I recall Sears in Prince George selling men’s work clothes, work boots for men and women, paint etc. Today that is all gone from Sears. The women’s clothing is aimed at the older crowd and the selection is poor. I rarely go in there anymore unless I am looking for something particular.

Sad to see this happening though. Too many people losing their jobs!

majority of shopping malls in near future will vanish with more people ordering online and robotics getting more involved in stocking and delivery :\

People need to understand that online retail kills the local economy. Buy local, even if it is from a big box store, support local jobs.

I don’t see the PG store on the closure list.
Cheers

Sears used to be the best store going, selling everything you could think of including rifles. Then someone took over who said this is now going to be a family store. That pretty well meant clothing. End of Sears

Lud·dite
ˈlədˌīt/
noun
noun: Luddite; plural noun: Luddites

a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).
a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology.
“a small-minded Luddite resisting progress”

I will be ordering more and more product online. I can get the same products for the same price or better with free shipping. Why would I want to spend more of me earned income supporting business that does not pay livable wages and has convoluted scheduling practices inhibiting additional employment, all the while requiring more extensive education qualifications.

The only reason any village, town or city exists is due to a local resource that could be monetized. This area and many other areas no longer are what they were. Yet the current residents insist that they like their “home” town. So, they create industries in the hope they do not have to relocate to where employment is. Sometimes it works out, most other times it does not. These schemes have been called pipe dreams for a reason.

The world economy is in flux, it is changing. Many original industries are now sunset industries. The new economy is online. You can resist and rail against progress, but it is going to happen. Either you get with it, get on board, or you will be left in the dust.

It does not matter one bit if you like it, want to or not, it is what it is and you have very little influence on it.

Sears has been in decline for more than a decade. once they were a mail order company that had some brick and mortar presence for pick up locations that evolved into full retail places and their mail order declined. They had the opportunity to be today’s amazon, but they had the Luddite attitude and are now struggling.

Don’t be a Luddite.

So lets go back a few years. Some of the best brand names in the business belonged to Sears. Kenmore, Die-hard etc. were all brands owned by Sears and available exclusively at Sears. You could buy gas, tires, get your car fixed, loads of other products. They have become a shadow of their former selves. There is no fix. What they sell you can buy from other stores or on-line. In the USA you van buy any sears brand from Ace Hardware now.

Loki, before I comment, can I ask what you do for a living?

Online retail is just another in a long line of digital disruptions. We’ve been going through a number of them over the last 20-30 years. Interesting that nobody complained when the MP3 came along, killing music stores. Or the likes of Netflix killing brick & mortar video rentals. How many of you have debit cards and do online banking? Did you worry about the bank tellers that would be put out of work? You can also add Uber and Air BnB are two other digital disruptions. How in online retail any different?

I see another digital disruption coming that will change things further. With Amazon attempting to buy Whole Foods, this makes for a game changer with regards to food delivery to your home. They have a very large and powerful delivery infrastructure in place. With Whole Foods in their arsenal, they will be able to deliver quality food products to your door, much faster than the current competition. Perhaps not in PG yet, but definitely in major markets.

I agree with Loki. Either embrace the digital disruption, or get left behind. For some retailers, it’s already too late.

You could ask, but what does it matter, this is an “opinion” forum, so I have a right to express what I think.

Whether it is right or wrong, it is my opinion. Everyone on here has a right to their opinion, and everyone on here has a right to express that opinion, and to agree or disagree. As long as it is not slanderous or bullying.

So go ahead and express how you think I am wrong. Just try not to get offensive or aggressive or attack me personally. Focus on the idea being discussed, not the person that expressed the opinion.

Sears in PG really started declining when they heard TARGET was coming.. They changed their sales pitch thinking TARGET will lure their customers. welll Sears just shot themselves in the foot then and never recovered. Now I believe they are American owned.

Really doesn’t matter to me, once their customer service shut their doors and you no longer can find parts for lawn mowers that they sell in store, (which you have to go to small engine shops to get) this is when their store became obsolete in my mind! Shut down, I don’t really care! Been sliding downhill for years!

for my entire adult life, sears at pine centre has pretty much been something you have to walk through to get to the mall. I’m always surprised there are people in there at all. It’s amazing that such a department store exists, with clothes (mainly for older women), appliances, housewares, hardware, baby stuff, shoes, perfume, and makeup. What it means is that sears has 1/10 of the hardware and tools I can find at lowes or home depot, same as appliances. shoes, I can go to 5 other places in the mall alone that only carry shoes. baby stuff? I can go onto babys r us online and get the same product for half the price, free shipping. even old ladies can go to several other stores in the mall to get their ‘jessica’ equivalent old lady fashions.

sears could have done so much over the years to improve itself. we have almost nowhere in PG to buy toys. sears instead, gets rid of their toy section. for some reason, they carry very high end furniture, leather natuzzi, that even people with decent incomes would find out of reach. for years, sears hasn’t been able to figure out what they are, and who they want to be. This was inevitable. Sears Canada won’t last the year. We’ll hear by the fall that PG is on the next list. I’ll continue to shop online, get free 2 day shipping, with 1000x the selection, lower prices, all without having to get into my car and fight the crowds. how is saving boatloads of money a bad thing for my family? It’s sad that people are losing their jobs, but if you got hired by sears in the last 10 years expecting this to get you to retirement, you are delusional.

I wrote about Sears closing this year on Friday Free For all 6-months ago. I wrote how it will be the death of Pine Center unless we start to think now how we can update the mall to be more service oriented in the future with the space left behind when Sears finally closes.

A new IMAX movie theatre?

A new open late restaurant street for indoor strolling and eatery?

A fun centre for kids?

A community pool with a tie in to some kind of mall hotel?

I don’t think filling the space with another Lowes type outlet will save the mall.

So when Sears and a whole pile of other retail outlets close, when driverless delivery trucks become a reality, when banks go completely online, when you buy your home and auto insurance through an app instead of visiting a broker and when even services like investment advisors, lawyers and finance professionals get outsourced to cheap labour locations, what exactly are Canadians going to do “earn” their share of the wealth that is generated within the country?

It’s one thing to support new technology and new economic platforms, but what are we doing to ensure that we will still have a functioning society once the dust settles?

I think we’re going to be entering a period where the number of jobs displaced by technological advances will far exceed the number of new jobs created as a result of that same change. Something has to change to balance it out or there could be catastrophic consequences.

Economies change, society adapts. Canada wealth used to depend on beaver pelts and farming. As long as there is water in the rivers, trees in the forest and fuel and minerel in the dirt, we will get by.