Both of my parents met at Sears during the 1990s. My mother had worked for retail, while my father worker in automotive. Sears is the reason I exist, this store chain is like a parent to me. It is sad to see it die.
I once heard a story about a Sears executive in the mid 1990’s that actually wanted to move their catalog business online and get in front of the internet boom that eventually happened. Instead of being proactive about it, they fired him. It’s like they were destined to fail.
I would love to know what happened to him. It would be amazing if he ended up at a high position at the likes of Amazon I have a relative that worked for Sears Holdings, so there was incentive for me to buy stuff at Sears or Kmart because of the employee discount. The website was one of the worst online websites out there. Amazon's was bad at the time, but it was better than a Sears Holdings online store. If Sears Holdings ended up with better navigation, there was an opportunity right there! The crazy thing was that Sears after the Kmart buyout had the infrastructure to do what many retailers are doing now, especially Amazon and Walmart. Many places are advertising 1-2 day delivery, and if they got the logistics right, they could have pulled it off. There also has been a trend of buy online and pick up at the store. So, if Kmart didn't have something like a higher-end item and Sears was an inconvenient drive, why can't you deliver the Sears item to Kmart?
Not really a fair comparison. Sears made lots of profit in it's day. Amazon has never made a profit. In my opinion, Amazon is a shell business with nefarious goals. Sears was just a store.
@SublimeHawk6 assets, if the company is valued at a certain amount, it can borrow money and roll on it with Research and development for upcoming projects/business, which was successful enough that they are now monopolizing America's trade, then soon logistics.
@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Amazon does make profit they just use it to invest in themselves. They buy their own planes, technology, and make their own deliveries. Cutting the middle man so in the future they control the market which gives them the upper hand over the competition.
I remember being a teenager back in the mid-90s and even then Sears was the "Old Person" store. The only thing that remained popular from Sears was Craftsman Tools and Die Hard Batteries.
I recall almost the exact moment in the 1980s when I realized Sears was doomed. A Walmart came to town, so I checked it out. There I could buy some underwear for almost half what Sears charged, but I had to do it on my own. After making the purchase, I quickly realized how I really didn't need a salesclerk to help me buy such items. It appears Sam Walton saw the writing on the wall in the 1970s when he probably noted that people were willing to save some money by filling their own gas tanks, rather than pay extra for an attendant to do it for them. But that wasn't the only blindness Sears execs suffered. They took their focus off retail sales and instead expanded into real estate, banking and insurance, which only accelerated their demise. The Sears Tower marked the pinnacle of their hubris. Isn't it ironic that it was Amazon which copied Sears' original 19th-century idea of allowing people to buy products from their own living room which dealt the final death blow into the failed former retail giant.
Correct even if it meant doing business with Amazon and Ebay. Coporate pride killed them. There was a time Sears meant Quality period. Good Tools with awesome garantee even without receipt. Craftsman. Lawn Movers great.
@@yoursleepparalysisdemon8171 Sears once sold houses. They had blueprints and would sell you all the lumber and stuff to build it. I grew up in one myself.
When Sears outsourced the Craftsman tool production to China, they abandoned their most loyal customer base, which caused that most loyal customer base to abandon them.
@@bringiton660 This is exactly the point in one of two email complaints I sent to Sears, 5 or 6 years ago. I told them if I wanted Harbor Freight quality tools, I would go to Harbor Freight and get them cheaper. I also mentioned that I felt like they abandoned us. I never got a reply.
I’m from St. Louis originally but live in Phoenix. It will always be the sears tower for as long as we keep calling it that. Maybe one day If they’re lucky they can buy it back
Its kinda sad that my dad (93) didnt really ever realize that the store was failing. A number of years ago he would talk about calling Sears for things that he needed and how it was hard to get help anymore. I had to explain to him that Sears would likely be closing soon. I know it hit him hard in a way.
why would you tell hm that jesus christ what a thing to do to your old man. Like killing off his oldest and bestest friend. Don't do that people.. you don't HAVE to do certain things.. as we age.
@@keetahbrough you can either tell the old man, or let him find out the hard way. Because not telling him only saves him the heartache if his time is near… so he made the right decision. Old man is immortal. Can’t be having no one to replace his craftsman angle grinder when it breaks down next.
I went to a barely surviving Sears and it does feel depressing. A lot of other stores feel more comfortable. Sears just feels like Costco, but a lot more saddening.
As a walmart employee in 1989 I remember a leader board posted in the breakroom that listed sears and kmart as #1 and 2 with walmart #3. Walmart was intent on being #1 and they did, far sooner then they even suspected I believe. I don't think anyone back then could envision how hard and fast both sears and kmart would fall.
Sears thought they could bully Amazon the way they and J.C. Penney bullied eBay back in the day. 2008 screwed all of their plans up, because the price difference on some items jumped 2:1, Sears versus Amazon. They'd likely still be thriving had the 2008 financial crisis not happened, seeing as how K-Mart was being turned into a dump for all of their debt before they sold it off to someone who didn't know what they were getting. Their worst mistake in my opinion was selling Craftsman and the manufacturing plants for Kenmore appliances. Those were the only two things making them money. Now with Whirlpool having ended their partnership, Sears is forced to sell badge engineered products made by LG at a higher price than LG.
After Circuit City closed its doors, I took a management position at the Sears in our local mall. Let me just say, talking to corporate was like talking to a pre-school classroom. They had absolutely no idea what they were doing.....certainly not for a company that old. I left shortly after I started there, without any notice other then a phone call letting them know I would never return as a manager, employee of any kind, or a customer. What was a great company when I was a kid became a complete joke.
Here in Canada, we had Future Shop (which was owned by Best Buy. One Xmas, I won a $500 15" Compaq laptop, so, I took it to the store & wanted to trade for a MacBook Pro for school (which was like $2,000), the manager was like "NO PROBLEM!!!" I traded a free $500 laptop for a $2,000 15" MacBook Pro & an $500 iPod. They closed like 3 months later lol
Being the grandson of a former CEO of Sears in the late 50s, it breaks my heart that this loved and iconic store has become a skeleton of its former self. We lived and breathed Sears. He was a titan in retail, a dollar man during ww2, Chairman of the Committee of Economic Development for Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. On numerous boards in corporate business. He took pride In what Sears offered the public and especially the employees. He was a wonderful man and believed in corporate responsibility. Now, our country and businesses are strictly about profits, dividends, off shoring jobs, no customer service. Eddie Lambert and his type are the scum of the business world,they don't give a rats ass about people, employees, integrity, community, or country.
My dad became an Allstate insurance agent right before they spun off. He shared an office initially then had his own office. Sadly that office venture lasted 23 months.
Also, what was interesting is that the real estate company that sold my store was ironically once owned by Sears. Yes, Coldwell Banker was the one who put the space up for sale.
Tai Maishu-Nao it's funny really, how alot of companies that we know of today are spun off of another, usually dead, company. The fact that CarMax came from circuit city, and now all that's left of circuit city is CarMax, always struck with me.
The last time I went into a Sears was in 2013. It was the most dismal shopping experience I've ever had. The store was devoid of shoppers, the merchandise was skimpy, and the clerks could not have cared less. I was shopping for a dress, and what meager selection they had was nothing but really poorly-made polyester dresses that you wouldn't even find in a dollar store. They felt like they were made out of cheap plastic. Very sad; I worked for them in the late 1980s and remember what a giant the store used to be.
I didn't shop very much at Sears when I was younger, but my Mom loved buying its Kenmore appliances and Dad bought mostly its Craftsman tools and DieHard equipment for Mom's Subaru.
To be fair, by then, Sears was pretty much sunk. Back in the day, when I was a kid, Sears was a great store and all dads shopped there for tools, tires, or anything that would go in a "shed."
one of the sears buildings built in Minnesota during the 1920's was transformed into an apartment building on top, clinic in the middle, market for ethnic groceries and goods on the first floor, and civil center in the basement. the sears in the Mall of America was where I got the first video game I enjoyed on my own. the one I went to more often is a place i would frequent with my grandma. I have so many memories with sears, it's sad to see it hardly exist anymore.
I'll never forget that Mall of America Sears. Had many wonderful memories there. I heard MoA has changed a lot. They even got rid of the Marshall's and the Dollar Tree on the same third floor???
Same here. Was born in 93, but I do remember sears for having the fun gaming section right next to the workout equipment they sold. Lol they used to have foosball, basketball hoops, all that stuff. Would be so much fun lol. We’d be like the only people in the store though
I may only be 19 years old, but some of my best memories were in Sears and Kmart stores. Growing up I was raised by my grandparents who swore by Sears to buy absolutely everything. From our mattresses, washers and dryers, appliances, tools, lawn mowers, and clothes of course, you name it from Sears my grandparents bought it! I used to love going there to go back to school shopping it was always my favorite! Lots of great memories, a shame things ended the way they did!
