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Enderzero posted:i know of a recruiting company that dropped them because their placements kept leaving so quickly after getting hired on. that's a pretty bad sign, yeah? i went into a sears once to look @ appliances and they didn't have an specials or anything and the guy was not helpful @ all and it was just pretty sad and depressing so we got our w/d at home depot
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Aug 22, 2014 19:53
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i bought my fridge from sears and the lady that sold it to me was essentially begging me to give her a good rating
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Aug 22, 2014 19:54
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it is a depressing store
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Aug 22, 2014 19:55
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pram posted:it is a depressing store their CEO is a libertarian numbskull who is running a real-world version of 'why libertarianism doesn't work' with sears and kmart http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/ayn_rand_loving_ceo_destroys_his_empire_partner/
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Aug 22, 2014 19:58
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salespeople are strange people
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Aug 22, 2014 19:59
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uncurable mlady posted:their CEO is a libertarian numbskull who is running a real-world version of 'why libertarianism doesn't work' with sears and kmart Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire The invisible hand waves bye-bye to Eddie Lampert, whose business plan has run Sears into the ground lol
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Aug 22, 2014 20:00
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PuTTY riot posted:i went into a sears once to look @ appliances and they didn't have an specials or anything and the guy was not helpful @ all and it was just pretty sad and depressing so we got our w/d at home depot Sears feels like a graveyard no matter where you go. the change in the past ten years is mind-boggling, I think that K-Mart dragged them into the grave except I remember K-Marts around Chicagoland that I saw in 1999 being way nicer than the ones here. Sears sells EVERYTHING with a red half-off tag, it doesn't inspire confidence in consumers when everything is discounted to the bone and selling at a loss.
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Aug 22, 2014 20:01
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H.P. Hovercraft posted:Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire lmao
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Aug 22, 2014 20:04
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there's the problem!
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Aug 22, 2014 20:04
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PuTTY riot posted:
amazon has a $150,000 samsung eleven foot 4k tv that is custom manufactured for you when you order it, but once they finish building it you get free 2 day shipping! it's a great deal
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Aug 22, 2014 20:27
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hahaha oh yeah that article was linked here beforeH.P. Hovercraft posted:Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire lmfao
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Aug 22, 2014 20:27
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from a different but related articlequote:
tl;dr: quote:When the city told Sears that it couldn’t leave unfinished plywood on its windows, the company’s solution was to paint the wood.
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Aug 22, 2014 20:30
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A Wheezy Steampunk posted:people love craftsman brand tools for some unfathomable reason the hand tools have (or at least used to have) an unlimited lifetime warranty. you could buy a wrench and lose it in your yard, and when you found it the next spring by running it over with the lawnmower take it back in to sears and they'd give you a new one.
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Aug 22, 2014 20:30
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uncurable mlady posted:their CEO is a libertarian numbskull who is running a real-world version of 'why libertarianism doesn't work' with sears and kmart everybody needs to make sure to read the linked Bloomberg piece, all of it, because it is a glorious case study in how to destroy a profitable and trusted brand sears has been going so badly that the guy has lost significant reputation in wall street
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Aug 22, 2014 20:34
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duTrieux. posted:everybody needs to make sure to read the linked Bloomberg piece, all of it, because it is a glorious case study in how to destroy a profitable and trusted brand 
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Aug 22, 2014 20:40
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Sagebrush posted:the hand tools have (or at least used to have) an unlimited lifetime warranty. you could buy a wrench and lose it in your yard, and when you found it the next spring by running it over with the lawnmower take it back in to sears and they'd give you a new one. this is why i'm wary of craftsman tools if the best thing you can say about them (and it's the only thing anyone ever talks about) is "they have a great warranty!!" it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that they are actually quality products
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Aug 22, 2014 20:44
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this 3/8" wrench doesn't actually fit on a 3/8" bolt head but at least i can get a new one for free when i leave my tools out in the rain like a child!!!
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Aug 22, 2014 20:45
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I haven't bought a Craftsman tool since 2001 but when I bought them they were pretty deece and I still have the ones I bought.
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Aug 22, 2014 20:49
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snap-on tools own really hard but its the most transparent example of why american manufacturing will never be a thing again you can buy a 100-piece craftsman ratchet set for $100 while a single snap-on 3/8" socket wrench (with no sockets) costs $106.95
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Aug 22, 2014 20:51
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Socracheese posted:snap-on tools own really hard but its the most transparent example of why american manufacturing will never be a thing again That price has nothing to do with where the ratchet is made and more to do with the fact that it's the last 3/8" ratchet you'll ever buy.
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Aug 22, 2014 20:55
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quote:And yet former executives in Sears’s digital group say that while some of Lampert’s suggestions were forward-thinking, he barraged the department with quixotic demands. Lampert constantly cooked up ideas: BlackBerry apps, netbooks in stores, and a massive multiplayer game for employees. He ordered the IT department to build a proprietary social network, called Pebble, which he joined anonymously under the pseudonym “Eli Wexler.” (An Eli refers to someone who attended Yale.) Lampert’s intention, former colleagues say, was noble: He wanted to engage with employees and find out what was happening across the company.   sears
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Aug 22, 2014 20:56
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Also you can get a Snap-On Cold on a Cob posted:
pebbled again
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Aug 22, 2014 20:57
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Socracheese posted:snap-on tools own really hard but its the most transparent example of why american manufacturing will never be a thing again "american manufacturing" as an indicator of high quality is kind of a half-truth. american companies made plenty of crappy quality things back in the 1930s and 50s and whatever. the reason we think of old things as better-made than new things is mostly because all the crappy old things were thrown out. so our picture of old technology is from the things that lasted. same with music, movies, etc. there was a poo poo ton of unmemorable garbage music that came out in the 1960s but we only remember the really good bands so it seems like a better time than it was.
