and I should take it back. The saleswoman didn’t blink, and replaced the hammer on the spot with an apology! No receipt! I was converted and remained faithful for better than 50 years. Tools, appliances. Our Kenmore dryer is 35 years old, and the wife who has this fixation on laundry works the shit out of the thing. I know she’s trying to kill it, but it won’t die! It’s the stores themselves which have reeked with the “smell of death” for several years now, and I am frankly surprised that the chain survived as long as it did.

Our Seas closed it’s doors a while back.
And it was getting very sad for quite a while, I used to get my eye glasses there, but didn’t use them for much else other than a tool or two.

We’re witnessing the death of ‘brick and mortar’ commerce. Sears lasted longer than most but nobody goes to a store any more. It’s all on-line.

I haven’t been in a Sears since the mid-80s.

Yes. Relatively empty but I like that – I just hope they don’t actually go out of business. It seems about par for the course for Sears for a long time now, or slowly getting more empty, maybe.

It is a bit depressing. I still have my childhood single shot, bolt action, ,22 rifle, (model 41) purchased at Sears and Roebuck in the very early 1960’s. We also bought ammo there. Sounds incredible.

It seems like the CEO is just running out the clock so he can declare bankruptcy, (after paying off himself), thereby screwing creditors and shareholders.

Haven’t people been saying Sears is going to go out of business any day now, for the last 25 years?

I’ve been hearing those grumblings for decades now. And back in the 80s there were rumors about the big store in San Francisco on Geary/Masonic and I didn’t believe them until the store shuttered up in the early 90s. The same held true for the store in downtown Oakland 3–4 years ago. The thing that I found peculiar to both places months before the shutdowns was the all encompassing atmosphere of benign neglect pervading the stores. Six months or so before the shutdown of the Oakland store, I left my truck in the Sears auto service shop located across the street from the main store for a new set of tires. The auto shop seemed busy enough and I was told that the truck would be ready in an hour- 90 minutes. So I dashed across the street to check out the tool department. And I swear the feeling was there the second I hit the door. Main floor-deserted. 2 sales people chatting by the empty escalator regarding me with resigned indifference. Up the escalator past 2 more floors devoid of customers to the tool department. And there it all was, the red chests and cabinets, racks of open and boxed end wrenches, screwdrivers galore, and one lonely clerk-a pink cheeked girl who could have passed for a high school sophomore. I asked her point blank “Do you know anything at all about tools?” She grinned and snapped back “That’s what my boyfriend’s for.” Just a good natured kid with not a clue that SHE held sway over the former holy of holies-the tool department of a Sears store is equvialent to walking into any Catholic church on earth. But she didn’t ask for this parish. It meant nothing to her.

Stick a fork in Sears. Yes. They are in the death throes of a good run.

I used to have an old shotgun that had Sears and Roebuck on the barrel. Times have changed…...

I bought a refrigerator at Sears last year. I did notice that there were hardly any customers in the store. It makes you realize how much the presence of other shoppers adds to the atmosphere. It feels a little creepy when you are just about the only one in a large store.

It will be sad if Sears goes bankrupt, but I guess that is where things are headed. Other than the local Barnes & Noble, I go to shopping malls much less frequently than I used to.

@MrGrimm888 “used to have an old shot…” Used to?! Don’t you still have it?
Who gets rid of stuff like that?
Maybe you gave it to a kid or nephew? That’s where old firearms go around here.

Sears has been like this for a while now. Once in a while I walk in one that looks full of merchandise, but often that has not been the case.

I’m wondering if they own a lot of their buildings, which possibly gives them the ability to keep the doors open.