Same here always so excited to walk in to the entrance of the mall and jump on the large squares. Now the whole mall is nearly abandoned. Oh look I’m 19 and a Miller too😂
The last sears I saw was empty and everything was heavily discounted 10-15 years ago, I think I went in there because I was traveling for work and wanted to go to the mall to poke around and I couldn't believe there was still a sears as they had all closed in my area by that time. Never really cared for them honestly.
Sears employee in the 70s: "I'd be glad to help you find what you're looking for?" Sears employee in the 80s: "You might find what you're looking for on the second floor" Sears employee in the 90s: "I don't know, and I don't work in that department"
I’d love to see a comparison of the associate attitudes with their salaries throughout the decades. In any market, including labor, you get what you pay for.
My favourite thing about Sears was the feel of the stores. It felt right out of the 80s or 90s. Shopping there made me feel like I was living in the past. I really miss being able to go to my local mall and feeling like that. :(
Orianna Stad - Shopping at Sears, Pennys and Wards reminds us when our mothers took us shopping and when we wnet out with our young husband or wife shopping on weekends and evenings. Stores had cafeterias and coffee shops. They were nice experiences.
As a kid growing up in the late 70s, the arrival of the annual Sears Christmas Wish Book was a HUGE anticipated event. So many wonderful memories. I really miss that time.
The last time I went into a Sears the place had no employees & the shelves were almost empty. We ended up exploring the store including the employees only areas. Spent about 2 hours & not one employee was seen. The place was open for business & it was 3 in the afternoon
I went to sears recently and I was surprised that it was very busy but this was during thanksgiving week and I tell u I thought I was going into a dead store and it wasn’t even an outlet store this was in a big mall in Dallas and I tell u they were big lines everywhere I was surprised big time thinking that sears has completely died off , thinking that it was this busy blew my mind
I worked for Sears back in the early 80's. There were many things that led to their downfall. The biggest one was losing market share to Walmart, then to internet shopping. The management at Sears were blissfully unaware through their own igonrance and unwillingness to adapt to a changing market.
I worked for another big retailer with the same problem: management blissfully unaware of the real world. They got bought out by a venture capital group who then fired management at all levels. Our managers never saw it coming.
@@nicopolis7377 Its was more than that back in the day. Back in the late seventies and early eighties, if you sold a MA with the product you could get as much as 13%
I actually got to watch a mall slowly die out while I was growing up. It was a mall in Jonesboro AR and for a long time, it was where everyone got whatever they needed. It had a SEARS and a JCPennys and all the other stores in between. Then the city opened up an even bigger mall, and slowly one by one, the businesses in the first mall just pulled out. The last to go were ironically SEARS and JCPennys. Last time I saw it was just this big abandoned mall with absolutely nothing in it. Honestly a little bit sad thinking back on it.
That’s what’s going on with my mall. Burlington coat factory has left and sears has closed meaning have lost two huge tenants for there building. Lots of restaurants closed down and left the mall to due to high rent cost. Lots of people aren’t making it in a mall anymore so they leave to try else where.
It's sad and somewhat ironic. Sears' rise can be attributed to its innovative sales and marketing through its catalogue, yet, generations later, failed to recognize the innovative nature of the Internet. This is another prime example of the importance of connecting with your customers and adjusting to their ever-changing needs. Many thanks to the gentleman who agreed to be interviewed, as well as to you for setting it up. I'm always delighted when you elect to include one. It adds another layer of depth and a degree of connectivity that's always appreciated. Thank you!
The sears in my city’s mall has been “closing out “ for about six years now. They don’t even play music anymore. The only reason it’s still there is cause our mall itself is dying, and sears is the only reason people still come- along with kohl’s . It’s crazy.
Our entire house was from Sears growing up. My dad and I would go to the separate outdoor building at Sears to look at mini bikes and lawn stuff while my mom shopped in the main store. Such a great time. I can still smell that smell of rubber tires and outdoor equipment. We lost a great store when Sears went under. Even my Boy Scout uniform and equipment was bought at Sears. And that candy counter with those chocolate covered peanuts. I can still see my dad waiting in the shoe department for my mom to finish shopping. Such nostalgia. R.I.P. Sears & Roebuck.
My Dad worked for Sears for 30 years, retired (luckily in the late 70’s), put 4 boys thru college, and lived a nice middle class life. So sad 😞 to see it gone...it was a great ride.
I remember when the Sears closed in Halifax. EVERYTHING was for sale. You could buy the tables, the clothing racks, the display cases, coat hangers, etc etc, and if you wanted to buy ALL of the, 80 pairs of boots, for example, they would make you a great deal on the lot. A sad sight to see actually. Many great memories of flipping through the Christmas Wish Book and going to the stores.
Scooter30FTW: Discover Financial services. Allstate insurance. Dean Witter investment services. Coldwell Banker real estate. Prodigy internet service provider.
Major miss information disclosed: Sears actually moved Discover to their Dean Witter division and then sold it off to Morgan Stanley in late 90s. I know because I worked for Discover from the Dean Witter era to Morgan Stanley letting it go in late 2006. There was no Citi Bank involvement.
My town has a neighborhood of “kit” houses, many of which are Sears houses. They really stood the test of time. I wish the kit houses were still available.
Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure well it wasn’t just one box. They would ship the materials in separate boxes for different things. For example one box would have a some of the wood siding and another box would have bricks for the chimney
Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure They came in boxes as That One Guy said. Each piece was numbered and the kit came with a plan to follow. You could hire a contractor to put it together or gather your friends together and assemble it (I read stories of folks doing their own build, though as I haven’t the skills I can’t imagine doing it myself. )
*2,000 years in the future* Archaeologists: "We believe these temples were constructed to a God known as Sears. People would bring old clothes to lay inside the temple as a prayer for good health."
@@dgpsf asking for a frappucino blessing from the priests or priestesses at these temples invoked wrath. As did something called the secret menu, which brought down the full anger of the spiritual leaders
The most haunted feeling and liminal space I’ve ever been in was a Sears in 2014. The store was practically empty and everything that was left was severely discounted. The back room I went in to was EMPTY, like they did not have a single thing in stock. An absolutely cursed place.
old abandoned stores like Sears or K-Marts have such an oddly calm, dream-like quality to them. I just wanna go to one and walk around inside for an hour or two and just lose myself.
There's an abandoned K-Mart near where I used to live. It's boarded up so I'm not sure about finding a way inside. Regardless, the "Big K" sign box is still there in front but tattered and faded. This combined with the empty parking lot gives it an incredibly odd and dystopian look, especially as I have memories of this location as an active store...
@@BrightSunFilms Between you and me Jake, compared to Circuit City, Ames, and even Toys R Us, Sears, and our beloved Kmart for that matter, are SPECIAL LEVELS of a dumpster fire. They were SCREWED into bankruptcy, kinda like Toys R Us.
I always thought that Sears was ideally positioned to transition to the internet sales model, more than any company. With such extensive experience and infrastructure in mail-order, why didn't they adjust slightly and beat Amazon?
@Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure Mall in the 90's are nothing compared to malls of today. Although, interestingly, the mall I normally visit the day after christmas and which is normally super quiet was absolutely packed this year. I wonder if that's a sign of people visiting malls more or if that was just a fluke.
@@amandasky2296 bahaha. I have never heard that in my life. This was a professional photographer from work a couple years ago. In real life, I look 16 (if that) blessed with a baby face.
Same with bars & casinos. Latter don't even put clocks on the wall to make it easier on us to relaaaax & lose track of time.. how kind of them to care so much. 🙃
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 I’ve seen shopping centers that had huge windows. They weren’t IN the stores themselves. I worked in an outdoor sporting goods store and the owner told me they had no windows or skylights in this store so people couldn’t judge how much time had passed.
It was a big deal to visit Sears in the 60's..particularly on Saturday night..with the Beatles playing on the AM radio. Great memories of being a kid then.
Now THIS was the episode I was waiting for. My family used to shop at Sears a ton when I was young. My hometown store is now in the process of shutting down and it's really sad to see it leave since I grew up with it. Hopefully Sears can pull through again. Thank you for this amazing episode Jake!!
Born in 1959, I still remember our Sears Wish Book arriving in the mail a couple months before Christmas. That catalog was such an amazing look into all the toys we never saw in stores or on TV commercials, it was like fantasy-land to us, and we would dog-ear pages of the toys we hoped Santa would consider. Although I don't think we ever got anything we chose specifically, we never felt disappointed on Christmas morning. It's too bad Sears never kept-with-the-times, as it really did hold-on to a fuddy-duddy persona of old styles, grandma fashion sense, outdated merchandise and overall had an "un-hip" thing going on! Then, one bad manager/CEO with no desire to work hard to make a better product with what he was in charge of, sent a $B company to its grave.
