There was a surprisingly decent crowd at this checkout island (though I have no idea how many, if any, others were open). I see some locally-themed products on display here (Huskies and Seahawks), another thing Sears doesn't really sell anymore -- though that may well be because they don't want to pay licensing fees any longer!
Unfortunately, down towards the end of Sears' time here in Houston, long lines were pretty common. Since Sears didn't have a standalone customer service desk, customers would take their issues with their Sears Card and Craftsman warranty exchanges to the registers and that often caused them to back up even under the best of circumstances. In the last couple of years, when Sears stopped manning all of the department registers they had, the backups became even worse.
ReplyDeleteSome of the causes for delays at Sears registers were truly things you'd only experience at Sears! One strange thing you could do at Sears was pay your monthly Discover Card bills since the Discover Card was Sears' invention anyway. I'm guessing Sears doesn't still process Discover bills, but maybe they still do! Who knows!
Unfortunately, the Sears around here were usually packed with Dallas Cowboys merchandise. Ugh. I'm sure it sold, but it wasn't remotely what I wanted to see, lol. I'm not sure if you ever went to a Sears Outlet before they left Lampert's grip. Technically, Lampert spun the Outlet stores from Sears along with the Hometown stores, but they were still controlled by Lampert for a while so it was like they were still the same companies even though they weren't technically. Anyway, you could find all kinds of out-of-market and out-of-date sports merchandise at Sears Outlet. I remember seeing mid-2000s NFL jerseys there in the mid-2010s! In fact, I seem to remember seeing a Jerramy Stevens Seahwaks uniform for sale. I'm sure Seahawks and Huskies fans probably wish those were burned rather than sent across the country to be sold at an outlet store, lol.
I know this Sears tends to only have one or two registers open at a time these days, but I can't remember what it was like in 2018.
DeleteWow, I didn't realize Sears still did Discover Card stuff that recently! Heck, their own Shop Your Way credit card isn't a Discover Card!
Merchandise that's almost but not quite local seems on brand for Sears! That's why I was surprised to see actual local stuff here. Anyway, I've never been to a Sears Outlet store, but selling outdated NFL stuff is a bit surprising -- I'm surprised that didn't go against their licensing agreement since the NFL is so protective of its brand!