A Tale of Three Houston-area Sears Stores
Posted: February 14th, 2018, 9:03 am
My family and I just got back from Houston. While we were there, we went into three area Sears stores. I'm going to apologize in advance; my phone was near death at each store so I couldn't get any good pictures of anything.
On Saturday, the 10th, we were at Memorial City. One of the city's busiest malls, and Saturday was no exception. The mall was packed with thousands of folks. JCPenney was busy. Macy's was busy. Dillard's was busy. Target was beyond busy. Sears was moderate. We walked the whole downstairs, which included a trip back to the tool section. Much like what many folks have written both on this site and other places, the Craftsman tool selection was sparse at best, and it looked like it had been picked through like a store closing sale. This was the busiest mall in town, and the tool section looked like this. It's a sad testament. The store looked old and dated, as they all do. (I won't repeat that statement, as it applies to all three stores we visited.)
On Monday night, the 12th, we were driving on N. Shepard looking for relatively safe restrooms and came across the Sears store with the art deco sign that has been chronicled all over the internet. It's still fully functional, by the way. Some interesting observations about this store: the restrooms are in separate locations. The Men's room is next to tools, which appeared to be fully stocked in this store. This is a 50's Sears, so it still has the fluorescent/spotlight combo lights (none of the spotlights were functional). The ladies room is in the ladies clothing section. There are two doors coming from the parking lot. At 8PM, like clockwork, they closed the gate on one of the doors. This did not appear to be a very safe area, and the store appeared to be reflecting this. Staff was pretty nice there, however.
Last night, the 13th, we stopped at San Jacinto Mall in Baytown. I won't go into the condition of the mall here; if you want to look at it more, you can go here or here. This mall has been dying for around 17 years, since Wards, Service Merchandise and Bealls all closed at the same time. Sears here was fully stocked, including a pair of shoes I've been searching for. The problem was staffing. The main part of the store facing the mall and an exterior entrance, covering the entire women's section and shoes, with checkouts, was entirely unstaffed. There was a single checkout in the men's section, where three employees were standing. It was way in the back of the store. If that isn't an invitation to steal, I don't know what is. You could have set a bomb off in that place, and nobody would have been hurt.
My point is this: each of these stores has issues that are all pointing to the end of Sears. The symptoms and conditions of the stores are just pieces of the puzzle of neglect. I don't think any of these stores are long for the world.
On Saturday, the 10th, we were at Memorial City. One of the city's busiest malls, and Saturday was no exception. The mall was packed with thousands of folks. JCPenney was busy. Macy's was busy. Dillard's was busy. Target was beyond busy. Sears was moderate. We walked the whole downstairs, which included a trip back to the tool section. Much like what many folks have written both on this site and other places, the Craftsman tool selection was sparse at best, and it looked like it had been picked through like a store closing sale. This was the busiest mall in town, and the tool section looked like this. It's a sad testament. The store looked old and dated, as they all do. (I won't repeat that statement, as it applies to all three stores we visited.)
On Monday night, the 12th, we were driving on N. Shepard looking for relatively safe restrooms and came across the Sears store with the art deco sign that has been chronicled all over the internet. It's still fully functional, by the way. Some interesting observations about this store: the restrooms are in separate locations. The Men's room is next to tools, which appeared to be fully stocked in this store. This is a 50's Sears, so it still has the fluorescent/spotlight combo lights (none of the spotlights were functional). The ladies room is in the ladies clothing section. There are two doors coming from the parking lot. At 8PM, like clockwork, they closed the gate on one of the doors. This did not appear to be a very safe area, and the store appeared to be reflecting this. Staff was pretty nice there, however.
Last night, the 13th, we stopped at San Jacinto Mall in Baytown. I won't go into the condition of the mall here; if you want to look at it more, you can go here or here. This mall has been dying for around 17 years, since Wards, Service Merchandise and Bealls all closed at the same time. Sears here was fully stocked, including a pair of shoes I've been searching for. The problem was staffing. The main part of the store facing the mall and an exterior entrance, covering the entire women's section and shoes, with checkouts, was entirely unstaffed. There was a single checkout in the men's section, where three employees were standing. It was way in the back of the store. If that isn't an invitation to steal, I don't know what is. You could have set a bomb off in that place, and nobody would have been hurt.
My point is this: each of these stores has issues that are all pointing to the end of Sears. The symptoms and conditions of the stores are just pieces of the puzzle of neglect. I don't think any of these stores are long for the world.