In his 60 Minutes interview, Jeff Bezos commented something to the effect of, "every business ends -- you just have to know what to do when your business becomes no longer viable." I suspect that Sears and Penneys (and Von Maur, etc.) will all die out if they do not evolve, and the same goes for the "teen" retailers (DEB, Aeropostale, American Eagle, A&F).

Sears has clearly not evolved, that is evident any time you go into their store. Likewise with K-Mart. JC Penney has attempted to modernize and is actually on an uphill swing. The closures are mostly in dead or dying malls. I don't ever see stores like Macy's and Dillard's or upscale stores like Nordstrom going completely away. When it comes to malls, upscale malls are still doing well while the lower end ones are faltering. Radio Shack is no longer necissary. Teen retailers will always come and go being that fads are very fickle and the next generation isn't going to like what their parents did. Right now, preppy clothes with large brand logos aren't as popular as they were 15 or so years ago and that is trouble for stores like Aeropostale and A&F.

I could live the rest of my life without setting foot in another Disney store. Fortunately I've never taken my little girl to one. Otherwise I could envision having to go there for at least 3 or 4 more years.

I really don't see how online shopping is a big factor for clothing stores. Books and electronics I can see, but I would never order clothing online because I want to be able to try it on before ordering.

Here are the two things I am seeing. Department stores in dead or dying malls are likely losing money and will need to be shuttered. Secondly, teen/young adult style right now doesn't involve large brand-name logos like it did in the 2000s. Stores like A&F, American Eagle, Aeropostale, etc all relied on their brand name to distinguish themselves. Today they can't really do that so a thinning of the herd is definitely on its way.

Whelp RadioShack is gearing up to sell or shutter its stores, report says | PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2878815/radioshack-is-gearing-up-to-sell-or-shutter-its-stores-report-says.html)

I can't say I'll miss Radioshack because I can find everything they sell there as cheap if not cheaper online or at Best Buy.

Sears will do alright money wise for the big wigs if they can keep selling off prime properties, they own most of their stores. They announced the closure of the Cherry Creek North location here in Denver and that area is having a huge building boom going on, cranes everywhere and development properties going for ridiculous prices.

Whelp RadioShack is gearing up to sell or shutter its stores, report says | PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2878815/radioshack-is-gearing-up-to-sell-or-shutter-its-stores-report-says.html)

I can't say I'll miss Radioshack because I can find everything they sell there as cheap if not cheaper online or at Best Buy.

That, more than anything, speaks to the demise of Radio Shack. The world just changed around them. They were never Best Buy or Fry's when they started. Yeah, they sold a few radios and some black and white TV's, but they were more closely related to the long-defunct Heathkit stores that sold fabulously intriguing electronic components, kits, and piece parts you could assemble yourself. Radio Shack was, arguably, a one-off of Heathkit (in concept only, not ownership) in that you could by resistors, capacitors, microswitches, heck, even seven-segment LED's and breadboards for projects. I had a wonderful old "100-in-1 Electronic Project Kit" that had a solar cell, LED, speaker and myraid other components wired to numbered spring-terminal connectors such that you could wire up nearly ANYTHING you could think up. It was brilliant. Sadly, no one does that anymore. They lived through the 70's and 80's by selling pre-IBM computers, and survived the 80's by (finally) selling PC clones once they realized proprietary hardware was going to doom them.

As far as kit-based electronics failing, that's why Heathkit died a LONG time ago. You could buy kits for dot-matrix printers, projection TV's, and computers, and you'd literally build them yourself if you had the ambition, knowledge, skill, and patience.

Sorry for the aside, but the RS reference caught my attention. Their demise is kinda sad, not merely for the fact of a business failing, but for the segment/time in American history that has passed along with it.

Sorry for the aside, but the RS reference caught my attention. Their demise is kinda sad, not merely for the fact of a business failing, but for the segment/time in American history that has passed along with it.

I agree with you. RadioShack is a relic of a bygone era and its demise punctuates the passing of that era.

Personally I think one of their mistakes was when they stopped selling computers.

