# Sears Bankruptcy



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm guessing everybody has heard that Sears has gone belly up. Thinking back on it, I realized Amazon has exactly the same business model as Sears originally had with its catalog sales (Monkey Ward did it first but Sears ramped it up).

Sears sent catalogs (for free) to everybody in the country. You could order *everything* from Sears--guns, tools, clothes, shoes, toys, dogs, even ponies and have it delivered to your doorstep by the fastest means then available-- the US Postal Service. It usually took about two weeks from the time an order was mailed until what you ordered showed up in your mail box.

I recall buying my first semi-auto 22 rifle, a Marlin, for $100 from Sears when I was 13. Waited about 10 days, then walked to the Post Office everyday so see if it had arrived. Mail was delivered to post office about 2PM, got sorted and delivered to your home the next day--I wanted to save a day.

Amazon just replaced the catalog with a web site and the USPS with UPS.

Sears had a successful business model, so successful that Amazon is using it, but failed to adapt it to changing technology. Instead, they chose to follow the Harvard School of Business thinking and do what everybody else was doing. They invested in mall real estate, Allstate insurance, Dean Witter brokerage, Land's End specialty shops, etc., all of which proved to be a bust.

But you can't buy a gun or pony from Amazon. I wonder which Harvard MBA will put them out of business.

Ralph


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

You could buy an entire house or even a barn kit from Sears.
Back a few years when I first got married, my wife and I bought our first house. Our neighbor lived in a ranch house next to us and we shared many conversations with them. He was an older guy and told me he bought the entire materials list from Sears and built the house with his brother.

I remember Sears making a half hearted attempt at on line sales, but they waited too long and didn't put enough into it.
Last time I was in Sears was last Christmas. They were having a Lands End sale and I grabbed a vest for my daughter. The store was a disorganized mess. Out local Sears Hardware closed about 6 months ago. At the end, it was little more than an older retired-age couple trying to keep it open. Bargain bins filled with Chinese junk and a big mess. The last 10 times I went there, they didn't have what I was looking for. They literally didn't have basic light bulbs and most hand tools were sOld out and not restocked. It wasn't a real hardware store. It was a Homeowners store.


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## farmersamm (Nov 2, 2017)

In many respects, we have ourselves to blame for these failures.

I'm pretty much a Bricks 'n Mortar guy. I buy local. This can mean taking a long drive to Tulsa or OKC, but I get to see, and handle, what I'm putting my hard earned dollars on.

Wouldn't dream of buying welding equipment online. No meaningful customer support.

Auto and truck parts.....local. Lottsa folks buy parts online these days, but they're gonna miss the parts store when there's an emergency.

Clothing...local. At 62, fashion doooood I ain't  Pants is pants, shirts is shirts. ( :lol: we were at Atwoods sometime last Spring, and I spotted camo pants reduced to TWO BUCKS AND 50 CENTS. I bought every one they had in my size...&#8230;.11 pairs. K'kins has come to hate those pants, it's all I wear these days, and expect to wear them till they wear out, which is gonna be a while for ALL 11 PAIRS  )

Have the same attitude when it comes to WalMart. I buy anything I can from the local folks. WalMart has enough money, thank you very much. (Although...&#8230;.it has to be noted.....the local guys in small towns like ours have been ripping us off for years because they could...so I have mixed feelings on this......what keeps me buying from those that are still in business, is the fact that they keep people working that often could not find a job anywhere else, and I know and like these people, hate to see them out of work)

Can't cry about the wealth being concentrated in the hands of a few, when we participate in the process, by sending our purchasing dollars to corporations outside our communities.

Ya think I'm bad?  K'kins refuses to use anything but cash. Starts a war with the clerk when they ask for her phone number "for returns", which haven't even occurred yet. "I gotta receipt, what you gonna need my phone # for". And a few places are starting to take returns, AND GIVE YOU A STINKIN' GIFT CARD INSTEAD OF RETURNING YOUR CASH. K'kins is a very petite lady, but it's absolutely awesome to see her raise up on her hind legs, and light into the manager when this happens (she gets her cash). She's a force to be reckoned with :wub:


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

I got email in my office email last week from Amazon wanting feed back on my buying from them for my business. It was short and sweet...I have never bought for my business from you. Why....I can buy locally for less and see it.

