Does Anyone Still Shop at Sears?!

Oh yes you can wrote:

Kranky wrote:

Can't beat their car batteries. The crap at Auto Zone is crap.

Costco batteries, much better by far.

There aren't that many battery manufacturers. 3 biggest are probably East Penn, Interstate and Johnson Controls.

Kirkland batteries used to be made by Interstate and now I believe Johnson Controls. I think Interstate holds the edge here although both are good.

East Penn (Deka) makes the Duracell batteries sold at Sam's Club and these are my preferred battery at the moment.

I think the Wallymart stuff is Johnson Controls.

The K-Mart in our town just announced they are going out of business. I got some good deals but it took 2-3 times as long to check out compared to the two Wal-Marts we have. Slow checkout lines at K-Mart has been a peeve of mine for years but they don't seem to care so I do most of my "cheap shopping" at Wal-Mart where I can use the self-serve checkout. K-Mart should have benchmarked Wal-Mart's or Chick-Fil-A's checkout process years ago. I'm surprised they have lasted this long.

Steel wrote:

Are you kidding? Do people still realize that all Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life? Not powertools, but wrenches, screw drivers, socket sets. Anything without a motor. That's huge! I took a cracked 5/8 open end wrench in that was 19+ years old and no questions, gave me a new one.

This. If I need a one-and-done tool, something I might use once every 5 years, I buy at Harbor Freight. If I want to invest in a tool, I buy Craftsman, and I buy it at Sears. I did the same thing as this guy with a 1/2" drive adapter I over-torqued. No questions asked, here's a new one, thank you very much.

Harbor Freight is now a major competitor as well. A $100 tool at Sears will run $30-$40 at HF.

sjsjt wrote:

brig wrote:

It was even possible to buy and furnish a home with the catalog.

This is literally true. You could buy a *house* from Sears.

if anyone is interested in this sort of thing--check out the richard nixon library in yorba linda. nixon's dad bought a sears roebuck house, and it still stands today. Marine 1 is parked right outside, and you can even park there, and get in a decent 3-4 mile flat paved/ dirt trail session in too. i run it occasionally and enjoy it.

(keeping politics aside, the whole thing is pretty impressive)

Shopped at a Kmart this past weekend, bought $112 of items and received $108 back in Shop You Way Rewards Points...didn't get anything back on the tax, but everything else was a 100% payback to be used later.

Also, found that they have great clearance prices, but many other items are a little pricey. I'm hoping I can use these Kmart points at Sears.

Yes.

The Husky stuff is pretty decent, not sure what the hatin' is all about. So is Kobalt line from Lowes.

Sears and KMart seem so old fashioned (and they are). I'm just old enough that I can remember when Sears was "the place" to shop in my town. Now I'm not even certain if that store exists anymore. Amazon Prime for me, and for groceries, my wife has been using Amazon Now. Two hour delivery, basically the same price.

I actually went to Sears this weekend and bought a drill.

Can't remember when the last time was before that.

I bought a refrigerator from them last week.

Steel wrote:

Are you kidding? Do people still realize that all Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life? Not powertools, but wrenches, screw drivers, socket sets. Anything without a motor. That's huge! I took a cracked 5/8 open end wrench in that was 19+ years old and no questions, gave me a new one. And, they carry Carhart clothes for men. I love the place. Just another sign of how Home Depot is putting the better places out of business. When the "Husky" line of tools are inferior to Craftsman. But, the current home owner knows no better, and does not care about quality. If one is $12 and the Craftsman is $19 but guaranteed for life, the morons still take the $12 crap.

Husky tools have a lifetime warranty. Please don't tell me craftsman are better.

Steel wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Apparently they have now sold off the Craftsman tool brand.

Still, got to be better material than Husky

Kind sir, you know the Craftsman of today is not "your fathers craftsman" Craftsman is made in China and their quality is nothing like it used to be and unlike your name are now an alloy mix. The craftsman brand is still high only amongst idiots who think Schwinn is a great American brand. In a lifetime a mechanic will lose infinitely more tools than they will ever need to return for a warranty. You talk a big game but you sir are the moron.

Bought a TV wall mount there for $150 on sale two years ago. Other than that, no.

Absolutely!

Just purchased a Craftsman 16 piece metric socket wrench set and Craftsman Axe that had a combined retail value in excess of $80, was on sale for about half of that and I paid nothing - just used my rewards points from some items purchased from Kmart! Both great quality for the price and lifetime warranties!

Hoping they never go away because the lifetime warranties would then be useless.

Searsisamazing wrote:

I love the Sears near me. It feels like shopping in an abandoned stores, but it's fully stocked. You can find all kinds of useful stuff there for ridiculously cheap. Only issue I have is since they are in such dire straights.. if you need help from a human, or to checkout, that's not always easy. I'm going to be sad when they eventually shut the doors for good.

I feel the same way. By the time they ring up all your points from their Sears Value Rewards Points program or whatever they call it, I'm paying peanuts for whatever it is want.

Just bought an Armitron watch, a digital stopwatch with arms, smaller than the monster ones they have on the company website. Every retailer must have special models they choose from a business catalog. I also bought a Millenium Falcon t-shirt in 2015.

However in summer I take the t-shirt off and run topless on forest trails; it's noticeably cooler. I used to have a small varied loop, until a giant tree fell on it. Now I just keep track of what section of the park I am in.

RvaRunner wrote:

Serious question as I was reading about Sears selling their Craftsman line to Stanley Black and Decker for $900 million.

The article mentioned that Sears lost $750 million last quarter alone. (Ending, I think October for them).

So even if you lose say $500 million this quarter, you are still negative by $350 million after the sale of the Craftsman line. Now in the next quarter if you lose, say $350 million, you are down $700 million total.

Why not just close up shop? Does anyone under 50 shop there anymore?

That is called ageism. I guess it's no worse than calling all 20 somethings arrogant.

With summer rapidly approaching, I will make sure to have Sears technicians come service my Sears bought air conditioner. If you thought it was hot yesterday, just wait until tomorrow. You'll most certainly wish you called now.

***UPDATED***

"Sears and Kmart owner says 'substantial doubt' it can stay in business"

Lost $607 million last quarter (ending January 28th).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/03/21/sears-says-substantial-doubt-can-stay-business/99479726/