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Comment by jbob2000 | Hacker News Reader

jbob2000

> Sears said its owners have been “working hard to position... for success by focusing on our competitive strengths and pruning operations that have struggled due to increased competition and other factors.”

Strengths? What strengths? Unless it’s the only store around, there’s absolutely no reason to go to a Sears today.

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Naive question from a guy who doesn't shop often: what kind of stores are replacing Sears for general "house" stuff for an average price, average quality? More specialized shops in boxstores? (I don't like driving and they tend to be located far from where I live)

I used to shop at Sears in Canada when they existed (until 2018). Now for appliances I go to home depot, and for kitchen stuff I go to Canadian Tire. Sometimes I browse Amazon but it's so full of rubbish/fraud I just end up giving up. I have to admit I once tried shopping appliances at Sears, and the sales people were just hawkish and creepy, like car salesmen.

If you have an Ace around you, they are awesome. I've talked to a reasonable number of employees that both cared _and_ knew what they were talking about. They also tend to have a huge variety of nuts and bolts and other hardware. Store was a little disorganized, but seemed to carry quality goods overall.

IKEA, Bed Bath and Beyond, Winners, Homesense, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Best Buy, Leon’s, The Brick, The Bay, Jysk... I could go on and on and on. Sears has so much competition that there’s literally no reason to ever go there unless it’s closer than one of the above.

Fair enough. I had not realized how competitive things had become, because some of them are not in my neighbourhood, but most of them are within a 20km range.

Basically for every category of what Sears sells there are better options:

1. Hardware and home renovation stuff? Lowe's or Home Depot

2. Appliances? Best Buy

3. Auto? Honestly I think the auto category was the one that was "decent" the longest, but now I'd go anywhere else.

4. "Softer Side of Sears" stuff? Target

You missed a very big one: Walmart. Walmart started in 1962. Before Walmart got big people bought a significant amount of stuff at Sears that they now buy at Walmart.

I'd say the most common places for automotive stuff would be Advance Auto Parts or AutoZone.

You go to Canadian Tire for kitchen stuff? Is that a typo? If not, can you explain?

Not much to explain. They've got kitchen stuff? And they let you take it home in exchange for money or canadian tire money.

Yep, if you're not familiar with the store, it's kind of like a Walmart, but there's one in my neighbourhood and they provide decent value, especially for tools and outdoors stuff.

Canadian Tire stocks a larger selection of kitchen utensils, cookware, small electrics, glassware, etc. than Walmart. It's a big chunk of the store.

They already sold off the craftsman tool line. That was literally the only reason to go to sears.

The "other factors" would be the extraordinary extraction of money by Eddie Lampert.

A similar story seems to have repeated itself with many retailers including Toys R Us.

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