We were told at our staff meeting today that Lawn and Garden will no longer exist. I am unsure if this is just our store or is Sears as a whole.
25 replies (most recent on top)
When a store gets 20 lawn tractors early in the season and 18 of them are returned within a week or two of purchase, you know something has got to change. Let the droves of lawn equipment scammers bleed Lowe's and Home Depot instead.
@4ukz+13H1Tulh announced internally? Not sure which internally you work at, but at our internally, nobody says a word about it. When asked, they just give you deer in the headlights look and dodge the question.
I know the deal because of where I work within the company, but when management says nothing about it, I can imagine some people really aren't sure.
The company as a whole is terrible about not talking about what plans are in the works. They've always been that way.
As a busy and successful gardner I find this appalling.
@3uyt+13H1Tulh remove the rose colored glasses. This was already announced internally.
Haven t heard anything about this yet at Palmdale store About lawn and garden going away
God forbid that associates in our store would buy a big ticket item without a protection agreement...When the ASM of the area found out, he would pull that associate aside and scold them for not buying the PA.
I'm not talking associates that work in the same dept.... but rather associates that work throughout the store.
The associates would get ticked off and go online from then on, or would go to the competition.
The manager was willing to lose a sale if an associate did not buy a protection agreement with it.
Big ticket associates had to come in two hours before opening one day per week for a protection agreement meeting in the training room where the ASM would read out each associate's weekly/monthly sales and PA numbers and browbeat anyone below standard in front of their peers.
When an associate had high sales numbers but low PA numbers, the ASM would tell the associate that they are earning a salary at the expense of Sears since Sears was losing out on profit without PA's attached.
All of this browbeating and focus on protection agreements meant nothing in the overall scheme of things as the more they focused on it, the faster the company declined.
@1Tulh Ok, maybe I get it...had to think about it- I dissed you and called you a troll for saying managers confronted you for shopping at the competition. Maybe I was wrong (it happens) I thought about some ways that could happen...As you should know, Sears has a non-compete clause where you are not allowed to work for the other guys. However, If a competitors store is nearby, and you had been seen there more than once, by a manager who also happened to be shopping there, I could see how a situation could arise, given the state of affairs with things last few years. I am going to offer you an apology right now. Perhaps I overreacted without thinking this through. You may be a victim here, I hope I did not add to your fustration. Good luck in the future, we will all overcome this and be better for it.
@1Tulh (if I read your ID right) You said you were confronted about purchases made at the competition. I worked at Sears for a long time. This NEVER happened to me. C'mon man, how would they know that unless you flapped your gums like a fool? Are you a Troll? You can't be serious. I am calling BS on this one....care to explain?
Layoffs, yes. Store closings? It could further reduce opportunity for revenue and thus potentially cause more closings I suppose.
Lowes and Home Depot took away the hardlines market share from Sears.
I left Sears several months before they announced our store was closing.
If I want to walk into a Sears store now, the nearest store to me is a 2 hour drive away.
The nearest HD and Lowes to me is only a few miles away.
When I still worked at Sears, I used to be confronted by managers asking why I shopped so much at the competition.
My reply was that most of what I was buying at the competition was merchandise that Sears carried at one time, but discontinued.
The final throes of incompetence starting with Eddie and his cronies at the top has k–led yet another high margin business where Sears once had a lock on the industry.
Back when I was a tech before I left, I was paid over 26 an HR. No money is worth being treated like a dog an slave.
So are y’all they going to up the commission to make up for not having L&G? Seems like everyone will be stuck at minimum wage with this 6 dollars an hour plus commission nonsense. In California minimum wage is 15 dollars!!!!!
The margin on patio furniture is HUGE. Can't see patio going away.
Customer returns of lawn power equipment wipes out any profit in that area.
Will this include bbqs and patio furniture/decor or is this just lawn/garden power equipment, garden tools, etc?
Kmarts have no lawn and garden merchandise. We are getting patio and BBQs thou.
i'm enjoying my severance and unemployment checks.
@bqq+13H1Tulh is correct. Quit and find a better job. Or, consider starting your own company and sell on Amazon. I recommend starting a store while you're still at Sears. When the ax falls at least you have other income.
Have you seen the L&G the last 24 months? It already IS gone!!
What a terrible time for this to happen, with spring around the corner. Also, if L&G is still being sold as Kmart, why not also sell at Sears to get economies of scale in purchasing the product lines ?
What's concerning is that you didn't see this coming a long time ago lol. People are still working at Sears for minimum wage like how and why is this happening to Sears. This is unbelievable, just wake up smell the aroma or t–d and quit for a better job n life. Unemployment would be better than working at Sears.
All brands of lawn and garden merchandise no longer carried or sold in all Sears branded stores. This is not the case however for Craftsman sold at other retail stores. Those are unaffected at all.
So does this mean L&G is no longer separate from home improvement or that lawn and garden products will no longer be carried at all? If it's the second case this is concerning. Those products are a large part of the hometown store's business.
Wow!!!
It only took them a year to communicate the truth to the stores!
It's all of them.