My grandparents were all about Sears when I was a kid. This would have been in the 80s and 90s. They had a Sears charge card and almost everything they bought for their home, yard, garden, and garage was from Sears. Appliances, tools, clothes, kitchenware, electronics, towels... you name it. It's a shame that they've been going downhill for quite some time now because they used to have some pretty nice stuff. Not anything fancy, but just about anything a middle class family could want or need. I remember leafing through grandma's giant Sears catalogue at Christmastime writing down what I wanted.
It seems that all middle class families just spent money and bought stuff because they could. Everytime I went to my Grandparents house as a kid in the 90s, we *always* went shopping. Sears, Montgomery Ward, Marshall's, "Penney's", and old school Wal*Mart (before they adopted the grocery side). My grandparents had a "charge card" for each store and would just buy tons of junk really. Snacks, lawn ornaments, tools, stock up on batteries for the end of the world, clothes, really ugly clothes, more shoes than you would know what to do with, etc. I think it was just a thing at the time. Strong economy and the consumerist mindset went wild. I'm 36 now and I don't spend money like they did. Never had a credit card, only buy what I need after searching online for the best deal, I try to visit brick and mortar stores out of pity, but I don't spend much. Just get what I need if it's a reasonable price. The lack of a middle class and the lack of people more than willing to spend every dollar that comes into their possession and buy insane amounts of things on credit had to make a huge impact on Sears and the malls.
First off, WOW! This creator did great and so accurate. I am an older man and while I never work directly for the Sears Corporation, almost 95% of my income came from them during a significant time in my life. I am an electrical engineer and did was closely paired with a hometown Sears. I watched this unfold first hand. This creator portrayed the extremely accurately and it really surprised me as a lot of creators loose that element of truth that this hero obviously has. I have just discovered this creator’s content and am uniquely impressed by the handful of videos I have seen thus far. Thanks you and I hope this creator keeps his excellent integrity, much respect. I wish good health and all the best to you and yours!
Amazing how a company that blew up for having catalogs sent to homes, went down in an era where you can literally show your entire catalog online. How not to adapt your company 101.
Watch that area. What's gonna happen to all the closed malls? I'm expecting as usual: rich ppl will bring down the cost of that real estate, buy it at it cheapest, then open/build something that's gonna bring them a ton of money. This is done in select parts of every big city across USA; I've been watching it since arriving 27yrs ago.
I remember the Sears Christmas catalog in the 80’s. That was so exciting! Kenmore is still my favorite appliance company. I think they were a Sears company.
He shoulda come to juniors!!! I’d dress up boys in prom dresses and parade them thru the store😂😂😂 I really was a horrible employee....but I was one of the ‘good’ ones😂
Shortly before sears went totally out of the mall we tend to go to, my husband went in to exchange a craftsman wrench, as they still honored the lifetime guarantee. The process of checking out was an absolute nightmare. It took nearly 10 minutes of “what’s your phone number?” “What’s your zip code?” “Let’s pull up your rewards” kid of questions and the poor teenage boy checking us out couldn’t bypass it. It was such an unpleasant experience and comparing it to quick, easy checkout experiences really drove home how out of touch sears had become
i miss stores like Mervyn's and Sears. i remember being excited to go to Circurt City to get new CDs for my walkman in the early 2000s. in my area the old mervyn's and circurt city buildings are both now a Sprouts market and the Sears factories and buildings are just there as a memory
I remember going to like two stores when they had all the fire sales going; I was going to get a pair or two of jeans, but they were only like $10 off the normal price lol; I'm like damn guys, really taking your time on this store closure huh? I could've gone in like a week later to see if the prices had gone down, but I couldn't be asked.
Very sad to watch this, especially now that Sears is getting closer and closer to closing entirely. I remember going to Sears many times as a kid, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
The theme I see with all of these videos about these companies is that they fail to recognize new startups as a threat, they fail to adapt to changing markets, and they crippled themselves with debt.
Justin Arenas- I am fearful about your mother loosing out completely on any promised retirement coming from Sears. A friend of mine who was a Delta airline captain for like 25 years had his retirement check come down from around $2000 a month to less than $500 a month after company went bankrupt.
*Who remembers not knowing where to check out your products? There would be 15 checkout places without anyone there. Then you’d have to go chase someone down.*
@@waylandjennings4073 WHOOO YA MIGA.... OVER 60 MILES OF REPLACEMENT FENCE! BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT AND OTHER NON-WHITE EMPLOYMENT UP! MAKE ISRAEL GREAT AGAIN!
I remember as a young girl, one of my favorite parts of the month of December was looking through the Sears catalog to come up with Christmas ideas. My siblings and I would look all through the catalog, eyeing all the toys we dreamed of getting under the tree that year. I used to think Santa's elves made the items in the catalog. The Sear's Catalog was pretty much what Amazon is. It contained almost anything you can think of, and you ordered it and it got shipped to you. It is shocking to me that the Sears catalog was discontinued and never brought back. If the Sears catalog had been put online, that would have been a really big deal. They could very well have become what Amazon is today had the catalog migrated to online instead of being cancelled.
Amazon is showing signs of the same "We can do no wrong attitude" with their search engine results that always brings up what they NEED to sell instead of what we ask for.
Well, here's the thing. You don't have a fair comparison between Sears and Amazon. Sears was a just a giant retail store chain. Amazon has pulled the wool over the public's eyes. It's not "a retail store" - that's an illusion. Amazon is really a BIG DATA COMPANY (exactly like the ones you'd find in California's - Silicon Valley) - "disguised" as a bunch of retail operations. Big data (and our 5000+ data points of internet interaction) is the new Texas oil of the 21rst century. Beyond the money that they've made from us from hard goods sold, they continue to make even more after the sale by using our interactions on their website to tweak there suggestions to us of new products to buy and selling our "behavior patterns" to 3rd parties - without us getting any cut of those secondary sales. Ahhh, no sorry, they aren't going down - not by a long shot. To see that I'm right, all you have to do is type this in your web browser "Amazon.com + Big Data" and you'll see lots of web pages pop up where even established big data companies are all giddy and fawning over Amazon's big data initiatives, strategies and tactics. Like this one: www.smartdatacollective.com/lessons-how-amazon-uses-big-data/ Everything you do on their website is being tracked, measured and recorded. Ex. how long you stay on a page. How long it takes to slide your cursor across the screen or move from one item to the next. Then a profile (digital profiling) is created of you and similar patterns are searched for in others, then those are lumped into groups to describe entire populations of characters that behave the same way on their site - which is extremely useful info. to marketing agencies and social scientists. Who can then refine their techniques to target you better for future sales.
As of early 2022, there were just seven Sears stores open. Sister KMart closed it's last store in California in early 2022. Owner Transformco apparently is more interested in the real estate rather than the stores. The Lampert brothers also helmed the demise of Montgomery Ward in the early 2000's. My father oversaw the renovation of one older store (N. Kingshighway), building a new store in the massive (and now-closed) Northwest Plaza in St. Louis, along with their former warehouse in Hazelwood, so we knew much about Sears. It's all gone now.
You never think your business model will be a thing of the past someday. Kodak, a company mentioned by this very channel on the bankrupted series, created the digital camera, but never gave up on film. Never thought new technology would reach the hands of the average Joe. When you see It, it's too late
@@otaviofrnazario Film is still popular but for actual Photographers who like to showcase their work in museums. Nothing beats being in the dark room and having to do it all from scratch. It is like cricketing, knitting and sewing. It feels good to have and wear clothing you made yourself by hand. 😎I feel the same with photography developing the film, reviewing the negatives old fashion way and then developing the pictures using actual gloss paper or matte paper.
@@markeyboi6545 Bingo - you could create a new term: 'Predatory Management' - Drive the company out of business, so you can buy it, then reshape it and bring it back as a new LLC cutting out all the bad debt and contracts. The magic of Bankruptcy Laws. Legal & profitable way to take over and turn things around. . . now ... ... ... still waiting ... ... ... for the Turn around ... ... ... Boomers love the ''Old Sears''. Leaders build successful companies, Successful companies attract followers, followers take over the companies and become aimless. companies are driven into the ground by MBA managers with fancy paper degrees but couldn't sell a life vest to a man drowning ... Quality is Job #1. The cheapness disease, seeing the customers only as suckers to fleece - it's just impossible to hide that contempt for the customer, and they leave. No one wants disrespected with junk products. That's why Apple is the new Sears... Glue together cheap products that break when you drop them, glass on both sides, just - wow. No, designed obsolescence is Toxic Waste thinking. People would rather have products and companies they can TRUST. Lose that TRUST and then they lose the customers. Forever.
@@markeyboi6545 But,look at all of the land & good locations Eddie controls. That is why he bought Kmart and Sears. He'll make billions!! Sh**ing on the rest of us.
I remember the prices of some items being absolutely ridiculous. I’ll never forget walking around and seeing a 4 pack of Hanse boxers for $28 when you could get the same thing at Walmart for ten bucks if not less.
