re: #612 kirkspencer

Indeed. Kenmore is now a brand name stuck on machines made by others (whether it’s Whirlpool or others under contract depends on the appliance in question). The K-Mart acquisition hurt them on image and quality and they have gone down market.

But customer service is the worst part of all. They have 20 people circling like vultures in their appliance departments, but few know what they need to do in order to complete the sale, and that’s overhead they can ill afford. The only thing Sears has over the likes of HD, Lowes, or online, is that those Kenmore appliances (like fridges) still have pretty good quality and you can’t get them anywhere but Sears (or K-mart).

And with the real estate market meltdown and ongoing economic conditions, durable goods sales are still down, meaning that they can’t generate the profits the company needs.

The only bright spot for Sears these days is the in-store sales of Lands End. Everything else is down, and quality of goods, including Craftsman is down as you say.