Pensacola Sears Store Closing
April 12, 2018
The Sears store in Pensacola will close this summer.
The Davis Highway store location, which opened 44 years ago, will close by mid-July. Liquidation sales will begin April 27.
The store was among over 250 Sears and Kmarts sold to Seritage Growth Properties and then leased back to Sears Holdings.
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18 Responses to “Pensacola Sears Store Closing”
Hate to see it close. Lots of good friendships made there including meeting my wife.
Worked there during the merger with K-Mart. K-mart used sears as a life support system while it drained what was left from once Proud Sears and Roebuck. Sears wanted to branch out in to off mall retail locations to compete more directly with Walmart and Target. They saw the opportunity of they Buyout/ merger with Kmart as a way to achieve that goal. Unfortunately Kmart was already Dieing at that time, unable to Compete with Walmart and no real concept of setting up a good online Shop. Bumbling management for years lead to this, the current CEO has tried to steer it in the right direction but it was already to late. With the selling of the Craftsman brand to Stanley and Stanley introducing these tools to a competitor such as Lowe’s and Kenmore being realeased for sale by Amazon this may be the final year for Sears.
Remember well the Sears & Roebuck store on Palafox St in downtown Pensacola.
As a kid we bought my jeans and shirts and shoes there. We also did catalog order when my Dad was based overseas, had to order jeans a size larger to “grow into”.
Now trying to “grow down” in pants sizes.
As a young couple we bought our refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer and many tools from Sears.
Ah, the Good Ol Days.
Soon there won’t even be any reason to leave home as all will be done via internet. Guess eventually mid-wives will birth kids at home again and they’ll never leave the safety of those four walls of home.
My wife and I bought a Kenmore front-load washer model 40272 in 2010. In early 2016, I scheduled an appointment for a technician to come look at our malfunctioning washer. It would stop in the middle of any cycle and would not restart. I understood that there would be a charge of $89 for the service call and estimate, and that if I chose to have the repair done, that amount would be applied toward the total repair bill. A technician showed up while I was at work, my wife let him in, he ran a couple of diagnostic tests and concluded that everything checked out and we were using too much soap. Really? We have always used the machine in accordance with all manufacturers instructions. He never even tried to run it through a cycle to see what happened. Why would you not wait until the unit was in a failed state and THEN run the diagnostic? My wife told me that he spoke to her in a very condescending and unprofessional tone, which I did not appreciate. He also mentioned that he was from Michigan. He stated that Sears was so backed up, that they were using out of state technicians. So, I get charged for an estimate that never happened, no repair was offered, and my wife feels that she was treated poorly. I put the washer on the curb for the piece of junk that it was and bought a new washer elsewhere. I will NEVER use Sears again, and I continue to tell everyone I know of my unpleasant experience.
Sears basically did it to themselves. They were in position to become or do what Amazon did, or basically become Amazon. They had the merchandise, the warehousing, the infrastructure, the customer base, but inept business leadership put them where they are today. They’ve been a ghost company for a while now.
I will say one positive thing. Don’t know where else you can get a complete socket set, from their tool dept, .the size of the one Sears offers. Pretty much every socket you will ever need.
Used to browse through the Sears catalog for ‘wish list’ stuff as a kid. Sears had its place at one time as large store where you could buy clothes and tools in one stop. Now, it just can’t compete with Walmart and specialty stores like Harbor Freight for walk-in retail buyers.
Oh yes, it is so easy to order on line. Sit at the computer and order food, clothing, drugs, books and eat and sit and never go out of the house, except for your Dr’s appointments. What a great life! Marketing = show people all of the advantages before you proceed to take advantage of them. Sell all of their personal information.
This is where consumers are headed. Oh, and your list of entertainment is available weekly too. Remember the box stores when none are left and whatch even your toes get fat. It is what it is folks.
Sad to hear they are closing…more jobs lost in retail. I like ordering online but I still like to try on shoes and clothes before I buy.
This does not surprise me at all! In addition to Jason’s comments, I ordered from Sears online and did the “pick up at store” option in Pensacola. I arrived and it took the employees over an hour to find my order (brand name shoes). One lady working in the back was so disheveled and had long, nasty fingernails with tons of dirt and whatever else underneath them, so bad that she could not use the computer to load customer information, and was very rude and yelled out loud that she didn’t care if she lost her job because there was so much chaos going on at the pick-up area.When they finally brought my order out, it was a pair of pants!! I spoke with one of the employees who took me back to their office and apologized and gave me cash back ( she was the only professional employee working). I asked how in the world do you get a pair of shoes confused with a pair of pants!? The manager’s info was posted on a big poster of him in the back. I emailed him to tell him of the complete disorder that had taken place that day and have yet to get a response.. that was in December 2017! The closing of this store is not shocking whatsoever. I made the decision that day to never buy from Sears again.
Sears was my “go to” store for all my tools unti they started to cut corners and not honor the lifetime warranty etc….Sad they are closing but they have been headed downhill for a long time…
..I moved to Gonzalez in 1952 and always loved going into Sears downdown..the sold n knives , guns and camping equipment which I enjoyed looking at…later I would buy my lawn mowers and landscaping tools out at University mall…I hate to see any business close..loyal, long time employees out of a job…I worked for EASTERN AIRLINES for 28 years before the stopped flying in JAN. 18 , 1991..Lost half of my retirement that day..I know how it feels to have to walk away from a career..(I did get hired at Delta a month later )…I wish all the best to the folks who will have to move on..
I wonder if the outlet stores on the Davis Highway and in Pace will also close?
It’s so,sad. Being an old guy I regularly shopped Sears for tools, clothes & Kenmore appliances. I always thought quality, selection & price were very good. Sorry to see them go.
I can’t I’m surprised either. I purchased items at Christmas and they didn’t have them instock so they had to order them, when I finally got tired of waiting because Christmas was fast approaching and went to the store to see why I had received notification my order had arrived I was told there was no order. I had already paid close to $600 for the item and told them they had better go look again. Finally a guy from the back said I do have one of those but the name on it doesn’t seem real, the store had listed it as my email! The item was defective and the staff was incredibly rude. Now we only go to sears in pace.
Not surprised it is closing. Just surprised it took this long to make the decision to close the store.
In my last trip to Sears, what I saw was a lot of out-dated and unstylish clothing and shoes on display. The store was somewhat in shambles – more like something I would expect at a Big Lots store. The in-store trip lasted less than 5 minutes.
In January, when I attempted to purchase items online, for 9 weeks I received a weekly email indicating the parts were on back-order and would be shipped the following week. I finally cancelled the order, I then placed an order with another supplier, had my parts shipped the following day and was installing them 2 days after shipping. Sears just failed.
Online shopping @ work here….u can get discounted price, no tax
or shipping if observant. More of this is coming and will put people
out of work. Online shopping is fast & easy and addictive ! And, you don’t
have to drive anywhere. A perfect storm for retailers.
44 years is correct. i started with Sears right out of high school downtown. Worked there 3 months then moved to the new University Mall. That was 1974….44 years ago. wow!
44 years? I am 68 and I remember the original store in downtown Pensacola, on Palafox St. as a very young child. When the Sears was built in Town n Country, the one downtown closed and moved the merchandise to the new store, which was still Sears, Roebuck and Company.