While looking at my daily financial news, I came to this...
I honestly don't think it's these companies (or similar practices) that cause Sears issues. Sears brought this on themselves. I worked in a field (IT) for over thirty years where if you stand still, you get trampled into the dirt. Sears to me is the prime department store example of that. I remember a day...
When I was a kid, Sears was the king of the area. For those of you too young to remember, they were located where the Paducah Power building is now. I loved to go to Sears. I even loved to go when it was time to go school clothes shopping. Everybody went to Sears to buy their school clothes. My mom would usually let me buy some sports type shirt - I distinctly remember buying a Jim Hart (number 17) shirt. They also had a huge candy and nut counter. I developed my love for chocolate stars at that counter. My mom would let me buy a bag when we were there. I loved to watch someone scoop them into a bag and have them hand them over to me.
Any kid of that era would eagerly check the mailbox in November. We all waited for the Sears catalog to show up. We would pour over it looking at all the neat toys for that year. We all circled what we wanted so that Santa would know we wanted for Christmas. Sears would clean out their lawn and garden section to increase their toy selection at Christmas time. I don't think I would have been more excited to visit Santa's workshop then when we went to Sears and got to see that each year.
The people that worked there seemed to work there forever. They could answer any question you asked. I remember when Craftsman tools were the tools you wanted not only because of their quality but a salesman who could answer any question about them. When I was a senior in high school, the Mattel Handheld Football Game was all the rage. I wanted to buy one with some of my hard earned Drive In paycheck, so I headed straight for Sears. As I headed for the toy and game area, a salesman greeted me immediately. I told him what I wanted and he went right to it and I paid for the game and was out in no time.
I always associate the downfall of Sears with their move to Kentucky Oaks Mall. I am not exactly sure when that candy counter disappeared, but it was never at that location. They didn't seem to have as big a selection and they stopped sending that Christmas catalog. Their toy selection isn't even hardly worth discussing. The only time I go to Sears now is to walk though it to get to another store in the mall.
A lot of times, we want to blame others for problems we have. Often though, they are our own fault. The main thing is how we react to them. We can made adjustments, try harder, or all sorts of other things. Sears was in trouble well before Amazon got here.
