Exploring an Abandoned Sears. Toledo, Ohio.
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- čas přidán 18. 03. 2021
- This is a detailed tour of the now Abandoned Sears store located in the Westgate Village Shopping Center in West Toledo, Ohio. Built in 1960 as a stand alone box store this Sears served the Community till it's final days of September 2017.
Final walk through of sears (Toledo Ohio) 9/16/17
• Final walk through of ...
Otis Escalators @ Sears Toledo Ohio
• Otis Escalators @ Sear...
Music: Siamese Youth - Dream on
• Siamese Youth - Dream on - Zábava
My Sears Kenmore washer and dryer are still going strong. Purchased in 1993 !
I have a Kenmore washer from that era as well. I've done repairs no one would probably bother to do, but it still fills and runs and doesn't leak, so.......
My parents was purchsed at Sears a Whirhlpool lasted 38 years!
Who ever would have thought that Sears would go out of business and be gone forever. Sears was my first credit card. I got it just to buy Craftsman tools. A great Saturday night was going out to dinner with Mom and Dad, and then shopping at Sears. My wife and Mom would go to clothes and Dad and I would shop for tools. So sad to see Sears go away.
I'm heartbroken with my memories of working at Sears. I worked for Sears from January 2006 to February 2020. I loved working at Sears, with the customers and my coworkers. Sears was once one of the best places to spend your hard earned money 💰 with. My favorite thing at Sears was the craftsman tools. LTW on tools, if they ever failed all you had to do was exchange it out, didn't even need the receipt as long as they could read the word craftsman on the failed tool. We even had rebuilt kits for the ratchets if you wanted to keep your old one . No problem! Sears was the best. Great memories. Miss Sears so much. 😢 Sears was the heart of American retail stores.
There was a Sears near me that was always busy. Right up until they were all closed. I honestly couldn't believe they closed them all. Sad.
I worked for Sears it was my first job at 16. I worked in women’s clothing. It was horrible!!! Not a signal good memory from there except for leaving. I never went back to a Sears. I’ve never been yelled at so much in my life. No matter what anyone did in that department it wasn’t right. If you went to the store management they sided with the department manager and whoever complained was fired. It was so bad I had an ulcer over it. Awful place. What I learned never manage a retail store with fear. That was almost 50 years ago, good riddance.
It's also crazy to think that Sears was well-positioned to be Amazon long before Amazon existed. Sears was a big leader in mail catalog shopping. Too bad they didn't see the internet for all its potential as their already well-established warehouse infrastructure would have come in very handy.
An executive of sears did see it, however he was fired when bringing the idea of moving to an online catalogue up.
@ItzBIULD They thought the Internet was fad 😂
Sears after giving up the opportunity to become the Amazon of the world, before Amazon even existed: 🤡
We knew the writing was on the wall in the late 90’s when they said they wanted to get out of the catalogue business
What's even more strange is that Amazon was a book store.
Sears had it's own brand of everything, so that jaded them.
Sad day when this store closed. I shopped there for decades. I loved going there to look through all the Craftsman tools.
Tools terrify the younger generations. Even the word “work” is not allowed in public schools.
Thank you for this. You are very accurate on it. I worked at this Sears from 1977-1981, and during those years I sold swimming pools, plumbing, worked at customer service and the teletype department. The outdoor garden shop area you mentioned in the ENE corner is where we had the swimming pools set up. Also a shed where we kept chemicals and fertilizer. The roofed strip from the key shop had lights underneath and looked quite cool at night. Was a great store, great products, and a great job at the time, my first "real job."
That's the exact time that Jimmy Carter served as president.
@@jonathancreveling5658 I was in Plains, Georgia last week and went to the former location of the peanut warehouse President Carter's father ran in downtown Plains. I walked in and bought some homemade peanut butter. The lady running the store said the Secret Service comes in and buys the peanut butter ice cream to take to him.
I was an appliance repair tech out of that store from 2008-2014. I recognize the pickup trucks of the two of my old coworkers parked next to our A&E trucks. We changed to the a&e name after the bankruptcy in 2005 A&E was originally Montgomery Wards appliance repair name and we purchased it when they went under. The appliance repair portion was seperated as a different holdings company that still operates independent of Sears and could be sold separately. Also something neat about the auto center is that there is a full basement under that building that houses a locker room and showers, a break room and tire storage wearhouse.