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Aug 22, 2014 21:07
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Citizen Tayne posted:Also you can get a Snap-On rebrand as 'pebl' and relaunch
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Aug 22, 2014 21:08
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that said, it is outright hilarious how bad some of the imported chinese tools you can get at mega discount are. talking like screwdrivers with shafts that you can bend by pushing on them with your thumb, or wrenches that snap in half the first time you haul on them
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Aug 22, 2014 21:09
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uncurable mlady posted:rebrand as 'pebl' and relaunch 
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Aug 22, 2014 21:09
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Sagebrush posted:"american manufacturing" as an indicator of high quality is kind of a half-truth. american companies made plenty of crappy quality things back in the 1930s and 50s and whatever. the reason we think of old things as better-made than new things is mostly because all the crappy old things were thrown out. so our picture of old technology is from the things that lasted. also lots of older poo poo was more repairable than now
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Aug 22, 2014 21:11
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Sagebrush posted:that said, it is outright hilarious how bad some of the imported chinese tools you can get at mega discount are. talking like screwdrivers with shafts that you can bend by pushing on them with your thumb, or wrenches that snap in half the first time you haul on them I had Stanley channel locks break on me the first day I used them
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Aug 22, 2014 21:11
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Cold on a Cob posted:also lots of older poo poo was more repairable than now lots of older poo poo had components the size of a baby's arm that were available off-the-shelf in more generalized forms; speciality manufacturing, relentless cost-cutting, and the relative ease of custom fabrication has killed that dream
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Aug 22, 2014 21:13
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uncurable mlady posted:lots of older poo poo had components the size of a baby's arm that were available off-the-shelf in more generalized forms; speciality manufacturing, relentless cost-cutting, and the relative ease of custom fabrication has killed that dream i'd rather blame the inscrutable chinese
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Aug 22, 2014 21:14
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i'm not even being conspiracy theory about it especially now that everything is using integrated electronics... miniaturization, multilayer pcbs, smt, etc etc means it is inevitable that poo poo is harder or impossible to repair and that's aside from whether it's cost effective or not uncurable mlady posted:lots of older poo poo had components the size of a baby's arm that were available off-the-shelf in more generalized forms; speciality manufacturing, relentless cost-cutting, and the relative ease of custom fabrication has killed that dream yeah exactly
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Aug 22, 2014 21:14
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H.P. Hovercraft posted:i'd rather blame the inscrutable chinese the real mystery of the orient is how we can slash 20% off the BOM
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Aug 22, 2014 21:14
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uncurable mlady posted:the real mystery of the orient is how we can slash 20% off the BOM the answer usually involves unsafe amounts of lead
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Aug 22, 2014 21:15
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uncurable mlady posted:the answer usually involves unsafe amounts of lead don't forget tiny childe hands
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Aug 22, 2014 21:16
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honestly you can still buy stuff that's designed to be maintained and repaired today. that $106 socket wrench probably, for example. but you aren't going to see those for sale anywhere outside a specialty tooling supplier so the perception is that "you can't get good stuff any more" i have a $20 chinese torque wrench that eventually sheared apart when i got up to the high end of its scale, and i have a $160 american torque wrench that is solid as a rock and can be taken apart and fixed and recalibrated by any machine shop. people's perceptions are just super skewed by how incredibly cheap stuff has become because of cheap chinese labor
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Aug 22, 2014 21:18
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Sagebrush posted:that said, it is outright hilarious how bad some of the imported chinese tools you can get at mega discount are. talking like screwdrivers with shafts that you can bend by pushing on them with your thumb, or wrenches that snap in half the first time you haul on them someone gave me a small tool set as a gift once i opened it, picked up the hammer, and the head fell right off
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Aug 22, 2014 21:20
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Cold on a Cob posted:from a different but related article they eventually gave up and just sold the building
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Aug 22, 2014 21:21
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craftsman tools used to be the best tools you could get at retail now they're the same stuff you can get at harbor freight but with a red craftsman label instead of a pittsburgh label
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Aug 22, 2014 21:25
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i saw a really good article somewhere talking about middle class purchasing power in the 50s vs. today. in the 1950s, something like a pair of work boots would cost the equivalent of three hundred bucks today. just good leather boots. you can buy the same three hundred dollar boots today and they'll be just as good or better and they'll last forever. there wasn't another option in the 50s -- you got the boots from the cobbler in your hometown or maybe you drove to the big city for a day to go to the fancy store. today have another option: you can buy boots for 59.99 from china. and they'll be pieces of crap and fall apart after a year. but your purchasing power has gone up five times! and the same goes for basically every consumer good -- clothes, electronics, furniture, etc. even though real wages haven't increased (or have greatly fallen) since the 50s, you can now be living at the poverty line and have a closet full of clothes and a decent sized tv because we exploit the hell out of east asia, so people can point to this as "hey look quality of life just keeps getting better" tl;dr basically the good quality stuff still exists -- wal-mart has just simultaneously skewed everyone's ideas of how much something actually costs and how long it should last
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Aug 22, 2014 21:30
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the largest local mall has 3 department stores on the periphery, a jc pennys, dillards and macys. between the two wings of the mall was the sears; if you wanted to go to more than one store you usually had to go through the sears it was the most depressing thing ever. like they had an absolutely enormous amount of foot traffic, but there were rarely things for sale close to the main path, lighting was dim, it looked like it had never been cleaned, displays were ancient and so forth. the store was packed from people trying to get from one end to the other end of the mall and nobody ever stopped and bought anything because they were actively trying to get people to not buy stuff I guess?
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Aug 22, 2014 21:30
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