Kmart buys Sears
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,443
Likes: 5
From: Willamette Valley, Oregon
The way I understand it; this purchase is to boost stock prices/value. There will be an attempt to look like they are making an effort to stay in business, but will fold and/or sell in 5-6 years. Profit will be made by stock value/purhase/sales.
Government Teat-sucker
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 9,748
Likes: 1
From: Virginia Beach
On the lighter side, and in answering the original question... I can't believe nobody picked up on this yet. They could now get Bruce Campell to be their spokesman and, in the tradition of the Evil Dead/ Army of Darkness films, the catch phrase would be Ashe dressed as a clerk saying, "Shop SMART... Shop S-Mart!"
Posting Guru
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,045
Likes: 0
Well, first, no big surprise here.
Sears has been on the edge for a long time. Anybody involved with the company can tell you how hard they are struggling to stay competitive. Look at their push to the "softer side". That is simply because they couldn't compete with big box stores such as Lowes and the Depot when it comes to outdoor products and hard lines.
As far as the Craftsman name, don't be surprised to see that get sold off to one of the major box chains. They can simply rebadge
And Martha Stewart, that's nothing but good for Sears, they have been acquiring known brand names when the chance arose for a long time. Anybody heard of Eddie Bauer?..
Now, the only thing I'm looking forward to see is, do they carry on with what they've been aiming for for years, and gear their entire mall stores towards soft lines, and establish their hard-lines products only in their Mom-and-Pop, independently owned locations?
OK, now that I've been distracted for 15 minutes and can't remember my point, I'll give up now.
Put me backon night shifts, please!!
Sears has been on the edge for a long time. Anybody involved with the company can tell you how hard they are struggling to stay competitive. Look at their push to the "softer side". That is simply because they couldn't compete with big box stores such as Lowes and the Depot when it comes to outdoor products and hard lines.
As far as the Craftsman name, don't be surprised to see that get sold off to one of the major box chains. They can simply rebadge
And Martha Stewart, that's nothing but good for Sears, they have been acquiring known brand names when the chance arose for a long time. Anybody heard of Eddie Bauer?..
Now, the only thing I'm looking forward to see is, do they carry on with what they've been aiming for for years, and gear their entire mall stores towards soft lines, and establish their hard-lines products only in their Mom-and-Pop, independently owned locations?
OK, now that I've been distracted for 15 minutes and can't remember my point, I'll give up now.
Put me backon night shifts, please!!
New User
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Fallen from grace
Soon as profits start to fall, as did with Sears in the Late 70's early 80's the experienced, qualified, and professional employees are terminated as the solution for decreasing profits. I like Craftsman tools and sears branded products but at my local store the employees have the worst customer service skills. It's not the quality of the products but the quality of it's employees customer service skills. Good people!! just poor skills or lack of training. I don't see K-mart having a different philosphy just more of the same, that in my mind won't solve the issues with both companies. Good luck SearsMart.
Elder User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 543
Likes: 1
From: South East Texas
Thanks pfogle. I'll check out that site. As far as Sears goes, I was a little disappointed the last time I went into the one at the mall. They used to have a great tool dept.
Now the selection is about half what it used to be.
They used to have bins of loose tools like sockets and stuff
and you could find anything you needed. I know they have some hardware,garden and general guy stuff stores around,there's one a few miles down the road from the mall. Maybe thats where the rest of the tools went.
I agree, the help in these stores stink now and like a mananger at AutoZone told me, it's because these chain stores don't want to pay these people what they feel their worth. Nobody with years of knowledge and experience in automotive,tools,hardware etc. is going to work for minimum wage for these companys
Now the selection is about half what it used to be.
They used to have bins of loose tools like sockets and stuff
and you could find anything you needed. I know they have some hardware,garden and general guy stuff stores around,there's one a few miles down the road from the mall. Maybe thats where the rest of the tools went.
I agree, the help in these stores stink now and like a mananger at AutoZone told me, it's because these chain stores don't want to pay these people what they feel their worth. Nobody with years of knowledge and experience in automotive,tools,hardware etc. is going to work for minimum wage for these companys
Elder User
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 723
Likes: 0
From: Lolo Montana
I took a 1/4 ratchet (craftsman) back to Sears because it didn't work. I thought that they would give me a new one. WRONG, tha sales clerk who looked all of 13, but had to be older told me that they don't replace them. They rebuild them right there in the store. It took the clerk about 1 hour to find the parts and try to rebuild the ratchet. By this time I was getting mad, or maybe past that stage my wife said. He finally found someone who knew what they were doing. It got fixed in about 5 minutes. This person was the dept manager and he said that they don't replace them any more if it can be fixed instore. Now how about fixing the parents of clerks like that one so that no more of them can be concieved.
Everybody has the right to be stupid some of the time, but when they make a career out of it they should not be allowed to breed with other humans.
TOM
Everybody has the right to be stupid some of the time, but when they make a career out of it they should not be allowed to breed with other humans.
TOM
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
TWolf........Yes, I agree! Big business has truely dumbed down America in order for it to reap more profits and waste more time and money! Sad thing of it is, the clerk was trying to his or her job instead of using his or her brain.
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Senior User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
I remember when "customer service" meant really helping someone and or finalizing a sale. But big business took it and turned it into "high pressure sales", which turned people off and away. Then they went the other way and took customer service completely away by dumbing down their paid employees to just being, "I don't know machines" with purple hair and body piercings.
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