No kidding ??? that is a neat fact..about the basement under the auto center !
That’s incredible they had a basement with those functions! Wish I could see old footage of that...
The half of the basement under the car lifts was where the tires were stored and you could only access it through a freight elevator. It was very poorly lit and I hated going there alone, that's where we stored a crank lift for removing window air conditioners. The part with the locker rooms was directly under the sales room and very well lit and maintained. It was accessed via a stairwell behind the customer restrooms.
@@30roundclipazine79 Interesting! Thank you.
Never knew that part about the basement with locker room and showers. Did anyone actually use the showers when you worked there? Seems like maybe they would have been used along time ago.
This makes my heart ache. I really miss my childhood. 😥
Me too. This was really good but it also made me cry for days gone by that was really good. Look at what we have become.
My last sears (westland, mi) closed for good today. I will miss Sears so much
I worked my first summer job in this store in the 70s. It was my luck to be assigned to the candy counter. I worked next to the major appliance department where the salesmen wore coats and ties and made a good living selling washers and dryers on commission. My fringe benefits were the occasional bag (or two) of chocolate covered peanuts, bridge mix, etc. which I’d grab from the stock room on my way out the door. I was very popular with my friends when I’d show up with the snacks. :)
Made friends with the popcorn machine? 😂
I started my driving career hauling out of Manteno Illinois which was the Sears distribution center. I actually delivered to this store. I usually got to my store the night before and spent the night in the semi truck. One of my co drivers told me I was nuts for sleeping in the parking lot at this Sears overnight. It's crazy that the hundreds of Sears stores I deliver to are all gone. Company stop hauling Sears freight at the beginning of 2015.
They weren't paying their suppliers. I was in appliances in 2000
@@GS-zc4sk for the last couple years the trucking company I work for was making a pay cash every friday. And then we decided just to pull out of there. It's a shame
Thank you for doing this video! I used to go there with my parents as a kid. My mom wound be picking up orders in the catalog department and my dad would be in the Craftsman tool section. Then when I started driving I would shop there as a teen! So many good memories. I remember the candy counter, popcorn and roasted peanuts too!
I worked there in the coffee shop in 1963 till 1969 loved it.
That's a premier store. I never knew they existed.
They just thore it down 😭😭😭 I used to love sears back in the day I used to go with my grandma shopping we lived 5m from there RIP Sears and Grandma 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
In the 1970s my parents referred to the Sears credit card as a “charge plate”.
Those Sears commericals were so damn good in the 1980s
I know right
I remember the one where they had this car frozen in the winter to demonstrate the Die Hard battery.
They did well. Solid marketing. Good products. In stock. Service.
This top shelf location is a prime example.
I can still smell the caramel corn as mom led us kids through the doors. I remember distinctly the Christmas toy display they set up in 1965. Probably the last time I entered this building was around 1970. After that, I spent most of my time at the Southwyck Mall.
Plus they owned their own payment method: the Discover Card.
@@josepheads5589 And insurance.....Allstate.
I really like these old-school store buildings, before they were remodeled and destroyed. I find the original designs a lot more appealing. Maybe it's just the nostalgia that I find appealing.
No you're right. That was a full featured store with awesome potential. To me it's the way it should be. Where families can go somewhere and be together get what they need and have a nice time.
Great story. I remember as a child Sears was the place to shop at Christmas time. They had absolutely everything. Including model train sets running. How things have changed. And not always for the better. Excellent video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
It's not for the better. People need to get out and away from their screens amongst other mundane routines. Myself included.
I worked there back in 1995. Still shopped there after I left. I remember clearly how Sears was set up and designed in its last days of being open.
Spent many hours in that exact store shopping. So sad to see that it's just a shell of a once great store. Seeing this video makes reminds me just how big it actually was.
