I came across an article the other day that I didn't save, but that's not important. Written by a Sears executive, the article gave suggestions to seniors in the workplace. The thrust of his suggestions was that seniors look to the 20-somethings to help them keep abreast of technology. Two things came to mind. For one, I don't know why anyone would assume that a senior who is still in the workplace wouldn't already be abreast of the technology needed to do the job, and I found that to be rather insulting. Secondly, why would anyone from Sears feel qualified to school the rest of us on new technology? Sears had the marketplace and, had they kept abreast of new technology, they would have never allowed Amazon.com to beat them at their own game. Instead, they depended on catalog sales too long, and then they stuck with big box stores too long. Now their stores are closing and, when you try to buy something from them online, they won't deliver large items more than fifty miles from their nearest store and, for other items, they charge an arm and a leg for shipping and take their own sweet time to do so.
It is an insult stating that we do not have the skills to keep up with todays tech. A lot of us cut our tech teeth with the Tandy 'trash80' and Apple II. No icons or mouse, just command prompts. Most of the 20 somethings I work with can do very little on the tech side of things. Haven't put in the work to understand how systems really work. They just look at the finished program and wonder why it didn't work... I haven't considered Sears as a player for quite some time. They are gone, as far as I'm concerned.
When I bought my first computer, you had to learn how to program in order to do anything with it other than use it as a word processor.
I have had lots of trouble with Sears, and will probably never buy from them online again. I feel the same way you do, Ken, as far as the "mailorder" purchasing. They combined with K-Mart, which didn't help them. I used to walk into Sears and find exactly what I wanted, and usually on sale, but lately, I went in a local store looking for a new washer. I found they had it at a good price. When inquiring however, the price on the sign was only if I opened a new credit card and put the purchase on it. They also wouldn't deliver unless I bought both a washer and dryer. I walked out , went to a local retailer, got a good price delivered and set up. I honestly don't know how they stay in business. For anybody at Sears to be teaching me anything would be a joke for sure.
Ok, there are Seniors, like my BIL and SIL that know basically nothing about technology. One of the reasons my BIL had a serious problem getting a part-time job when living in Alexandria, LA. Neither of them know nearly as much about computers that wife and I do. BUT, having Seniors listen to the younger generation about most anything, can be fairly absurd. There is also that fact that the younger generation doesn't even like talking to Seniors, or what they call "old people".
About 15 or so years ago, my wife’s computer went on the fritz and Tony, her oldest son was volunteered to look at it. Now, we have to understand that he went to college for computers and had his own business at the time. Note: He’s extremely smart and computer savvy so I’m not attempting to take anything away from his ability to move about the tech community with ease. But in this case, he bombed out. He looked through Yvonne’s computer and announced that it would cost about $300 to fix it which started me thinking of alternatives. One night whilst looking at the dead thing, I took it apart, cleaned it up, tightened things up, and then stuck an old hard drive I had sitting around in it, formatted it and loaded Windows 97 or some such, and bingo, NASA, we have a go. The thing lasted another 4 years or so until my wife upgraded to a new computer. The moral: Sometimes the things that are institutionally taught just do not align with things that are self taught. ( as it generally is with we older folks). So far as the Sears thing goes, the best thing I can remember beyond the Craftsman products was the catalog’s use in the outhouse.
It looks like the Sears that wanted to teach us workplace skills will be filing for bankruptcy soon. I guess they needed us to teach them workplace skills, and marketing....
Although the Sears catalog eventually found its way to the outhouse, the arrival of the Sears catalog was a big deal when I was a kid. There weren't a lot of department stores around at the time, and surely nothing in the small town that I lived in, so our Christmas presents were likely to come from the Sears catalog, so we all wanted to be sure that our hopes and desires were known. They weren't always realized to be sure, but at least we wanted to be sure that everyone knew what we were interested in. Mom and dad also bought things for around the house from the Sears catalog. The Sears catalog was the Amazon.com of the time, and there's no reason why they couldn't have made that transition before it was taken away from them. Instead, they concentrated on expanding their big box store market, as well as all the little Sears stores and catalog sales shops that were everywhere.
Now if that Sears article would have stated that Seniors who had problems with the tech things might ask those 20 year old's for help...and that those 20 year old's that needed help with common sense turn to the Seniors....that might have been a win win situation for Sears and their employees.
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/Sears-Close-72-More-Stores-484144961.html Sears is closing 72 more stores.
I'm surprised that Sears is still hanging on with about 400 stores after the bankruptcy buyout early this year. I think there are three stores still open in the Houston metro area. My first job in high school was at a local Sears store. They had excellent employee training programs at that time. I was working in the shoe department and I had to watch films on the proper use of a Brannock device and other instruction. I still remember that cheesy film and I can still find my way around a Brannock device in case I ever need that skill again. It's nice to have something to fall back on.
They closed the Sears store at the Bangor Mall. In fact, most of what was at the Bangor Mall has been closed. A few stores have opened in their place but they are not household names, and many of them sell products that aren't going to bring in the sales volumes that the mall once had. For example, a discount mattress store went into what was Macy's.
The closest mall to us is one of those dying malls that used to have gigantic Sears, Macy's, and Montgomery Wards stores as the "anchors." The Macy's is still open but it's a pathetic shell of its former glory. What I don't understand is why they build new malls and let the old ones deteriorate. Most of the new malls in the Houston area are the open-air type where there's no actual "mall" but just a cluster of stores with parking lots from hell.