# Land's End Bought By Sears **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914 "2002-05-13T23:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/1 "2002-05-13T23:11:23Z")
I don’t know about this one, y’all. **Sears** will sell the **Land’s End** line of clothing, but I just wonder how much control the **Land’s End** people are going to have over quality. I hope quality stays the same, but part of me thinks this is just another corporate gobble. Damn! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/2 "2002-05-13T23:18:33Z")
Sounds like it’s time to stock up, before all they sell is Searsucker. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/3 "2002-05-13T23:27:11Z")
Oh, crap. I buy clothes from Land’s End because they’re well-made and fit my plus-size butt really well. I wonder how long it will be until Sears starts cutting corners and ruining Land’s End. Oh well, I guess I should put my order in and try for what they already have in stock before Sears puts their cheap stuff in. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/4 "2002-05-13T23:37:38Z")
i am totally bummed. the quality of the goods. sigh… first bass, now lands’ end. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/5 "2002-05-13T23:47:40Z")
Sears is hoping to bolster its flagging clothing section by engulfing classy, high-quality, love-the-customer Lands’ End. Sadly, it probably won’t go that way. I fear they’ll just Sears-ize Lands’ End. Oh, by the way…the apostrophe is AFTER the “s” in Lands’. Originally, it was a printer’s mistake on their first catalog. Meanwhile, they discovered some other companies doing business as Land’s End, so they could only copyright it with the error. They kept the error. Useless trivia, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/6 "2002-05-14T14:43:58Z")
[cries softly to herself, gazing at her four drawers full of wonderful cotton lands’ End sweaters . . .] ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/7 "2002-05-14T15:06:51Z")
My first thought was apparently the same as everyone else here - when will the quality go down the toilet? Maybe it won’t… maybe… \ ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/8 "2002-05-14T15:31:18Z")
Not only will quality (and color selection, too, I’ll bet) go downhill, but now I’ll have eight skyrillion Sear’s catalogs to throw out in the mail every day. Damn! I just remembered, I get a lot of towels and sheets and stuff from Lands’ End, too, I’ll bet that will take a downturn. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Zanshin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e274bd/32.png) [@Zanshin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zanshin)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/9 "2002-05-14T15:34:47Z")
I’m an ex-Sears survivor (I worked in their corp HQ for about five years), and based on their track record for buying and destroying other companies, I gotta say I don’t have high hopes for this one, kids. Let’s remember what happened the last time Sears made a major purchase like this. They bought a chain called Western Auto (an auto-service chain based primarily in the midwest). They then decided to change Western Auto from a do-it-for-you format (a la Pep Boys) to a purchase-your-own-parts DIY format. Invested billions and ended up selling the chain at a loss within 18 months after driving off all Western Auto’s loyal customers. Maybe they’ve learned from their mistakes, but being the large old-school company they are, I doubt it. It’s a shame – I’m a huge Lands’ End fan, I love their clothing and I see this being potentially bad new for them. If Sears lets them run their own show and doesn’t mess with the quality of the goods, this could be something Sears definitely needs (i.e., higher-quality clothes instead of the crapola they currently carry) but I don’t see them giving LE that much autonomy. This bums me out. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/10 "2002-05-14T16:37:39Z")
I’m trying to figure out which will have the worse fashion influence on the other. It’s sort of like Gog and Magog, methinks… 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lands-end-bought-by-sears/108914/11 "2002-05-14T16:51:14Z")
An article in the Chicago Tribune this morning suggested that Sears may have learned from their mistakes - apparently they will not be sending Lands’ End catalog shoppers ads for their credit cards, etc., and statements were made about how they appreciate Lands’ End as a functioning and lively business and don’t want to change it. At least, I certainly hope they’ve learned and that’s not all smoke being blown.