Sears files for bankruptcy

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scotland
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Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby scotland » October 15th, 2018, 9:32 am

Sears, which was part of bringing video games into the homes from the beginning, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Its possible to reorganize, but its doubtful.

How many of us have a Tele-Games product?

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pacman000
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby pacman000 » October 17th, 2018, 8:54 am

Went to Sears a few months ago. It was very quiet. Sears can't even afford Muzak.

The store itself was still fairly nice, but there was something haunting about it. A few broken tiles; a few places which needed paint; some empty space on the floors. Walked past the closed portrait studio. Walked into the closed portrait studio. The lights were off, & there were boards over the doors leading to the actual photo booths. Faded, 90's-ish, pictures were on the walls. I took some pictures of what the area looked like then moved on.

There was no electronics section, but they had a shelf of DVDs, the cheap $5 ones put out by Echo Bridge/Platinum Disk Corporation. Bought a TV show, if I remember correct. White Fang, the complete series. Not good, but great scenery, & entertaining if you don't think too much about it. There was only one slow cashier, & a long line.

Hard to believe they're really going bankrupt; it's been announced every year for the past decade; it's like the boy finally saw a real wolf.

I wonder what this'll do to their franchised stores? If they really go under, I suppose someone'll buy the name continue to license it. Happened with Ben Franklin's. Seems to happen that way with most defunct franchisers.

Have one or two Tele-Games 2600 carts. Great cover art, under appreciated. I just wish they didn't change the games' names. Makes it hard to remember what you already own.

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Stalvern
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby Stalvern » October 17th, 2018, 12:16 pm

I'm just impressed that it staggered on as long as it did under Eddie Lampert's psychotic management.

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scotland
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby scotland » October 17th, 2018, 12:22 pm

Like Radio Shack, Sears just seems like an icon of decades past. Sears, tied to indoor malls, was just no longer convenient or a destination worth traveling to.

Toys R Us has decided to not auction off their intellectual property, a last hope at a comeback - although like the Atari brand someone would have bought Toys R Us brand to slap on something. Possibly Sears brand has enough value to keep for something as well, although I am not sure what that would be - possibly something like Searswishbook.com or something, as many of us recall the Sears Wishbook fondly.

My local Sears was a destination for craftsmen tools for awhile, and they had an Atari (or tele-games) kiosk there in their electronics department for a time. There was also a time when a Sears credit card was the first credit card young adults could qualify for, back in the days when getting a credit card was hard.

Luigi & Peach
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby Luigi & Peach » October 19th, 2018, 1:15 pm

I still remember the first time I saw an NES and Super Mario Bros. was a display at Sears while my mom was waiting to pick something up there when I was around 7 or so. It blew me away. The wishbook was always a staple of the holidays too at our house.

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AtariToday
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby AtariToday » October 19th, 2018, 6:48 pm

bummer. Once upon a time Sears was a magical place my parents shopped at, and I snuck off to play the latest video-games at the kiosks they had setup in store. In some strange alternate universe that new Atari-box VCS is selling strong as a Sears Tele-Games branded product; and I'm circling the system and games in the latest Christmas Wish Book...

newmodelarmy
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby newmodelarmy » October 20th, 2018, 8:27 am

AtariToday wrote:bummer. Once upon a time Sears was a magical place my parents shopped at, and I snuck off to play the latest video-games at the kiosks they had setup in store. In some strange alternate universe that new Atari-box VCS is selling strong as a Sears Tele-Games branded product; and I'm circling the system and games in the latest Christmas Wish Book...


I used to do the same thing. Not to mention all of the Star Wars and GI Joe toys I used to circle in the Wish Book. I probably looked at that book about a 1,000 times before Christmas finally arrived! I have fond memories of Sears but let's face it, it did not evolve. If you think about it, it was Amazaon before there was an internet. It's catalogs offered products of every kind and they would deliver it right to your home. They were poised to take advantage of the internet like no other department store but failed to capitalize on it. Instead of shedding the costs of the brick and mortar stores they double downed on their anchor mall strategy big time in the 90's and it finally caught up to them. It's a shame but it is inevitable for all companies. If you look at the fortune five hundred from the 1950's all about a handful of those companies are still around (either they have gone out of business or have been acquired).

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pacman000
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby pacman000 » October 20th, 2018, 11:03 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhrK3GKNmLY

"The fall of a retail icon: why Americans stopped shopping at Sears" - PBS News Hour newscast about Sears, their history & problems they've faced recently.

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pacman000
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby pacman000 » December 11th, 2018, 9:03 am

http://www.hardwareretailing.com/former ... ave-sears/

Eddie Lampert gets his hedge fund to offer $4.6 Billion for 500 Sears & Kmarts stores.

Here we go again...

newmodelarmy
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Re: Sears files for bankruptcy

Postby newmodelarmy » December 11th, 2018, 8:16 pm

pacman000 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhrK3GKNmLY

"The fall of a retail icon: why Americans stopped shopping at Sears" - PBS News Hour newscast about Sears, their history & problems they've faced recently.


Probably the most useless interview of all time....


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