Yeah. $5,000 Tandy was where it was at lol :D

They used to sell the stuff you needed to build your own boards and electronics. When all of that became obsolete by cheap parts and labor and/or modular construction...Well...The public at large doesn't want to spend 4 hours diagnosing and repairing something they can replace for $10.

So they started selling the $10 replacements.

Then, all the $10 replacements were rendered obsolete by smartphones.

Now they poorly sell smartphones and...Cables.

They've been 5 years behind the curve since I was a kid.


/just random thoughts
//still love Sears

Cache, which is another clothing retailer has apparently filed for Chapter11 bankruptcy and may be closing most of their stores.

Seems like there has been a significant shakeout of mall retailers recently. I am glad Quail Springs doesn't have a Cache. Penn Square can absorb the loss of a first-rate tenant a lot easier than QSM can.

I know this is an old thread, but it came closest to the topic.
JCPenney Is Back From The Dead - Feb. 29, 2016 (http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/29/investing/jcpenney-penny-sales-comeback/index.html)
What a turnaround story.

I know this is an old thread, but it came closest to the topic.
JCPenney Is Back From The Dead - Feb. 29, 2016 (http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/29/investing/jcpenney-penny-sales-comeback/index.html)
What a turnaround story.

Yeah, and the most fascinating part of it is that it was the hipster dynamic that darned-near killed them when everyone was insisting they had to become more contemporary. They gave that guy the boot and went retro - back to a *more* conventional, even old-school model with their rotating sales, frequent coupons, aggressive discount promotions, and decent quality brands. How novel.

Given a choice betwen JCP and Sears, I'd gladly see JCP survive. I fear I might be kidnapped by rebel cockroaches hiding in the walls at the Reding Sequoyah store.

I know this is an old thread, but it came closest to the topic.
JCPenney Is Back From The Dead - Feb. 29, 2016 (http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/29/investing/jcpenney-penny-sales-comeback/index.html)
What a turnaround story.

Zookeeper,
Hiring Ellison was a great move. He then hired Michael Amend, the CIO of Home Depot to be the CIO of JCP. Amend is a really sharp man and the son of one of my closest friends. And of course, he's a proud Dad. Michael has managed a lot of changes on their internet marketing/purchasing and that has helped things along with what Ellison has done in other areas.
C. T.

p.s. And for you OSU fans, he's an OSU grad.

Zookeeper,
Hiring Ellison was a great move. He then hired Michael Amend, the CIO of Home Depot to be the CIO of JCP. Amend is a really sharp man and the son of one of my closest friends. And of course, he's a proud Dad. Michael has managed a lot of changes on their internet marketing/purchasing and that has helped things along with what Ellison has done in other areas.
C. T.

p.s. And for you OSU fans, he's an OSU grad.

No kidding! Great to know, C.T....it mentioned him in the article I posted - but didn't know of his Oklahoma ties and here he is the son of a friend of yours.
Small world indeed!

In a very ironic way, that article makes me sad. Here's why:


"We're trying something different. We're actually listening to the customers," he quipped.

It's just sad that listening to the customer tell you what they want from you, as opposed to you telling the customer what they want and then wondering why they stopped shopping with you, is new and different.

No kidding! Great to know, C.T....it mentioned him in the article I posted - but didn't know of his Oklahoma ties and here he is the son of a friend of yours.
Small world indeed!

Zookeeper,
I didn't see anything about Michael in the article, but of course it quoted the CEO, Marvin Ellison. Too bad Michael is not my son, I could live out my life in comfort!
C. T.

I too, miss the 80's radio shack when Tandy was still a thing. I received a 150-in-1 electric project kit when I was a lad. Then I could walk in and buy parts to fix/create radios or TVs. Soldering irons, capacitors, fuses, resistors. They had hundreds of bins in the back with everything you needed, I even fixed my commadore dot matrix printer with parts from RS.

It's probably pure nostalgia and the model wouldnt survive. But I really wish there was a store that sold parts. CompUSA came to town and put all the hardware shops out of business, then immediately flopped. Now if a 80mm case fan goes out my desktop it's down for 2 or 3 days while Amazon or newegg ships one out.