When the mall in my hometown opened in 1971, it had a Sears & JC Penney at opposite ends of a cross shape. The crossbeam, as it were, had two local retailers to anchor those ends. 50 years later, only JC Penney remains as the sole original store from 1971.
I can still see my mom sitting at the kitchen table, phone cord stretched across the kitchen, reading off item numbers out of the catalog to a call center associate on the other end. We were at one of the mall stores almost every weekend. Nearly all our clothes were from Sears. All my dad’s tools were Craftsman. Our appliances were mostly Kenmore. When we bought a battery it was usually a Die Hard. Sometimes my Dad and I would get bored while Mom shopped and would play Pong on the demo console for a while or look at TVs. When I got my license I’d often go pick up catalog orders. When I started working I’d spend a large chunk of my paycheck most weeks on tools for my job. After we kids left home Mom took a break from her homemaking career and went to work in the furniture and lighting department for a while. Last time I went in to our old favorite Sears store it was half empty. Many of the goods in the tool department had been replaced with ‘See associate’ signs. There was just one guy in the department trying to take care of check outs and returns all by himself. Had to go home and order my tools off Amazon. Sad.
I worked for Sears till about a month ago. There was days when literally no one came in, easiest job I've ever had. Needless to say we closed
Corey Christensen you get an F in the chat
Corey Christensen Corey I would’ve bought an item just for you. Will you marry me?
Eddie W damn thirsty
@@eddiew2325 If this isnt internet cringe idk what is.
My Dad had a saying back in the late 40s, “If it’s not in the Sears catalogue, I don’t need it.” They were the Amazon for most of the 20th century.
Your father? Back in the late 40s? So he's over 80 yrs old?
@@graygravity3856 How is it a surprise for you that people are in their 80's? It's not the medieval ages anymore.
@@mariekatherine5238 Send my wishes to his birthday alright? What a Legend!
Champ Kind maybe shut up and be kind.
Marie Katherine wow! Happy late birthday to your father! 🥳🎉🍰🎂
It’s kind of crazy that Sears that started as a mail order business is being put out a business by Amazon which is basically mail order
Exactly. Stupid Sears.
The irony
Things come in a full circle. Weird.
@@aday1637 stupid amazon.
And Amazon will then build brick and mortar stores repeating the cycle
Both of my parents met at Sears during the 1990s. My mother had worked for retail, while my father worker in automotive. Sears is the reason I exist, this store chain is like a parent to me. It is sad to see it die.
I once heard a story about a Sears executive in the mid 1990’s that actually wanted to move their catalog business online and get in front of the internet boom that eventually happened. Instead of being proactive about it, they fired him. It’s like they were destined to fail.
I would love to know what happened to him. It would be amazing if he ended up at a high position at the likes of Amazon
I have a relative that worked for Sears Holdings, so there was incentive for me to buy stuff at Sears or Kmart because of the employee discount. The website was one of the worst online websites out there. Amazon's was bad at the time, but it was better than a Sears Holdings online store. If Sears Holdings ended up with better navigation, there was an opportunity right there!
The crazy thing was that Sears after the Kmart buyout had the infrastructure to do what many retailers are doing now, especially Amazon and Walmart. Many places are advertising 1-2 day delivery, and if they got the logistics right, they could have pulled it off. There also has been a trend of buy online and pick up at the store. So, if Kmart didn't have something like a higher-end item and Sears was an inconvenient drive, why can't you deliver the Sears item to Kmart?
Especially considering Fast Eddie
It sounds like when Blockbuster video had the opportunity to buy netflix 50 million dollars, and didn't... oops.
No one fires an executive just over a strategy pitch. There’s got to be more to that story.
Sears was the pre-internet Amazon of America. A fallen legend.
Not really a fair comparison. Sears made lots of profit in it's day. Amazon has never made a profit. In my opinion, Amazon is a shell business with nefarious goals. Sears was just a store.
@Real boxing Fan1 They do now, barely... but they operated for like 15-16 years with no profit lmao
@SublimeHawk6 assets, if the company is valued at a certain amount, it can borrow money and roll on it with Research and development for upcoming projects/business, which was successful enough that they are now monopolizing America's trade, then soon logistics.
@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Amazon does make profit they just use it to invest in themselves. They buy their own planes, technology, and make their own deliveries. Cutting the middle man so in the future they control the market which gives them the upper hand over the competition.
Went from mail order to box stores, you see Amazon doing the same thing
I remember being a teenager back in the mid-90s and even then Sears was the "Old Person" store. The only thing that remained popular from Sears was Craftsman Tools and Die Hard Batteries.
Allan Scott STOP
And Kenmore.
The old person store was Montgomery Ward
@@erocker78 In 2000s k-mart and sears were the “old people stores”
I recall almost the exact moment in the 1980s when I realized Sears was doomed.
A Walmart came to town, so I checked it out. There I could buy some underwear for almost half what Sears charged, but I had to do it on my own. After making the purchase, I quickly realized how I really didn't need a salesclerk to help me buy such items. It appears Sam Walton saw the writing on the wall in the 1970s when he probably noted that people were willing to save some money by filling their own gas tanks, rather than pay extra for an attendant to do it for them. But that wasn't the only blindness Sears execs suffered.
They took their focus off retail sales and instead expanded into real estate, banking and insurance, which only accelerated their demise. The Sears Tower marked the pinnacle of their hubris.
Isn't it ironic that it was Amazon which copied Sears' original 19th-century idea of allowing people to buy products from their own living room which dealt the final death blow into the failed former retail giant.
poetic
VERY ironic
The last Abandoned episode of the decade, I’m glad you continue making these
Hey Kim Jong-un you should buy Sears.
Thanks, supreme leader.
There was no year zero, therefore a new decade will start on Jan 1, 2021.
Sears should have pushed into internet harder. We should be subscribing to Sears Prime.
There were amazon before amazon
Correct even if it meant doing business with Amazon and Ebay. Coporate pride killed them. There was a time Sears meant Quality period. Good Tools with awesome garantee even without receipt. Craftsman. Lawn Movers great.
@@jonj4357 Yeah. They were Amazon before the internet--catalog sales.
Ya my mom works for sears and she says one of the main reasons they are dying is because they never kept up with trends
My Grandfather actually still lives in a Sears house
What is a sears house
@@yoursleepparalysisdemon8171
Sears once sold houses. They had blueprints and would sell you all the lumber and stuff to build it. I grew up in one myself.
we have some in my town
Rumour is there's some houses tree streets j c tn
Look up the Sears Magnolia. The top notch kit house they sold. Just a beauty.
Getting the Sears (and JC Penney) Christmas catalogs and going through each and every page was a highlight of the holiday season as a kid in the 90s
The JC Penney's was only a companion, Sears' was Master & Commander. 😂
After I heard Sears was closing I knew for sure that was where spirit Halloween was opening
The hermit crab of retail stores...
Lexi Nicole mine too
A halloween store so large, they could have their own in-house haunted house ride
Lexi Nicole Samee..
When Sears outsourced the Craftsman tool production to China, they abandoned their most loyal customer base, which caused that most loyal customer base to abandon them.
couldn't be more true!!
@@bringiton660 This is exactly the point in one of two email complaints I sent to Sears, 5 or 6 years ago. I told them if I wanted Harbor Freight quality tools, I would go to Harbor Freight and get them cheaper. I also mentioned that I felt like they abandoned us. I never got a reply.
Everyone in Chicago still calls it the Sears Tower, that will probably never change.
Yup it never will, always the Sears Tower it shall remain lol.
I’m certainly not calling it the stupid “Willis” Tower. 😂
I’m from St. Louis originally but live in Phoenix. It will always be the sears tower for as long as we keep calling it that. Maybe one day If they’re lucky they can buy it back
Same thing here... No one called the steel tower the UPMC tower here. Somethings won't change
Its kinda sad that my dad (93) didnt really ever realize that the store was failing. A number of years ago he would talk about calling Sears for things that he needed and how it was hard to get help anymore. I had to explain to him that Sears would likely be closing soon. I know it hit him hard in a way.
Your comment is so heart touching yes I agree with you, can we be friends if you don’t mind?
why would you tell hm that jesus christ what a thing to do to your old man. Like killing off his oldest and bestest friend. Don't do that people.. you don't HAVE to do certain things.. as we age.
@Keetah Brough it's a store, not his friend. Grow up.
@@keetahbrough I'm with you Keetah. Why tell him?
@@keetahbrough you can either tell the old man, or let him find out the hard way. Because not telling him only saves him the heartache if his time is near… so he made the right decision.
Old man is immortal. Can’t be having no one to replace his craftsman angle grinder when it breaks down next.
Does anyone else feel depressed after watching these episodes about the stores that we grew up with?
Yeah I do. Sucks
I miss kmart and radio shack
@@jamesfranco7270 Radio Shack was so awesome when I was a kid, even better than Toys R Us.
