You are right, kmart bought sears and uses the name sears holdings.
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The guy who ran Sears when they started to go bad is the same guy who ran Monkey-Wards when they went bust. His brother ran one of the biggest trucking companies in the world outta biz years ago… great bunch of guys!
Sears/Kmart been going down hill for decades. I forget which bought who. when they did that stock jumped really high but been going down hill since then. I'm sure they will never close every store but sears always been over price for their stuff.
As a kid growing up, my parents shopped almost exclusively at Sears, for clothes, appliances, tools, etc. It was a big deal for my sister and I to go with my Mom & Dad to the local Sears store on a Friday night. Sears employees were well respected and most employees made a comfortable living with great benefits and pensions..... as luck would have it, my wife and I were in our local mall yesterday, and we happened to walk into the Sears store. It dawned on me that it was the first time I had been there in years....How times have changed.......
The "official word" on this is, "we have an multi-year agreement and expect it to stay as-is". That doesn't really mean much.
They really can't say much more than that. I'm sure they're worried. It's not really WRG's fault if Sears defaults on their agreement.
I wouldn't be all that surprised if Sears defaulted and B&D picked up the deal. The WoO sponsorships are rather affordable direct marketing when compared to similar sponsorship situations.
You're right BTExpress, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was once an American institution. Their slide started when they did away with the catalog division and has been in steady decline ever since. The selling off of the Craftsman brand to Stanley/Black & Decker will be a bonus for that group because they will finally have some good tools that are beyond the entry level market.
Oh, and one other thing........I believe my mother sold me off to Sears as a test dummy many decades ago. Those jeans they had under the Roebucks brand....well that was some of the toughest denim I've ever seen because I couldn't wear them out, for love or money!
I agree with everything you said. But when DoD, or whomever in the industry, says "there is nothing to see here", it really doesn't mean that. That was my only point. I have seen people point to that press release and say all is ok. That press release doesn't really say all is ok.
I disagree about the some of the quality of tools this company makes. They may make some that are not very good but they make a lot of quality tools. The Fat Max Tape measure is by far the best on the market. They also own Dewalt, Porter Cable, Mac Tools, Proto tools and many other companies. Some of the tools that bear the Stanley or Black & Decker name are built more for the homeowner but with all their companies they also make some very good stuff.
Craftsman will fall somewhere in the middle or bottom half of quality in the line of companies they own.