...

It's probably pure nostalgia and the model wouldnt survive. But I really wish there was a store that sold parts. CompUSA came to town and put all the hardware shops out of business, then immediately flopped. Now if a 80mm case fan goes out my desktop it's down for 2 or 3 days while Amazon or newegg ships one out.

I believe Fry's still sells parts, not sure because we haven't been in one since we left IL in 2007-ish, but the model still works, albeit in tandem with everything else sold at a big box store. It's a bummer we'll never see one here.

The idea that the lifetime guarentee on Craftsman tools will soon be totally void, is most distressing. . .

The idea that the lifetime guarentee on Craftsman tools will soon be totally void, is most distressing. . .

Whorton,
I read somewhere that Craftsman tools will still be available and the warranty will be good. I don't think I dreamed it, but look around and let us know. Except for my S-K metric set, all I have ever owned is Craftsman.
C. T.

I believe Fry's still sells parts, not sure because we haven't been in one since we left IL in 2007-ish, but the model still works, albeit in tandem with everything else sold at a big box store. It's a bummer we'll never see one here.

It still works. In the late '90s, there were too many players in the brick-and-mortar tech store market. You had at least Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, PC Club, Ultimate Electronics, TigerDirect, Fry's, and MicroCenter. The much-needed thinning of the herd came during the Great Recession. The market just isn't there for that many stores in addition to sites like Amazon and NewEgg as well as stores like Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and Staples which sell plenty of low-end tech. Unfortunately, smaller markets like OKC have been left without a true computer superstore and the local hardware stores have not picked up the slack.

I would love to see a store like Fry's, MicroCenter, or TigerDirect open in OKC. I am not sure why they don't analyze markets without computer superstores and without decent mom-and-pop tech stores to discover that expanding into those markets might actually work.

It still works. In the late '90s, there were too many players in the brick-and-mortar tech store market. You had at least Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, PC Club, Ultimate Electronics, TigerDirect, Fry's, and MicroCenter. The much-needed thinning of the herd came during the Great Recession. The market just isn't there for that many stores in addition to sites like Amazon and NewEgg as well as stores like Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and Staples which sell plenty of low-end tech. Unfortunately, smaller markets like OKC have been left without a true computer superstore and the local hardware stores have not picked up the slack.

I would love to see a store like Fry's, MicroCenter, or TigerDirect open in OKC. I am not sure why they don't analyze markets without computer superstores and without decent mom-and-pop tech stores to discover that expanding into those markets might actually work.

Because it won't work. Not anymore. You'll never see the big-box electronics guys like Fry's et al, because that era has passed. Best Buy barely survived one if not two rounds of near-bankruptcy as the retail market shook out and they learned how to adapt to an Amazon-dominated model. Combine that with the fact that very few people by big, desktop PC's anymore and it becomes clear how the piece-part market, with its razor thin margins at the outset, will never see a rebirth at the local strip-mall level. I can't see right now how a place like Computer Masters on S. Western survives; I remember how what I think of as the last really good piece-part shop in Computer Max finally died off: their owner said he couldn't survive with customers coming in and expecting Amazon- and related mail-order prices at a brick-and-mortar shop - particularly for components people weren't buying in the volume they once did with advent of smartphones and tablets and all the other non-PC devices that now share the computing world. You could argue that kind of store was the inevitable next-wave of hobbyist places to fade away.

I could be mistaken, but even the Fry's aren't Fry's anymore. I went into a Fry's in Arlington last summer and the place wasn't an electronics market the way you think of it; it was more of a flea market, with a hodgepodge of "As Seen On TV" garbage, one-off big-screen TV's, cables, UPS's, toys, just....amalgamated junk. I can't fathom the place will be around much more than another couple of years or so, making a living on high-volume consignment stuff. You could see the ghosts of what was once a huge retailer, but with chunks of the store that obviously used to sport demo showrooms and such just boarded up and partitioned off. Yeah, it was named "Fry's," but that was where the resemblance between it and the erstwhile retailer we're thinking of ended.

