Sears might be going belly up

[Fading Fast]

So sorry that I missed it. I have no doubt that it was thought provoking. It seems to me that too much comes under the rubric of "political" these days, or at least that some folks turn too many instances of mild disagreement into all-out political fights, more's the pity.

Thank you for your kind comment. I private messaged you the deleted post.

 

[vitanola]

Thanks! Good stuff!

 

[Fading Fast]

Vitanola, I just noticed your tag line (or signature, or whatever it is called) - can't believe I've missed it all this time - that is a fantastic bit of family history.

 

[vitanola]

Vitanola, I just noticed your tag line (or signature, or whatever it is called) - can't believe I've missed it all this time - that is a fantastic bit of family history.

"So of course he fired Gridley."

That is not EXACTLY family history. That is very old joke, stol-er BORROWED from Nat M. Wills.

L

 

[Fading Fast]

"So of course he fired Gridley."

That is not EXACTLY family history. That is very old joke, stol-er BORROWED from Nat M. Wills.

View attachment 46345 L

You have a Lizzie-like knowledge of another period - impressive.

 

[vitanola]

I live in the past. It's cheaper.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, but the carfare to the present can be a killer.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-new...st-store/8320257d-c6b9-47cd-ab62-7efd8d9e6192

 

[Argee]

How can someone write an entire article about Sears oldest store and not mention what year it opened? I had to look it up elsewhere. It's 1925 by the way.

 

[BlueTrain]

So Sears is over a hundred years old and they're starting to hurt? Well, I'm just about to turn 70 and I'm already starting to hurt. But you get used to it.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/26/investing/sears-kmart-kenmore-craftsman/index.html

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ If they did, what would be left in the stores for anyone to care about? I read an article in the past few days - I think it was on the Wall Street Journal's site - that said Sears was looking to expand it distribution for those brands by partnering with others like, maybe, Amazon or Best Buy type of companies.

Sears is going down if it doesn't do something quickly, so trying to leverage the few profitable things it has left makes sense. I just hope they don't further dilute the qualities that made those brands valuable to this day.

 

[BlueTrain]

I think things must have started going downhill when they let go of Roebuck.

 

[scotrace]

The local store is gone as of a month or so ago-- they even seem to be tearing that chunk of the mall down.

 

[LizzieMaine]

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. Right now those brands appeal primarily to the boomer generation -- in another twenty years, when the youngest boomers are in their seventies, and the oldest boomers are in their nineties, the value of those brands will be pretty much nil. So no matter what Sears does, the clock is ticking.

If you don't think that's the case -- consider. What's your opinion of Coldspot, Elgin, J. C. Higgins, Silvertone, Cross-Country, or David Bradley? These were all brands made famous by Sears in the 1920s and 1930s, and were just as prominent as the later brands became in the sixties and seventies. Today, they're dead. Sears can't pin its future hopes on brands that mean nothing to millenials -- just as it couldn't pin its hopes in the seventies and eighties on brands that meant nothing to boomers.

 

[Stearmen]

Don't forget Kaiser and Puch, under the Allstate brand! Vespa, barely survived their association with the Sears Allstate brand.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Allstate, in the form of Allstate Insurance, will probably turn out to be the last surviving legacy of Sears. The insurance company was formed by Sears and Roebuck in the thirties, but was spun off on its own in the '90s, around the time Sears itself began its decline. When I first signed up for Allstate car insurance in the '80s, the agent's office was part of the local Sears Catalog Outlet store.

 

[HudsonHawk]

. What's your opinion of Coldspot, Elgin, J. C. Higgins, Silvertone, Cross-Country, or David Bradley? These were all brands made famous by Sears in the 1920s and 1930s, and were just as prominent as the later brands became in the sixties and seventies. Today, they're dead. Sears can't pin its future hopes on brands that mean nothing to millenials -- just as it couldn't pin its hopes in the seventies and eighties on brands that meant nothing to boomers.

Sears' "Silvertone" branded guitars are very popular with collectors these days. The "1448" model, made by Danelectro is one of the most famous, and most collectible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Silvertone radios were pretty decent quality as well -- Consumers Union consistently rated them higher than a number of the big-name brands. A Silvertone is a much better buy than most Zeniths if you're getting a vintage-era radio to actually use as a radio.

 

[Fading Fast]

Silvertone radios were pretty decent quality as well -- Consumers Union consistently rated them higher than a number of the big-name brands. A Silvertone is a much better buy than most Zeniths if you're getting a vintage-era radio to actually use as a radio.

How does the brand FADA compare?