Your own experiences working and/or shopping at Sears - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Frank Gannucci · 07-11-2021, 09:31 AM

I worked for Sears for 16 years and while I do have some fond memories of working there (with a few exceptions, the people especially my bosses were nice), I do have some bad experiences like associates not coming to help out customers when they were allowed to do so as well as breaking rules such as using the cell phone on the sales floor. I do have a lot of good experiences with customers (especially during my last few days there with the store closing). I also had bad experiences with customers who had either a legitimate complaint and/or were dumb. Some of those complaints were them not getting helped when available associates were paged to come help them.

Sadly, Sears may not exist in the next ten years. I did place blame on the Sears CEO Eddie Lambert for doing an awful job in my opinion.

When I worked for Package Pickup at my old Sears, I was in the back room opening up clothing boxes. There was a page for a Spanish translator to the Appliances department. I don’t speak Spanish but I have a translator app so I helped out. She wanted to order a part on the computer. Eventually, I ended up not knowing what I was doing on the computer so I called over the Manager of the Applainces area. He had a tendency to be mean at times but nice other times. He speaks Spanish so when I summoned him, I figured it was time for me to leave and go back to my department. He than calls me on the phone and says what I did was bad. “That’s bad customer relations.”

There is a chance I may be misremembering this. If I was at fault, please don’t judge me.

A lot of people who worked in that department said at times he was mean. He also got upset at me for telling customers that they could return a dishwasher when they bought it more than 30 days prior. (Sears has a policy for non Shop Your Way members that they could return an item within 30 days maximum.) I live in Florida and this customer picked up a dishwasher that they bought theee months prior and I thought they just bought it so when they tried to return it, that is when he got upset at me. I told my parents (who also live in Florida and had at that point for 12 years) and said that it wasn’t my fault. I think it was since Florida has lots of snowbirds. There was a time when I delivered a floor model of a fridge via hand truck during a time when my department was emptying a truck. I may have dented it with the hand truck. I’m not sure. The fridge was returned back and the manager accused me of denting it despite the fact the customers could have dented it. Than again, he knew I always have a habit of doing things in a rush especially that day since my team had to empty a truck ASAP (and I think he knew it) because we were going to have another albeit much smaller truck to unload.

RetroGuy2000 · 07-11-2021, 11:22 AM

Frank, I'm so sorry to see what has happened to Sears. Eddie Lampert sucks, and what he did was deliberate.

I have many happy memories of shopping at Sears. In the 1970s to the 1990s, it was THE place to go for shopping for inexpensive clothes and tools. People loved Craftsman.

Our local Sears opened in 1999 and closed in December 2019, one year after our local Kmart closed. It was a very sad day. For about a year ahead of the closure, it seemed like they were on the verge of closing: they had not sold TVs for a year. Some areas were empty. Then they had their closing week. The store was busier than in had been in years.

Just before Covid hit, we visited a giant Sears location in Tucson, at the giant Tucson Mall. The store was more than 50% empty, so it was an eerie experience. They hadn't announced the store closure, yet, but it was obvious. We picked up some deeply discounted clothes, but there was little else for sale. A week afterwards, we saw the announcement that that store was closing. It was the last Sears in Arizona.

I would love to read more of your recollections of Sears; I never worked there, but one of my first jobs was at Waldenbooks, another lost gem of retail.

Frank Gannucci · 07-11-2021, 11:36 AM

Thanks. My store closed in Nov. 2018. I worked for the Sears store in Naples, Florida. Our store too did not sell TVs for over a year.

