topic Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express in Credit Cards

Sears stopped accepting American Express

Isacking97 — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:06:30 GMT

When to buy some things at sears and when I got to the register the employee told me that they where not accepting AMEX anymore!!

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

CreditCuriosity — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:16:39 GMT

sounds like penny wise pound foulish to me... Granted they only have a small time left imo, they are dragging this out way to long sell craftman and disolve or something alone those lines

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

PicoFico — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:23:01 GMT

They sold Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker a couple years ago I think...

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:35:01 GMT

Death by a 1000 papercuts method is the one they chose. I think it's just the fact that those of us that grew up in the mega mall era dread the thought of going into one these days let alone if you have kids and wrangling them while dealing with a crowd would be a total PITA. The flagship stores don't really have any appeal over just ordering it online from them as well. Sears was basically the anchor equivelent of K-Mart with the addition of appliances and tools.

Toys R Us is making a comeback though post BK... only 10K SQ FT stores though instead of the mega stores they had before. That's more of a nostalgia kind of store than Sears.

*shrug* I just prefer to be anti social about shopping for things and sticking to a list online is easier than the ADD distractions of going B&M and walking around.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

wasCB14 — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:41:06 GMT

@PicoFico wrote:
They sold Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker a couple years ago I think...

Sears sold Craftsman to B&D in 2017...

...but that doesn't seem to be stopping Sears from using the "Craftsman" name: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-stanley-black/sears-is-sued-over-craftsman-brand-idUSKCN1QO031?il=0

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 22:11:45 GMT

Somehow I think Amex will view this as a smaller loss than having lost CostCo.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 22:15:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Somehow I think Amex will view this as a smaller loss than having lost CostCo.

Costco was a partnership and exclusivity not just some retailer dropping their acceptance.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

iced — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 02:08:28 GMT

@Isacking97 wrote:
When to buy some things at sears and when I got to the register the employee told me that they where not accepting AMEX anymore!!

Give it a few years. Sears won't be accepting Visa, MC, Discover, or cash either. It's a minor miracle they haven't joined Toys-R-Us in memoryland yet.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

redpat — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 09:24:20 GMT

The last time I remember being in a Sears was when my mother dragged me there for school clothing, I remember toughskins.

That should say something about their brand.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 16:02:47 GMT

I didn’t even know that sears was still around. 🤔 so I guess the positive is that they still accept MC/Visa.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

DaveInAZ — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 20:38:48 GMT

Sears 'vision' for the future is smaller, sleeker, and more modern stores than traditional department stores. They closed one in suburban Chicago just 6 months after opening, saying it "wasn't profitable".

Just stick a fork in it, it's done.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

KJinNC — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 21:35:18 GMT

Isn't Sears on the list of department stores that get 2% off from some Amex cards like BCE? If so, kind of weird for Sears to drop Amex. But however you slice it ... Sears is a dead man walking.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

kdm31091 — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 22:03:03 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
Isn't Sears on the list of department stores that get 2% off from some Amex cards like BCE? If so, kind of weird for Sears to drop Amex. But however you slice it ... Sears is a dead man walking.

Yes, but that's Amex paying out the 2%. Sears isn't a sponsor or participant, it just happens to be a department store that is included in the 2% category.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

KJinNC — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 22:44:21 GMT

Yes, but I'd expect some appreciation that Amex is giving customers an incentive to shop there. That 2% could easily have been at a competitor like Walmart. Though I wonder if Amex' strategy is to give 2% at stores people don't actually shop at so it doesn't cost them much. It would have been a great list of stores in 1995. Where's my 2% at Circuit City and Radio Shack??

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

ChargedUp — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:14:16 GMT

I recently walked though a Sears to get access to a shopping mall. Most every shelf is maybe 50% stocked at the most. There was trash everywhere, end displays all disheveled and no one working there seems to really care at all. The store itself was depressing, especially thinking of the thousands of dollars my parents and grand parents spent in the very same store for everything from major appliances to tires to Christmas shopping. Montgomery Wards at least met a somewhat dignified end to its existence, while old, broke and tired Sears remains on the ventilator.

