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The local Sears...

D

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
is closing. I remember when they built that mall and I worked at the Sears store for over a year when I was fresh out of college and no job. Between that and the FD I kept the wolf away from the door for a bit until I got something better. Everything goes. I have been picking up a few fixtures and the odd item that was there 30 years ago when I was. Bought this little rolling work station to use when I am working on the equipment so I won't have to walk back and forth so much. Can't decide if I want to keep it like it is or add a top to it. I already have a triple decker rolling tool box. Still mulling it over.

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All of the Sears stores and outlets in this area are gone. No more catalogs or advertisements. It played a role in the lives of almost all of us growing up. I guess there?s a season for everything. As far as the chest goes you might find it really handy while working on a piece of equipment in your shop. We have a smaller similar idea of yours and it?s great for carting around to keep the required tools and parts along side whatever your working on.
 
I bought a 4 drawer version from HF- but it has a lift-up lid on the top. Very solid and heavily built, but it has one small problem- with the lid down (for a working surface), the drawers are locked.
 

Our large Sears is closing as well and they are having a sale. HA!!! Their tool sale is 10% off?? the local Ace hardware sells Craftsman every day for less than the "store closing" sale price at the local Sears. That arrogance is part of why they went TU.
 
Yes, arrogant. They were smart enough to close down their catalog business just as internet shopping was taking off. They had all the supply, order fulfillment, and shipping resources in place and just needed to create an electronic catalog.
 
"Ace hardware sells Craftsman every day for less than the "store closing" sale price at the local Sears"

Saw that here too. Even their website was cheaper than the
"store closing" prices and had free shipping to boot on many items.

I guess they've dug themselves such a deep hole there is nowhere
to go but sideways. At least, that's what it seems like.

I used to work at the Sears regional repair facility in Illinois.
The mis-management was quite obvious even then. 1991~ish.
They would promise the customer it would be fixed in three days
knowing that the parts were on backorder and had been for months.
Then wonder why the customer got upset when it wasn't done.
 
I don?t know if a real Sears is left in Minnesota now?

Several of the small hometown ones that handle appliances, tools, and lawn stuff, my understanding is they are franchised and owned by others and can keep going independently more or lass as they are, Sears can collect from them without having any skin in the game?

Watched Herbergers, longtime local Ace hardware, Target, Lowe?s, Sears all close around here in the past decade.

Added a Wal-Mart and a Menards in that time I believe.

Paul
 
Paul,

Are you referring to Mankato? Additional "newer" stores would be Fleet Farm and Home Depot and an upgraded Tractor Supply. Actually their Menard's is an upgrade too as original Menard's was where Snell Motors is today.
 
That?s true, when I threw Lowe?s in the mix I should have expanded my new stores as well.

The others left New Ulm.

Stuff changes, when I was a little kid mom would still take me occasionally to the few remaining corner grocery stores, think there were 7 in town, all but one closed, replaced by 3 bigger grocery stores, then 2, now add in Aldies.

It always changes.

Paul
 
If I may be permitted to respond to the actual question:

By "add a top to it" I assume you mean another toolbox. Sounds as if you already have enough tool storage (as if that's possible). Just because things are going cheap doesn't mean you have to buy. I would add a plywood top and not add another box. Always handy to have a roll-around surface for parts, tools, etc.
 
I used to love looking at the Sears Farm Catalog when I was a kid,Sears left their customers more so than their customers left them.Can't buy what they quit selling.And if I want Walmart stuff I'm not going to Sears and pay 2X the price for it I can buy it at Walmart.
 
Ask about tire prices in the auto shop. I have a story to tell about that if you care to hear, about when our sears closed....
 
I grew up in a Sears family. My mom was a 35+ year retiree of a catalog order facility. Beginning in 1967 I worked part-time there from the age of 16 till out of college during summers and Christmas seasons. Five years after college I returned home and worked during the Christmas rush seasons from 1978 till the catalog operations shut down in 1993.

Sears relied more on cost-cutting rather than modernizing to maintain profitability. As mentioned by others its practices made it less customer friendly. It was trying to compete with the up and coming Walmant and was content to sell a lower volume of goods at a higher margin of profit.

Local customers could place catalog orders and have their items within a couple of hours. It was very common for folks to drive fairly long distances to get something they needed quickly, like an appliance, water pump, or water heater. The catalog plants began to no longer carry large appliances in the mid to late 1980s, which hurt the company alot. One could still order the appliances, but it would take 3 to 5 days to get them. The retail division stocked some of these items and prospered for awhile, but as service declined, they began to hurt.