I’m from Toledo myself and I’m really enjoying the random facts I’m learning about my city on your channel! Cool stuff Nate!
agree, also from Toledo....the abandoned spots are so amazing....the old Riverside Hospital, the NorthTowne mall, wish they had NOT been torn down so soon, so many other haunts, just adds to the BEAUTY. Toledo has much good but it also has a strange, beautiful darkness in it's undertone. Love it. So many amazing people out here. Glad I grew up in my youth in the city. Good times. So many good times.
the graffiti, lol so much else......ah the history. The culture, the VIBE, the people, good people...so many stories, and so many friends who you might never think might share their story. Love the 419.
and yes, thanks, Nate.Very cool, LOVE his telling of the unique history, even of just a business in Toledo, and other stories. LOVE his history facts and showcasing the rich history of businesses in Toledo, and all the hard work and great people. NICE to see the POSITIVES, even of what once was. Toledo, great history, culture, PEOPLE. Hard-working, loving, and as American as can ever be. Truly a city of opportunity and freedom, EVEN in it's roughest times even today. All I can say, is one can find great stories and people in the 419. If one is willing to listen in, one can learn so much, just from the history. Thanks to Nate, really love this channel. You truly are GREAT. Love the stories, such a cool channel with little yet GREAT stories about the city.
EconCat88 is for those who want a negative opinion through tours on the city, lol, that guy caused an uproar at the Toledo Blade, I think, several years ago. Some of HIS tour videos are still on here, but he most rants against the city council and developers, construction/demolition bosses, unemployement, empty businesses, or ranted. Nice to see a different approach with Nate.
Sears, and the Westgate development in general, helped lead to the demise of downtown Toledo. I guess the evolution of other shopping areas in Toledo lead to the demise of Sears and Elder-Beerman. Life evolves.
(The Kenmore washer and dryer that we bought in that store in 2004 is still going strong!)
How did Sears help the demise of downtown Toledo? Is it like the Wal Marts of today that ruin small businesses within a 5 mile radius of where they open, or was it a bit different?
That Kenmore washer and dryer are probably just rebadged Whirlpool appliances.
Sears once had stores in many downtowns. Like other chains, as they grew along with the cities they were in, they needed to expand into bigger and bolder stores in the suburbs where they attracted more business and had plenty of space to build those big box stores and malls. Similar to an anchor store, when they pulled out of downtowns, they took all of that customer traffic with them, leaving the smaller stores to struggle even more than they did when they had Sears as a
nearby competitor. Sad, but that's business.
@@eleven8948people no longer needed to go downtown from the burbs.
My Dad managed the catalog department from the opening of this store up until the mid 70's. A lot of memories....
I remember peaceful Sunday drives, brother, me, mom and dad and window shopping in the car, we always went to Sears, it's where my brother and I first got to drive the car when he turned 11 then when I turned 11, great memories.
I worked at Sears part time in 1976 while going to college In Dayton Ohio. And just last week I had to replace the battery in my Suburban. It was a Diehard which I had for 8 years and 8 months which I bought at the Sears in Piqua Ohio. I bought another Die Hard at Advance auto parts. I hope it lasts a long time.
It's kind of sad to think most of the stores from my childhood now all out of business or damn near. Sears, Kmart, Hills, JC Penny, Woolworth, Elder Beermen, The Andersons and the local malls Southwyck, NorthTown, Woodville Mall, Great Eastern, Westgate, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. I distinctly remember the smells and sounds at many though it was a variety of popcorn, chlorine, cinnamon coated almonds, cookies, leather, and perfumes. And the sounds of running water, arcade games, and the bass from the movie theaters. But I also understand I literally didn't shop at most of them as soon as I became an adult consumer. They were out of date out of style and looked like 50yr old buildings. So they were poorly managed and didn't react with the changing times in my opinion. Thanks for the flashback in time though!!
I remember shopping at this Sears. My grandpa lived down the road.
First of all, Nate, Thank you !!! This was such a nostalgic look back. I grew up in Lincolnshire which was a new housing development just through the woods, west of Sears. I used to make the trip, walking, of course, to Sears at least 3 times a week and knew that store like the back of my hand. I was about 10-11 years old at the time. The front entrance door handles.. Yes ! those were original and I loved the fact that they kept them even after renovating the building with the new 'white paint' ..but those door handles didn't need to be replaced. They were made to last ! And those stone aggregate tiles in the front walkways..again, such a neat touch.
I had to laugh to myself when you showed the back entrance. Because when I got a bit older, we used to buy cigarettes out of vending machines which were in the vestibule between the two double doors as you went in. We were under age of course but back then, you could buy those smokes out of vending machines ! Loved that fact about the air conditioning unit, continuing to run after these years.. How can that be ? that seems a bit like a haunting.. LOL.
Oh..and the water tower..which I had forgotten totally about.. I remember that too..and some of the boys in our neighborhood used to boast that they had climbed the tower !
