I guess the lifetime warranty on Crafstman tools will be void now? Even if the warranty is still in effect with Black and Decker, I would think you would be paying postage both ways to return your old tools for a low quality China junk replacement.
My brother in-law always ragged on me for buying Harbor Freight tools. He always bought Craftsman based on the ease of returning the tools at the store at any time ‘no questions asked, no receipt needed’. So much for that…
I could care less about a warranty beyond the infant mortality stage. They’re tools. They live a hard life with me and I can usually tell the moment I buy one if it will last or not. If it looks like junk, I don’t buy it. In all my years, I have only returned two Craftsman tools. One was 30 years old, belonged to my Dad and when it broke I thought- why not? It was a tap handle. The free replacement was far less robust but it seems to have held up for decades regardless. The other tool was a ratchet and all I got was a rebuild kit for it. Now I just take them apart every 5-10 years and make sure they’re clean and greased. None have failed since.
It’s a lifetime warranty, just depends on their lifetime or yours, whichever comes first.
Not necessarily true. They had no questions asked return policy. In my example, it was a tap handle my Dad had purchased some decades prior and then I inherited it and used it a couple more before it broke.
I also knew many guys that started their collections by going to yard sales, picking up rusted old Craftsmen tools for pennies on the dollar and returning them for brand new ones.
So it is really only their lifetime unless they change the rules 
40 years ago JC Penny use to sell tools and they had a lifetime warranty also. I wonder who still has a set of JC Penny tools?
I think that’s the main assumption of the business plan. They’re goal is to get as much value out of the company before folding up shop. My guess is that they’ve run the numbers and the individual pieces are worth more than the whole. I’d bet that that was a major factor in the decision to hire a known corporate pirate as a CEO. IMHO this is all part of the plan.
I bought a Montgomery Ward ratchet with a lifetime warranty. When I went to replace it, there was no place to take it to anymore. It had the rubber handle that I liked too which is why I didn’t buy it from Sears.
Let’s face it though, if it weren’t for the hedge fund dumping more money in all the time, they would have been gone some years ago. Real estate is among the best assets but you don’t get to sell that until everything else is gone.
They’re keeping it alive until the markets where the real estate is located fully recover… Which might be awhile all things considered.
IMHO, the big problem with that plan is the reality of how internet shopping has affected virtually all retail segments.
Right now, there are a huge number of vacant big-box stores that used to house Sports Authority, Circuit City, Linens and Things, and stores from other companies that went bankrupt. Then, when you add in the stores that have been closed by retailers that are still in business, but are “troubled”–such as Barnes & Noble, Macy’s, JC Penney, Office Depot, Eastern Mountain Sports, Bob’s Stores, etc.–there is a LOT of vacant retail space in The US.
One of the most glaring examples of this is an upscale hardware/home decorating/appliance chain (Expo Design Centers) that Home Depot operated for several years. You may never have seen one because, at their peak, I don’t think that HD operated more than…maybe…10 of them across The US. These stores are so huge that they represent something the size of a Home Depot PLUS a large supermarket, plus some additional square footage.
When the Expo Design Center near me closed, I remember thinking…Who is going to buy or rent a store that big? Well, 6 or so years later, that mega-store is still vacant after HD’s experiment went belly-up. The only way that this space will ever be resurrected is if it is subdivided into perhaps 10 stores–but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
As more and more people do their purchasing from internet merchants, this trend is likely to get worse, rather than better, and the result is that there is so much “supply” of retail space that it has to depress the value of real estate such as Sears and K-Mart stores.
Edited to add:
I just thought of another failed retail attempt that left HUGE vacant stores. Very similar to HD’s failed Expo Design Centers was Sears’ failed The Great Indoors stores. Again, you may never have seen one during their brief lifetime because Sears only opened a handful of these appliance/home decorating/hardware stores. They weren’t quite as big as the Expo stores, but they were…big. The one near me sat vacant for about 5 years, and was finally subdivided into–IIRC–4 stores.
The bottom line is that retailing has changed–probably forever–and the current glut of vacant retail spaces will not make any vacant Sears/K-Mart stores any more attractive than the long-vacant Circuit City, Sports Authority, or Barnes & Noble stores are.
Yeah. This is becoming a big problem for cities, because the big box store that works well for Walmart doesn’t work so well for other stores because box stores tend to design cookie-cutter floor plans that need specific building dimensions.
Must be some slow markets. Real estate here in New England is more the double it’s value form 2008. Even places like upstate NY has seen a big increase (at least for them) since the crash of 08.
And not sure waiting is a good ideal. There’s works in place to remove the regulations that were set up to protect us after the crash are being dismantled.
Yeah, but there’s a big difference between selling your house and selling a giant big box retail space that was custom-designed for a specific store, especially in an age where Amazon is taking a lot of business away from big-box.
the BIG BOX is now a half box in Albuquerque.
At Coronado mall I saw them re-building half of the Sears to be something else soon , didn’t get to find out what though. And years ago they removed the building that had the Sears auto center in it.
We don’t get to Albuquerque often these days except for doctor visits, so maybe it will be something by the next time we go.
or maybe Random Troll can give us the update ?
Its the land not the building. We leased a former K-Mart, Builders Square building and even after it had been converted by the real estate company, it was a very cheaply done building. You just raze the place and put senior housing or something on the land. Roof leaks, ventilation problems, electrical, lack of insulation, plumbing issues, no safe zones, etc. They were just block shells cheaply constructed same as most of the big boxes. No redeeming architectural value. The good part is they can now grind up the concrete and blocks to use in new construction instead of the landfill.
Most Sears I know of are in Malls. Malls change stores all the time…even big ones. And the Sears closest to me use to be 2 stories. They consolidated everything to the first floor and Dicks Sporting Goods moved to the top floor. I’ve seen Bradley’s turn into Khols…and Macy’s to a Lord and Taylor…and KMart into 4 other smaller stores. Big box stores very modular and can easily morph into something else.
That may be true in your area, but not in my neck of the woods. My two closest Sears stores are “stand-alone” stores that do not share the real estate with any other stores.
And, I can add, that in at least one of those stores, you could throw a bowling ball down the aisles without hitting any customers.
The three nearest malls to me are no more.
…and now, Kohl’s–which is usually considered to be a well-managed chain–is running into some difficulties.
Their “Princeton” store (which was actually located in somewhat less-toney West Windsor) shut its doors a few years ago, and the store is still vacant.
…and now that Macy’s is in hot water, they might be bought-out by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company, which already owns Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.
The bottom line is that retailing has changed as a result of Amazon and other internet-based retailers, and those who can’t adapt will go the way of the dinosaurs.
Agree 100%. Adapt or die.
I find it ironic that retailers like Sears who built their enormous success on being able to service rural and remote markets via their catalogs (Sears was, I think, the trailblazer in this) are now failing because they couldn’t adapt to an even better way to service rural and remote markets (the internet). You’d have thought that they’d be the leaders in this.