I have and will buy on line and have in way before Al Gore invented the Internet done a good bit of catalog buying. But almost always such buying is do to not having local retailer who either had the product, or was way over price or as with few items from ebay and a couple of other auction sites buying used and even now looking for used square bale accumulator and doing so on line for only way I will ever find one for they just are not used in my area.

As the old saying goes, I do business with those who do business with me. Way I built my commercial insurance business. I will miss Sears as I will to much lesser KMart and Western Auto as I also miss A & P. Sears to me got above their market. I seldom will venture into the big malls they went to buy.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Used to love it when the Sears catalogue came in the mail....an exciting time. I always like the "good" "better" "Sears best" marketing.....now a days folks just want the "best" and if that means it's a bootleg, so be it, it looks like I have money.......we never got the "Sears best" edition. And without a doubt, actually going to the store was quite an experience, they had a candy kiosk (although the they didn't have such fancy names then) mom would give us a quarter and a penny (for tax) and I would always get me some chocolate covered peanuts and malted milk balls.....
Sears tough skins were tough to beat for the money.....seems like I remember an ad with a trampoline made out of "tough skins" 
Christmas was always special, Santa was always at Sears, and they had gift wrapping that was second to none....a really good service for us men. 
But above all, I really liked the women's clothing section......that was as close as it got to porographic material in our household, I learned a lot about anatomy from Sears and Roebuck  
How they let Die Hard and Craftsman die is beyond me......


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Yeah, I share a lot of the nostalgic memories about Sears that many of you do. First "real" set of tools were Craftsman. I mean, how could you go wrong with that lifetime warranty? Put a 4' cheater bar on a wrench and break it and they would give you a new one. Whild in the store exchanging the wrench, you bought something else. Walking around in the tool section was like Chrismas to a child (or maybe cocaine to an addict is a better analogy).

Newlywed couples would furnish their homes and put it on the Sears charge card. Probably half the people I know had Kenmore appliances in their homes - and were most likely making monthly payments on them.

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. I'm a tall guy and that's about the only place I have found where I can find clothes that fit. Prices are usually competitive and living in a small town, it is at least an hour drive to buy anything that you can't get from the local Walmart.

Saw an ad the other day for Ace Hardware. They were selling Craftsman tools. I wonder if they will let me exchange a 24" adjustable wrench that I broke the jaw on? Hmmmmm&#8230; Might be worth a shot.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Man all the icons are going, going, gone.

Remember Oldsmobile? Pontiac? Westinghouse? Bethlehem Steel? Kodak? Polaroid? Bell & Howell? And now Sears

I see the parasites now are using the once proud Westinghouse "name" on cheap Chinese junk like small appliances and Christmas lights. I see Bell & Howells name used on small items for "$19.95" on TV.

I think small parts of some of these companies still exist, but they are only a small fraction of their once gigantic industrial icon size.

America fell asleep in the 70's, relented to high cost union demands and sky-high taxes to their corporations. Enviromentalists started drilling holes around their real estate finding buried PCB's and hazardous heavy metals. Their marketing executives didn't keep up with the changing world and they paid the price.

In a "previous life", I worked for a huge Real Estate appraisal company. We used to come in and appraise the Real Estate of companies after they shut down so they could sell their properties. One project I was involved in was Black & Decker in Brockport and Sweden, New York. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. In the 80's, once great companies like Black & Decker, Owens Corning and Kodak in upstate New York, along the old Erie Canal were exposed for dumping dangerous chemicals.

When we entered the properties, we had to go through security and wear protective clothing. Once inside, I saw what a "sludge pond" really looked like. Water was being extracted from the ground to go through the painfully expensive process of removing groundwater pollution like heavy metals. 200,000 square foot and larger factories with machinery built into the floors once brought in off their railroad sidings just sitting there. While looking at the company pavillion where giant company picnics were held, former employees told us stories of employee cancer levels being extremely high.

Nothing much sadder to see than a shut down American factory just sitting there with weeds growing around the fences.

My daughter is being recruited to play field hockey for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. We were just there with her 3 weeks ago. This was the home of Bethlehem Steel. If you've ever been to Bethlehem, PA, there's a huge site where the steel mill once stood. It was an amazing site to see. Its blast furnaces built steel for the worlds largest bridges and buildings. They tore the entire factory down about 10 years ago except the enormous 230' tall blast furnace stacks. They still stand as nothing more than a memory and a backdrop for rock concerts. They operated until 1995 producing 3,000 tons of iron per day.