@@artcamera5514 yeah. And now even toys r us is gone. Its unfortunate😭
I remember Sears as one of the entrance stores to a shopping mall. They were literally used as a fancy entrance and exit.
@Tiger Woods' Escalade Fucking FAX
Every sears mall entrance made anybody feel special once they walk through those doors
that reeked of perfume 😂
When I was kid I remember how bland sears was. It was so depressing with no windows or natural light and stuffy smell.
freeman239 yes! Lol The smell!
That’s all wholesale stores
I went to a barely surviving Sears and it does feel depressing. A lot of other stores feel more comfortable. Sears just feels like Costco, but a lot more saddening.
freeman239 Harrowing huh!
The Sears we went to had a popcorn stand inside the front doors! I remember that.
As a walmart employee in 1989 I remember a leader board posted in the breakroom that listed sears and kmart as #1 and 2 with walmart #3. Walmart was intent on being #1 and they did, far sooner then they even suspected I believe. I don't think anyone back then could envision how hard and fast both sears and kmart would fall.
didn't even know of walmart back then.. #3? are you sure it was caldor or bradlees?
They did not fall, rather were taken apart and sold for scrap by hedge fund manager Eddie Lambert, a,La Wallstreet.
your name is funny
Sears was the "Amazon" in its day, but it failed to transform their catalog for the Internet Age.
They had a mountain of consumer data and totally discarded it, instead of forming an internet presence with it.
@@JStorm13 they could've had it all rip
@@mediocrebanters Bruh sears was ran by boomers and it deadass killed them
Sears thought they could bully Amazon the way they and J.C. Penney bullied eBay back in the day. 2008 screwed all of their plans up, because the price difference on some items jumped 2:1, Sears versus Amazon. They'd likely still be thriving had the 2008 financial crisis not happened, seeing as how K-Mart was being turned into a dump for all of their debt before they sold it off to someone who didn't know what they were getting.
Their worst mistake in my opinion was selling Craftsman and the manufacturing plants for Kenmore appliances. Those were the only two things making them money. Now with Whirlpool having ended their partnership, Sears is forced to sell badge engineered products made by LG at a higher price than LG.
After Circuit City closed its doors, I took a management position at the Sears in our local mall. Let me just say, talking to corporate was like talking to a pre-school classroom. They had absolutely no idea what they were doing.....certainly not for a company that old. I left shortly after I started there, without any notice other then a phone call letting them know I would never return as a manager, employee of any kind, or a customer. What was a great company when I was a kid became a complete joke.
Here in Canada, we had Future Shop (which was owned by Best Buy. One Xmas, I won a $500 15" Compaq laptop, so, I took it to the store & wanted to trade for a MacBook Pro for school (which was like $2,000), the manager was like "NO PROBLEM!!!" I traded a free $500 laptop for a $2,000 15" MacBook Pro & an $500 iPod. They closed like 3 months later lol
I also knew the minute they sold their credit card and then melded with Kmart that it was the beginning of the end.
j Z yeah, Kmart knocked the top employee, almost as if to make everyone try mediocre, and they wonder why they don’t exist anymore
I used to look at those catalogs like a thousand times before christmas lol.
Yes!!!
Me too..
Nikki Travis God bless her. That era produced the greatest grandparents ever. I too share very fond memories of my grandparents.
@@Dobviews
- I bet if you were a kid back then and found those catalogs underneth the bed, you'd be devastated!!! lol!
Being the grandson of a former CEO of Sears in the late 50s, it breaks my heart that this loved and iconic store has become a skeleton of its former self. We lived and breathed Sears. He was a titan in retail, a dollar man during ww2, Chairman of the Committee of Economic Development for Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. On numerous boards in corporate business. He took pride In what Sears offered the public and especially the employees. He was a wonderful man and believed in corporate responsibility. Now, our country and businesses are strictly about profits, dividends, off shoring jobs, no customer service. Eddie Lambert and his type are the scum of the business world,they don't give a rats ass about people, employees, integrity, community, or country.
Well said.
Getting a Sears catalog around Christmas time was my favorite thing ever
same here couldn't wait to get it
Did you go through and circle everything you wanted? lol
For me it was the Toys "R" Us big book than Sears
Allstate: are you in good hands?
Sears: ...no :(
This format has been killed but I applaud you for using it correctly 😂😂
My dad became an Allstate insurance agent right before they spun off. He shared an office initially then had his own office. Sadly that office venture lasted 23 months.
That was… S A V A G E
Also, what was interesting is that the real estate company that sold my store was ironically once owned by Sears. Yes, Coldwell Banker was the one who put the space up for sale.
Tai Maishu-Nao it's funny really, how alot of companies that we know of today are spun off of another, usually dead, company. The fact that CarMax came from circuit city, and now all that's left of circuit city is CarMax, always struck with me.
The last time I went into a Sears was in 2013. It was the most dismal shopping experience I've ever had. The store was devoid of shoppers, the merchandise was skimpy, and the clerks could not have cared less. I was shopping for a dress, and what meager selection they had was nothing but really poorly-made polyester dresses that you wouldn't even find in a dollar store. They felt like they were made out of cheap plastic. Very sad; I worked for them in the late 1980s and remember what a giant the store used to be.
I didn't shop very much at Sears when I was younger, but my Mom loved buying its Kenmore appliances and Dad bought mostly its Craftsman tools and DieHard equipment for Mom's Subaru.
To be fair, by then, Sears was pretty much sunk. Back in the day, when I was a kid, Sears was a great store and all dads shopped there for tools, tires, or anything that would go in a "shed."
I worked at Kmart in 2013 and I never bought clothes there. They looked cheap.
😿
one of the sears buildings built in Minnesota during the 1920's was transformed into an apartment building on top, clinic in the middle, market for ethnic groceries and goods on the first floor, and civil center in the basement.
the sears in the Mall of America was where I got the first video game I enjoyed on my own. the one I went to more often is a place i would frequent with my grandma. I have so many memories with sears, it's sad to see it hardly exist anymore.
Your comment is awesome and I agree with you I will like us be friends if that’s okay with you
I'll never forget that Mall of America Sears. Had many wonderful memories there. I heard MoA has changed a lot. They even got rid of the Marshall's and the Dollar Tree on the same third floor???
I remember sears stores as a kid as being “the empty boring store” born in 1990
Same! That and K Mart. My grandmom always used to shop there.
They should have made the transition to e-commerce in the early 2000s tech boom
Same here. Was born in 93, but I do remember sears for having the fun gaming section right next to the workout equipment they sold. Lol they used to have foosball, basketball hoops, all that stuff. Would be so much fun lol. We’d be like the only people in the store though
For me it was the store with the escalator
same lol. i thought sears was so boring whenever i would go with my mom. Born in 1999
It may be named Willis tower, but its still called Sears Tower here.
Been calling it the Sears Tower since I was born, will still call it that till i die
WHAT U TALKING ABOUT!
@Tyler Haraf What HQ? They're almost worthless. They're the Pontiac of retail.
If president Trump buys it
. It will be the Trump Tower. And YOU WILL call it Trump Tower!
..
Who remembers searching through Sears catalogues before Christmas as a kid?
Josh Bacon ME
I vividly remember drooling over the Silvertone electric guitars and amplifiers. Getting the new Sears catalog in the mail was always a great day!
Those were so cool! I remember really wanting this Singer sewing machine for christmas and I never got it
Before my time unfortunately
I may only be 19 years old, but some of my best memories were in Sears and Kmart stores. Growing up I was raised by my grandparents who swore by Sears to buy absolutely everything. From our mattresses, washers and dryers, appliances, tools, lawn mowers, and clothes of course, you name it from Sears my grandparents bought it! I used to love going there to go back to school shopping it was always my favorite! Lots of great memories, a shame things ended the way they did!
Same here always so excited to walk in to the entrance of the mall and jump on the large squares. Now the whole mall is nearly abandoned.
Oh look I’m 19 and a Miller too😂
Go back to school was your favorite season? You kidding me? That one is the worst, just after the best, CHRISMASS!
The last sears I saw was empty and everything was heavily discounted 10-15 years ago, I think I went in there because I was traveling for work and wanted to go to the mall to poke around and I couldn't believe there was still a sears as they had all closed in my area by that time. Never really cared for them honestly.
Sears employee in the 70s: "I'd be glad to help you find what you're looking for?"
Sears employee in the 80s: "You might find what you're looking for on the second floor"
Sears employee in the 90s: "I don't know, and I don't work in that department"
You just made my 2020
You could almost make this same statement for retail stores in general.
"We have a floor for that?
I’d love to see a comparison of the associate attitudes with their salaries throughout the decades. In any market, including labor, you get what you pay for.
My favourite thing about Sears was the feel of the stores. It felt right out of the 80s or 90s. Shopping there made me feel like I was living in the past. I really miss being able to go to my local mall and feeling like that. :(
Orianna Stad
God you’re so right!! I miss it too
Orianna Stad - Shopping at Sears, Pennys and Wards reminds us when our mothers took us shopping and when we wnet out with our young husband or wife shopping on weekends and evenings. Stores had cafeterias and coffee shops. They were nice experiences.