Best Buy still sells a few components - you can actually buy fans, heatsinks, laptop memory, and hard drives, but at 7-11 prices (if you get my drift - expense for the convenience), and the volume of what they sell now compared to what the Computer Max variety of store sold back in the day is night-and-day difference. Their bread and butter is now big TV's in volume, cell phones, and tablets - all of which are essentially disposable, with lots of higher-margin accessories, but virtually no secondary hardware market like the ol PC era fostered.

Because it won't work. Not anymore. You'll never see the big-box electronics guys like Fry's et al, because that era has passed. Best Buy barely survived one if not two rounds of near-bankruptcy as the retail market shook out and they learned how to adapt to an Amazon-dominated model. Combine that with the fact that very few people by big, desktop PC's anymore and it becomes clear how the piece-part market, with its razor thin margins at the outset, will never see a rebirth at the local strip-mall level. I can't see right now how a place like Computer Masters on S. Western survives; I remember how what I think of as the last really good piece-part shop in Computer Max finally died off: their owner said he couldn't survive with customers coming in and expecting Amazon- and related mail-order prices at a brick-and-mortar shop - particularly for components people weren't buying in the volume they once did with advent of smartphones and tablets and all the other non-PC devices that now share the computing world. You could argue that kind of store was the inevitable next-wave of hobbyist places to fade away.

I could be mistaken, but even the Fry's aren't Fry's anymore. I went into a Fry's in Arlington last summer and the place wasn't an electronics market the way you think of it; it was more of a flea market, with a hodgepodge of "As Seen On TV" garbage, one-off big-screen TV's, cables, UPS's, toys, just....amalgamated junk. I can't fathom the place will be around much more than another couple of years or so, making a living on high-volume consignment stuff. You could see the ghosts of what was once a huge retailer, but with chunks of the store that obviously used to sport demo showrooms and such just boarded up and partitioned off. Yeah, it was named "Fry's," but that was where the resemblance between it and the erstwhile retailer we're thinking of ended.

Best Buy still sells a few components - you can actually buy fans, heatsinks, laptop memory, and hard drives, but at 7-11 prices (if you get my drift - expense for the convenience), and the volume of what they sell now compared to what the Computer Max variety of store sold back in the day is night-and-day difference. Their bread and butter is now big TV's in volume, cell phones, and tablets - all of which are essentially disposable, with lots of higher-margin accessories, but virtually no secondary hardware market like the ol PC era fostered.

I can somewhat agree on Fry's. Last time I was there, it wasn't near as impressive as it used to be. MicroCenter is still awesome though.

You make a good point about PCs. While I think the dominance of tablets and smartphones is sometimes overstated, nearly the entire low-end PC market has shifted to mobile devices. People who would have bought the $300 eMachines desktop bundles in the 2000s will now buy a surface tablet or an iPad. All they need is a way to access the Internet and don't need the power that a higher-end PC will provide. Gamers, power users, and businesses still prefer desktop machines however and as long as there are those markets, I don't see the PC completely dying off. I think metro OKC could support at least one store that specializes in it. MicroCenter would be preferable.

Their bread and butter is now big TV's in volume, cell phones, and tablets - all of which are essentially disposable,

This rings true in everything. No one wants to fix/keep anything anymore. Lawn mower breaks? Trash it and buy a new one. Everything is so cheap it's more cost effective to just buy another crappy mower then to have them repaired. Which is sad, because I won't replace my 35 year old Snapper push mower

I can somewhat agree on Fry's. Last time I was there, it wasn't near as impressive as it used to be. MicroCenter is still awesome though.

You make a good point about PCs. While I think the dominance of tablets and smartphones is sometimes overstated, nearly the entire low-end PC market has shifted to mobile devices. People who would have bought the $300 eMachines desktop bundles in the 2000s will now buy a surface tablet or an iPad. All they need is a way to access the Internet and don't need the power that a higher-end PC will provide. Gamers, power users, and businesses still prefer desktop machines however and as long as there are those markets, I don't see the PC completely dying off. I think metro OKC could support at least one store that specializes in it. MicroCenter would be preferable.

