I’m ready to dump Amazon Prime


 
To pile on FedEx (sorry Chris, more complaining haha), my son ordered a watch Friday last week, Fedex said they would deliver Monday (reasonable!), then changed it to this Friday, now changed to Wed next week.

Back on Sears again too :) , I LOVED Sears. It was my go-to for nearly everythings. Tools, appliances, clothes, household stuff, etc. Then the sales tactics changed. Then inventory starting thinning down,. Then stores started closing, etc, etc. I really do wish it had been different for them, but alas, not to be.
 
I had heard a long time ago that back when Sears/gummy ward/penny's were big "catalog" stores, one of the stores (I forget who) made their catalog just a little smaller. The idea being that people would stack their catalogs together & the smallest one would naturally go on top. Therefore, that would be the first catalog a customer grabbed. That's some marketing right there!

I worked for Sears (auto center) back in the early 90's - back when they got in trouble with the b.a.r. Sears was a hot mess even back then...
 
No not them. We used to actually go to Woolworth's. IT may have been some other slightly more obscure name from the past like Steinberg & Baum. But, we're looking back over a looooong way
 
<scratches head> J.C. Penney's used to have a pretty substantial catalog operation.

Honestly, I haven't seen a paper consumer retail catalog in decades.
 
We still get delivery within a day or two for most everything.

Cliff Bartlett said:
Agree with you about Bosch. I'm not a big Titus Welliver fan, but will admit he does a fantastic job being Harry Bosch.
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Thanks to you and the OP for mentioning Bosch, I was looking for a series to watch.
I'm currently about 8 episodes into the series. I don't binge watch, so the 60 episodes should last me until winter.
 
KE Quist said:
Back on Sears again too :) , I LOVED Sears. It was my go-to for nearly everythings. Tools, appliances, clothes, household stuff, etc. Then the sales tactics changed. Then inventory starting thinning down,. Then stores started closing, etc, etc. I really do wish it had been different for them, but alas, not to be.
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When I was around 10 Sears opened up as one of the anchor stores (Marshall Field and H.C. Prange were the others) in a brand-new mall just a few minutes' walk or bike ride from my house, and over the years my family bought a LOT of things there. Craftsman tools, Winner and Winner II shoes (made for Sears by Converse), Toughskins jeans, even a couple of Kenmore washers and dryers IIRC. But the store's gone now and the structure's being turned into some sort of arcade or paintball venue or something like that.

We always hated dealing with the service side of the Auto Center, though. Really overaggressive upsellers (which, of course, got them into trouble years later).

JKalchik said:
Honestly, I haven't seen a paper consumer retail catalog in decades.
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B & H Photo (New York) still has an optional paper catalog.

AFAIK my older daughter still has Prime, but I don't use Amazon enough to justify signing up.
 
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I honestly can't see how Sears will stay in business..

Here where I live there's one of those Sears Hometwon stores. The selection and CS used to be pretty good. I say used to be. A couple months after the pandemic began, our rangetop microwave bit the dust. It was a Kenmore. I went to the Sears store to buy a new one and the selection was quite limited (and high prices too). Found one we wanted and as the guy at the front was entering our info, etc into the system, I asked about local delivery/installation. We live less than 2 miles from the store so local delivery was never an issue with them in the past. Different story this time. The guy said "we don't do that anymore". I said "uh ok thanks" and walked out without buying it.

I went to the other local home furnishings/appliance store at the other end of town, and they had a much better selection and better prices too. The CS there is great. I ordered an LG rangetop microwave and even with them charging an additional $50 for installation and hauling away of the old one, it was still about $60 less than Sears.

Needless to say, I won't be stepping foot in the Sears store again. The other store is just so much better. That's where we'll be doing business from now on. We also bought a new washing machine from them last year and the experience couldn't have been better.
 
Fully understand. I didn't even know Sears was doing any business. Best of luck on that LG appliance. Personal experience with LG.....................never again.
 
I like Amazon Prime for the TV shows and the shipping benefit. Yes, packages are not always arriving next day but I attribute that to the current pandemic. I do like being able to get packages on Sat/Sun. I also get an email when the package has arrived along with a photo. It's mostly delivery by Amazon delivery vans but occasionally UPS is involved. For some reason, I'm near the end of the UPS route so I don't get those packages until 6/7/8pm at night. When delivered by Amazon, it's usually early afternoon but it varies.

I do remember as a child looking at the Sears Catalog to come up with my Christmas list. I don't recall us ordering anything by mail since we had a Sears store the next town over. In the late 80s, I remember doing mail order a lot when I was in college. There would be ads in the back on Stereo/Tennis magazines with prices. I would call the company up and place my order. Or I would take those prices to Crazy Eddie to do price match.

My father was a big proponent of Craftsman tools because of their lifetime warranty. I bought one of those Craftsman toolboxes with sockets/wrenches/screwdrivers when I graduated from college. Nowadays, who is the new Craftsman? Is it Husky? Kobalt? Or something else?

In the beginning, I liked Amazon because I didn't have to pay sales tax and shipping was free. Then over time, we started paying sales tax but I still used them for the convenience. I do like being able to look at my order history since the very beginning of time. It's great to know when you bought a particular item.
 
DH has Amazon Prime on his laptop. He ordered cat food yesterday, it arrived 2 pm today. (but he can't find any movies he wants to watch.)
 
BillSmith said:
Nowadays, who is the new Craftsman? Is it Husky? Kobalt? Or something else?
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Stanley Black & Decker is the owner of Craftsman now. It's kind of weird walking through Lowe's and seeing isles that used to be Kobolt blue turning red with Craftsman.

I was always a fan of Craftsman hand tools because of Sears and the warranty. And have used the warranty a few times with no questions asked and no hassle. Unfortunately Lowe's and other retailers where Craftsman is popping up doesn't make warranty exchange as easy. Which is why any future tool purchases will likely be another brand.
 
My dad inherited a circa-1920ish Craftsman vise from his grandfather and many years ago - probably 40, give or take - the screw broke. He took it to Sears and the counter guy didn't know what to do so he called over the manager, who didn't know what to do so he called his superior...and eventually somebody up the chain said, "It's a Craftsman and it has a lifetime warranty - replace it." Supposedly the vise was going to be sent to Chicago for possible display in the corporate office, but I never heard if that came to pass. But the replacement vise is still bolted to his workbench and still working just fine.

When we were kids my brother and I would buy my dad tools for various holidays, and while he wasn't particular about the brand there was one rule that was understood and never to be broken: Made in The USA. And so we bought him a LOT of Craftsman tools and as we got older he'd do the same for us, but then one year (early 1980s, I think) he gave me a set of Craftsman metric combination wrenches that were stamped "Japan". Because of the Craftsman name he'd never thought to check when he picked them out, and he was definitely not happy when he found out they were imported.
 
I've place two Amazon Prime orders this week. One on the 24th, promised on the 27th and delivered the 26th. The other ordered on the 26th, promised on the 29th, and delivered on the 28th.
Seems they are getting back on track but in the process promising 3 days and delivering in 2, at least in my case.
 
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