Did Disney ruin Sears stores?

[old lady]

I remember Sears being real popular with shoppers , mostly with families who had young children and with Mexican shoppers. I love to buy Winnie the Pooh outfits. What happened? Why did Sears stop selling Winnie the Pooh ? Did Disney stop the contract?

 

[Allison]

What?

 

[BadPinkTink]

any issues with Sears Stores came from the business decisions made by the board of directors, the purchasing department, the financial department , the marketing department of Sears company. It would have been the poor planning and policies and procedures from those who were in charge of running Sears company.

 

[tvguy]

Didn't ruin them. They still sell Disney stuff.

https://www.sears.com/search=disney

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Didn't ruin them. They still sell Disney stuff.

https://www.sears.com/search=disney

Maybe Sears is going down the toilet BECAUSE they sell Disney stuff.


The Sears nearest to me was on the latest list of those to be closed.

 

[kimblebee]

I like the obvious trolling by including the word Mexicans. Do try harder next time..

 

[bcla]

I remember Sears being real popular with shoppers , mostly with families who had young children and with Mexican shoppers. I love to buy Winnie the Pooh outfits. What happened? Why did Sears stop selling Winnie the Pooh ? Did Disney stop the contract?

Uh. No. Sears suffered from a steady decline and never really adjusted with the times. The Kmart takeover (and it was really Kmart) made it worse. In the past 40 years they've made some really bad decisions.

However, department stores are still a dying breed. Sears suffered from the same hubris that Kodak did. They didn't change with the times, fearing that they would lose their bread and butter. Kodak invented digital photography but didn't commercially develop it fearing it would damage their film business. Sears was late to the internet sales game. Even then, I could sense a decline in the late 80s. They had made a lot of expensive investments and acquisitions such as Dean Witter that they hoped to attract customers. They eventually divested themselves of these, including Allstate and Prodigy.

But not selling Disney merchandise? Is this some kind of satire? The biggest issue for Sears was competition from Walmart and Target.

 

[Christine]

I remember when Sears sold Winnie the Pooh stuff BEFORE it was owned by Disney!

Sears ruined themselves. Their stores were always the pits once the 90s hit, and the didn't have to be.

 

[Floridaman999]

I like the obvious trolling by including the word Mexicans. Do try harder next time..

Yeah, this one gets a low score from me.

 

[CarolAnn856]

What the what?? Your posts have always been a bit, um, different, but this is just so bizarre.

 

[barkley]

Sears ruined themselves

yup-they started subcontracting our their delivery and repair several years ago but the delivery guys don't know how to properly set stuff up and it caused people to have to have authorized service people out to correct it. their sales staff lost their will to sell as well-i know several people who walked into sears over the past 4 or 5 years fully planning to spend thousands on appliances only to see departments with sales staff that not only made no effort to approach them-they would ignore customers altogether.

 

[Denise W]

Reported.

 

[MillauFr]

Amazon destroyed Sears and many other brick and mortar stores. Many malls were destroyed as well.

 

[tvguy]

Uh. No. Sears suffered from a steady decline and never really adjusted with the times. The Kmart takeover (and it was really Kmart) made it worse. In the past 40 years they've made some really bad decisions.

However, department stores are still a dying breed. Sears suffered from the same hubris that Kodak did. They didn't change with the times, fearing that they would lose their bread and butter. Kodak invented digital photography but didn't commercially develop it fearing it would damage their film business. Sears was late to the internet sales game. Even then, I could sense a decline in the late 80s. They had made a lot of expensive investments and acquisitions such as Dean Witter that they hoped to attract customers. They eventually divested themselves of these, including Allstate and Prodigy.

But not selling Disney merchandise? Is this some kind of satire? The biggest issue for Sears was competition from Walmart and Target.

I agree and would add that it seems to me that consumers are not interested anymore in what Sears was known for, service after the sale. People don't seem to want to fix anything anymore, they just buy something new. If you needed a new grass catcher for your Sears mower, not only could you get it at Sears, they HAD it in stock in your store. And when we needed a new fridge, they had it in stock, and could have it delivered the same day. Not like Home Depot and Lowes where they need a few days to order it for you. When my food is soiling in my dead fridge, I need a new one NOW. And it was Sears that delivered it, not some third party contractor.

 

[Floridaman999]

I agree and would add that it seems to me that consumers are not interested anymore in what Sears was known for, service after the sale. People don't seem to want to fix anything anymore, they just buy something new. If you needed a new grass catcher for your Sears mower, not only could you get it at Sears, they HAD it in stock in your store. And when we needed a new fridge, they had it in stock, and could have it delivered the same day. Not like Home Depot and Lowes where they need a few days to order it for you. When my food is soiling in my dead fridge, I need a new one NOW. And it was Sears that delivered it, not some third party contractor.

Yet, here we are, bankrupt. I guess times have changed.

 

[superme80]

If you look it up on youtube, there are several unofficial documentaries about it. It is pretty fascinating. I still have a Kmart I shop at frequently. Sadly all my Sears stores have closed. I really liked them.

 

[bcla]

I agree and would add that it seems to me that consumers are not interested anymore in what Sears was known for, service after the sale. People don't seem to want to fix anything anymore, they just buy something new. If you needed a new grass catcher for your Sears mower, not only could you get it at Sears, they HAD it in stock in your store. And when we needed a new fridge, they had it in stock, and could have it delivered the same day. Not like Home Depot and Lowes where they need a few days to order it for you. When my food is soiling in my dead fridge, I need a new one NOW. And it was Sears that delivered it, not some third party contractor.

I remember when Amazon's original model was that they didn't actually have warehouses, and they worked with distributors to have items shipped directly from said distributors. That was vastly different and how they managed to save money. That was the total opposite of how Sears operated.

Still - when I went to buy my first Craftsman hand tool (a socket wrench set) I saw a repair kit right on the shelf. It actually had a 1 cent price on the shelf, although I suspect it was probably free as part of their warranty. However, that was an older era. They could charge a premium for that, but these days who wants to pay more? Regardless of what Sears used to be, they don't provide that level of service any more. They're hit with the double whammy that older customers don't recognize it, and what currently exists doesn't appeal to younger customers.

 

[cinnaminny]

Sears was destroyed the same way Toys R Us was destroyed, by vulture capitalism. They buy them, load them up with debt and then declare bankruptcy. Their non investment in themselves was by design.

https://theweek.com/articles/801927/how-vulture-capitalists-ate-sears

 

[tvguy]

Yet, here we are, bankrupt. I guess times have changed.

Yep. I'm a dinosaur. I want service, not just the lowest price. I want to try on clothing and shoes before I buy, not guess if they fit and have to mail something back 3 times until they do.

 

[bcla]

Yep. I'm a dinosaur. I want service, not just the lowest price. I want to try on clothing and shoes before I buy, not guess if they fit and have to mail something back 3 times until they do.

Sears didn't really lose that much business to online sales. They really lost their business to discount retailers like Target and Walmart. I have bought stuff recently at Sears, but if it weren't because I got a good price (which was probably a loss leader of some kind) it was a pretty sad experience seeing that they've become.