The point is there are not many people building their own machines anymore. If someone buys a desktop or laptop odds are its going to be a cheap Dell, HP, etc that uses proprietary motherboard/power supply you have to buy through them.

And on another note, people who build their own PC are usually smarter or more resourceful and do much of their shopping online.

The point is there are not many people building their own machines anymore. If they buy a desktop or laptop odds are its going to be a cheap Dell, HP, etc that uses proprietary motherboard/power supply you have to buy through them.

The build-your-own-machine crowd has always been quite small though. It has always consisted of mostly PC gamers and hobbyists and in actuality, that market has improved quite a bit over the past few years compared to the dark days of the Vista/Xbox 360 era.

Most people have always bought Dells, HPs, Gateways, etc.

One major, often overlooked factor is that PCs today need upgraded far less frequently. In the '90s, if your PC was more than two years old, chances are it couldn't run the latest software. Today, a 10-year old laptop will be a little long in the teeth but will still do most of the essential tasks that people need from a computer. I think this factor has been just as detrimental to PC sales if not moreso than the shift to tablets and smartphones has.

One major, often overlooked factor is that PCs today need upgraded far less frequently. In the '90s, if your PC was more than two years old, chances are it couldn't run the latest software. Today, a 10-year old laptop will be a little long in the teeth but will still do most of the essential tasks that people need from a computer. I think this factor has been just as detrimental to PC sales if not moreso than the shift to tablets and smartphones has.

That's true. This becoming more evident in the smartphone market. I have always said Apple better actually invent something "new" or there sales growth is going to start to suffer. They will probably come out with new phones in the future where the on board battery only lasts two years.

That's true. This becoming more evident in the smartphone market. I have always said Apple better actually invent something "new" or there sales growth is going to start to suffer. They will probably come out with new phones in the future where the on board battery only lasts two years.

Apple has floundered in my opinion since Steve Jobs passed away. Each new iPhone upgrade is less impressive and less necessary than the last. I remember the huge jump in performance and features between the iPhone 3GS and 4, and then the huge jump from 4 to 5. Since the iPhone 5, its been evolutionary and there hasn't been a real must-have upgrade. They need a new phone that has a must-have feature or people aren't going to upgrade.

Because it won't work. Not anymore. You'll never see the big-box electronics guys like Fry's et al, because that era has passed. Best Buy barely survived one if not two rounds of near-bankruptcy as the retail market shook out and they learned how to adapt to an Amazon-dominated model. Combine that with the fact that very few people by big, desktop PC's anymore and it becomes clear how the piece-part market, with its razor thin margins at the outset, will never see a rebirth at the local strip-mall level. I can't see right now how a place like Computer Masters on S. Western survives; I remember how what I think of as the last really good piece-part shop in Computer Max finally died off: their owner said he couldn't survive with customers coming in and expecting Amazon- and related mail-order prices at a brick-and-mortar shop - particularly for components people weren't buying in the volume they once did with advent of smartphones and tablets and all the other non-PC devices that now share the computing world. You could argue that kind of store was the inevitable next-wave of hobbyist places to fade away.

I could be mistaken, but even the Fry's aren't Fry's anymore. I went into a Fry's in Arlington last summer and the place wasn't an electronics market the way you think of it; it was more of a flea market, with a hodgepodge of "As Seen On TV" garbage, one-off big-screen TV's, cables, UPS's, toys, just....amalgamated junk. I can't fathom the place will be around much more than another couple of years or so, making a living on high-volume consignment stuff. You could see the ghosts of what was once a huge retailer, but with chunks of the store that obviously used to sport demo showrooms and such just boarded up and partitioned off. Yeah, it was named "Fry's," but that was where the resemblance between it and the erstwhile retailer we're thinking of ended.

