Why Sears Sucks
Shopping at Sears is such a depressing experience. The decor is Dismal, the lighting Dull and the Displays dowdy. (Contrast this with Target stores, where you feel cool-as-shit just walking into the place.)
The only reason a consumer with any sense of style might be tempted to go to Sears is because of the prices on the boring stuff you just hafta buy - the vacuums, ovens and wotnot - otherwise you’d never make the trip. I went on one of those necessary-evil trips this weekend, to buy a stainless steel dishwasher. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot my heart sank. as I plodded through the store it somehow reminded me of an elderly person in a care facility just waiting to die.
But, beneath the dull exterior there are more sinister forces at play. Having picked a Bosch dishwasher as the one of my dreams and went to check out I was told the actual price was $200 more than the large sticker on the displayed model. Apparently the price shown was for the white model not the stainless steel. So, I wondered and asked, why put the cheaper price on the more expensive model? Eh? The shop assistant was sympathetic but unable to help. Apparently it is new company policy. Not something she agreed with, but there it was.
This practice that Sears head office has adopted in its wisdom is wilfuly misleasing. I think they expect people like me who are time poor to simply pay up. But, no, that would be succumbing to their wicked manipulative ways. I went home, found the same model online for way less than even the white model in Sears was being sold at and bought it there and then. (Shipping was free.)
So now I’ve been duped by Sears I won’t make the same mistake of thinking I have to suffer their stores to get a good deal again. I’ll order online instead and advise as many people I can to do the same.
Shame on you Sears.
Sears has potential, but they just can’t seem to get their game together. Truth be told, they have quite a few awesome products. But you are right. Everything cool is dulled down by the sterile environment of the store. I found out recently that they carry Ty Pennington’s line of modern furniture, but that they don’t even carry floor models in all of their stores. What kind of sense does that make?
I asked an audience of marketers recently how they could resurrect the Sears brand. First we discussed its demise. Trying to be all things to all people was the consensus.
We also decided that their clothing department was the beginning of the end. Shame on you Cheryl Tiegs. (does anybody know where SHE is today?)
SIDEBAR: I just found a “vintage” Sears ad with Cheryl for sale on E-Bay for 3 bucks. Someone in the Ozarks has it. I’m not kidding.
Anyway - then the audience decided that Sears should just get back to what they are known for. Craftsman tools. It should be a dude’s store. Buy good tools and lawnmowers and home improvement kind of stuff. No Bosch dishwashers (sorry) stick with their Kenmore brand - which also had a great reputation for reliability.
They got distracted in my opinion.
Maybe if they merged with K-Mart, they could help their image and cross promote dullness….
I too was duped by Sears. I was recently in the market for a new washer and dryer and had my heart set on the cool front loader types. After much research, I narrowed my choices to the Whirlpool and Kenmore lines. Sears then ran a promotion for the Kenmore line, offering a 10% off mail-in rebate. I went to Sears and purchased my washer and dryer. The helpful salesman handed me several papers including a duplicate receipt and instructed me to mail it in for my rebate. Some time later, I received a letter from Sears stating my rebate was rejected because the products I bought were not eligible for the rebate. I called and was told my washer and dryer were eligible but the receipt I sent in didn’t have a date on it. I went back to Sears, got a duplicate receipt, highlighted the date and sent it in. It is now three months later and I still have not received a rebate.
Is it so hard to give qualifying purchases the discount at the time of purchase? What kind of games are they playing? I can deal with the drab décor but I can’t deal with being taken.
Yep - last time i went into sears, the wife had to wake me up.
Maybe if they started by making their weekly flyers a bit less “Bland 2.0″ that would be a start! I love readin the sunday papers for all the Ad flyers -then i see the sears on -whoah -theres a piece of stunning information providing merged with cutting edge design (Ok - sarcasm there …)
I feel sleepy now just even thinking about the place
i think we should send this thread to the VP of Marketing for Sears. they need to hire the Punk Marketing guys to be consultants and rework their image.
P.S. I went to Sears a few weekends ago and there were like 10 salespeople on the floor. I felt like a deer that had just fell into the piranha-filled Amazon.