Our Kennmore dryer, bought about eleven years ago, is not working as well as it should. It takes a long time to dry, and when it shuts off and buzzes, the clothes usually aren’t dry and need to go through another cycle. My expectation is that a moisture sensor is going bad rather than the heating element. So, because I was going to be in the area this afternoon, I stopped into the local Sears store at the mall to go to the parts department.

But, there was no parts department. I finally found a young fellow in the major appliance department who said that I needed to go to either (1) sears.com and order the part online, or (2) go to a local appliance repair store and have them order the needed part. He tried to show me where to look on sears.com, however after waiting for about 11 minutes for the website to display, I left the store and went on my way.

How long has it been since I was actually in a Sears store to buy something? I know when we were looking for a new flat panel TV for mother, we stopped into the local Sears store, which took about 5 minutes to find that they didn’t have anything close to what we were looking for and left. In total, I think I could count the number of times in the past five years that I’ve been in a Sears store on the fingers of one hand.

It was obvious as I walked through the store the rest of the general population doesn’t shop there either. The store was completely devoid of customers. I was the only one there and four different sales persons came up as I walked through the store to ask if they could help, including one from the children’s department.

Back in the early 1960’s, F.W. Woolworth decided to get into the big-box discount store business. I think they were the first ones, actually, and their target was Sears. They built what was then considered to be large box buildings in suburbia and sold at a discount much of the Woolworth merchandise and leased out large parts of the store to other discount merchandisers. These stores were called “Woolco” and by the early 1970’s were pretty much known as the place where people went to shop when they were done shopping. Woolco didn’t survive and by the end of the 1970’s, most of their stores were closed and the buildings sold. Some were even sold to Wal-Mart!

I think that Sears has degenerated beyond Woolco as a place to go when you’re done shopping but don’t want to go home. At least in most Woolco stores in those days they had a kind of a food court where you could buy real ice cream and real milkshakes. Sears just stacks stuff on ugly metal racks and the employees wander aimlessly around hoping to waylay a potential customer.

Even an appliance needing a repair is no longer a reason to go into a Sears store.