Best Buy still sells a few components - you can actually buy fans, heatsinks, laptop memory, and hard drives, but at 7-11 prices (if you get my drift - expense for the convenience), and the volume of what they sell now compared to what the Computer Max variety of store sold back in the day is night-and-day difference. Their bread and butter is now big TV's in volume, cell phones, and tablets - all of which are essentially disposable, with lots of higher-margin accessories, but virtually no secondary hardware market like the ol PC era fostered.

I could see PC components fitting in hardware stores model more in like twenty or more years from now, when we really have hit the smallest you can physically print circuits, so there is not as rapid a change between cpu/motherboard sockets and RAM interfaces, and the the components could sit on the shelf and hold it's value instead of having to cut the price month by month and clearance it around six months.

The idea that the lifetime guarentee on Craftsman tools will soon be totally void, is most distressing. . .

It really isn't that great of a warranty these days anyway. Hasn't been for a long time. You still get a lifetime warranty on things like a wrench or a hammer...But try stripping out a ratcheting wrench and see if they replace it. None of their power tools have lifetime that I know of. They're spotty.

But...You can already buy Craftsman at Ace. Been at least 5 years since that happened.

You have to purchase the ones that say "CRAFTSMAN HAND TOOL FULL WARRANTY". I've taken in rusty sockets and had them replaced.

Yeah, but they'll probably deny the same claim on a ratchet.

My experience says that if it has moving parts, it will probably be a more difficult return. More so as the price goes up LOL.


/breaks quite a few tools :D

Last Christmas for Sears?

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/16/will-this-be-last-christmas-for-sears.html

JCPenney in Lawton was damaged by heavy rain in June and had been closed for 5 months to gut and remodel. They open back up this weekend so it seems they are doing much better than Sears, If this happened to Sears, I'm sure they would just keep it closed and move on. I do believe the K-Mart down there is on the list to close soon if it hadn't already.

http://swoknews.com/business/jcpenney-reopen-after-june-storm



JCPenney has also started selling appliances, noticed this at Penn Square this past weekend.

Last Christmas for Sears?

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/16/will-this-be-last-christmas-for-sears.html

It will be really funny if the SW 44th street Sears is one of the last stores to go. They even outlast Target somehow. I'm sure Target has the bar set a lot higher than Sears at this point in deciding which under performing stores to close.

Last Christmas for Sears?

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/16/will-this-be-last-christmas-for-sears.html

I can see it happening with the corporate stores, but I wonder how it will affect the Hometown Sears stores, which are privately owned and seem to do well. They mostly stock the more popular items, and keep it basic, but they do catalog sales through Sears corporate.

I can see it happening with the corporate stores, but I wonder how it will affect the Hometown Sears stores, which are privately owned and seem to do well. They mostly stock the more popular items, and keep it basic, but they do catalog sales through Sears corporate.

I can't see them surviving. If "Big" Sears is gone, there's nothing upstream to tie the "name" to anything relevant. The guy running the thing hasn't made any legit effort to save that brand and, in fact, it could be argued he's been in the process of an orderly selloff of assets for a couple of years now.

As someone who, as a kid, grew up at Christmas time with a Sears Christmas Wish Book and thought it was a treasure trove of toy goodness, and remember the Reding store decked out in red Christmas lights, to see Sears just cast into the dustbin like this is kinda sad. The irony is that they were really the Amazon of their era - catalog shopping, just without the Internet. The right person could probably have transformed Sears into an Internet marketing behemoth.

I can't see them surviving. If "Big" Sears is gone, there's nothing upstream to tie the "name" to anything relevant. The guy running the thing hasn't made any legit effort to save that brand and, in fact, it could be argued he's been in the process of an orderly selloff of assets for a couple of years now.

As someone who, as a kid, grew up at Christmas time with a Sears Christmas Wish Book and thought it was a treasure trove of toy goodness, and remember the Reding store decked out in red Christmas lights, to see Sears just cast into the dustbin like this is kinda sad. The irony is that they were really the Amazon of their era - catalog shopping, just without the Internet. The right person could probably have transformed Sears into an Internet marketing behemoth.

It is sad. I grew up the same way. Sears and Montgomery Ward at Christmas time were a kids dream.