Same.
Why does Sears in the 60’s look more up to date and modern than the ones that went out of business 🥴
As a kid growing up in the late 70s, the arrival of the annual Sears Christmas Wish Book was a HUGE anticipated event. So many wonderful memories. I really miss that time.
Oh hell yeah, circling the toys you wanted, glorious times my friend.
I liked the regular catalog. All those ladies in bras!
@@dr.edwardvedder1992 lol Doc we all did, I preferred Montgomery Ward but I'm a little more cultured 😂
The last time I went into a Sears the place had no employees & the shelves were almost empty.
We ended up exploring the store including the employees only areas. Spent about 2 hours & not one employee was seen. The place was open for business & it was 3 in the afternoon
That’s cool! My local Sears stores have employees so not so fast 😔
They probably knew what was coming and didn't bother showing up for work.
i had to walk through the sears in my mall to get to the parking lot. the next time i went to the mall the sears was not there anymore.
I went to sears recently and I was surprised that it was very busy but this was during thanksgiving week and I tell u I thought I was going into a dead store and it wasn’t even an outlet store this was in a big mall in Dallas and I tell u they were big lines everywhere I was surprised big time thinking that sears has completely died off , thinking that it was this busy blew my mind
There will still be some Sears in America for a couple more years, either they become independent, an outlet, or closed stores.
I actually have one of my grandpas old jean jackets that says “sears, roebuck and co.” on the tag inside.
You could sell that in a couple years for a lot of money
The Inverted Nut
That’s not the point here
hold onto that. You'll be sitting on money after a while.
.
I worked for Sears back in the early 80's. There were many things that led to their downfall. The biggest one was losing market share to Walmart, then to internet shopping. The management at Sears were blissfully unaware through their own igonrance and unwillingness to adapt to a changing market.
I worked for another big retailer with the same problem: management blissfully unaware of the real world. They got bought out by a venture capital group who then fired management at all levels. Our managers never saw it coming.
The start of the downward slide began when they stopped giving their employee's a comission on sales , which I believe was 2 % .
@@nicopolis7377 Its was more than that back in the day. Back in the late seventies and early eighties, if you sold a MA with the product you could get as much as 13%
I actually got to watch a mall slowly die out while I was growing up. It was a mall in Jonesboro AR and for a long time, it was where everyone got whatever they needed. It had a SEARS and a JCPennys and all the other stores in between. Then the city opened up an even bigger mall, and slowly one by one, the businesses in the first mall just pulled out. The last to go were ironically SEARS and JCPennys. Last time I saw it was just this big abandoned mall with absolutely nothing in it. Honestly a little bit sad thinking back on it.
That’s what’s going on with my mall. Burlington coat factory has left and sears has closed meaning have lost two huge tenants for there building. Lots of restaurants closed down and left the mall to due to high rent cost. Lots of people aren’t making it in a mall anymore so they leave to try else where.
Talk to anyone from Chicago, it's still the Sears Tower. We refuse to call it anything else.
@@-NateTheGreat WILLIS TOWER ITS NOW WILLIS TOWER. REPEAT AFTER ME. WILLIS WILLIS WILLIS
@@No-tv6te Are you talking about the Sears Tower?
@@No-tv6te whatchu talkin bout Willis???
Damn those 60's department stores where peak aesthetic!
*Y E S*
Gorgeous
Yea! The new stores they made was legit just a sad tan square with no windows and a small sign at the front.
Let’s face it. No one calls the Willis Tower by its name. We still call it the Sears Tower.
Facts
I only ever heard of it as Sears tower so it's ingrained into my memory only as the Sears tower.
It's sad and somewhat ironic. Sears' rise can be attributed to its innovative sales and marketing through its catalogue, yet, generations later, failed to recognize the innovative nature of the Internet. This is another prime example of the importance of connecting with your customers and adjusting to their ever-changing needs. Many thanks to the gentleman who agreed to be interviewed, as well as to you for setting it up. I'm always delighted when you elect to include one. It adds another layer of depth and a degree of connectivity that's always appreciated. Thank you!
Your comment is so heart touching yes I agree with you, can we be friends if you don’t mind?
The sears in my city’s mall has been “closing out “ for about six years now. They don’t even play music anymore. The only reason it’s still there is cause our mall itself is dying, and sears is the only reason people still come- along with kohl’s . It’s crazy.
Wait, do they still sell things? Where is this
thanks for keeping this going through the years. keep it up!
This breaks my heart. Sears was the best, especially during the holidays. RIP sears
Our entire house was from Sears growing up. My dad and I would go to the separate
outdoor building at Sears to look at mini bikes and lawn stuff while my mom shopped
in the main store. Such a great time. I can still smell that smell of rubber tires and
outdoor equipment. We lost a great store when Sears went under. Even my Boy Scout
uniform and equipment was bought at Sears. And that candy counter with those
chocolate covered peanuts. I can still see my dad waiting in the shoe department
for my mom to finish shopping. Such nostalgia. R.I.P. Sears & Roebuck.
When Sears absorbed Kmart, that signaled the end of both brands.
Doesn't really matter both businesses didn't have much to offer for a while
Star Trek Theory the hell*
You wouldn't believe how massive Kmart is here in Australia it's the best store with everything
@@Carly-j1z they are EVERYWHERE! it's crazy!
My Dad worked for Sears for 30 years, retired (luckily in the late 70’s), put 4 boys thru college, and lived a nice middle class life. So sad 😞 to see it gone...it was a great ride.
Middle class doesn’t exist anymore
I remember when the Sears closed in Halifax. EVERYTHING was for sale. You could buy the tables, the clothing racks, the display cases, coat hangers, etc etc, and if you wanted to buy ALL of the, 80 pairs of boots, for example, they would make you a great deal on the lot. A sad sight to see actually. Many great memories of flipping through the Christmas Wish Book and going to the stores.
I didn't know Allstate and Discover card were from Sears,TIL.
Scooter30FTW: Discover Financial services.
Allstate insurance.
Dean Witter investment services.
Coldwell Banker real estate.
Prodigy internet service provider.
Today I found out?
Major miss information disclosed: Sears actually moved Discover to their Dean Witter division and then sold it off to Morgan Stanley in late 90s. I know because I worked for Discover from the Dean Witter era to Morgan Stanley letting it go in late 2006. There was no Citi Bank involvement.
Noble Six today I learned
My dad was an agent just before it was spun off.
My town has a neighborhood of “kit” houses, many of which are Sears houses. They really stood the test of time. I wish the kit houses were still available.
I've noticed.
Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure well it wasn’t just one box. They would ship the materials in separate boxes for different things. For example one box would have a some of the wood siding and another box would have bricks for the chimney
Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure They came in boxes as That One Guy said. Each piece was numbered and the kit came with a plan to follow. You could hire a contractor to put it together or gather your friends together and assemble it (I read stories of folks doing their own build, though as I haven’t the skills I can’t imagine doing it myself. )
We have a few houses in my neighborhood that came from a kit.
*2,000 years in the future*
Archaeologists: "We believe these temples were constructed to a God known as Sears. People would bring old clothes to lay inside the temple as a prayer for good health."
@@dgpsf asking for a frappucino blessing from the priests or priestesses at these temples invoked wrath. As did something called the secret menu, which brought down the full anger of the spiritual leaders
The most haunted feeling and liminal space I’ve ever been in was a Sears in 2014. The store was practically empty and everything that was left was severely discounted. The back room I went in to was EMPTY, like they did not have a single thing in stock. An absolutely cursed place.
My parents met working at a Sears together, if sears never existed I would have never existed
@IMxYOURxDADDY NO WAY....
Mine met at K Mart.
@@MantisTobogganMD92 Ain't that something.
Great for you but think of all the sperm wasted by millions of guys getting off while viewing the women's underwear pics.
old abandoned stores like Sears or K-Marts have such an oddly calm, dream-like quality to them. I just wanna go to one and walk around inside for an hour or two and just lose myself.
There's an abandoned K-Mart near where I used to live. It's boarded up so I'm not sure about finding a way inside. Regardless, the "Big K" sign box is still there in front but tattered and faded. This combined with the empty parking lot gives it an incredibly odd and dystopian look, especially as I have memories of this location as an active store...
It has come...the time to talk about the dumpster fire known as Sears.
That’s just how I should start every abandoned episode really
@@BrightSunFilms Between you and me Jake, compared to Circuit City, Ames, and even Toys R Us, Sears, and our beloved Kmart for that matter, are SPECIAL LEVELS of a dumpster fire. They were SCREWED into bankruptcy, kinda like Toys R Us.
@@trevonpernell0814 he should do Montgomery Wards
@@plowtruckdriver Uhhh...he actually already did a video on Montgomery Ward.
