Sears/Kmart has been the worst run retailer in America for two decades.
Sears’ sales dropped from $41 billion in 2000 to $15 billion in 2015.
Kmart, which merged with Sears in 2005, has seen its sales plunge from $37 billion to $10 billion in the same period.
Good riddance. Put a fork in Sears they are done. Grab some popcorn and watch the show!
I can’t remember the last time I was in a Sears (or a K-Mart for that matter – all the K-Marts where I ever lived were often referred to as “Ghetto-Marts” for a reason).
I do recall one of the last times I was at a Sears, and that it was in the 80’s. My husband and I had gotten married in September of ’83 and rented a townhouse. It had a small front yard and a larger fenced in backyard that we’d (I’d) been mowing using an old push mower. We (I) decided that summer that we needed a power mower or at least an electric mower because the old push mower the landlord or previous tenant had left really sucked (no, really it didn’t mow unless you went over the same spot at least ten times, but it was one Hell of a work out ; ) ), and we (I) saw a sales ad for an electric mower at Sears that looked like a good bargain.
So we went to the local Sears and sure enough, saw the on-sale mower on display. But when we finally found someone to wait on us, he told us it was “out of stock” and tried to sell us a larger and more expensive model, even at one point trying to sell us a self-propelled gas mower that was much more than what we needed or wanted.
I countered – “No thanks. I want the one advertised and if you don’t have in stock, I’d like a “rain check”.
The sales guy said (not to me, but to my husband), “No, I can’t give you a rain check and I don’t know when or if we will get any more of these in.”
So I said, “But you have it on display and with a sign with the advertised sales price. And neither the newspaper ad nor the display ad says “limited quantities” or “no rain checks” so I think you need to honor it. And if it is out of stock or no longer available, then why is it still on display? Can you sell us the floor model?” “No! I can’t do that!” he said as he rolled his eyes at me and turned to my husband as he’d now decided to ignore me (big mistake), again trying to sell my husband on the more expensive model and making the comment to him, “Geez! Women! Leave the “little lady” home next time” (even bigger mistake, especially since the Sears card was in my name) and his comment and attitude really pissed off my husband as well.
I went a bit ballistic and very loudly, loudly enough for other customers to hear me, said something to the effect of “I see Sears is still pulling the same old bait and switch scam! Didn’t Sears get into trouble for this before?” (Yes the FTC took Sears to court for just this sort of thing.) And then we left and IIRC went to other store (might have been a Home Depot or an ACE Hardware) and actually found a better electric mower for the same price.
There was another time after that that we had a similar bad experience at Sears. We ordered a doggie door from the Sears catalogue and used my Sears charge card, but after we got it home from picking it up at the store and started opening the box, my husband noticed that it wasn’t the right size nor the same model - a much cheaper one and not even the same brand as the one we had ordered and paid for. Sears didn’t want to take it back at first because the box had been opened and we had to fight for several weeks to finally get a refund.
I am sorry for the people losing their jobs but I can’t say I will miss Sears.