I have MANY recollections of working at Sears. Some good. Some bad. Like there was a time when I was going to help a Spanish speaking customer in the Appliances department with my Spanish translator app.. The home Appliances manager told me to don’t bother and let a person who can translate help. Gee. What happens if the customer has to be somewhere? That’s what I thought but I didn’t argue. There were other times when I was going to help customers only to be told by managers to not bother because of reasons ranging from “they have their own associates to help out” to “No! You don’t work in that department.” In my mind, it’s like “What happens if he customer has to be somewhere? The customer could have been asking a simple question like “Do you have this item in stock?” Sometimes I got told not to call other Sears stores if the customer asks me to. Their reasoning is that the customers are being lazy. Seriously. One time when I was working at the old Sears Hardware & Appliances store in Bergenfield, NJ (those stores were locally owned and operated) downright lied to a customer when a customer asked if they can check the old Sears store in Hackensack, NJ to check if they had an item in stock. He said that their inventory system is different than ours (despite the fact that he could either call the store and/or look it up on the store’s RIM computer).

There are many others stories.

Frank Gannucci · 07-11-2021, 11:51 AM

Here are some more

I'm talking about things like things like workers not obeying rules and problems occurred because of that.

We had one associate who is bossy sometimes, lazy sometimes and complains. One time he made a cardboard bale (he took the cardboard out of the bailer and tied it with bale wire and wheeled it outside. Either he didn't tie it correctly and/or because of weather the wire broke and the cardboard was all over outside. He asked me something should be done about it. Well, on the day when we got a big truck, he was told to take care of it. He wastes his time googling on the computer and as a result when the truck came, him, me and my boss had to waste time helping him clean it. Needless to say, our manager summoned him to his office and reprimended him.

Another time is when an associate sold an item without looking in the back to see if we had it. She looked at the on hand count for assistance. The on hand count was wrong and when the customer picked up the item, they were mad. This associate is very nice and has been working in retail for four years at that point. I thought she would have looked in the back first.

There was another time when our former store manager said that when we order an item and gave a customer pick up the item at the store, we have to tell them to come the day after the arrival date just to be safe because we don't know what time the truck will arrive and how long it will take for us to get the item out. Our current manager hasn't done this yet. One customer ordered a tractor in store. The cashier did not tell them to come the following day and as bad luck would have it, he arrives just as when we get the BIG tractor of the truck. The customer lived far away and because if that, he didn't want to make two trips so the team had to take the tractor out if the wooden crate and assemble it. The assembly isn't as time consuming as you would think. All there was was too put on the seat and wheel.

GentlemanJim · 07-11-2021, 12:03 PM

Gosh, I grew up shopping at Sears. And their annual "Wish Book" was my Christmas, for so many years.

Their ability to allow customers to put so many of life's necessities on the Sears charge plate, was a real strength for them. I think that the "easy credit" came back to bite them, as America lost it's core values.

I at one time knew a guy who lived in one of those old kit homes that Sears sold out of their catalogs back in the early 20th century. It was amazing to sit there in the living room and realize that the house had come from a catalog.

GentlemanJim · 07-11-2021, 12:03 PM

Gosh, I grew up shopping at Sears. And their annual "Wish Book" was my Christmas, for so many years.

Their ability to allow customers to put so many of life's necessities on the Sears charge plate, was a real strength for them. I think that the "easy credit" came back to bite them, as America lost it's core values.

I at one time knew a guy who lived in one of those old kit homes that Sears sold out of their catalogs back in the early 20th century. It was amazing to sit there in the living room and realize that the house had come from a catalog.

RetroGuy2000 · 07-11-2021, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

I at one time knew a guy who lived in one of those old kit homes that Sears sold out of their catalogs back in the early 20th century. It was amazing to sit there in the living room and realize that the house had come from a catalog.

That catalog truly was amazing. Lots of houses came from those kits. That was a time when Sears truly ruled retail.

Caroline13 · 07-11-2021, 02:17 PM

Sears was truly the "go to" store for Everything but foods...The one in our town closed down after probably 60 yrs or more and now a Metro link train goes thru the property and Hardly any people ride it. They call it progress.

stevea · 07-11-2021, 03:38 PM

15 years ago all the malls around here had a Sears and a Penney's. Now in Indianapolis there are no Sears left (nor Kmart, of course) and maybe 3 Penneys. One mistake Sears probably made was buying Kmart--they should have seen the writing on the wall there, and known they didn't have the $$ to rescue it. It seemed everyone else but Sears knew what was going on with Kmart.

