so the latest chapter in the refrigerator saga yields interesting collateral info. I've been calling the store (the outlet store in Voorhees) a lot lately. At least four times I've spoken to someone who wasn't Cliff (the store manager) or Andrew (the shipping manager). Including twice yesterday. So I call today. Cliff answers the phone. Says the delivery is teed up for next Friday the 22nd (ha!). Then I say I'm gonna call back next Thursday- should I ask for you or Andrew? "One of us will answer the phone. We're the only two left. Had to let everyone else go".

RIP Sears. I just hope it happens after next Friday.

wonder if they had to fire everyone bc they were spending too much time on the phone talking to you

Phone bill was too damn high

Is this one of those Sears Hometown Appliance type stores? Our local one has from time to time reminded everyone that they're a locally owned franchise, not part of Sears. However, we went in there a year ago to look at refrigerators and given the amount of attention we received from the staff there, we may as well have been invisible. They are still in business somehow. We had bought appliances there in the past and were usually happy with the service, but no longer. Anyway, we bought our refrigerator elsewhere, and are reasonably happy with it.

no, a company Sears "Outlet" store. However I did just get a good edumacation about those "hometown" stores when looking at sears threads on thelayoff.com. Apparently was another shell game so the hedge fund owners could extract more cash from the company before going chapter 11. I also learned that they're positioning to see off the "Kenmore" brand, which is weird, because it's not really a brand- they re-badge appliances from all the other leading manufacturers . So in essence their value was their sales organization. Don't know if there's any incentive for someone to buy the brand- I guess there's only a handful of national chains that could do it (best buy, lowe's, home depot, ?) and none of them thusfar are in the business of running their own brands (their store brands are simply sourced by a single manufacturer).

And to top it all off, the hedge fund owner eddie somebody says he may buy the brand himself. So I guess he thinks he'll be able to flip it at a profit.

Uncle Milty wrote:Nearly certain the sears outlet stores are independently owned/operated now.

Back in the day Kenmore appliances were manufactured by others but specifically for sears and we're usually built to a better standard. Same with craftsman products. Those days are long gone. The best thing about sears products was parts availability if a parts center was nearby.

Sears could be thriving today with any foresight when the predecessors to Lowe's and Home Depot popped up. With their real estate holdings and craftsman and kenmore brands they had a huge jump start on that market.

Also, it seems to me a company with a significant mail order/catalog business was well positioned to switch to e-commerce.

Stuffing is so underrated

The majority of Sears Outlet stores are company-operated (115) and 28 Sears Outlet stores are locally owned and operated by franchisees.[

Surprised me that any were independent actually. On the appliance side they sell mostly scratch-n-dent, returns, and recons. Must be quite the bookeeping nightmare to consolidate that large a quantity an inventory of seconds to a different ownership (unless they do it consignment style).

Wheels Tupay wrote:Stuffing is so underrated

Capriottis had $4 Bobbies today, Turkey, stuffing and cranberry. Can’t beat that