# Is there any way for Sears to reverse their decline or be salvaged? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855 "2018-09-06T03:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/81 "2019-01-11T12:49:43Z")
I hope it stays alive. Sears was THE anchor store for The New England Mall on Route 1 in Saugus, and remained that way after they tore down the mall and built a new one on the same site, Square One Mall, which now has other anchors (the Sears building wasn’t touched at all during the change). They’ve shut down the upper floor, but the downstairs is still going. I actually visited the store eons ago, while a student in Boston. The guy I bought my house from apparently bought _everything_ at Sears, including his major appliances. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/82 "2019-01-11T15:28:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > **Sears plans to shutter after 126 years in business as Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid fails** > [Court allows Chairman Eddie Lampert another chance to buy Sears, pushing off decision to shut stores](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/01/06/sears-rejects-eddie-lamperts-bid-to-save-company-will-liquidate-.html) Amusing combo of user name and post. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/83 "2019-01-11T15:42:03Z")
Nah, they’re done. I mean, maybe they’ll exist like Radio Shack “exists.” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/84 "2019-01-11T15:50:01Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Nah, they’re done. I mean, maybe they’ll exist like Radio Shack “exists.” Exactly. There’s nothing left of what made it “Sears”. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/85 "2019-12-29T03:00:10Z")
Thought I’d revive this thread (which is more than I can say for Sears) because Sears announced [they’re selling the DieHard line](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/12/23/diehard-batteries-advance-auto-parts-acquires-diehard-sears/2738605001/) to Advance Auto Parts. The reason Advance is big enough to buy DieHard is because Sears sold the remnants of Western Auto to Advance back in 1998. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/86 "2019-12-29T03:25:28Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Thought I’d revive this thread (which is more than I can say for Sears) because Sears announced [they’re selling the DieHard line](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/12/23/diehard-batteries-advance-auto-parts-acquires-diehard-sears/2738605001/) to Advance Auto Parts… It makes sense the sale was finalized during the week of Christmas because everybody knows DieHard is a Christmas battery. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/87 "2019-12-29T05:31:10Z")
Current wife and I set up housekeeping in 1979. Our power tools, kitchen and laundry appliances, and most clothes and bedding for the next 15-odd years came from Sears. Some of my favorite SLR lenses are marked Sears (original US importer of Pentax). I last entered the small local Sears (now gone) about 5 years ago for a Craftsman hydraulic jack but they were out. I last hit the local KMart (also now gone) a couple years back but could find nothing worth buying. That empty KMart is right across the road from a bustling WalMart. Nobody will want that property for any retail enterprise. Population within a 10-minute drive: 9000, alas. A shuttered auto dealership nearby has already been converted into a church. Derelict Sears and KMart real estate isn’t worth much if nobody wants it. I love perusing my reproduction 1900 catalog. House kits; galvanic belts (that didn’t work); firearms, parts, and handcuffs; patent medicines; wagons and horse gear; band and folk instruments; theater systems with multimedia shows; hairpieces, and hats-a-rama. Multiply the listed prices by 30 to accommodate inflation, and much still looks cheap. A couple years later came Sear automobiles. Of course, original catalogs also served as toilet paper. Much more utilitarian than online options. 😉 Q: Is there any way for Sears to reverse their decline or be salvaged? A: I doubt it. That horse has sailed. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/88 "2019-12-29T15:47:46Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > It makes sense the sale was finalized during the week of Christmas because everybody knows DieHard is a Christmas battery. _Nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hotdog!_ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/89 "2019-12-29T16:21:43Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _Nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hotdog!_ I thought nobody puts Baby in a corner. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/90 "2019-12-29T16:23:30Z")
Maybe Roebuck put a curse on them when he got booted. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/91 "2019-12-29T16:42:40Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > It makes sense the sale was finalized during the week of Christmas because everybody knows DieHard is a Christmas battery. Golfclap ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/92 "2019-12-29T17:03:25Z")
trying to “reverse Sears’s decline” at this point would be like trying to rescue the Titanic 50 ft before it hit the ocean floor. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/93 "2019-12-29T20:17:44Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > Sears shuttered the catalog in 1993. Once it was closed, Sears had little more advantage in selling through the mail than anyone else. I can imagine that even if Sears still had its catalog operation in 1994 and it added online sales, the decline in its catalog sales would have outpaced any growth in online sales… The world had only somewhere between 3 and 30 million internet users in 1994… Amazon was founded in 1994 and they were one of the earliest companies to recognize the potential for selling over the internet. Even Amazon didn’t earn their first profit until 2001 because competing in internet sales required enormous continuing investments. I know I’m replying to an old post, but I don’t think the outlook was as bad for Sears’ keeping up catalog sales as this makes it look. Sears was losing money on its mail order business, but that doesn’t mean that the business model was obsolete - Cabela’s was making good selling outdoor gear and clothing via catalog all through this time period and made the transition from mail to online quite successfully. I think that Sears’ management lost interest in working to keep the catalog going, but I don’t think that the model of mail order sales and transitioning that into online sales was busted. The fact that Amazon started up only a year after Sears dropped mail order entirely says a lot about the actual viability of the market I think. Also while Amazon wasn’t showing a profit until 2001, they were making money hand over fist before that - they just chose to keep investing the money into expansion. IMO, ditching the Sears catalog when other mail order businesses were still going strong and the online market was about to open up was a huge, huge mistake. They could have leveraged their brand name and people’s nostalgia a lot if they had someone interested in doing something like what Amazon ended up being. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/94 "2019-12-29T21:04:44Z")
I was buying stuff from Lands End, LL Bean and other specialized catalog stores back then (along with buying from showroom stores like Service Merchandise) so the catalog business was not a guaranteed money-loser. Basically Sears has been mismanaged for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855/95 "2019-12-30T00:49:55Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Of course, original catalogs also served as toilet paper. Much more utilitarian than online options. 😉 Families living out on the prairie also used Sears catalogs as textbooks, for larnin’ their children their letters and reckoning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-for-sears-to-reverse-their-decline-or-be-salvaged/820855.md?page=4)