I can remember in the early 2000s my elderly mother needed a new TV. We both had questions, and I first took her to a local appliance retailer, HH Gregg. You could tell the salesman was a foulball who knew nothing. I then took her to Sears, and the nice salesman was the total opposite. He even came to her apt. and set up the TV! These are the kinds of things customers remember.

Their Kenmore and Craftsman brands were legendary. Dehumidifiers are well-known (at least to me) to last only around 3 years. I had a Kenmore that lasted at least double that. Those appliances are built to last.

Here the Lafayette Square, Washington Square, and Glendale malls have totally or nearly failed, partly due to the downfall of Sears and the near-downfall of Penney's and Macy's. If Penney's and/or Macy's fail (particularly Macy's), that would probably take Castleton and Greenwood Park mall with them. And probably many others in this country.

Dude111 · 07-11-2021, 03:59 PM

Frank I am sorry

I used to goto Sears alot..... Seemed like a nice place to go..........

Frank Gannucci · 07-11-2021, 04:22 PM

Hey, I am not that upset. Fortunately, my last day at Sears was also my first day at Macy’s. So I wasn’t unemployed.

If I only knew what my experience with Macy’s was going to be like.

Dude111 · 07-11-2021, 04:36 PM

Ya I hear ya!!

Caroline13 · 07-11-2021, 04:46 PM

It's like Amazon (Bezos) has taken over the world...I do ALL in my power NOT to buy from them.

Dude111 · 07-11-2021, 04:50 PM

Ya sometimes its hard though......

GentlemanJim · 07-11-2021, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevea

Here the Lafayette Square, Washington Square, and Glendale malls have totally or nearly failed, partly due to the downfall of Sears and the near-downfall of Penney's and Macy's. If Penney's and/or Macy's fail (particularly Macy's), that would probably take Castleton and Greenwood Park mall with them. And probably many others in this country.

In Fort Wayne, there was one remaining Sears at Glenbrook Mall up until the 2018 collapse. As was the case in most locations, Sears owned the building and ground that they occupied.

Since the closure, they have torn their old building down, and are in the process of building a new multi-occupancy retail building for which they will be landlord. So, they are in essence building a wing onto the existing mall, but will operate as competitors with the owner of the main mall.

Considering that most malls are in decline as on-line retail continues to take market share, how smart can it be to WANT to enter that business?

07-11-2021, 09:31 AM	#1
Frank Gannucci Member Forum Star Join Date: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 16,125	Your own experiences working and/or shopping at Sears I worked for Sears for 16 years and while I do have some fond memories of working there (with a few exceptions, the people especially my bosses were nice), I do have some bad experiences like associates not coming to help out customers when they were allowed to do so as well as breaking rules such as using the cell phone on the sales floor. I do have a lot of good experiences with customers (especially during my last few days there with the store closing). I also had bad experiences with customers who had either a legitimate complaint and/or were dumb. Some of those complaints were them not getting helped when available associates were paged to come help them. Sadly, Sears may not exist in the next ten years. I did place blame on the Sears CEO Eddie Lambert for doing an awful job in my opinion. When I worked for Package Pickup at my old Sears, I was in the back room opening up clothing boxes. There was a page for a Spanish translator to the Appliances department. I don’t speak Spanish but I have a translator app so I helped out. She wanted to order a part on the computer. Eventually, I ended up not knowing what I was doing on the computer so I called over the Manager of the Applainces area. He had a tendency to be mean at times but nice other times. He speaks Spanish so when I summoned him, I figured it was time for me to leave and go back to my department. He than calls me on the phone and says what I did was bad. “That’s bad customer relations.” There is a chance I may be misremembering this. If I was at fault, please don’t judge me. A lot of people who worked in that department said at times he was mean. He also got upset at me for telling customers that they could return a dishwasher when they bought it more than 30 days prior. (Sears has a policy for non Shop Your Way members that they could return an item within 30 days maximum.) I live in Florida and this customer picked up a dishwasher that they bought theee months prior and I thought they just bought it so when they tried to return it, that is when he got upset at me. I told my parents (who also live in Florida and had at that point for 12 years) and said that it wasn’t my fault. I think it was since Florida has lots of snowbirds. There was a time when I delivered a floor model of a fridge via hand truck during a time when my department was emptying a truck. I may have dented it with the hand truck. I’m not sure. The fridge was returned back and the manager accused me of denting it despite the fact the customers could have dented it. Than again, he knew I always have a habit of doing things in a rush especially that day since my team had to empty a truck ASAP (and I think he knew it) because we were going to have another albeit much smaller truck to unload.

