Sears might be going belly up

[LizzieMaine]

Fada radios were pretty good -- many of them used chassis manufactured by RCA, or manufactured from designs licensed from RCA, and those RCA designs were consistently high quality.

Fada was founded by Frederick A. D'Andrea, whose initials are the source of the name, and who wasn't an especially nice guy -- his company collapsed in the early thirties after his entire senior staff walked out on him, but the trademark was picked up and revived a few years later by some operators based in Long Island City. Because they licensed most of their chassis from other manufacturers, the new company was able to focus on cabinet design, and many of their sets were way ahead of style trends.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ Thank you - that's why I like LizziePedia better than Wikipedia.

Based on the fact that my Fada gets FM, I assume it is from the reincarnated Long Island City version of the company.

Fun Fact (maybe): Long Island City is "hot" right now. As Brooklyn has become stupid expensive, places like Long Island City - with close proximity to Manhattan and some, not as much as Brooklyn, cool architecture and old warehouses and manufacturing plants that can be turned into loft spaces for tech start ups etc. - are attracting those priced out of Brooklyn.

And my Fada:

 

[BlueTrain]

"Stupid expensive." Another perfectly wonderful Americanism.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's also worth considering that Sears' brands got the reputation they did for the quality they represented. That quality, by and large, is no longer there, and hasn't been for at least twenty years...

When I started working at US Steel back in September 2001, I went out and I purchased close to $3,000 worth of Craftsman tools. Every last one was made in the USA. This doesn't include the several grand I purchased here & there for home use over the years. Nowadays, I I need to replace a broken or missing socket or tool, I'm DOA as nearly everything is made out of the finest quality Chineseum. I need to get my ratchet repaired last year. I ended up ordering a Snap-on. back in 2003 i purchased a top chest tool box for home use. Last year I finally got around to getting the bottom box. You can tell that there is quite a difference in the quality between the two. I now need an intermediate drawer. they have been discontinued & are getting harder & harder to find.

 

[HudsonHawk]

When I started working at US Steel back in September 2001, I went out and I purchased close to $3,000 worth of Craftsman tools. Every last one was made in the USA. This doesn't include the several grand I purchased here & there for home use over the years. Nowadays, I I need to replace a broken or missing socket or tool, I'm DOA as nearly everything is made out of the finest quality Chineseum. I need to get my ratchet repaired last year. I ended up ordering a Snap-on. back in 2003 i purchased a top chest tool box for home use. Last year I finally got around to getting the bottom box. You can tell that there is quite a difference in the quality between the two. I now need an intermediate drawer. they have been discontinued & are getting harder & harder to find.

This is the problem with not manufacturing products yourself. You're at the mercy of your supplier. In the case of Craftsman, I believe their higher end tools are still made in the USA, but their basic models come off the cheaper production lines, which are always going to be in China.

 

[BlueTrain]

There is a market for cheap things; cheap tools, cheap cars, cheap clothes and even cheap food. Some of it is junk, it is true and some people like to complain about junk food even. But the thing is, we've always had cheap junk. The only difference is, we used to make our own junk instead of importing it. Time was, imported things were considered of especially high quality or at least that's what we were told, and we were willing to pay a premium for it. That's still true.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the perception of "imported = crap" actually goes back to the boycott of Japanese goods in the late 1930s. Outrage over Japan's invasion of China in 1937 spurred a nationwide movement to keep Japanese goods out of the US, and part of that movement involved pointing out how shoddy most of the Japanese merchandise coming into the country at that time really was. "Made In Japan" at that time became a synonym for "lousy junk," and remained such for decades to come.

Interestingly, there was also a boycott of German-made goods around that same time, protesting the deeds of the Nazi government, but this boycott never impugned the quality of the merchandise. Possibly this is because the most common German-made goods being imported at the time were fine cameras, scientific apparatus, and hand-made clocks, while the Japanese merchandise was largely unprocessed silk, dime-store crockery, and cheap tin toys.

