It's been a long time coming.

Many years ago Craftsman tools were the go to tool for homeowners and some professionals. Worked my way through college with mine circa 1980. Still have many working in the collection.

same with toys r us.

The stores ended up looking like K-Marts, and the quality of their merchandise became "nothing special." Getting rid of the Craftsman line of tools was the final nail in their coffin.

"Suicide by CEO" was a great way to put it.

Retail has changed over the last decade. The Sears near me had a cute little notebook that I had my eyes on. The price was $9.99 on sale for $5.99.

In the same shopping center, Burlington Coat Factory had the exact notebook for $2.99. Guess where I ended up buying it?

and had missed the "where". Thanks for posting!

I (like tens of millions) grew up with Sears and the trip to the main one here in Philly was always a treat. The store was a landmark and was considered the "gateway to the Greater Northeast" part of the city. It was closed and the building was demolished 25 years ago. If it had remained open, the building would have been 100 years old next year.

they couldn't find a better use for that great old building. Love the old postcard of it.

both of which remain, although the power plant is boarded up. The fire house is still in use.

This is a pic of the site from 10 years ago with the power plant in the background (with the letters for "Home Depot" on the stack) -



Perspective of where the above was in relation to the warehouse -

in fact my local shopping mall, which has always been full capacity in the past, has stores closing and no one else taking their place. I counted 15 vacancies walking through the other day. Not even including the large Sears store, which will probably become part of the building parking lot. Online and Amazon, sign of the times.

that is all...

I remember being a little kid in the early 1950's and pouring through the Christmas catalog looking at dolls. The first appliance my husband and I purchased was from Sears and we paid a foolishly small payment to Sears for a couple of years to own it. Throughout our marriage (45 years!), we always purchased appliances from Sears . . . until the store disappeared. Buying a fridge with a click on the Internet just isn't the same.

side of town for years but I remember hearing the city wasn't really investing in revitalizing the six corners area because the local alderman is at odds with Rahm Emmanuel and a thorn in his side was not getting rewarded with anything special
Not sure if the politics is still true, but the Sears store is huge and takes up one of the six corner blocks that intersect and is a big physical presence
Found a pic

The biggest, by far, was the inability to see what the internet was and what they needed to do in order to make it work for them.

They were in a better position than any other retailer to be king of the internet. They had a huge catalog sales business and they already had all the infrastructure and experience in shipping direct to consumers along with their stores.

Instead of simply shifting the catalog programs to website based ones, they doubled down on malls and retails outlets at a time when the decline of the mall was just starting.

They have sold off a lot of aspects of the business.

They sold off the arm that franchised all the small Sears store in your smaller towns. Those are now “Sears Hometown” and it’s a totally seperate business that franchises to local owners.

They ruined the Craftsman tool name by shifting production to China- then they sold it off. Stanley/Black & Decker owns the Craftsman brand now and in a few months they both plan to shift production back into the USA on many items and also have it offered outside of Sears in major chains like Lowe’s.

like financial services, buying into the "diversify" mantra.

I expect that Walmart saw this and started its expansion at the point when Sears was overwhelmed with with trying to do and be everything at once.

https://www.investopedia.com/news/downfall-of-sears/

Toys R Us.

on our Sears. We went over for the final liquidation. We have bought the majority of our appliances from that Sears store over the years (refrigerator last year). We bought all of our appliances for our first house from them. In the last two years both the K-Mart and Sears have closed.

Over half of the mall closest to our house is empty. One of the two anchor stores (Younkers) is going out now. With the loss to Sears our large mall is probably at 70% capacity.