07-11-2021, 11:22 AM	#2
RetroGuy2000 Julie,Julie Anne,&Felice 4Ever Forum Star Join Date: Dec 27, 2013 Posts: 16,914	Frank, I'm so sorry to see what has happened to Sears. Eddie Lampert sucks, and what he did was deliberate. I have many happy memories of shopping at Sears. In the 1970s to the 1990s, it was THE place to go for shopping for inexpensive clothes and tools. People loved Craftsman. Our local Sears opened in 1999 and closed in December 2019, one year after our local Kmart closed. It was a very sad day. For about a year ahead of the closure, it seemed like they were on the verge of closing: they had not sold TVs for a year. Some areas were empty. Then they had their closing week. The store was busier than in had been in years. Just before Covid hit, we visited a giant Sears location in Tucson, at the giant Tucson Mall. The store was more than 50% empty, so it was an eerie experience. They hadn't announced the store closure, yet, but it was obvious. We picked up some deeply discounted clothes, but there was little else for sale. A week afterwards, we saw the announcement that that store was closing. It was the last Sears in Arizona. I would love to read more of your recollections of Sears; I never worked there, but one of my first jobs was at Waldenbooks, another lost gem of retail.
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07-11-2021, 12:03 PM	#5
GentlemanJim Concerns, Support, & Feedback Forum Veteran Join Date: Dec 26, 2019 Location: The back country Posts: 5,443	Gosh, I grew up shopping at Sears. And their annual "Wish Book" was my Christmas, for so many years. Their ability to allow customers to put so many of life's necessities on the Sears charge plate, was a real strength for them. I think that the "easy credit" came back to bite them, as America lost it's core values. I at one time knew a guy who lived in one of those old kit homes that Sears sold out of their catalogs back in the early 20th century. It was amazing to sit there in the living room and realize that the house had come from a catalog.
	__________________ On my word as a gentleman!

07-11-2021, 02:17 PM	#8
Caroline13 Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Jan 30, 2021 Location: So Calif Posts: 14,483	Sears was truly the "go to" store for Everything but foods...The one in our town closed down after probably 60 yrs or more and now a Metro link train goes thru the property and Hardly any people ride it. They call it progress.
	__________________ Inexpensive Health Insurance = Grape Seed Extract Keep It Simple

07-11-2021, 11:36 AM	#3
Frank Gannucci Member Forum Star Join Date: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 16,125	Thanks. My store closed in Nov. 2018. I worked for the Sears store in Naples, Florida. Our store too did not sell TVs for over a year. I have MANY recollections of working at Sears. Some good. Some bad. Like there was a time when I was going to help a Spanish speaking customer in the Appliances department with my Spanish translator app.. The home Appliances manager told me to don’t bother and let a person who can translate help. Gee. What happens if the customer has to be somewhere? That’s what I thought but I didn’t argue. There were other times when I was going to help customers only to be told by managers to not bother because of reasons ranging from “they have their own associates to help out” to “No! You don’t work in that department.” In my mind, it’s like “What happens if he customer has to be somewhere? The customer could have been asking a simple question like “Do you have this item in stock?” Sometimes I got told not to call other Sears stores if the customer asks me to. Their reasoning is that the customers are being lazy. Seriously. One time when I was working at the old Sears Hardware & Appliances store in Bergenfield, NJ (those stores were locally owned and operated) downright lied to a customer when a customer asked if they can check the old Sears store in Hackensack, NJ to check if they had an item in stock. He said that their inventory system is different than ours (despite the fact that he could either call the store and/or look it up on the store’s RIM computer). There are many others stories.