 

[vitanola]

Fada radios were pretty good -- many of them used chassis manufactured by RCA, or manufactured from designs licensed from RCA, and those RCA designs were consistently high quality.

Fada was founded by Frederick A. D'Andrea, whose initials are the source of the name, and who wasn't an especially nice guy -- his company collapsed in the early thirties after his entire senior staff walked out on him, but the trademark was picked up and revived a few years later by some operators based in Long Island City. Because they licensed most of their chassis from other manufacturers, the new company was able to focus on cabinet design, and many of their sets were way ahead of style trends.

Frank A. D.Andrea Jr. passed in March at the age of 89. He had been CEO of Andrea Corp. (the current incarnation of Andrea Radio and Television) from his father's death until his retirement in 1998, when his position was taken over by his two sons as "co-chairmen". Frank, who I knew fairly well, was as gracious and pleasant as his father was prickly and difficult. The differences in their personalities doubtless had a great deal to do with the circumstances of their early years. MacDougall Street and Manhassett will, after all, tend to produce very different men.

 

[Fading Fast]

... The differences in their personalities doubtless had a great deal to do with the circumstances of their early years. MacDougall Street and Manhassett will, after all, tend to produce very different men.

Very well said.

 

[BlueTrain]

I can't say that I'll miss Sears as much as I miss a certain local hardware store that went away a year or so ago.

 

[BobHufford]

After dealing with Sears trying to get a mattress delivered to the "farm" I can see why they are going out. Three failed attempts over four weeks so far with errors and outright lies on their part. It costs my wife an entire day and $50 in gas each time she has to meet them. She's ready to kill someone. Our local K-Mart closed permanently yesterday as well. What a mess of a company.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Sears cutting ties with Whirlpool after over 100 years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-sears-whirlpool-appliances-20171024-story.html

 

[Bruce Wayne]

http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017...ampaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2051

 

[Musher]

I better buy a new stove from them while I can. I bought a refrigerator from them recently and the Sears in Cobleskill, NY was good to do business with.

 

[Fading Fast]

This is one of the most painful super-slow-motion corporate train wrecks ever. Hard to see anything other than eventual bankruptcy.

 

[MisterCairo]

Posted this in the JC Penney (and Sears) may be going belly up thread yesterday.

Sears is toast in Canada after 64 years -

Sears Canada is shutting down; the entire chain will be gone by January 2018:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/liquidation-sale-sears-canada-1.4361930

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sears-canada-eddie-lampert-brandon-stranzl-1.4367985

The first Sears in Canada, they came here in a partnership with Simpsons (I remember "Simpsons-Sears"), and the first store was in my hometown of Stratford, Ontario the photo in this article is NOT the original store, and is not even the current Stratford store):

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitch...ears-store-stratford-ont-mayor-jobs-1.4352028

Our location, in Stratford Marketplace mall:

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.co...y-close-between-mid-december-and-late-January

 

[Fading Fast]

"Any ideas, anyone? This company is going down - we need some smart, fresh ideas, now."

"Hey, what if we brought back the catalogue?"

"Going backwards is not going to save Sears. Other ideas? Anyone?"

[Chirp, chirp, chirp...]

"The catalogue you say...hmm."

Sears brings back its holiday catalog
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sears-brings-back-its-holiday-catalog-2017-10-25

 

[tonyb]

We get two or three full-color glossy catalogs in the mail every week, it seems, and sometimes more than that. I would have guessed that online "catalogs" would have put an end to that, and they may yet, but I'm left to assume that for now catalog retailing is still viable.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

http://bestride.com/news/entertainment/sears-sells-craftsman

 

[Fading Fast]

We get two or three full-color glossy catalogs in the mail every week, it seems, and sometimes more than that. I would have guessed that online "catalogs" would have put an end to that, and they may yet, but I'm left to assume that for now catalog retailing is still viable.

So do we and, like you, are a bit surprised, but clearly there still is value / some market niche to be captured by doing so. That said, Sears ain't righting the ship on this idea.