Sears is selling Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker, closing 150 stores

Since there’s a Best Buy across the parking lot from the local Sears here, they nuked their entire electronics section… and filled it with mattresses.

It’s sad that Sears has that whiff of death about them now. Something in me misses that old comfortable department store ambiance and I will be sad to see when Sears is buried.

Although a lot of people tell me their hoses have lead issues, and it turns out many hoses do actually, the quality of Craftsman hoses is pretty damn good. I had problems attaching a short older hose to my pressure water because the head is all screwed up… the Craftman’s heads are pristine a few years later… still.

And so it becomes official. Sears Canada has filed for bankruptcy.

I’ve noticed in recent weeks that you can’t watch YouTube without being inundated with KMart ads that are in the vein of the classic Target commercials (bright, colorful, musical). Someone over there is really trying hard to fight for life.

Which is weird, considering Sears and Kmart are the same company. And yet Sears is doing everying to roll over and die. I can’t even remember the last time I saw an ad for Sears.

Sears in Canada is now officially toast.

“Observers also questioned Sears Canada’s decision to issue $600 million in special dividends to its shareholders in 2012 and 2013, a move that would significantly benefit Lampert and ESL.”

Vulture capitalism at its finest. Company is going to shit, but let’s give out fat dividends to the shareholders.

Sears just announced their “deepest quarterly sales plunge” in recent decades. They may sell off another 140 stores.

Yeah they are closing all but 1 of the remaining K-marts in my area, if I recall the local news, it said they would be closed before Thanksgiving.

Just put to out of its misery already. Everyone knows it’s doomed.

Another 100 closings announced.

I remember Sears as a small kid, but when I got older we shopped at LS Ayres and Lazarus instead (now replaced by Macy’s). These days I shop (for clothes) at JC Penney, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Kohl’s, Burlington. Everything else I get from Amazon.

How many will be left after this?

About 940. Which sounds like a lot, but that number was 3,500 in 2012.

Will I still be able to get a Tele-Games?

As a former employee, that makes me very sad.

Here in Bismarck, local news just reported our Sears is going to be closed, but said nothing of our K-Mart (or Big K I guess now). Hopefully our K-Mart stays open. I have fond memories of both places.

While I do not really go shopping a Sears, I do have fond memories of them from my childhood. I think Ill be a little sad the day Sears can only be referred to in the past tense.

I still get a bunch of bonus cash from Sears, but it has so many limits on how it can be spent that it causes my wife a headache. She just prefers Kohls because it is simple.

Every so often when I’m chasing an item I want, like an Amiibo or the NES Classic or whatever, I will try KMart out of desperation. KMart is a dump, they have shit piled everywhere still on palettes and in cardboard boxes. I don’t think Nintendo or any gaming company has a retail agreement with them anymore, they just seem to get the overstock of products you can get at any other store. Death spiral indeed.

Sears fucked me on a warranty for a dishwasher like 15 years ago and I’ve never forgiven them. Let them die.