had a section near the front door that sold candy and hot roasted nuts. The aroma was amazing, and everything was delicious.

On edit: I've been missing the above for years. What I *will* miss are sales on Craftsman tools.

Here in Canada our Sears stores have been closed for a year now - and I miss it horribly. Sears was part of my life and it leaves a big hole. I haven't found a replacement store yet.

When you walked in the back, there was a hot dog counter. It smelled so good! I used to joke with my friends that we should have our Senior Prom dinner at the counter. Alas, it's long gone.

That was a pleasant childhood "rainy day" activity. I always feel some nostalgia when a part of my past ceases to exist. It sounds as if the closings will be a major inconvenience for you, so that is even worse than nostalgia. I hope you can find another store close by to take its place.

Sears exchanged it for a new one, no questioned asked.

And all they said was " how long was the cheater pipe " as they went to get me a new one!

I still have some of the Craftsman hand tools that my grandfather bought back in the 40's and 50's!

I bought an aluminum combination ladder from Sears that could be used as a conventional ladder, or as a kind of (but not quite) step ladder. One day it collapsed on me. They exchanged it for a 16 foot extension ladder, even though I had probably been too heavy for it. I still have that 16 footer, as well as all the Craftsman hand tools I bought at the same time I started the business.

He probably bought it when i was around 6.

At the house we lived in when i was late HS or early college, the wooden handle snapped while he was using it. Thing was minimum 10 years old and the wood broke.

He takes it to Sears. No receipt, no nothing. He figures they will give him a new handle for it and maybe even put it in and put the screws in for him.

Nope. They gave him a brand new pair, and the new ones didn't have a wooden handle. The thing was 100% metal.

Like you said, no questions asked.

It was at least 25 years old. Just for the heck of it, I took it back to Sears and they said, "Go pick out any one you want. We haven't made that model in years!" I was shocked.

Craftman,Lowe's Cobalt,and Home Depot's Huskey brands are mostly made in the same Factories in Tiawain ,India,and of course China.

Noticed LG is doing most of Sears Kenmore label.

Not being funny here. My great grandparents' house in rural Southern Indiana had an outhouse with a Sears Catalog by the hole. You simply tore off a page and used it. This was in n the late 1940s.

Growing up we were very poor, and Sears was a store we aspired to. We shopped at the discount stores that existed in the 1950s -- the State Street Mill and the Globe Street Mill both in Utica, NY. Or at second hand stores. When I was a teen and earning baby sitting money I bought some clothes there and felt like I was at the height of fashion.

Later on, as an adult, I shopped sometimes at a Sears, but it never became a go-to place for me.

By and large I really like good department stores, and miss the big ones that had departments for everything, including books and embroidery kits. Alas, that day is long gone.

But I still do most of my shopping at brick and mortar stores. For one thing, if I'm buying clothes or shoes I absolutely must try them on. I am not really a standard size either on my body or my feet, the latter because of a serious bunion on my right foot.

I have a niece who uses one of those on-line clothes shopping services, and it seems to me as if what she gets from them never fits her properly.

Also, at my age (70) I'm just not buying very many things any more. Especially as my one child is grown and I don't have grandchildren and don't expect ever to have any.

When the economy was in the toilet...SEARS, changed their ‘date due’ three times on us in one year.
This made it very difficult to budget and as soon as we could we paid off our balance and closed the account, forever.

Tikki

I joined the army in 1972 and was sent to Alaska. We would send a check to my MIL each month and she would go around town paying our bills. One of which was at Sears. Well we bought a car and needed to put new snow tires on it, (go figure) and to do so I needed to raise the credit limit on my Sears card by $100.00. They said they couldn't do it because my MIL was paying our bill instead of us. Paid that sucker off as fast as I could .

I never bought a thing from Sears since then.

in 1970 in the toy department.

Worked her life at Sears, downtown Chicago

She placed my name on the girder that was placed

at the TOP of the tower when it was completed.

Heady stuff for a kid back then

I remember going there when i was a kid. That and Fields.

We had a Sears in our city (about 40 miles south), but no Fields. But, the Sears downtown was WAY bigger than ours, and we didn't have one of the little "sort of" stores they had in small towns. It was a big store, but nothing like the store downtown Chicago.

no one shopped there, so that was the place to park

that are still running (tho major repairs have been made under a service contract).

But the Kenmore brand was sold off over a year ago. The name still exists, but what about the quality?

That was the year they moved to the mall from the local downtown store and became just another place. The old store was much larger, and smells like popcorn and new clothes. We used to go to the downtown store all the time, for everything from clothes to car repairs and Dad's tools. Even parking in the cavernous parking garage was fun. After it moved to the mall, it just lacked interest. Just such a bland, sterile place . Even Montgomery Ward had more appeal.

He picked it up at the local train station and carried it home on his shoulder. My grandmother rocked my mother in it. I still have it and it's in great shape. I'm hoping that my daughter will use it to rock my grandchild in a year or so.

Still have one from 1965. My grandkids love to look at it.

when I was a kid and didn't have too many quarters for the arcade.

Dad bought all of his tools at Sears, mom bought almost everything for the house and for us in terms of school clothes at Sears or from the catalog.

We just had a new appliance delivered from Sears a few days ago. Habit I guess.

My old man, who died a couple of weeks ago, was a buyer for sporting goods at Sears in downtown Chicago in 50s and 60s. Practically everything in our home was Craftsman, Kenmore, and Silvertone.

They had everything in the universe, as well as a lifetime guarantee on their Craftsman tools (which you never needed to use, because they were so well made). Every year at Christmas time, I used to pore over the Christmas Wish Book for HOURS, like it was the Mahabharata or something.

It's particularly sad, because Sears could have actually been Amazon. They had a nationwide distribution network already well in place when the Internet took off.

"Never buy anything from Sears with moving parts."

I get Kobalt tools from Lowe's to fill the Craftsman gap. I'm a mechanic for work and find them perfectly adequate. That cordless 1/2 inch impact wrench WORKS.


The Sears in the mall had the closest bathroom to the arcade.