I can imagine that the building is filled with asbestos and therefore, very expensive to tear down. I still live in Toledo and pass that building almost everyday. Sears was a great store, no doubt about it. Your video did it justice.. thank you !
Have good memories at this location... used to be a nice feeling during Christmas time (~2001)
I remember going with my dad one time and playing the demo for Pokémon yellow.. i was a child then.. now I'm as old my dad was at the time..
God bless
I get a pit in my stomach when i think about the long miserable collapse of Sears. I hate it.
Me too. It's not a good thing. Cuz now we have a behemoth online retailer running with the devil.
@@GS-zc4sk 100%
The Sears/Kmart story is now almost completely written. It is a chapter in the history of retail in North America. The only certain thing in life is change. I can remember as a child thinking that Sears/ Kmart would last forever -- but it didn't. Remembering the world which I lived when I was young only shows my age. I guess I'm the one who needs to change now and become more flexible.
God bless you for being smart 🤗
We all feel that way.
Well, they had a good run.
No empire lasts forever.
Looks mostly like I remember it during my time through closing. Toledo was a mighty Sears store in its day, well maintained and a great place to work because of the many loyal Sears customers.
I used to walk thru sears multiple times per week when i lived 5 minutes away from Mall of america. I used to love playing around on the fancy ride on lawn mowers in the store 😂
I loved Sears, was sad to see it go under, everyone just couldn't wait until the Christmas catalog came out in the fall. Their stuff was excellent, their appliances were easy to get repaired, just say it's from Sears and you'd never have problems getting it fixed. Feel sorry for the owners who lost everything, when Sears folded up, they were really great people.
They folded because of buying K Mart which was on the point of no return
@@22161 Seen it before, a company with money problems, buys another company in a tailspin which kills them both.
i definateley miss this store. used to shop here all the time. used to buy all my appliances here
Like most of the other comments from men, I also parked close to the tool section. I was thinking the electronic section (TVs,etc) was the first thing you noticed heading onto the 2nd floor. As a dude in my 50’s, I don’t care for the mall situations. So these were my favorite stores. Can’t forget about the “Lions” department store across the street!
I remember when it first opened at Westgate. They were originally located downtown Toledo on the corner of Summit and Jefferson. I have dim memories of being in that location. Sears Westgate had a mid century modern style coffee shop located in the southwest corner of the building. They used to sell swimming pools outside the north entrance. My parents bought a pool there mid 1960’s. Us kids loved the toy department. I remember the color TVs on the second floor. I installed a phone system in their new dental facility in the mid 1990’s.
I really like the way you presented this. ❤
I miss Sears! You did a great job of sharing! So many memories 💜
It is very sad to realize that Sears was the original "Amazon". Someone in leadership there completely dropped the ball making the Sears company into the online internet behemoth that Amazon is now. Sears already had the system in place with warehouses all over doing the catalog business! What the hell happened?
Is Sears still alive at all? And K Mart for that matter. Didn't Sears buy KMart at some point?
Very cool!...was that a touch lamp in the opening commercial? 😂
Almost to the day, when SEARS closed its catalog department ( I think)...it gave AMAZON the green light to take over and sell more than books. That is just another one of their failures to embrace changes over the ages This from a store that pioneered catalog sales to the country...and the world...to be able to sell to rural and big city customers. The owners in the 1990's were clueless about what the internet would become, and they had the infrastructure before AMAZON even was a word.
When we were kids, my brother and I would go thru the Sears Christmas catalogue. What fun! Sears, also a place for everything from tolls to tires and clothes, too. Onward!
I used to visit this store. It was a few miles from my home where I grew up in Toledo. Today I live in Colorado. Thanks for the flash back.
Thank you, brings back memories. I believe the area you describe with lawn mowers and etc. was more a seasonal area. I think that is where they had toys and Christmas decorations during the holiday season. And I think the catalog department may have been there. You can't talk Sears in the 60's and 70's without including the Wishbook and catalogs.
The Westgate Sears was our go-to store for just about everything. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. What a riches to rags story for the great Sears Roebuck Company.
Thanks for a walk down memory lane. Thankfully Craftsman Tools are still around.