I cant help but think all these companies, now dead and gone, affect our national security and our ability to keep us safe. Not so much Sears of course, but the big industrial giants, like a Westinghouse or a Bethlehem Steel?

We now source what they once made from China and Korea. Doesn't seem right.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I always liked the Sears we had in town. It was owned by my best friends grandpa. He had to close it in the early 90's so they could keep the store running in the big town 45 mins east of here. Our little town did almost twice the dollar amount per capita of business than a town 10 times our size.

And like devildawg said, I learned a lot from the Sears catalog in my formative years....


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

I heard (from my local Sears guy) that the corp stores are closing/bankrupt, but the "Hometown Sears" stores are not effected; the "Hometown" stores are locally/family owned. Our Sears store is a local owned store, but ain't NOTHING like the two story sears stores of yesteryear. The got a couple aisles of tools, half the store is appliances and have some lawnmowers outside. I would speculate that it's just a matter of time for them too.

I always carry a Craftsman 4" crescent wrench in my plier's scabbard... I go through them (lose them out of the holster) a couple times a year, so I buy them ½ dozen at a time...and they ALWAYS have to order them. Last time the delivery date was @2 months out; I still ordered them; @3 months later, the store still didn't have them in yet; just made them give me my money back.

Samm, I agree with/am like most of what you said. I have a checkbook, but carry and use cash for most everything. I keep a check on me in-case I run outta cash or gotta make a big purchase. I don't go to wally-world very dang often; I still know where the stand-alone stores are and like to use them even if they are a little higher... if you figure in the taxes, wally world isn't much of a savings. I realize that **I** am paying the taxes that keep wallyworld's prices low and am ALSO paying the higher price of the local store. Sometimes, being hard headed comes at a price. I use a different response that your k'kins when returning stuff and asked for a phone number: "You didn't seem to need my number when I PAID cash; you don't need it now!"

Boy, Dawg...you always bring back memories for me...not always good. You remind me of the outhouse on cold mornings. That's where the Sears catalog always ended its life. As with any catalog, slick pages and pages with lady's underduds were the last pages to be used. 'Bout the only thing more pornographic to a young lad could be a National Geographic.

We also have an ACE hardware. They are a decent hardware store and carry as many or more Craftsman tools as the Sears store; they handle the warranty the same way as a Sears store.

I am sure that the other stores will wither and die too. There are more and more younger folks that grew up on-line and have no problems with ordering their groceries from Amazon. I ain't saying they're wrong, it's just not for me; it's just the ever-changing world and businesses need to be able to change with it.

I am sure, years ago, there was probably a conversation over a stove in a general store that went something like this "If people keep using these newfangled rubber tires, they will run the blacksmith and wheelwright right out of business...by the time they realize it, it will be too late. THEN where are they gunna get their wagon wheel fixed!!??"

Live music get-togethers' attendance were hurt by recording LPs and 45s, LPs were hurt by 8-tracks; 8 tracks were hurt by cassettes; cassettes were hurt by CDs, CDs were hurt by downloading on limewire and others, downloading was hurt by youtube, etc...

Heck, I about didn't make this post...didn't want to waste the last of my typewriter ribbon.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Mark,

YOU USED THE LAST PAGES, WITH THE UNDER DUDS ON THEM?? YOU MUST HAVE BEEN MORE DESPARATE THAN ME. That seems like almost un-believable destruction of education material. Seemed the only thing that might have been more cherished was the 'Frederick's of Hollywood' ad. 

BTW, we had a pretty upscale outhouse, three holes (with matching lids) and wall papered walls/ceiling even.

Oops, I better let this get back to the original thread now.

Larry


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

One problem i seen with Sears here in Canada was this. They would sell exactly the same product that one could buy at walmart. Only difference was the Sears was in a fancier package and cost 2-3 times as much


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

The Sears catalog also served double duty usage in the outhouse. The ladies underwear section was in the glossy pages and the tools, etc., were on the recycled pages for you-know-what.

Ralph


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

The days of using the Sears catalog as a booster seat are over.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

A coworker's husband has owned a hobby store, mainly dealing with rc cars and drones, planes, helicopters, etc, he's had the business for over 25 years now. But, he did it right and took advantage of all the resources that were available to him. He started an Ebay store as well as his own store's website with online ordering, and he established an online presence before the Amazons. Online sales are the majority of his sales now, and it's gotten so big he had to close down his huge indoor rc race track so it could be filled with additional inventory and shipping materials.

