rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Sears continues to lose money.
They are closing more stores and selling off the Craftsman brand.
Kenmore and/or Diehard could be next.
I find myself wondering if it would have made more sense for them to close more stores and become more of a distribution company selling Carftsman, Diehard, and Kenmore.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/stanley-to-buy-craftsman-brand-from-sears-for-about-900-million

added: here is a list of the stores being closed
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-sears-and-kmart-stores-closing-2017-1

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Craftsman was one of the things keeping them alive, and I'm sorry to see the good hand tool selection go - I'm still using Craftsman wrenches, ratchets/sockets and screwdrivers, some of which I've had for almost 50 years, and on the rare occasion I've damaged a ratchet, it was exchanged, no questions asked (if it doesn't have a power cord, it's probably OK). I do have to say that they brought it on themselves. In the stores I've frequented, you have to hunt for a salesperson and almost beg them to wait on you. Happened every time I went to buy an appliance or TV, so I finally just quit going except for tools (and had to hunt for a clerk then). I bought my son a Craftsman tool chest for Christmas, and even though the store was eerily empty (for the week before Christmas), took me almost half an hour to find someone to help me and ring it up.

Fleckjohn65 Loc: Ajax Ontario Canada

I worked for Sears Canada for a great 27 years. Loved every minute of it; well most anyway. It is so sad to see the hedge fund mgr Eddy L. Selling off slowly the assets that made the company great. Craftsman is one example. Here in Canada some major stores in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto as well as other major centres are gone too. We used to have a great workforce in excess of 50,000 now I think it's around 10,000. Not sure of the future of either Sears US or Sears Canada.

hj Loc: Florida

Craftsman hand tools are not the quality they once were.

machia Loc: NJ

Their CEO is destroying Sears . Much like the CEO who destroyed Kodak .
These are " numbers " people and they don't know much else . Dropping the Craftsman line is probably going to steepen their decline .
A neighbor of mine bought a Craftsman rachet-set after he came home from WW2 . That rachet stopped working after 50 years in 1996 . He went to our local Sears store and was handed a brand new one on the spot with no questions asked . That was a great way to run a business .

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

You have to remember that this isn't the Sears of old. Kmart bought Sears back when Kmart was in bankruptcy. They were being sued by their creditors and the current US President at that time allowed them to purchase Sears with cash and an influx from an "investor". They formed a new company called Sears Holding in order to "escape" the Kmart creditors. Now they running Sears into the ground along with Kmart.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And the guarentee extended to anything marked Craftsman. About 40 years ago when I bought my first house, someone suggested I buy a Craftsman garden hose (marked on the brass coupling). It was relatively expensive because I wanted a rubber hose that would handle hot water (for washing car engines). I have exchanged that hose at least 4-5 times over the years at no cost. Each time, I'd drag the old, tired hose into sears in a garbage bag, and the clerk would tell me to pick what I wanted to replace it. I still have the last one I exchanged. Forty years+ product life is what I'd like to see from everything I purchase! Sounds like those days may be over...

machia Loc: NJ

They are over . Right now the policy is to give you a repair kit . And when they drop Craftsman all together , it really will be over . Husky is a good tool and so is Kobalt . Home Depot and Lowes . Harbor Freight is real hit or miss . Inexpensive and some tools hold up very well , others are complete garbage . The old Craftsman tools that I do have were all purchased in the past 40 years at various times and I'm sure when I'm gone someday someone will inherit some really good tools . But hopefully for me by that time Sears will have learned to sink or swim ! I'm planning on sticking around for another 30 plus years so they have plenty of time to get their act together ! LOL !

ghill42 Loc: Colorado

CEOs have been wrecking America for decades.

TomC. Loc: Bel Air, MD

I worked for Sears for about 4 yrs selling appliances. It was amazing to me how badly the employees were treated. Even the commissioned sales people in appliances were not appreciated. Management (if you want to call it that) did not appreciate the amount of money the appliance sales brought in. The top sellers typically brought in anywhere from $750,000 to 1.1M each in sales. All totaled up it added about $12M yearly to the bottom line. If some sort of problem arose, their response is "perhaps you should consider another place of employment". Management was constantly working against good people to make it impossible to make a fair living. For instance: on weekends, they would bring in all 12 or 13 sales people when the number of people looking for appliance numbered maybe 20-30 all day long. Many times I went home with zero sales after 8 1/2 hours on my feet. Then they constantly hound you to sell the extended warranties. I found out at one point that the mgr gets a slice of it for himself. They're almost never worth it. One time, I received a glowing letter from a customer that was sent to the appliance mgr. According to the letter, I did everything right and they were extremely pleased. My boss came down and showed it to me and was proud of my effort. Just then, the store mgr walked by and my boss approached him and showed him the letter. I was standing about 10ft away from them. The store mgr read the letter, folded it back up and walked away. My boss and I both were stunned. The big boss said nothing to me. What a great missed opportunity to commend someone for a job well done. He turned out to be the jerk everyone thought him to be anyway. I will never forget that. It would cost him and the store no money and increase personal morale to just say "nice job, Tom. That's exactly what we're looking for." I lost all respect for that man. I even saw him loudly arguing with a customer about a lawn tractor one time. Everyone could hear it and it was embarrassing to watch.
Well, I couldn't stand it anymore and after 4 yrs I resigned from Sears. To this day, I won't buy from Sears at all.
The stores are just being run into the ground and eventually will go the way of Woolworths and other long time businesses.

Fleckjohn65 Loc: Ajax Ontario Canada

Yes Tom, they have lost the caring attitude for their greatest asset; their people! And that reflects directly in sales and profit. So so too bad.

Jazztrader

All of the retailers that are in trouble have missed the one fact of current retailing-the use of the internet. If all of the good Sears products could have been as quickly, affordably, and easily available online as Amazon products, they would still be doing good business. Had Sears added to that formula a smartly executed set of showrooms, via the bricks and mortar stores that are already in place, they would have had a unique niche in the retail business. You can't put your hands on any of the products you purchase on Amazon, unless you go to bricks and mortar stores to see the items. Easy online ordering at a Sears showroom would have helped Sears with that niche. Even stores like Target and Best Buy don't have the efficiency and ease of use of the Amazon website. The retailers need to get with the times!!

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

Maybe Sears should close most of their stores and go back to their original business model - catalog sales. Only this time the catalog will be the internet.

Looks like Carson City, NV is years ahead of its time. The K-Mart store in town closed before I even moved here and that was over eleven years ago.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I'm not in a good "standing" with Sears. I purchased their newest model brad nailer (cordless CS3) and it quit working after just one day of use. So I send it in for repair (with copy of a receipt from the purchase, warranty card and a letter explaining all the details). That has been over half a year ago and I never heard a word from them, or received my nailer back. Probably emailed them about a hundred times about this, or replied to advertising emails from them as well and never got a single respond. When I tried to talk to somebody on the phone, they listened to what happened and then disconnected the call without responding all three times, I tried calling, so I don't really care if they're in trouble or not, that is just not how you treat your customers!!!

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

It's such a shame that these retailers can't figure out what to do to keep up with the times. My first and favorite store was Mervyns, and now Sears. I buy tools and clothes from Sears. I used to buy my clothes from Mervyns. Where am I going to go now. I guess it will have to be Penny's in the future.