Born in Toledo and lived in Sylvania. Loved this Sears and all of Westgate shopping. I remember well the smell of the nut and caramel corn. And I even remember those door handles and the pebble tile squares on the entrance walks. And walking across the lot to LaSalles
many trips to that Sears store growing up this and Andersons hit kinda hard
Thanks for posting this video, I truly enjoyed it
Excellent work Nate! Love the Vaporwave style aesthetic in the intro, very Dan Bell.
Very cool. Thank you for bringing some great memories of Sears. I was a employee at the Auto Center for 9 years. Loved my time with them. It was a great company to work for.
I remember going there with my folks when I was little! My sister & I would look at all the pretty clothes & go past the perfume counters. Dad liked the tool section. I'd forgotten about the peanut counters! Great memories. Thanks for the video!
I used to work as undercover security here in 1984-1985. We chased many a shoplifter in and out of the store. Man do I have the stories! (I'm just glad there were no cell phone cameras back then. All I can say is the way these thieves got treated is why we had very little "return customers"!) Thanks for doing this.
Ben, I worked there in the 70's and was involved with both a shop lifter that stole my purse in the lock box at the cashier stand in Hardware. And also caught a counterfeiter in Hardware. Interviewed by the FBI, received a federal sobpoena, but fortunately for me, he took a plea deal. It was a three state ring and they had served time before for armed robbery. I was not too keen to face them in court!
I started working there in security around May 1985. I must have just missed you
@@chrish3870 Do you remember the names of the people on security at that time? Was Ronnie still there at that time?
@@beneaton8758 When I started Joe D. was the manager and I worked with Ronnie, Mike B., Lester and Darryl.
@@chrish3870 Ben is my " stage name". Joe is my name. Darryl replaced me I belive. I worked with all those people.
Nice work., I feel bummed out remembering all the old times ., gone now. 😢
Sears used to have everything. We had a stand-alone sears. In my town, it was massive. I think they would have survived with the right management. This video reminds me of our original store.
It's absolutely management's fault. They made too many bad decisions. And they arrived at a point of no return and pillaged everything they could. Pensions, prices, and screwing suppliers.
You did a wonderful job with describing and with drone views of Sears. I worked at a Sears in the 90s in CA, our employees lounge was in the basement which was used during their parking lot sales in the 70s. They had so much memorable that they threw out during the remodel in 00s.
Really fascinating video! Thanks so much for sharing 😊
Great video... I worked there in the early 2000's. It was the beginning of the end.
Thank you for this. My mom and dad always bought there appliances at sears. We always shop there when i was a kid. The shoes were right pass the stairs going up to the second floor.
I have seen a Sears store by its self in Houston, Texas and also a Montgomery Wards by themselves. I have seen those door handles at many Sears stores. I miss Sears as it was a great place to shop, you could buy everything, even organs that were made by Thomas organ company, called the Sears Galaxy.
There's a really nice 50's era looking stand alone right along the ocean in Santa Monica,CA
We had a stand alone sears location in West Hartford , CT but it closed around 2015.
Thank you! Great job!
Jeeesus this was good. I love that you have older photos and can super impose the before and after. I live in Milwaukee, which once had the largest SEARS store (SEARS CITY Fond du lac and North Avenue). And although it was built/from the 1930's or so, it had a detached farm store, auto center, appliance center, and all of that candy and popcorn when you first entered them. In fact, the popcorn always was a good way to hide that smell of all of that old grease and oil (and you could actually smell the tires back then). It too, had a detached key shop...it must have been an expensive machine and not many places had them. I get a kick out of the old slogans and logos that were so familiar to us back then, like the SEARS HAS EVERYTHING and THERES MORE FOR YOUR LIFE AT SEARS
I grew up shopping at this very store with my grandma. Great video.
I have watched quite a few videos similar to this but wow you did an amazing job editing and commentary. Definitely subscribing
This blows my mind. I used to go here all the time. My aunt used to work there at the eye center. So crazy how time flies.
I used to love this Sears!! I would shop after Christmas and get great deals!
This takes me back to my youth. We had a stand alone in St. Mathews in Louisville....on Shelbyville Rd...at SEARS Ave....Great snippits of old Sears tv spots...very nice
Used to go there actin as a kid in the 70's. Had one of those x-ray machines in the shoe department to make sure your shoes fit right. They made the best Carmel corn at the side entrance
Awesome video! i miss sears! The good old days!
