If the brick and mortor mall stores close what will become of all the SEARS Auto centers? SEARS still to this day has the best price and variety on Goodyear, Michelin, Uniroyal, and Cooper tires anywhere. I still shop at SEARS Auto for tires, batteries, alignments, and occasional oil changes all of which are a money saver compared to other auto service centers. It will be hard to find the assortment, quality and price SEARS offers for tires and batteries in one place. Some smart investor should step up and save this division from extinction.
16 replies (most recent on top)
@1rgc "maybe hire the people who still work at the Sears auto center."
Between the rabid anti-customer/racist/s-xist attitudes a few of the current Sears Auto employees have been periodically showing on this forum, and the bad reputation Sears Auto has been earning for years on multiple aspects (see https://www.facebook.com/pg/searsauto/reviews/ for a taste), I think anyone acquiring Sears Auto would need a careful culling of current employees.
Why would Autonation buy dilapidated stores mostly in B & C malls that are soon to have (another) vacant anchor and try to build their brand from that instead of just starting fresh in prime locations if this is something they want to do?
@1rgc - EXACTLY! AutoNation could buy it over and rebrand as AutoNation
Even if Sears is competative over the years they have erroded the goodwill of the customer. Bad service, bad warrenty, takes too long to get things done. Now I know it is not the people working in the shops that have casued this but just from experience I will never go back to a Sears auto center.
Also, SHC has not invested in the auto centers (just like the stores) in over a decade so all of the equipement would need to be replaced. Best case senario would be for some other auto center to buy it, change the name and maybe hire the people who still work at the Sears auto center.
NO... that is simply proven by asking how many auto stores survived a main store closure. Also they have been for sale since the day Eddie took over and no one wants them. The other reason is they were specifically written in the recapture clause during the property sales to the REIT.
They will never survive.
It would survive. Autonation could come buy it seeing as Eddie has a massive stake in Autonation too.
@1lyd - only if you were a retiree.
@1dpb - I agree. They have sky rocketed lately in price, earlier this year I was changing tags every two weeks! And then the battery shortage started... Believe this was East Penn being lost? Who needs Platinum or L&G batteries anyways?
@1pkx - on everything but the road hazard.
@1qps - do the stand alone servers actually work? Or are they still putting the 'POS' in 'TPOS'?
Sears doesn't have enough money left to invest properly into ALL of its locations and get it's equipment up to automotive standards of today. They let these upgrades fall to the wayside while cash was burned in a barrel somewhere else. Hell there isn't even enough money to pay for assistants anymore is what I've heard.
It was not an employee discount - I have not been an associate in over 15 years. The tires and battery were on sale and I had a coupon for $10 off the alignment. I could not have replaced all three for the price I did anywhere else. Only Pep Boys comes remotely close however they don't have the same quality brand name tires Sears does.
@Q1JKby3-invn Where did you get your discounts? They took away our employee discounts. Do they still honor employee discounts at the Sears Auto Centers?
Also the stand alones aren't typically Sears Auto Centers anymore they get built as Diehard Auto Centers (which is strange being that they may not always own the Diehard name ... I guess they don't technically own it now since KCD owns it
Stand alone SACs are fairly rare but they do happen in some markers. Unfortunately, there are a ton of issues in keeping a stand alone. The servers and such are typically housed and maintained at the FLS, and moving them and all the required support just isn't cost effective.
Also most SACs have shared resources, things like HR and accounting (although most SACs don't even really consider these things shared.
Things get way more complicated and risky if they have to move locations (which has happened before) because the cost to relocate a lift ends up being more than the contract pricing we have to install a new lift.
Throw oil tanks and other things into the mix and the money is often better spent elsewhere (not that its being spent elsewhere)
QlJKby3-1ibx Well Roseville mi kept the die hard store and closed the sears (property sold) it just depends
@QlJKby3: If you noticed every Sears store that closed the Auto Center also closed. Some Auto Centers where closed and the store closed later and some Sears stores were left open and they just closed the Auto Center.
Sears always had the best prices on tires. In the heyday half of the tire truck in our store used to be ours. Nowadays stock may be limited or you may have to order or call around for a set of four but Sears prices still can't be beat. Not everyone is a club shopper or lives near a Walmart auto center. I bought a Diehard Silver and four tires last month with an alignment and got discounts on all of it.
Actually I agree with the OP, we are very competitive even compared to warehouse clubs
I'm a CSA at Sears Auto. When was the last time you bought a battery at Sears? Our prices are so high it's embarrassing! Costco and Sam's Club eat our lunch everyday on tire prices!