They did have leadership changes
Profit peaked in 92. New CEO in 95. New chairman in 2000, and ol’ Chuckie C got himself in some legal trouble.
The CEO is the largest shareholder. Between his personal holdings and his hedge fund, Eddie Lampert owns about half of the company’s stock.
I wasn’t trying to alter your shopping habits, I was trying to figure out why you found them at Sears and nowhere else. Maybe starting with Sears is actually a good strategy because nobody shops there, so they should have inventory.
The part I couldn’t figure out is where you said they aren’t readily available online, which led me to the following possibilities:
1 - You mean that they are out of stock almost everywhere
2 - They aren’t even offered for sale online
That’s why I asked “sold out?” (option #1), or “old season” (option #2)
It’s an interesting puzzle to understand why you found a gem in a backwater of retail 
I found out today that the last Sears within easy driving distance in Portland is closing. It may be making way for newer ideas, but I still have fond memories of leafing through their catalog at Christmas. I bought my first motorized vehicle by mail order, an Allstate Compact.
Sears in the news today (following what many have posted here): Sears CEO proposes plan to avoid bankruptcy, as options and cash run low
*Lampert, who has a controlling ownership stake in Sears, personally owns roughly 31 percent of the retailer’s shares outstanding, while ESL owns about 19 percent. The CEO has been steadily stripping out assets to keep the company afloat over the past several years. It’s unclear whether Sears’ current debtholders will continue to support these efforts, which have amounted effectively to restructuring outside of formal bankruptcy proceedings. Those debtholders must be convinced that Sears is worth more than the value of its assets — namely its real estate and its brands — despite its constant losses. The longer Sears waits to file for bankruptcy, the more the value of its assets arguably decline.
“Indeed, had Sears been owned by anyone else it would have likely long since gone under,…”*
Lampert’s plan includes Sears selling off the Craftsman brand and home improvement business. The buyer would be ESL, the hedge fund owned by. . . Eddie Lampert.
So Lampert can drive the company into the ground and walk away owning its (few) viable assets, while the rest of shareholders get this.
Sounds like the Trump business plan. Bankrupt the company while paying yourself handsomely.
Actually, Craftsman is already gone; Sears Holdings sold it to Stanley Black & Decker in 2017.
It is looking more and more like the answer is no.
*The handwriting is on the wall: Sears appears to be nearing bankruptcy.
One of Sears’ major shareholders just dumped a chunk of his stock for pennies on his original investment. The company added a new director who is familiar with bankruptcies and restructuring. Reports circulated that the company is talking to advisers and banks in preparation for a bankruptcy filing.
Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, faces an October 15 deadline to pay $134 million on its debt. CEO and primary shareholder Eddie Lampert told the company’s board that it was crucial it restructure more than $5 billion it owes “without delay,” according to a recent regulatory filing.*
Sears plans to shutter after 126 years in business as Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid fails
Fifty thousand people are going to lose their jobs. 
CEO of a place I used to work had old, canceled, framed stock certificates on the walls of his office.
Does anyone know if you can still get a stock certificate of their shares? 100 shares costs about $20 right now; it would be cool to get a certificate (in your name) & frame it. The framing would cost much more than the contents being framed.
Finally. Though just last week I popped into a Sears to buy a couple of filters for my old Craftsman shop vac, which is a really good vacuum. I figured that I needed to buy them while I still could. Maybe I should buy a couple more.
IIRC only a few state require their corporations to give out printed certificates if asked and those that do have prohibitive costs because they don’t want to do it.
Their transfer agent is ComputerShareand their ticker is SHLDQ. Check with them if you can get a printed certificate.
they are not quite dead yet but this might just be a temporary stay
Sears reaches 11th hour deal to stay in business - for now | CNN Business
I was in Home Depot this weekend admiring the Craftsman display and the signs proclaiming “The New Home of Craftsman”.
Okay, not so much admiring as passing through on my way to lumber…
I don’t know how much of the Craftsman lineup they’re planning to keep going, but there were tool cabinets and hand tools along with some power tools.
The Sears store in my town had shown signs of slowly going down for several months now. I shopped there maybe once or twice a year, and only just noticed a couple weeks ago that it was closed down entirely now–must have happened within the past couple of months. A personal sad for me, as it existed as one of the major stores in town since easily the '60s and before the rise (and fall) of shopping malls. It was three stories with escalators as a prominent central feature, which I guess was the main imprinting factor in my single-digit-age kid’s mind. Ah well.
That is too bad. My hometown Sears was less auspicious; just a “small box” store in a strip mall, but it had been there at least since 1990 or so. Really is a shame they squandered so much and bled out so slowly; I’m still just kinda shocked they hung around this long when it seems like the writing was on the wall since at least 2005 or so. I remember going to Sears around then to buy a few Craftsman tools and just getting the impression none of the staff wanted to be there and I was possibly the first customer they’d seen all day.