SEARS-iously.....

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Earlier today I posted a discussion that featured a funny photo of signs on a local Sears store. The signs said that the store was closing, there were "discounts up to 70%" (just not on what I wanted), and even the fixtures were for sale...AND they were also hiring! Behind the humor, though, is a sad saga of a company that simply did themselves in. You millennials might not realize it, but once upon a time Sears was THE name in "department stores." If you couldn't get a Sears store credit card then you couldn't get credit, period. (That's where my personal credit started.) And, of course, the catalogs: for decades the joke was that the Sears & Roebuck catalog was toilet paper for the hillbillies and the poor. But, as I mentioned in one of my replies (regarding how the item I wanted, even with a supposed "discount," was still overpriced), Sears basically destroyed itself by assuming that people would always be loyal, and that they could charge people anything and the customers would keep shopping there. (Not to mention that Sears -- with the exception of their Craftsman tools -- had a reputation for some really shoddy quality things.) Enter Target, Meijer, Wally World, and a host of other department stores that sold quality merchandise at a lower price. (Oh, and they took other people's credit cards, too: for eons the only credit card you could use at Sears was a Sears store card!) But Sears doggedly held on to what had made them popular back in the 1930s. As a result, it's likely they won't see 2030. They tried to merge with super-discount chain K-Mart, and yet they keep losing stores left and right (and most of the K-Marts in America are gone...I hate that, I bought my first LP in a K-Mart). Target is modern. Even going out of business, Sears is still an old store. Did you know the Sears catalog inspired a novelty song?