Sears Announced That It May Sell Three Of Its Iconic Brands -- Kenmore, Craftsman And Diehard

Sears failed when they abandoned men and went after the women. Poor quality tools will get you no where fast. Funny, my grandfather and father both swore by sears but in my generation they are crap. They are a like a good athlete that wont retire, just die and save the name. Remember Wards, I have been passed down some of the their tools and they are very good high quality stuff. I remember in the 80's when they died.
 
Nothing lasts forever. Even our sun is going to die in 5 billion years. I wonder when the internet is going away? Will it morph into some kind of terminator?
 
I thought they were dead a few years ago, I still do not go there as some times the stuff from HF is just as good as some of the last stuff I got from them. And the last time I took my lifetime warranty stuff in for fix or replace it was like pulling teeth. One of the other problems is they stopped making stuff and started rebranding most of the other peoples stuff or selling other peoples stuff as theirs. Whichever way that was the decline for me, why pay extra for something I can get from the manufacture for less.
 
Once those three brands are left, what's left of the company? Those three brands are likely why a good percentage of thier customers come to the store. I worry that they will be bought up by companies that plan to cheapen the products then ride the name as far as they can before people realize they are now poor quality Chinese crap (Cresent wrench, anyone?).
 
cjtoombs said:
Once those three brands are left, what's left of the company?
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Clothing. And TVs. And appliances that they don't have to manage, just sell. Last I heard their strip-mall appliance-only stores were doing better than the rest of the chain (though that's been a few years; I assume this means that's no longer the case). So not much, and the whole thing will be gone soon.

Yes, they've been poorly managed, but the biggest problem was being lost in the middle. Over the past decades companies have polarized their markets and survived, or tried to stay the same and failed. The middle class has disappeared, and with it middle class stores. You have to go cheap like Walmart/Hyundai/others or expensive like Dillards/Nordstrom/Starbucks/Callaway/Mercedes/etc. There's just not much of a market left for those in the middle, thanks to a number of factors including poor management of other companies (sending manufacturing jobs overseas, for instance) and consumers who buy most everything on price alone. If more people were willing to pay 10-15% more for better quality the entire economic situation would be different. Politicians have far less influence over the economy than those who are actually buying and selling. Blaming a president (regardless of party affiliation) is just a matter of mass adoption of political rhetoric as "fact". Some companies drove the "cheaper is better for you" philosophy harder than others, and collectively (not necessarily individually) we have rewarded them for it. Then as that became the almost universally unquestioned belief in most purchasing decisions the companies that hadn't cut their quality had to either do so to compete or be run out of business. The exceptions are the ones who differentiated themselves enough that people would pay more for that category, while cutting costs elsewhere. This is why you see luxury vehicles at Walmart and dirt cheap, disposable cars in line at Starbucks. And it's the main reason why companies like Sears, Mervyn's, ShopKo, K-Mart, Circuit City, and others like them have either failed or are in the process. They didn't go cheap enough or nice enough for enough people to be willing to go there.

There's a great book on this subject, by the way, if anyone wants to read about it in greater depth. "Trading Up: The New American Luxury".

Original: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trading-up-michael-silverstein/1114477806
Reprint, new subtitle: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trading-up-michael-j-silverstein/1100362672
 
Sears should have been Amazon. They were slow to jump on the internet and when they finally did had such a horrible web presence (and still do). I don't blame this on consumers I blame this on misguided brain dead management. They lacked vision and focused on the next quarter rather than the next decade.
 
Fair points, but it is extraordinarily rare for management to direct consumer behavior. (This is one of the ways Steve Jobs was so unique.) The ability to understand customers and direct an organization around those customers' needs and desires is the most fundamental role of an executive. So yes, management failed, but they failed to understand how consumers had changed. Most consumers no longer drive to centralized shopping centers. They buy online or they go to a place nearby or one that is convenient to their commute. Driving across town just to go to the mall (where Sears usually is) just is not common enough anymore.

Their website is still one of the worst I've ever seen. At least they have improved the ability to see if you're looking at a product that Sears actually carries versus 3rd parties selling through their site. They indeed have been trying to be Amazon, but without letting go of the physical stores; you can not excel in both worlds, at least not when you're the size of Sears in the realm of physical stores or aspiring to be the size of Amazon online.

You don't have to agree that fault lies with consumers. Most consumers (who have ever even taken 2 seconds to consider the matter) don't agree with that statement. That's why it isn't going to change any time soon.
 
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