Today especially, the businesses that succeed are the innovators. Working in a science field creating veterinary products, the drum beat we march to is Innovate! Innovate! Innovate!

We have innovation in technology, innovation in design, innovation in convenience and accessibility, innovation in transportation. Innovators break the traditional molds and they don't follow the rules, they create them.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

JD3430 said:


> You could buy an entire house or even a barn kit from Sears.
> Back a few years when I first got married, my wife and I bought our first house. Our neighbor lived in a ranch house next to us and we shared many conversations with them. He was an older guy and told me he bought the entire materials list from Sears and built the house with his brother.
> 
> I remember Sears making a half hearted attempt at on line sales, but they waited too long and didn't put enough into it.
> Last time I was in Sears was last Christmas. They were having a Lands End sale and I grabbed a vest for my daughter. The store was a disorganized mess. Out local Sears Hardware closed about 6 months ago. At the end, it was little more than an older retired-age couple trying to keep it open. Bargain bins filled with Chinese junk and a big mess. The last 10 times I went there, they didn't have what I was looking for. They literally didn't have basic light bulbs and most hand tools were sOld out and not restocked. It wasn't a real hardware store. It was a Homeowners store.


I had a bus driver buddy that worked for Sears Hardware and he was telling me of the stupidity going on there... One particular instance where corporate sent them an ENTIRE SHIPMENT of about 10-15 SNOWBLOWERS. Now we live along the Texas coast, basically the beach is 60 miles south of my back door... we had a LOT of snow last year... it snowed TWICE and both times it actually stuck-- 1/2 an inch the first time, and about 2 inches the second time. Both times it was gone by noon the next day. Yep gonna sell a CRAP TON of snowblowers down here! LOL

He asked his boss WTH they were gonna do with snowblowers-- "Oh, corporate sent them to us-- ALL the stores MUST carry snowblowers" according to the manager. SO, needless to say, these 15 snowblowers sat around just taking up space for the next two years. They were deeply discounted but of course NOBODY was offering to buy one. Finally one guy comes in and offers the manager like $500 bucks for the entire lot-- not because he needed a snowblower, but because he was going to pull the motors off them and just junk the rest and use the small engines on other stuff. The manager refused because "he wasn't allowed to cut the price any more than it was already marked" and so the deal fell through. Finally after about another year, they just threw them all in the dumpster to get rid of them.

Of course the Sears Hardware store went broke and closed... just a mess, nothing but junk, and just terrible inside. The last time I was in a Sears store, half the store was empty, there were like 2-3 workers in the ENTIRE store, and they were TOTALLY useless, and really had a "we couldn't care less" attitude. The store was hot, it smelled, (and in south Texas heat, when they turn off or turn down the air conditioner to about 85 degrees, the stores stink and become unbearably hot-- not conducive to getting people to come in and shop, look at stuff, or spend money). Basically all the same things K-Mart did before they all went broke. Try to "save money" and end up killing what business you DO still have... There's some REALLY interesting youtube videos about "why K-Mart went broke" and I'm sure the same guy will do one about Sears now... he did one that was spot on about Radio Shack as well, and Woolworth's, Blockbuster Video, and many other businesses.

Some businesses just seem destined to sabotage themselves and DESERVE to go broke... I remember when Sears was still a big deal back when I was a kid in the 70's and even a young teen in the early 80's... but boy that's been a long time ago!

Later! OL J R


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

I think A&P was the first classic great store to fail for much of the same reason many of these do. RULES, RULES and RULES with leadership who is so out of touch. Not all are the same for some times the ownership or leadership rather take profit and sell even if it means the business will be closed.

In small businesses there can be a wide variety of reason but in large companies many of those reasons to me should not be there. Only a few years back Bush was still President and AIG insurance giant had to be bailed out for it was too large to fail. Really? Now we have cities, think all of them are run by liberals that are on the verge of going bankrupt, maybe a state or two. Been said, you can not fix stupid.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We have a Dollar General in town now, it keeps adding food as well which I hate to see as it's gonna kill our small town grocery eventually. Sure its cheaper at Dollar General, but the grocery store owner lives in town and will be spending any profits in town unlike Dollar General. Fortunately the grocery owner also has a successful catering business thats part of the store so maybe he'll be able to hang on longer as people get a little lazier each year. He has catered for parties as small as 20 he's told me, childrens birthday party and of course none of the young moms knew how to actually cook or bake. If it comes down to it I'd rather give Dollar General my money than Walmart.

