T.J. wrote: Sears/K-mart, JCPenny's, Best Buy, Radio Shack, CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot and Lowes. They are all zombies just waiting to be put down.
Really Home Depot and Lowes and CVS/Walgreens? They both seem to be doing very well around here. Who would replace those stores?
Craftsman tools are junk anymore. Other than their most basic hand tools, nothing carries a lifetime warranty.
Torque wrench? 1-year warranty.
Floor jack? 1-year warranty.
Impact socket? 1-YEAR WARRANTY.
Kobalt is what Craftsman used to be. I got a very nice 1/2"-drive torque wrench with a lifetime warranty that doesn't even require a receipt. If it breaks, walk into a Lowes, hand it to them, and they give you a new one.
In reply to Sky_Render:
With craftsman in decline I was wondering what the new go-to brand will be. Add in the 20% off lowes coupon in a change of address packet from the post office
I may have mentioned this story before: Guy I worked with worked at a supplier to K-Mart pre-bankruptcy. They saw it coming, and KM owed them big on products. They put KM on a cash-only basis. That is, you pay, we send you a truck of stuff. KM screamed bloody murder, they would buy that stuff from someone else. OK, go ahead. So, KM paid them upfront for product, no more terms. When KM went bankrupt, they (the supplier) had a party at a restaurant/bar. Big party, lavish, good time. The waitress said "What are you celebrating?" "Our biggest customer just went bankrupt." "???" "They owed us $20K."
Sure, I remember this from my childhood:
But I also remember this! And locking the bathroom door:
Zomby Woof wrote: My kids would go nuts when that thing arrived.
I remember in the 90's still loving their catalogs. Before the internet was readily available, I'd go through and look for what I wanted for Christmas and dream about it for months.
The internet has ruined stuff like that a bit :(
It seems Sears still has it- on the Internet. Some places still get a much smaller paper edition. Just wouldn't be the same...
HiTempguy wrote: The internet has ruined stuff like that a bit :(
Well, that, and adulthood. Now I have to pay for that stuff. Although... I still spend months pining after things before I finally pull the trigger. I never just buy a thing. First, I study it. Research it. Imagine it as better than it ever could be.... then I buy ina blur of excitement... and am almost immediately disappointed. Just like every Christmas in the early 70s.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Imagine it as better than it ever could be.... then I buy-in a blur of excitement... and am almost immediately disappointed.
(That's what she said) budum tsh 
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:Datsun310Guy wrote:My uncle once worked at a JC Penny automotive department. Still had a full set of Penny's wrenches when I worked for him.SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Montgomery Wards died years ago.Once my dad owned a JC Penney gas powered lawn mower. I thought that was funny.
I remember going with my Dad to the JC Penney Automotive Department and getting shocks put on his 1968 Oldsmobile "98". It was a stand alone building on the edge of Yorktown Mall, Lombard, IL that is now a restaurant that I sometimes point out to friends that it used to be Penney's Automotive.
I read a book about JC Penney and he had solid values - today he is spinning in his grave.
In reply to Datsun310Guy: I remember that too! I was too young to know what my dad was having done though.
pinchvalve wrote: Sears, once a retail giant and American institution, is rapidly going out of business. I felt kinda bad...until I attempted to buy a mattress from them. The sales price posted on the mattress was not actually available in any way. The salesperson assured me it was the real price, no gimmicks, no special considerations, and then rang me up for $500 more. I held the sign in my hand, confirmed it was not a misprint and that he just confirmed that it was the real price...but he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders and offered a possible $100 discount. He had some story about boxsprings, but the bottom line was that Sears could not and would not sell me a bed for the posted price. So I tried to buy it online. I could get the sale price, complete with whatever boxspring I wanted, and even an offer to use Sears credit for zero financing. So I apply, get the credit and return to the site...but there was no way to use my new credit to make a purchase. You have to wait 7-10 days for the actual card, at which time, the sale is over. So what was the point in that? I call and try to get someone interested in making the sale and taking my money, but only succeed in canceling the card and walking away from the mattress that I wanted and was buying from Sears because you can't try out a mattress online. The one advantage that Sears has, they don't capitalize on. No wonder they are going under.
I worked at Sears. That incorrect tag crap is not policy.
If an item rings higher than tagged, you get: Tagged price $5 or less: Price adjustment to $0. Tagged price $5.01 to $99.99: Price adjustment of $5 off tagged price. Tagged price $100 or more: 5% off tagged price.
OTOH, I think I was the only person working there who bothered to read the policy. Nobody else seemed to know it.
I only go there to get new balance sneakers. Cheapest price around for the shoe my doc recommends.
Datsun310Guy wrote: I remember going with my Dad to the JC Penney Automotive Department and getting shocks put on his 1968 Oldsmobile "98". It was a stand alone building on the edge of Yorktown Mall, Lombard, IL that is now a restaurant that I sometimes point out to friends that it used to be Penney's Automotive. I read a book about JC Penney and he had solid values - today he is spinning in his grave.
My dad uses a JC Penny electric drill all the time; it's held up great. He bought it before I was born. I'm not sure how long ago JC Penny stopped selling tools. But at this rate, it looks like that drill is going to outlast JC Penny as well as their tool division.
Sears used to sell everything, including crappy cars. Now they just sell crap.
JohnRW1621 wrote: My money is on The Shack to be gone. Sears and Best Buy can still scale back but The Shack is sooo over extended. They will be gone by mid summer if not sooner.
Remember Radio Shack's Super Bowl ad where they sent the '80s packing in a DeLorean? Seems to me it was a brilliantly done commercial with the exact opposite message they needed to send. They should have brought the '80s back in a BMW 635CSI instead.
Maybe it's because I was just a kid back then, but it seemed Radio Shack was a lot more on the right track back in the '80s when the toys they sold were fairly current and they actually had a lot of parts for DIY electronics in stock and (as near as I can tell) employees who actually knew what the latter parts did.
Tim Baxter wrote: Sears used to sell everything, including crappy cars. Now they just sell crap.
They sold motorcycles and scooters under the Allstate name too. A high school buddy had one, it was a Puch 175, not the 'twingle' 250.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allstate_(vehicle_brand)
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