@@BrightSunFilms Great Idea
I always thought that Sears was ideally positioned to transition to the internet sales model, more than any company. With such extensive experience and infrastructure in mail-order, why didn't they adjust slightly and beat Amazon?
1 word: Incompetence.
They did not see a future with online shopping. And by the time they realized it was the future, Amazon had already gotten too big.
@@nickl5658 no one understands this somehow
The Sears where I live is finally closing. I can’t even imagine the fun of bustling around in hugely populated malls in the 50s-90s😞
There's a few good crowded malls around. The Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa always has quite a few people & it was packed the Thursday before Christmas.
@Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure Mall in the 90's are nothing compared to malls of today. Although, interestingly, the mall I normally visit the day after christmas and which is normally super quiet was absolutely packed this year. I wonder if that's a sign of people visiting malls more or if that was just a fluke.
My connection to Sears is that my mother went into labor in the Everett mall location back in 1994.
Wow
Khrystelle Blackburn and that place just closed
94? why do u look 45 lol
@@amandasky2296 bahaha. I have never heard that in my life. This was a professional photographer from work a couple years ago. In real life, I look 16 (if that) blessed with a baby face.
Your comment is amazing and I love it, can we be friends if you don’t mind?
The reason for no windows in shopping centers: so you can't tell how much time is passing while you're inside.
Same with bars & casinos. Latter don't even put clocks on the wall to make it easier on us to relaaaax & lose track of time.. how kind of them to care so much. 🙃
WRONG!!!!!!!!! "Vandalism", is why no Windows.
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 I’ve seen shopping centers that had huge windows. They weren’t IN the stores themselves. I worked in an outdoor sporting goods store and the owner told me they had no windows or skylights in this store so people couldn’t judge how much time had passed.
It's called Gruen Effect they design them to make it harder to exit as well.
It's because windows are an easy entry point for theft, plus windows take up valuable wall space which could have products there instead.
It was a big deal to visit Sears in the 60's..particularly on Saturday night..with the Beatles playing on the AM radio. Great memories of being a kid then.
Now THIS was the episode I was waiting for. My family used to shop at Sears a ton when I was young. My hometown store is now in the process of shutting down and it's really sad to see it leave since I grew up with it. Hopefully Sears can pull through again. Thank you for this amazing episode Jake!!
Born in 1959, I still remember our Sears Wish Book arriving in the mail a couple months before Christmas. That catalog was such an amazing look into all the toys we never saw in stores or on TV commercials, it was like fantasy-land to us, and we would dog-ear pages of the toys we hoped Santa would consider. Although I don't think we ever got anything we chose specifically, we never felt disappointed on Christmas morning. It's too bad Sears never kept-with-the-times, as it really did hold-on to a fuddy-duddy persona of old styles, grandma fashion sense, outdated merchandise and overall had an "un-hip" thing going on! Then, one bad manager/CEO with no desire to work hard to make a better product with what he was in charge of, sent a $B company to its grave.
It’s quite amazing to hear about experiences like these, it’s a small dive into the past! Thanks for sharing :)
Same here. Yeah! The Sears catalog is here! We'd spend hours looking through that catalog.
My grandparents were all about Sears when I was a kid. This would have been in the 80s and 90s. They had a Sears charge card and almost everything they bought for their home, yard, garden, and garage was from Sears. Appliances, tools, clothes, kitchenware, electronics, towels... you name it. It's a shame that they've been going downhill for quite some time now because they used to have some pretty nice stuff. Not anything fancy, but just about anything a middle class family could want or need. I remember leafing through grandma's giant Sears catalogue at Christmastime writing down what I wanted.
It seems that all middle class families just spent money and bought stuff because they could.
Everytime I went to my Grandparents house as a kid in the 90s, we *always* went shopping. Sears, Montgomery Ward, Marshall's, "Penney's", and old school Wal*Mart (before they adopted the grocery side).
My grandparents had a "charge card" for each store and would just buy tons of junk really. Snacks, lawn ornaments, tools, stock up on batteries for the end of the world, clothes, really ugly clothes, more shoes than you would know what to do with, etc.
I think it was just a thing at the time. Strong economy and the consumerist mindset went wild.
I'm 36 now and I don't spend money like they did. Never had a credit card, only buy what I need after searching online for the best deal, I try to visit brick and mortar stores out of pity, but I don't spend much. Just get what I need if it's a reasonable price.
The lack of a middle class and the lack of people more than willing to spend every dollar that comes into their possession and buy insane amounts of things on credit had to make a huge impact on Sears and the malls.
The sheer number of businesses created by Sears is insane!
First off, WOW! This creator did great and so accurate. I am an older man and while I never work directly for the Sears Corporation, almost 95% of my income came from them during a significant time in my life. I am an electrical engineer and did was closely paired with a hometown Sears. I watched this unfold first hand. This creator portrayed the extremely accurately and it really surprised me as a lot of creators loose that element of truth that this hero obviously has. I have just discovered this creator’s content and am uniquely impressed by the handful of videos I have seen thus far. Thanks you and I hope this creator keeps his excellent integrity, much respect.
I wish good health and all the best to you and yours!
Amazing how a company that blew up for having catalogs sent to homes, went down in an era where you can literally show your entire catalog online. How not to adapt your company 101.
Our Sear's Store closed this year, 2020, along with K-mart, and Penny's. So sad to see all these stores going out of business.
They had great runs. Just didn't adapt to modern times.
Epic fails by stupid and greedy owners and management.
We still have Penney's & Dillards, too. I better go get pictures before they're gone for good.
@@JC-11111 I never heard Dillards in a long time
Watch that area. What's gonna happen to all the closed malls? I'm expecting as usual: rich ppl will bring down the cost of that real estate, buy it at it cheapest, then open/build something that's gonna bring them a ton of money. This is done in select parts of every big city across USA; I've been watching it since arriving 27yrs ago.
I remember the Sears Christmas catalog in the 80’s. That was so exciting! Kenmore is still my favorite appliance company. I think they were a Sears company.
Your comment is awesome and I agree with you I will like us be friends if that’s okay with you?
@@dylanmaher2526sure!
BSF: "Here's to another 50"
Businesses everywhere: _sweats nervously_
BSF: "Welcome to Abandoned, where today we will be talking about..."
Jeff Bezos: *sweats*
Tim Cook: *hyperventilates*
Bill Gates: *tries to bribe BSF*
Y’all should come to Florida I got a few abandoned places here
My email is djoz28@yahoo.com
@@PhilipTrouble Coronavirus: Remember to give me a shoutout, BSF
A guy I know got banned from sears for playing hide and seek in the store with his friends. They shut down though so who’s laughing now
Lol
Belive it or not that's exactly what happened to me and my friends too 🤣
He shoulda come to juniors!!! I’d dress up boys in prom dresses and parade them thru the store😂😂😂 I really was a horrible employee....but I was one of the ‘good’ ones😂
not sears :>
It would be awesome to play hide-and-seek in a dead mall or department store.
It’s always going to be called Sears Tower by Chicagoans.
Yes! It's how I'll always refer to it. Willis Tower just doesn't roll off the tongue. 😅
I call it Sears Tower, and I'm from Texas.
Call it Sears Tower. Canadian here
Forever and always. Grew up in the shadow of that building, it will always be called Sears.
I call it sears tower and I’m from Jupiter
Shortly before sears went totally out of the mall we tend to go to, my husband went in to exchange a craftsman wrench, as they still honored the lifetime guarantee. The process of checking out was an absolute nightmare. It took nearly 10 minutes of “what’s your phone number?” “What’s your zip code?” “Let’s pull up your rewards” kid of questions and the poor teenage boy checking us out couldn’t bypass it. It was such an unpleasant experience and comparing it to quick, easy checkout experiences really drove home how out of touch sears had become
i miss stores like Mervyn's and Sears. i remember being excited to go to Circurt City to get new CDs for my walkman in the early 2000s. in my area the old mervyn's and circurt city buildings are both now a Sprouts market and the Sears factories and buildings are just there as a memory
I remember mervins and circuit city’s i was born in 95 so I’ve seen a lot of business go
I honestly think I live next to you or in the same area
Rip Sears :( went to a Sears on their very last day of being in business’s, bought a $16 scarf for $3
I remember going to like two stores when they had all the fire sales going; I was going to get a pair or two of jeans, but they were only like $10 off the normal price lol; I'm like damn guys, really taking your time on this store closure huh? I could've gone in like a week later to see if the prices had gone down, but I couldn't be asked.
Niiiiiice bro
There is a sears near me
@@Camelotsmoon Like, really? Like, wow dude, do you need to say 'like' in like every sentence, like?
@@AndrewAMartin Could you ever add less substance to a comment I made?
We only carry sized 1-6 I guess you could try sears
- Mean Girls
*Edit* "Sorry, we only carry sizes 1,3, and 5. You could try Sears."
