Last fall, we posted a handy cheat sheet to price tag codes that can tell you whether an item is on its first or last markdown, or even whether it’s on clearance or just plain on sale. Want to learn some more codes? Of course you do! [More]
sears
Fill Out This Simple Survey, Get Actual Help From Sears
By 5.19.14
Over the last nine years or so of Consumerist, we’ve chronicled the tragic decline of Sears, an American institution. This has happened under the leadership of manifesto-writing hedge fund manager/CEO/intra-company deathmatch impresario Eddie Lampert. Shoppers’ biggest complaint: profound dysfunction and incompetence in stores. A manager at Sears slipped Consumerist a bit of information that people locked in a customer service battle with Sears might find useful. [More]
Who Do Sears And JCPenney Closures Really Hurt? Malls
By 5.13.14
Back in 1959, Sears started the Homart Development Company. What did Homart develop? Malls! It built and ran malls across the country, malls that were home to Sears stores. Today, Sears is no longer in the mall business, and in many towns, Sears has left the mall as well. That’s terrible news for other mall tenants and for the mall business as a whole. [More]
Sears CEO On Company’s Troubles: “Sometimes You Have To Go Backwards To Go Forwards”
By 5.6.14
The bad news for Sears? Stores will continue to close. But the good news, according to Chairman and CEO Eddie “Have You Read My Manifesto?” Lampert, is that just means Sears is living in the present, not the past. But “sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards.” Okay, now we’re confused… [More]
Lands’ End Divorce From Sears Complete, But They’re Still Roommates
By 4.7.14
After twelve years together, Sears and Lands’ End have officially split. They’ve been through a lot together: Sears bought the former sailing gear retailer in 2002, before the formation of the sprawling disaster that is Sears Holdings. For a while at least, absolutely nothing will change for consumers. [More]
Lands’ End Will Officially Be Freed From Sears On April 4
By 3.17.14
After 12 years in the Sears family fold, Lands’ End is heading out on its own in a spinoff set for April 4. From there on out, it’ll be a stand-alone, publicly-traded company, without the shadow of its struggling former parent company looming over all those fleece jackets and sensible sweaters. [More]
Secret Service Reportedly Investigating Possible Data Breach At Sears
By 2.28.14
The retail world is still feeling the aftershocks that rumbled through the industry after Target revealed it was hit in a hack attack that exposed credit card info and personal data of up to 110 million customers. As such, inside sources are whispering that Sears is the focus of a new probe from the U.S. Secret Service to see whether it was the victim of a possible security breach. [More]
Supreme Court Won’t Stop Class-Action Lawsuits Over Front-Loading Washing Machines
By 2.24.14
After several years of shutting down class-action lawsuits or affirming businesses’ ability to preempt such suits with forced arbitration, the U.S. Supreme Court today chose not to hear challenges to a trio of class actions about supposedly defective washing machines from three leading manufacturers. [More]
Don’t Want To Be Depressed By Walking Into Sears? Retailer Now Trying Curbside Pick-Up
By 2.12.14
Over the last few years, a number of former Sears customers have said that one of the reasons they no longer shop at the once-great department store is that it’s just depressing to walk around inside the store and see empty shelves, run-down conditions, and disarray. How can Sears fix that? By keeping customers in their cars! [More]
Before Handing Over $9,000, Make Sure TV Salesman Really Works At Sears
By 2.4.14
When someone approaches you with a deal that seems irresistible, sometimes there’s a good reason why. For example, the person offering you a truckload of televisions for $900 each when they retail for $3,000 may not be a legitimate representative of the electronics department at Sears. [More]
Sears Messes Up, I Have To Face Life Without A Light-Up Skiing Santa Pig
By 1.30.14
Mike had a simple desire. He wanted a lighted skiing pig Christmas decoration. He wanted several of them, actually. Sears had them available, so he placed an online order, choosing in-store pickup. Sears e-mailed him that his order was ready, and he happily drove 40 miles to Sears in winter weather to pick it up. If you’ve ever placed an online order with Sears, you know what happened next. [More]
Sears Closing Flagship Chicago Store
By 1.22.14
Along with McDonald’s, Sears is one of the biggest national brands most associated with the city of Chicago. Many people still refer to the soaring Willis Tower as the Sears Tower, even though the company fled the building for the suburbs nearly 20 years ago and gave up the naming rights in 2009. Now the once-great retailer is set to distance itself further from the Loop with news that it will shutter a flagship store in the city it once called home. [More]
Sears, Kmart Recall Kenmore Fan Heaters Because They Are Not Supposed To Catch Fire
By 1.15.14
While flames have long kept humans warm during cold weather, fire is not the intended output of a Kenmore heat fan. That’s why Sears and Kmart have recalled 43,000 of the fans and will be issuing refunds to customers who bought them. [More]
Sears Admits: People Only Come To Our Stores To Park
By 12.17.13
This holiday season, Best Buy is embracing their reputation as America’s Amazon showroom in their marketing. It’s not clear yet how well this strategy is working, but another retailer has an ad campaign based on the same concept: embracing and turning around what consumers make fun of them for. This commercial for Sears that’s currently on the air takes a perceived weakness (Sears has vast, empty parking lots) and turns it into a selling point. Kind of. [More]
Sears Chat Rep Orders Wrong Dishwasher: That’s Your Problem
By 12.16.13
It all seemed to go so well. When a California man saw a great Cyber Monday deal on a Kenmore dishwasher at Sears, he hopped right on that. $700 off a $1419 appliance? Yes, please. When he learned that the order was in error, though, and he could only have the great price for a dishwasher in the wrong color, who was at fault? Sears wanted him to pay the difference. [More]
Sears Really Will Spin Off Lands’ End, Won’t Make Any Cash From It
By 12.6.13
As part of Sears’ exciting new plan of ditching any businesses that consumers actually like, the company announced today that it will be spinning off Lands’ End. The catalog company, which sells decent-quality clothing for middle-aged people, has been part of Sears since 2001. Instead of selling off the business, Sears plans to spin it off as its own entity, as it did with Sears Outlet and Hometown stores last year. [More]
Boarded-Up But Open Sears Cited For Urban Blight
By 12.5.13
Rioters destroyed storefronts in downtown Oakland, California five months ago, filling the area with sadness and boarded-up windows. All of the businesses have fixed up their public faces except one. One retailer’s huge building still has boarded-up windows and looks abandoned. Local residents call the blighted storefront “depressing,” and the city issued a citation for “blight.” The blighted business? Sears. [More]
Sears Commercials Through The Decades: Jingles, Car Repair, Bruises
By 11.27.13
Sears: it was an iconic American retailer, and now has become more of a cautionary business tale as it struggles for relevance and tries to shed more real estate and scrap itself for parts. Many years ago, though, Sears was a central shopping experience in Americans’ lives. Americans who bought boom boxes and played “Space Invaders.” [More]