Sears is apparently downsizing some of their stores including the one in Sooner Mall.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161102/business/161109764/

After my grandfather retired from playing pro hockey he was a general contractor. His main business from the time when my father was kid up to when I was a teenager was he rebuilt Sears stores in Tulsa, OKC, Little Rock, and other locations in the region. My grandfather's company traveled store to store as they needed redoing. New carpet, painting, new fixtures, whatever they needed up until the early 1980s. He had the worlds greatest Craftsman tool set as Sears only allowed him to use their tools when he worked on their stores. It was really sad to him when Sears closed the huge beautiful art deco flagship store by the Tulsa fairgrounds that he had largely built for a generic big box store in the early 90s. He passed about 10 years ago at 101 years old, but this seems like the very end of his era, an era that he contributed to and is forgotten.

After my grandfather retired from playing pro hockey he was a general contractor. His main business from the time when my father was kid up to when I was a teenager was he rebuilt Sears stores in Tulsa, OKC, Little Rock, and other locations in the region. My grandfather's company traveled store to store as they needed redoing. New carpet, painting, new fixtures, whatever they needed up until the early 1980s. He had the worlds greatest Craftsman tool set as Sears only allowed him to use their tools when he worked on their stores. It was really sad to him when Sears closed the huge beautiful art deco flagship store by the Tulsa fairgrounds that he had largely built for a generic big box store in the early 90s. He passed about 10 years ago at 101 years old, but this seems like the very end of his era, an era that he contributed to and is forgotten.

Great post.

The environment at Sears was tremendous when I was growing up. Amid the multitude of times my mom would pickup (and then, quite often, return) a catalog order, we'd go in that east entrance to Sears on Reding and the awesome aroma of hot popcorn and roasted nuts from the candy counter just hit you like a ton of bricks. Later, there was the ol PONG setup in the sporting goods department (and I'm glad to say I was UNDEFEATED at Pong at the Reding store LOL). They had a huge electronics department directly across from the candy counter and appliance area, and I remember as a somewhat older but-not-quite-teenager going through the electronics area to visit this extremely attractive, tall brunette salesgirl. I knew in my heart she was too old for me (which meant I was probably 12 - maybe 13 - but she was probably closer to 17), but she was SOOO nice...never wanted to buy a TV so much LOL. I have this memory that she told me she was a niece or cousin of Bobby Murcer....

Anyway, the loss of Sears is just a sad ending to an era. Not unexpected, because everyone saw how they were heading, but it's still sad. I think some of us still held out hope of some miracle that might restore them to some fraction of their former stature.

Not to diminish the memory of your grandfather, but I don't agree that the Sears era is 'forgotten'. In my experience (and no, I do not know everyone in the entire world) there are two very VERY distinct classes. People who went to Sears in their heyday and people who have never been. The first class, every single person has a similar story as SoonerDave's, with the associated clear as crystal just like it happened yesterday memories. The second class has never set foot inside a Sears at all, let alone back in the heyday. They have not 'forgotten' anything, because they never knew it.

My distinct memories are the small electronics, the computers and the video games. I was fiddling around with a C64 one time. Kinda laughing at it, because I had a CoCo. The Atari 2600 display was fun, but kind of annoying. While it had tons of games. you could only play a couple minutes of a game as a demo, then it stopped. This was in a different world, one where leaving your kid alone for two seconds didn't get the police and CPS called on you, so most times my parents would just leave me there to play and go do whatever.

Forgotten? Hardly. When I'm 99 and drooling into my oatmeal (assuming I'm so lucky) I'll be dreaming of that darn Atari 2600 display. Either that or the time when I was even younger than that and my favorite show in the whole world was Lost In Space. Mom wanted to go shopping when it was time for my show, I didn't want to go. So we compromised by parking me in front of a TV set that was taller than I was (console TV set, the kind that when it went out, you just left it there because it weighed 800 pounds so you just put the new TV on top) so I could watch.