😭😂
Very sad to watch this, especially now that Sears is getting closer and closer to closing entirely. I remember going to Sears many times as a kid, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
The theme I see with all of these videos about these companies is that they fail to recognize new startups as a threat, they fail to adapt to changing markets, and they crippled themselves with debt.
My mom is still a manager at a Sears in NJ it’s crazy to think she’s been there for 20+ years
They closed our store for good last year
How much does she make a year?
Wouldn't hurt her to make sure her resume is up to date
Justin Arenas- I am fearful about your mother loosing out completely on any promised retirement coming from Sears. A friend of mine who was a Delta airline captain for like 25 years had his retirement check come down from around $2000 a month to less than $500 a month after company went bankrupt.
Nancy Thompson wtf are you serious? $500 a week is barely enough let alone a month
*Who remembers not knowing where to check out your products? There would be 15 checkout places without anyone there. Then you’d have to go chase someone down.*
Even when you finally did find an employee, many times they would direct you to a check-out .....where no one was available to help you.
If you were a child of the 70's or 80's and didn't get to experience the Sears photo studio, you had a deprived childhood.
Probably because I wasn't born at that time lmao
@@Gabito04 that's exactly why he said "if you were a child of the 70s or 80s"... is that really that hard to understand.
And now you’re 70
10 customers in an 8 hour shift? Retail sucks but that's the dream retail job right there. Big store too so easy to hide and play on your phone.
If you're even able to get a signal in those monolithic, thick-walled buildings...
lol I work there and it's pretty much dead
MAGA 2020
@@waylandjennings4073 WHOOO YA MIGA.... OVER 60 MILES OF REPLACEMENT FENCE! BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT AND OTHER NON-WHITE EMPLOYMENT UP! MAKE ISRAEL GREAT AGAIN!
Our old Sears is currently being renovated into a mini casino!
Where at? There is one near me also
mine is vacant
i heard ours might get turned into a theater. Calgary.
My Sears became a Round 1 :D
Funny, Sears was Amazon before Amazon and the internet.
Ironic.
Yep...got that right!
And I never understood the decision to end the catelog sales division. Big mistake.
@@aday1637 too little, too late.
@@aday1637 Piss poor management, Sears could've adapted, it had the logistics in place.
I remember as a young girl, one of my favorite parts of the month of December was looking through the Sears catalog to come up with Christmas ideas. My siblings and I would look all through the catalog, eyeing all the toys we dreamed of getting under the tree that year. I used to think Santa's elves made the items in the catalog.
The Sear's Catalog was pretty much what Amazon is. It contained almost anything you can think of, and you ordered it and it got shipped to you. It is shocking to me that the Sears catalog was discontinued and never brought back. If the Sears catalog had been put online, that would have been a really big deal. They could very well have become what Amazon is today had the catalog migrated to online instead of being cancelled.
Amazon is showing signs of the same "We can do no wrong attitude" with their search engine results that always brings up what they NEED to sell instead of what we ask for.
yep it's all about how much money they can make and
I have found better deals else where
Amazon reportedly treats their employees poorly. As a result I try to avoid them just for that reason.
Well, here's the thing. You don't have a fair comparison between Sears and Amazon. Sears was a just a giant retail store chain. Amazon has pulled the wool over the public's eyes. It's not "a retail store" - that's an illusion. Amazon is really a BIG DATA COMPANY (exactly like the ones you'd find in California's - Silicon Valley) - "disguised" as a bunch of retail operations. Big data (and our 5000+ data points of internet interaction) is the new Texas oil of the 21rst century. Beyond the money that they've made from us from hard goods sold, they continue to make even more after the sale by using our interactions on their website to tweak there suggestions to us of new products to buy and selling our "behavior patterns" to 3rd parties - without us getting any cut of those secondary sales. Ahhh, no sorry, they aren't going down - not by a long shot.
To see that I'm right, all you have to do is type this in your web browser "Amazon.com + Big Data" and you'll see lots of web pages pop up where even established big data companies are all giddy and fawning over Amazon's big data initiatives, strategies and tactics. Like this one: www.smartdatacollective.com/lessons-how-amazon-uses-big-data/
Everything you do on their website is being tracked, measured and recorded. Ex. how long you stay on a page. How long it takes to slide your cursor across the screen or move from one item to the next. Then a profile (digital profiling) is created of you and similar patterns are searched for in others, then those are lumped into groups to describe entire populations of characters that behave the same way on their site - which is extremely useful info. to marketing agencies and social scientists. Who can then refine their techniques to target you better for future sales.
Binge watching this series at the moment
Grandpa: "In my day you could buy a house in a box"
and a car buy mail order. :)
My great grandfather had a house from the Sears catalog
Grandson: "Now some of us actually live homeless in a box."
you may joke, but as long as you built them right, they're probably still standing
As of early 2022, there were just seven Sears stores open. Sister KMart closed it's last store in California in early 2022. Owner Transformco apparently is more interested in the real estate rather than the stores. The Lampert brothers also helmed the demise of Montgomery Ward in the early 2000's. My father oversaw the renovation of one older store (N. Kingshighway), building a new store in the massive (and now-closed) Northwest Plaza in St. Louis, along with their former warehouse in Hazelwood, so we knew much about Sears. It's all gone now.
The last CEO definitely seems shady considering how he now "mysteriously" owns SEARS after dragging the company down.
How come the company that sent out a Huge catalog never adapted to the internet?
You never think your business model will be a thing of the past someday. Kodak, a company mentioned by this very channel on the bankrupted series, created the digital camera, but never gave up on film. Never thought new technology would reach the hands of the average Joe.
When you see It, it's too late
@@otaviofrnazario Film is still popular but for actual Photographers who like to showcase their work in museums. Nothing beats being in the dark room and having to do it all from scratch. It is like cricketing, knitting and sewing. It feels good to have and wear clothing you made yourself by hand. 😎I feel the same with photography developing the film, reviewing the negatives old fashion way and then developing the pictures using actual gloss paper or matte paper.
They did have a website but it was not very good and they didn’t seem to care for some odd reason. It’s a mystery.
Basically littlewoods, index
Retailing is easy: just ask yourself "what would Eddie Lampert do?" and then do the exact opposite.
@@markeyboi6545 Bingo - you could create a new term: 'Predatory Management' - Drive the company out of business, so you can buy it, then reshape it and bring it back as a new LLC cutting out all the bad debt and contracts. The magic of Bankruptcy Laws. Legal & profitable way to take over and turn things around. . . now ... ... ... still waiting ... ... ... for the Turn around ... ... ... Boomers love the ''Old Sears''.
Leaders build successful companies,
Successful companies attract followers,
followers take over the companies and become aimless.
companies are driven into the ground by MBA managers with fancy paper degrees but couldn't sell a life vest to a man drowning ...
Quality is Job #1. The cheapness disease, seeing the customers only as suckers to fleece - it's just impossible to hide that contempt for the customer, and they leave. No one wants disrespected with junk products. That's why Apple is the new Sears... Glue together cheap products that break when you drop them, glass on both sides, just - wow. No, designed obsolescence is Toxic Waste thinking.
People would rather have products and companies they can TRUST. Lose that TRUST and then they lose the customers. Forever.
@@markeyboi6545 But,look at all of the land & good locations Eddie controls. That is why he bought Kmart and Sears. He'll make billions!! Sh**ing on the rest of us.
my aunt still works at sears. she's worked there for 50 years (since she was a teenager). it's the only job she's ever had
I didn't even realize how into abandoned retail stores I could be lol You are amazing at what you do and I hope you continue to do so!
I remember the prices of some items being absolutely ridiculous. I’ll never forget walking around and seeing a 4 pack of Hanse boxers for $28 when you could get the same thing at Walmart for ten bucks if not less.
I remember when I was a child going through the Sears catalog making my Christmas list
When the mall in my hometown opened in 1971, it had a Sears & JC Penney at opposite ends of a cross shape. The crossbeam, as it were, had two local retailers to anchor those ends. 50 years later, only JC Penney remains as the sole original store from 1971.
I can still see my mom sitting at the kitchen table, phone cord stretched across the kitchen, reading off item numbers out of the catalog to a call center associate on the other end. We were at one of the mall stores almost every weekend. Nearly all our clothes were from Sears. All my dad’s tools were Craftsman. Our appliances were mostly Kenmore. When we bought a battery it was usually a Die Hard. Sometimes my Dad and I would get bored while Mom shopped and would play Pong on the demo console for a while or look at TVs. When I got my license I’d often go pick up catalog orders. When I started working I’d spend a large chunk of my paycheck most weeks on tools for my job. After we kids left home Mom took a break from her homemaking career and went to work in the furniture and lighting department for a while. Last time I went in to our old favorite Sears store it was half empty. Many of the goods in the tool department had been replaced with ‘See associate’ signs. There was just one guy in the department trying to take care of check outs and returns all by himself. Had to go home and order my tools off Amazon. Sad.
Bless you and your mom memory..