For other actual useful stuff have to drive to the next town for auto parts and hardware. Sadly enough the hardware store isn't near as useful as they used to be. At one time the store manager ordered stuff, useful stuff at that for a rural setting, electric fence supplies, floating deicer's, etc. Now corporate handles all restocking by computer and haven't seen electric fence supplies in awhile.

Really sad part is our small town used to have two elevators, a hardware store, a heating and plumbing business that was also a hardware store, two auto parts stores, a lumber yard, three gas stations, and more taverns than churches. Down to exactly zero elevators, auto parts stores, and hardware stores. Have one gas station and two garages that are privately owned. Have three bars left but not exactly, the bowling alley, a American Legion and a VFW. However we have a plethora of crap stores, sorry freudian slip, craft stores. But most of the folks in town are idiots, they complain that we don't have anything in town, then complain about the prices of what we have left so they spend their money in the county seat on their way home from work so then eventually they can complain more when we have less business in town. Idiots.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Strange as it may seem, I am seeing a little resurgence of "small retail" in my little town. Growing up, we used to have a cluster of small shops called The Barn Shops. They went away for probably 20 years. Now they are giving it a try again. 
The big retailers are here to stay. They have bankrupted many other retailers, but it seems like people are looking for "the old days" again. 
Marty is right about people getting lazy. Amazon is literally making us that way. However, they are saving us mileage, wear & tear on our cars, too. Our Wal Mart is really something to see. The number of Hispanics just outside our area is very surprising considering that out school is like 2% Hispanic. Tells me many must be illegal. 
My teenage kids don't really know what small retail is. I remember telling my kids about the milkman, the litttle stores we used to enjoy when I was a kid. They only seem to relate to Amazon, Walmart, etc.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Oh yah, forgot we used to have a Harvey's Five and Dime, a drug store and the Liberty Bell. Liberty Bell was a combination bike and hobby store catering mostly to model trains.

People look at me like I'm nuts, but the beginning of the end for anything useful in town was when the elevator closed it's doors. Years ago everybody's kid was in 4H, or everybody had a steer or two on a few acres or a hay burner, everybody got their feed or supplies from the elevator, when in town they'd stop at one of the hardwares or auto parts stores.

Once the elevator closed it's doors and people started ordering their feed delivered from elsewhere the other useful stuff closed up one by one over a span of ten years or less.

To be honest though, drugstore was doomed once a chain drug store opened in the town south. The guy that had the auto parts store retired and closed his small store in town and the neighboring two towns. Owner of the auto parts store in the next town refused to open a store in North Liberty as he refused to deal with the town board. I don't blame him one bit, have a whole bunch of idiots in town that keep electing the same idiots to the town board thats drove off more business than they've ever attracted. Course there pretty good at getting federal grants and spending other peoples money on crap like a splash pad and walking trails and ignoring the fact that town water is disgusting, tastes like pool water to me. Local guy has a thriving business selling water softeners, water filters and the like. He got smart and moved his business out of town to his home years ago.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

mlappin said:


> . I don't blame him one bit, have a whole bunch of idiots in town that keep electing the same idiots to the town board thats drove off more business than they've ever attracted.


I think that is the problem all over. Instead of making it easier from someone to start up a small business they make it as difficult as they can. There first answer is no.

Dad years ago was developing a street in Craig Colorado, and the town fathers were doing there very best to stop him. At the time there were no good building sites in Craig. Dad asked one of the town fathers what were they going to do when the town started boom, and his response was they were going to make them wait until they were ready. It was not a couple years later that the power plant started construction, and we had people living in tents along the river (early 1970's). One of the mines built a trailer court for the people to live in. Craig had nothing at the time, you might say it was just another one of those backwards towns. Now they have more equipment than you shake a stick at.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Do know there are some very wealthy people in Dollar General. Friend did some work for one such couple who if not mistake are billionaire from their Dollar General investment. Hard to believe I know.