Thank You Nate
I live down the street from there been going there since the 70s. Christmas time was pretty cool there they had all the toys out to play with got all my shoes there my the old school shopping clothes days there ever year miss that place. And K marts. 💯🇺🇸
I'm not in Ohio, but was a great video and narrative. I bought my first mower and vacuum cleaner from Sears in 1990. I still can't believe they're gone. 😢
Great video! Grew up and got my glasses and school clothes at this Sears! Sad that it and all the history is gone….. Westgate was the place to shop in its day.
That was so exciting I couldn’t catch my breath.
That second store closing talks more about Ohio than Sears.
Wow, memories are coming back. Worked in the Catalog Department in the Paramus, NJ store for several years. Let’s see: Catalog Div. 200, Toys Div. 49, Tools Div. 9, Seasonal Div. 71. Home Furnishings: Winter White was color number 941.
How about the white goods department number??
That would be appliances I believe in modern terms.
@@GS-zc4sk tried to remember but it’s been way too long.
Kinda sad to see how the city has withered away. If I hit the lottery I would move back to Ohio for the trees & grass. I miss that.
funny, people move to Colorado for the grass nowadays
0:48 I got that Sears Walkman knockoff for Christmas in 1984 and still have it. 😆
Thanks for listing that track!
Shopped there alot in the 70s....I touched those handles myself!!
naughty, naughty!
I spent 21 years with Sears, 1964-85, first as an auto mechanic, then I went into Central Service in 1966, Div 26-65-22-42 outside in home repair tech until I left in 1985. Sears spent big money on those stores and the auto centers. I was hired while the Hicksville NY store was still under construction. In the early 80's they closed up the windows, painted the store that awful beige over the perfect brick and sand stone facades. That made the inside feel like a basement. We had the Key kiosk which was originally a Foto-Mat. In the late 80's all the hardware goods were placed in the basement. "Rags" or clothing took over the entire street level. The Hicksville store was one of the most prosperous on the East Coast. It now stands closed up like this one. The big guys just let it go.
Sears was the first store that I got credit with back in the late 70s, had them put ball joints, tires and alignment on my 74 Charger, that was in Ashtabula OH...!
I miss Sears and the whole Westgate experience. Grew up there, mom always took us to the stores around there.
Wow I remember spending my first paycheck there in the 80s when I was a teenager fast times and wonderful memories 🙏😔
Anyone remember the Sears Christmas catalog.. good times.
Westgate today is awesome good job of reviving !!!!
I always went in that same entrance for the same reason, one of my favorite stores
Neat share, thank you!
this building is in good shape from what i can see of it inside and outside. what a shame Sears is no longer with us.
Very well described. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😃
When I was little, I got lost at that sears. A nice lady took me to the counter and called my parents over the PA.
Was one of my favorites store. I miss it
Neat video. I love to see older buildings like that. Lots of history there, and unfortunately it very well could be demolished one day for something less elegant than the designs we saw years ago. I find it odd that all the lights are on in an empty store. Imagine the power bill someone is paying for a building no one is using. You'd think they'd have a minimum of lights on; just enough to be able to see, but not every light in the store. The air-conditioner running was almost funny. But I also imagine that if power is on, those security cameras are all active and someone was probably watching you walking around the perimeter of the store! Thanks for the video, and please be safe.
Maybe the building is being saved for some other use?????
So many memories, wandering around while mom shopped🤣🤣🤣
Nice video! My hometown had a Sears Hardware store from the mid-1990's up until the mid 2010's.. Wish I had appreciated the rarity of having a stand alone Sears right down the street.
The water tower was a water reserve for the fire sprinkler system for the building.
We used to shop at Sears and Montgomery Ward all the time..great memories
I used to shop there with my sisters.. so many good memories.
I really miss Sears. And western auto too. Sears was a great place to work and shop. When ours closed they couldn't wait to tear it down. It was gone in a month
Some of my fondest memories are of the breakfast bar and the snack bar at Sears where you could see those peanuts on that turntable. I played my first game of "Pong" at Sears. About 5 years ago, the only Sears store open in our area was in Marion, Illinois. It was still a beautiful store but, there was no one there and it looked like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I needed a socket to replace the Craftsman socket I had broken. I picked out my socket and walked to the cashier. This young man started asking if I was interested in a credit card with Sears. I explained that I just wanted to replace this socket and walk out. I couldn't believe they were a sinking ship and they STILL were pushing that crap. They closed shortly after that. GREAT VIDEO!