Sears Perpheral Brands

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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wnetmacman
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Sears Perpheral Brands

Post by wnetmacman »

Last night, I had to buy a set of tires, and I went to Sears in Lafayette, LA. It was because they had the best deal, plus the SYW rewards and all. I was talking to the Auto Center Manager, who told me a couple of interesting tidbits.

First, during the most recent round of store closings, 10 full line Sears stores closed, including the one in Houma, LA. Since that closing, the Auto Center has remained open. Interesting; how will they manage that? It is a freestanding building.

Also, he's not fearing for his job as most of the Sears and Kmart employees are, because evidently, according to his superiors, there is a great deal of interest in keeping the Sears Auto Center alive, even if the retail side fails completely.

As I understand, there may also be interest in Kenmore, Craftsman and Die Hard, as those are still good brands with a decent reputation.

Any other smatterings of information to add to this?
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Re: Sears Perpheral Brands

Post by mbz321 »

They have been trying to sell off the auto center business for a few years now, but there doesn't seem to be much interest (I mean, why would anyone want to buy a bunch of garages on a mall property that probably aren't doing so hot to begin with?).

Sears is still putting some money into the brands though....they just launched a line of Kenmore branded TV's (no idea why...the name doesn't really seem to fit with electronics), and now DieHard branded tires.
Craftsman products have been sold at ACE Hardware for several years now...I could see them (or a similar smaller operator) buying up the brand if Sears was to go belly-up.
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Re: Sears Perpheral Brands

Post by J-Man »

There was a Sears store in a (non-mall) shopping center in Covina, CA that only lasted about five years until Sears decided to take over the closed Broadway store at the mall in nearby West Covina. The Covina store was torn down and replaced by a Home Depot, and is now a Lowe's. But the Sears Auto Center, which is in an outbuilding some distance from the store location, is still open.
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Re: Sears Perpheral Brands

Post by storewanderer »

I think Sears has been working on a spin off for the Auto Centers. Similar to the spin off of the old dealer stores, trading under stock ticker SHOS. http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SHOS/?p=SHOS

As a stand alone business unit maybe the auto centers are profitable. Or they can doctor it up as such.
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Re: Sears Perpheral Brands

Post by Super S »

The brands, while still well-known and valuable, are not as highly regarded as they once were. Craftsman has shifted a lot of their hand tool production to China. Kenmore, from what people have told me, is difficult to obtain warranty service as Sears has closed stores. DieHard has kinda fallen off the radar for me...their batteries used to be very good but I am not going to purchase a brand of battery that would require me to drive an hour to obtain a warranty replacement (since my local Sears is no more and there is no Kmart nearby) I could see Craftsman and possibly Kenmore living on, possibly at Lowe's. Keep in mind they took over Orchard Supply Hardware which at one time was owned by Sears. The problem with Ace is that their coverage is spotty, at my local Ace they are only stocking Craftsman as their Ace brand sells out, they are not carrying the full line.

I could see the automotive brands moving on to a chain of auto repair shops (such as how Firestone operates many former JCPenney auto centers) or at least the DieHard brand being picked up by a national auto parts chain. The names are still valuable and are one of the few strengths Sears still has.
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