I have had two hardware stores owners or managers tell me they being killed by Lowes. My comment to each was I and other customers go to you for a different reason than Lowes. I go to Lowes knowing what I want and price is very important. I go to you for knowledge on a product or solution. A few years back was told about a very successful hardware store near Charleston SC due to Lowes opening near them. Said it really shot their business up. I truly believe that would be true if the Hardware store had the right attitude. We all like to be spoken to, we none like long checkout lines, we normally are not gong there for a vacation or workout but really would like to find what we want/need and maybe speak to employee who we now know and walk short way back to our vehicle and on our way. Lowes or Home Depot is none of those. Hey not sure where you are but here Home Depot thinks the customer is an employee as you have to check your own purchase out. Only I do not get an employee price and if I miss something "I" get charged for Shop Lifting. Boy that is the way to build a customer relationship.

As to the attitude of the leaders if correct term for them, I was on a board for our city chamber of commerce that was to work to help bring in business. Rules rules rules, that made little sense. Our city has such is so concerned about looking good..hey who wants an ugly city? We had an old grocery store that had a fire sit on a major street for years being a mostly burnt out shell even though there were companies who wanted to repair or build new but when they were given the landscaping requirements they all said no and either just moved on or outside the city limits. At the time my then partner and I were looking to buy an house and convert into insurance office. The land was zoned for office but building would have to be updated to code for office. City inspectors (NO UNION) tell us what would be required until we bought the property. So we moved to the first piece of land outside the city and save city taxes and city rules and did not lost any benefits.

Politicians or committees who have unlimited power are a big cause of much of the small business problems as the big companies have the lawyers to where they know the rules and avoid the places where they need to.

SO VOTE


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Was in local Lowes last week and were full of Craftsman tool boxes and tool sets. Guess stocking for Black Friday. But has anyone compared their pricing to Sears on Craftsman tools?

Had contractor tell me yesterday, "Boy, Lowes is proud of their tools now."

Any know if Kobalt tools has found a home?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Kobalt is a lowes Trademark, looks like they are putting them to rest......they're junk anyway, not sure that craftsman is much better tho...


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

I had bought one of those Sear Industrial Cordless Drills once. It lasted about two months before it quit; It got where I would tap it with my hammer and it would run again. Returned it to Sears and got my money back, and went and bought a Dewalt.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

somedevildawg said:


> Kobalt is a lowes Trademark, looks like they are putting them to rest......they're junk anyway, not sure that craftsman is much better tho...


The Kobalt tools I have are all pretty nice tools. I have a Kobalt table saw that's pretty nice.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Hayjosh said:


> The Kobalt tools I have are all pretty nice tools. I have a Kobalt table saw that's pretty nice.


I was speaking specifically about their hand tools.....although I have an air compressor that worked all of about a year, no power tools. My son does have some cordless tools that seem ok by Kobalt


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

Their hand tools were what I was mainly referring too as well. The few that I have are nice tools.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I bought a Kobalt screwdriver set a few years back and didn't like them--they just didn't feel right. Since then, I just never bought a Kobalt tool--something about them never felt right to me.

I think it might have to do with the rubberized grips on pliers, wrenches, etc.

I'm pretty particular about how something feels. As an example, I've seen hammers on sale and I always pick them up and test the balance. A good hammer will have a balance to it that makes driving a nail effortless. It does the work for you.

Ralph


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I've had awful results with all of their hand tools......grips that come off, ratchets that fail and sockets and wrenches that the sizes were "lazer etched".....what a joke, couldn't tell what size it was after about 6 months. Most sockets are "lazer etched" nowadays......I hate it, And don't understand it at all....they have a model number "cast" into the socket, but the size (which I'm purty sure changes with respect to the model number.....I hope  )has to go thru another process of lazer etching......idk, can't figure that one out


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Friend of mine went to Sears to buy a freezer over the weekend thought they could get a deal because store is closing nope . Asked if they could buy floor model nope they could deliver 3rd week of January store is closing end of year.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

We have a HUGE Sears distribution warehouse in Wilmington, DE and they bulldozed it this summer.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

As far as Im concerned, Kobalt is to hand tools what finger painting is to art. Unless its a set to keep in a tractor, spend a tad bit more money and buy something that is decent quality that you can hand down to your kids. Im not saying everything has to be Snap-On, but there are big differences in fit and finish of hand tools. A 3/4" Snap-On wrench wont smear a bolt head near as quickly as a _________ (insert low quality tool name here).


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