Sears Holding is Closing 100 to 120 Stores

[frazzled]

48. You're right: they have just failed to keep up with the times

It's not like they don't have some decent products, like appliances and tools. But they have lots of competition in that area, and they're not providing anything that would make you go there rather than somewhere else for these products. The shopping experience is pretty dismal.

I remember being a kid in the 1950s, and we would go to the big Sears downtown every once in a while, and you'd get these great hot nuts, and candy, which kept us kids happy. We used to love it. I sort of feel like it never got out of the 1950s (honestly, the stores look the same, and the displays are nonexistent)--but it dropped the best thing about that era, the candy and nuts.

The whole idea of a full-service department store (with clothing and housewares and linens and tools and notions) is pretty much dead. Macy's is the only one left (and even they have dropped many departments): I almost never go there anymore either. It sucks. I long for the days of the old Marshall Fields and tea rooms and even the "old" Sears. It's over, like so many things of the past. You can't mourn it. Things die out. But I don't like the new breed of stores either, and I think that Internet retailing is going to kill most every bricks-and-mortar store in the country, save for some boutiquey places. What will fill our streets then?