Growing up in Philadelphia, we had a huge Sears mail distribution center on "the boulevard" Driving, you would round the slight curve and see it looming in the distance, tall smoke stack behind it. Complex had a Sears store & a firehouse. Very sad when it was demolished foraa Home Depot. Today only the smoke stack & firehouse remain.

The only Oklahoma closing for this round is in Muskogee.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/sears-closing-150-stores-213148758.html

The only Oklahoma closing for this round is in Muskogee.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/sears-closing-150-stores-213148758.html

That's from the list of Kmart stores. The list of Sears stores is further down the article. From the full list of both Sears and Kmart:

Oklahoma
Kmart 4 East Shawnee St Muskogee OK
Sears 428 SW C Ave Lawton OK
Sears 1901 S Yale Ave Tulsa OK

The only Oklahoma closing for this round is in Muskogee.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/sears-closing-150-stores-213148758.html

I saw a different article yesterday that showed 3 closing... Muskogee, Tulsa, and I think Lawton.

I saw a different article yesterday that showed 3 closing... Muskogee, Tulsa, and I think Lawton.

Man, this is a slow, ugly, painful bleeding out of a once proud retailer. For those of us old enough to remember when Sears was one of *the* places to shop, and going there was almost as routine as going to the grocery store, it's really sad to see them just spin off into oblivion like this. As I've mentioned before, with their catalog ordering infrastructure in place back in their heyday, I'd have argued they should have been terrifically positioned to migrate naturally into the Internet-based ordering/shipping world. They should have been able to beat Amazon before Amazon was, well, Amazon.

am I the only one who misses thumbing through catalogs? when I was a kid when the JC Penny Christmas catalog showed up I was PUMPED

am I the only one who misses thumbing through catalogs? when I was a kid when the JC Penny Christmas catalog showed up I was PUMPED

Heck yeah. Getting the Sears annual "Christmas Wish Book" was the official Start of the Christmas Season. Nothing looked more inviting than the artificial fire places, the vibrating electric NFL football games, and pages after pages of awesomely photographed toys. It was my own version of "Christmas Story's" Ralphie clamoring over Higbees display window of "mechanized electronic joy". That Wish Book was one of the most awesome marketing tools ever.

^

Can totally relate to all of that.

Of course, those feelings are only common to people over a certain age. :)

^

Can totally relate to all of that.

Of course, those feelings are only common to people over a certain age. :)

52 and proud :) :) LOL

There were so many unusual toys in that catalog you'd *never* see in the store...and somehow, they managed to make each one of them look irresistible and fascinating. I remember wanting a Bally Video Arcade out of the Monkey Ward catalog, but they had constant production problems and as I recall were never actually available until later the next year....now they're collector's items :)

^
^
.|------- Still shops at Sear's from time to time. Jacque Panay too.

When you live off camera, you buy on sale, you wear it out, then you go buy more once it's on sale again. :)

^
^
.|------- Still shops at Sear's from time to time. Jacque Panay too.

When you live off camera, you buy on sale, you wear it out, then you go buy more once it's on sale again. :)

Hey Jacque Penay looks like its going to be the survivor in all this. I wasn't sure either would survive this.

Has anyone here watched Grown Ups 2? The scene where they're in K Mart it makes K Mart look like a decently nice store. I've never been in a K Mart that didn't look like a third world bazaar.

Amazon is driving them out of business with some help from Wal-Mart and Target.

Not to mention completely horrid management from both firms. Sears had two positives working for it, Craftsmen tools and appliances. They destroyed a great brand in Lands' End, have entertained selling off the Craftsman brand and have too much appliance competition. I say in 5 years they are gone but financially sound based only on the value of their real estate. JCP has nothing. Also dead in 5 years but bankrupt.

I'm still mad at Sears getting rid of their DVDs and video games. JCP seems to be doing a lot better with their deals and I practically get coupons every week. At this point, I think Macy's is in more danger than JCP .

[...] have entertained selling off the Craftsman brand [...]

No longer just entertaining the idea; Sears Holdings announced that they are selling Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million. https://consumerist.com/2017/01/05/sears-to-sell-craftsman-brand-to-black-decker-for-900m/