Popular Post kscarbel2 Posted July 21, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 21, 2020 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Red Horse Posted July 22, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2020 Nice-he mentioned houses. I had an uncle that bought a Sears house. Small ranch, one car garage and a hip roof. House was delivered in a box car and I remember going to rail yard with my dad in one of his companies trucks-like a 10 or 12' rack body to pick it up. Don't remember how many trips it took. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post davehummell Posted July 22, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2020 Sears was a one stop shop i have a reissue of an old sears catalog and it is amazing the verity of goods you could buy from them. Back in the day my gram said you didn't travel distances like we do now so you ordered your stuff from sears or Montgomery wards. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kscarbel2 Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 21 minutes ago, davehummell said: Sears was a one stop shop i have a reissue of an old sears catalog and it is amazing the verity of goods you could buy from them. Back in the day my gram said you didn't travel distances like we do now so you ordered your stuff from sears or Montgomery wards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kscarbel2 Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 Jacobson built the Ford lawn tractors from 1965 thru 1983 (Gilson from 1984 on). I always liked the Ford LGT Series produced from 1973 to 1983, but particularly the 1973 to 1976 version. . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post carlotpilot Posted July 22, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2020 sears was today's equiv. of amazon 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditchdiggerjcf Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Yep. They had the tiger by the tail and couldn't hang on. Sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davehummell Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 I bet that montgomery wards garden tractor would bring a good price from a collector these days. I don't think I ever saw one at any of the engine and tractor shows I was at. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h67st Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 I remember seeing a photo of a Sears store with a kit house built inside the store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freightrain Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) I can remember going to lawn equipment shows at the local mall and gathering up all the literature available for the models I liked back in the late 70's. It all got pitched years ago, but it would be neat to see it now. Being a "Ford" guy, I should be collecting Ford tractors instead of Cub Cadets? I had a '66 Cub 100 growing up. Have a 127 and 149 now. We had a "Monkey Wards" at the one mall in town. It's all gone, just like Sears has now. Edited July 23, 2020 by Freightrain 2 Quote Larry 1959 B61 Liv'n Large...................... Charter member of the "MACK PACK" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davehummell Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 I have a 1200 I budget restored and another for parts I just sold my 104 that I was made an offer for that I couldn't refuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowerman Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 On 7/22/2020 at 12:55 PM, davehummell said: I bet that montgomery wards garden tractor would bring a good price from a collector these days. I don't think I ever saw one at any of the engine and tractor shows I was at. i have one,,,i was going to restore it,,,,but it might be worth,antique car prices.....lol.bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeH Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 The sears by me was running Point of Sale computers from 1990 through their end. Sears management didn't have any vision for the company, ran it into the ground because they were afraid to fail. Wound up failing anyways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1958 F.W.D. Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) On 7/22/2020 at 10:05 AM, Red Horse said: Nice-he mentioned houses. I had an uncle that bought a Sears house. Small ranch, one car garage and a hip roof. House was delivered in a box car and I remember going to rail yard with my dad in one of his companies trucks-like a 10 or 12' rack body to pick it up. Don't remember how many trips it took. Bethlehem Steel had planned on building 300-400 Sears Kit homes in my town, but only 61 were completed. They were marketed to workers who had just returned from fighting in WWII. https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2007-05-13-3731208-story.html Edited July 27, 2020 by 1958 F.W.D. 1 Quote TWO STROKES ARE FOR GARDEN TOOLS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeavyGunner Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 There’s a couple of sears kit homes rotting away in the countryside near me. The one is a big house and looks to be quite fancy for its day. Quote The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by the people who vote for a living.The government can only "give" someone what they first take from another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davehummell Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 1958 F.W.D. I use to go to Bethlehem steel to work on a cat dozer they had. That was the longest building I ever saw it was back in 1974 or 75. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmackpaul Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 20 hours ago, JoeH said: Sears management didn't have any vision for the company, ran it into the ground because they were afraid to fail. Wound up failing anyways! Could you explain this a little further I have no idea about Sears as they were never in Australia, curious as to what and why Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeavyGunner Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) On 7/27/2020 at 2:05 PM, mrsmackpaul said: Could you explain this a little further I have no idea about Sears as they were never in Australia, curious as to what and why Paul I can’t really speak to their demise but I can shed a little light in Sears as a company. They were at the time the equivalent to online shopping today. During the late 1880’s the company was founded and grew exponentially from there. People were tired of the local general store with few choices and usually high prices set by the store keepers. Sears saw this and put together a catalog with everything from housewares, equipment, house kits and everything in between. They continued into the 20th Century being very profitable hometown store that carried about everything imaginable in a store and offered in store service for many of their products. (Example being of you go to store x and buy product y when product y breaks store x will not help you and says you must contact product y’s customer service center) In my opinion sears let stores such as Menards or North 40 fill that same niche as they were in. From my perspective Sears didn’t put any money into updating buildings, wouldn’t add on or expand so they had these sad little stores with very little on the shelves and most things had to be ordered. Now in the area I live in that’s a real pain. If my refrigerator goes out and I run to sears only to find out they only have on refrigerator on hand I’m going that day to another store to buy one. Part of the impatience on my part is I drove a minimum of 70 miles one way to get to a sears and secondly I need a refrigerator now not in two weeks. Edited August 1, 2020 by HeavyGunner 2 Quote The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by the people who vote for a living.The government can only "give" someone what they first take from another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmackpaul Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 22 hours ago, HeavyGunner said: (Example being of you go to store x and buy product y when product y breaks store x will not help you and says you must contact product y’s customer service center) This I feel is the biggest reason in Australia that internet sales have taken off The store just doesn't want to deal with the problem at all If I buy it over the internet and have a problem a fresh one is on the way thr next day, no arguments, no "do you have the docket" It just happens And the otgerother thing you mention, they only want to sell you whats on the floor not what you want Paul 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1958 F.W.D. Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 On 7/27/2020 at 2:57 PM, davehummell said: 1958 F.W.D. I use to go to Bethlehem steel to work on a cat dozer they had. That was the longest building I ever saw it was back in 1974 or 75. You would cringe at it now. Google Wind Creek Casino Bethlehem. Quote TWO STROKES ARE FOR GARDEN TOOLS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JoeH Posted July 28, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 28, 2020 On 7/27/2020 at 4:05 PM, mrsmackpaul said: Could you explain this a little further I have no idea about Sears as they were never in Australia, curious as to what and why Paul Many business owners/managers are afraid to fail, so they won't upset the apple cart by changing the business model. Sears did automotive tires, was a department store, used to sell home kits apparently. Lawn mowers, clothes, literally just about anything. They should have revolutionized online shopping, not Amazon. But they didnt want to fail, so they maintained business as usual even though business as usual was changing. They wound up failing because they wouldn't change. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kscarbel2 Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 On 7/27/2020 at 4:05 PM, mrsmackpaul said: Could you explain this a little further I have no idea about Sears as they were never in Australia, curious as to what and why Paul Paul, Sears (management) failed to evolve forward, particularly since 1990 when it became critical to do so. As others have said, they were ahead of their time for decades (though ironically they might not have realized it, not knowing of a Amazon online future awaiting). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freightrain Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 We had a full service Sears. Store, automotive and we had a parts outlet for appliances so you were covered. I remember buying my first 8 track stereo for my '72 IH pickup back in like 1981 from the automotive store. Used to buy lots of Diehard batteries through the years. My favorite story from Sears. About 25 yrs ago I ordered a new softener for my house. They told me it would be ordered in and ready in a couple days. Okay. They call, I go get it. A week later I start getting calls about delivering my new softener. Huh? I ignored the calls for awhile, but I finally said WTH and called them back. They deliver it and I wait for the call about me having TWO. Never happened, ever. I end up selling the extra to a friend a few months later. Apparently someone failed in their record keeping? 1 Quote Larry 1959 B61 Liv'n Large...................... Charter member of the "MACK PACK" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowerman Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 im sure most of us,used to go there all the time,,,,from what i remember,they were one of the last retailers to offer all american products,,,,big box stores,full of imports have taken over...bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddeere Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 I bought a sears or craftsman roll around toolbox at an auction a few months ago of course no keys for the locks. In the top box was a card that said if you send a dollar with the lock numbers they would send keys. I knew that since the boxes were old a dollar was not going to work. I called the company and talked with a woman who had been there 29 years. She said that the numbers were before her time but she would look in some old literature. She was able to get me a set at a reasonable price. Try that today with something from Lowes, Home Depot, or Harbor Freight. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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