Lowes, HD, and others filled the gap, and customers began their exodus quickly.

With a lot of long-time employees and the benefits they received, Sears workforce costs were much higher than Wal-Mart too. More and more, part-time people were hired to work at the busiest times to reduce costs. The quality of workers they were hiring became less desirable as time passed. Combined with the failure to properly modernize its operations, its demise was only a matter of time.
 
I use a similar rolling tool caddy. On mine I added a double duplex outlet box and a 25' extension cord so that
I can have multiple outlets close to the work piece.
 
(quoted from post at 05:45:12 02/02/19) I bought a 4 drawer version from HF- but it has a lift-up lid on the top. Very solid and heavily built, but it has one small problem- with the lid down (for a working surface), the drawers are locked.
Click to expand...
That's why I bought a Husky, you flip a lock inside manually
 
I agree. I have been saying for a long time Sears could have easily been what Amazon is today if they
had tried to market online.
 

You don't need the draws I could hang more on that box than the law allows... Its still in progress this is just one side my tip add a bumper car rail to it if for nuttin else you can move it from all sides EZ...


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I purchased socket sets and other tools from Sears, online, over 20 years ago. It was in place, it just
never really went anywhere. Then the quality really started to slide. Ron
 
The one in Bemidji closed sometime last winter when we were gone. The one in International Falls says it's an independent but now we see the building is for sale.
 
That's nothing short of amazing. How do you keep that plastic tray on the side from buckling under the weight of those drivers? I would have to walk around it three times before I remembered half what was on it! :)
 
Like most others on a vintage site, I grew up with Sears. So many mistakes made along the way. People still buy retail, and still need places to shop but the people who ran Sears just made every leadership mistake on the planet. Changing the refund/exchange policy, declining Visa and MC just as they were both growing big, stocking levels of the wrong brands, failed to establish an online presence until way too late, not offering home/pkg delivery until way too late, wrong investments, wrong partnerships, etc.

Sad to see it die, but sadder to know that with some effort Sears could have been saved.
 
You are correct and people need to be very careful. This particular store is very large and, wonder of wonder, the old employees are mostly gone and almost everyone in the place is from India. Very nice but sharp as a razor and so tight with a buck...these guys could squeeze orange juice from a handful of pennies. I checked a number of the clearance items and it turns out the prices are the same as Sears.com delivered to your door free. Just need to watch.
 
That?s what I always thought. They had everything but one element, and that was probably the
cheapest one to create. They could have kept the catalogue business going, started the online, with
sharing the overhead, they would have been formidable.
 
I use a cart like that here in my shop,,I started it back in 1974 when I worked at the Deere Shop,,I called it a "Crash Cart",,keep 2 each of all the wrenches , a few screw drives,pliers and sockets and drives,,then add what I need from my big box,,push it up to the job at hand..It gets a bit cluttered up at times..
cvphoto11683.jpg
 
And Mankato Menards keeps getting bigger all the time. It's building out the back side this winter with a greatly expanded groceries section and other new merchandise. I give a lot of credit to the manager, Bob R. He's been in charge since Menards was in what is now Snell Motors and works on the floor just like his part-timers. He hires a lot of old-timers along with the usual high-schoolers and college students. He seems like a good guy who manages to hang onto employees in some cases for decades, which suggests he treats his people well. I've often said a person could spend his life comfortably without ever leaving Menards as long as the shelves kept getting restocked.
 

A employee of mine made it out of metal... It was a old tin sign after he made it I brought a new sheet of metal (16 are 18 ga.) to make another but he ran off before we could get to it...

I have fired him several times he's as damm independent as I am
:lol: We are still friends if I needed him he would come help me...

Some updates...




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I keep trying to clean this table off its not working out tho...




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mvphoto30801.jpg
 
Dave, maybe a back board to hang your combination wrenches on, SAE and Metric, and others as room permits. If you truly are going to move it to your work location, the flat top space will be invaluable to set things on and work on them. And, those drawers won't hold all the tools you might possibly need to work on a project.

You might want to get another base and bolt them together but that might get too unwieldy. But think of all the top space, back space, and a few more drawers.

Ya, the other "Crash Carts" below are impressive.

Paul
 

If you made your living using them you want them handy... They don't pay you to walk back and forth to get a screwdriver... For those that use their tools every day its called production work...
 
St. Cloud Sear closed last year. For years there wouldn"t be more than 4-6 cars in the parking lot.
 
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