07-11-2021, 11:51 AM	#4
Frank Gannucci Member Forum Star Join Date: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 16,125	Here are some more I'm talking about things like things like workers not obeying rules and problems occurred because of that. We had one associate who is bossy sometimes, lazy sometimes and complains. One time he made a cardboard bale (he took the cardboard out of the bailer and tied it with bale wire and wheeled it outside. Either he didn't tie it correctly and/or because of weather the wire broke and the cardboard was all over outside. He asked me something should be done about it. Well, on the day when we got a big truck, he was told to take care of it. He wastes his time googling on the computer and as a result when the truck came, him, me and my boss had to waste time helping him clean it. Needless to say, our manager summoned him to his office and reprimended him. Another time is when an associate sold an item without looking in the back to see if we had it. She looked at the on hand count for assistance. The on hand count was wrong and when the customer picked up the item, they were mad. This associate is very nice and has been working in retail for four years at that point. I thought she would have looked in the back first. There was another time when our former store manager said that when we order an item and gave a customer pick up the item at the store, we have to tell them to come the day after the arrival date just to be safe because we don't know what time the truck will arrive and how long it will take for us to get the item out. Our current manager hasn't done this yet. One customer ordered a tractor in store. The cashier did not tell them to come the following day and as bad luck would have it, he arrives just as when we get the BIG tractor of the truck. The customer lived far away and because if that, he didn't want to make two trips so the team had to take the tractor out if the wooden crate and assemble it. The assembly isn't as time consuming as you would think. All there was was too put on the seat and wheel.

07-11-2021, 03:38 PM	#9
stevea 22 Years On Sitcoms Moderator Forum Legend Join Date: Aug 13, 2003 Location: Indy Posts: 45,063	15 years ago all the malls around here had a Sears and a Penney's. Now in Indianapolis there are no Sears left (nor Kmart, of course) and maybe 3 Penneys. One mistake Sears probably made was buying Kmart--they should have seen the writing on the wall there, and known they didn't have the $$ to rescue it. It seemed everyone else but Sears knew what was going on with Kmart. I can remember in the early 2000s my elderly mother needed a new TV. We both had questions, and I first took her to a local appliance retailer, HH Gregg. You could tell the salesman was a foulball who knew nothing. I then took her to Sears, and the nice salesman was the total opposite. He even came to her apt. and set up the TV! These are the kinds of things customers remember. Their Kenmore and Craftsman brands were legendary. Dehumidifiers are well-known (at least to me) to last only around 3 years. I had a Kenmore that lasted at least double that. Those appliances are built to last. Here the Lafayette Square, Washington Square, and Glendale malls have totally or nearly failed, partly due to the downfall of Sears and the near-downfall of Penney's and Macy's. If Penney's and/or Macy's fail (particularly Macy's), that would probably take Castleton and Greenwood Park mall with them. And probably many others in this country.

07-11-2021, 03:59 PM	#10
Dude111 Forum Legend Join Date: Nov 05, 2013 Posts: 36,936	Frank I am sorry I used to goto Sears alot..... Seemed like a nice place to go..........

07-11-2021, 04:22 PM	#11
Frank Gannucci Member Forum Star Join Date: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 16,125	Hey, I am not that upset. Fortunately, my last day at Sears was also my first day at Macy’s. So I wasn’t unemployed. If I only knew what my experience with Macy’s was going to be like.

07-11-2021, 04:36 PM	#12
Dude111 Forum Legend Join Date: Nov 05, 2013 Posts: 36,936	Ya I hear ya!!

07-11-2021, 04:46 PM	#13
Caroline13 Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Jan 30, 2021 Location: So Calif Posts: 14,483	It's like Amazon (Bezos) has taken over the world...I do ALL in my power NOT to buy from them.

07-11-2021, 04:50 PM	#14
Dude111 Forum Legend Join Date: Nov 05, 2013 Posts: 36,936	Ya sometimes its hard though......