It's time to pull the plug and put her out of her misery.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

KJinNC — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:25:24 GMT

It really is sad. Sears was an American icon, starting in the 1800s. But, creative destruction, I suppose. The last time I even thought about going to a Sears was when they were closing a store, and I thought I might get a deal on some tools. But I didn't actually make it there. The last time I actually did go to a Sears was probably about 2006.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

DaveInAZ — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:29:57 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
Yes, but I'd expect some appreciation that Amex is giving customers an incentive to shop there. That 2% could easily have been at a competitor like Walmart. Though I wonder if Amex' strategy is to give 2% at stores people don't actually shop at so it doesn't cost them much. It would have been a great list of stores in 1995. Where's my 2% at Circuit City and Radio Shack??

I'm showing my age, but I want my 2% back at Montgomery Ward!

I recently to the $250 SUB to upgrade my BCE to Preferred and thought Amex had dropped department stores for something a little more with the times like streaming like they did for Preferred. But I checked and yep they still had dept. stores on BCE. I never did use my BCE at a dept. store, I haven't been one in years. Maybe Sears dropping accepting Amex will prompt them to update the 2% category to something that folks actually purchase?

And really stupid move by Sears, after all the expense they got rid of in BK - pensions, any severance pay for that had been with them for years - now they need to save the extra .5-1% swipe fee for Amex? How about cutting that CEO's salary from $220 million to $219 million?

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

DaveInAZ — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:50:32 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
I recently walked though a Sears to get access to a shopping mall. Most every shelf is maybe 50% stocked at the most. There was trash everywhere, end displays all disheveled and no one working there seems to really care at all. The store itself was depressing, especially thinking of the thousands of dollars my parents and grand parents spent in the very same store for everything from major appliances to tires to Christmas shopping. Montgomery Wards at least met a somewhat dignified end to its existence, while old, broke and tired Sears remains on the ventilator.

It's time to pull the plug and put her out of her misery.

I used to shop Montgomery Wards regularly and preferred it to Sears, I even had a Wards credit card. I totally missed their demise, I just looked it up on Wikipedia, looks like they went down in the late 1990s. I was living in Honolulu then and there weren't any mainland "big stores" then except Costco. Walmart opened their first store in Honolulu in the late 90s and it was practically a state holiday. Any building space is a premium in Honolulu, and they tried to pack so much into the store you could barely get past another shopping cart in the aisles. Pretty much any large store in Honolulu you drive around the parking lot for 15 minutes looking for a parking space, at Walmart it was half an hour. I went once, and stuck with Costco.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

ChargedUp — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:52:49 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
@KJinNC wrote:
Yes, but I'd expect some appreciation that Amex is giving customers an incentive to shop there. That 2% could easily have been at a competitor like Walmart. Though I wonder if Amex' strategy is to give 2% at stores people don't actually shop at so it doesn't cost them much. It would have been a great list of stores in 1995. Where's my 2% at Circuit City and Radio Shack??
I'm showing my age, but I want my 2% back at Montgomery Ward!
I recently to the $250 SUB to upgrade my BCE to Preferred and thought Amex had dropped department stores for something a little more with the times like streaming like they did for Preferred. But I checked and yep they still had dept. stores on BCE. I never did use my BCE at a dept. store, I haven't been one in years. Maybe Sears dropping accepting Amex will prompt them to update the 2% category to something that folks actually purchase?
And really stupid move by Sears, after all the expense they got rid of in BK - pensions, any severance pay for that had been with them for years - now they need to save the extra .5-1% swipe fee for Amex? How about cutting that CEO's salary from $220 million to $219 million?

I loved Montgomery Wards! (I still have my old MW "boombox" right here, from 1982!). I had a MW card back in the day and used it quite a bit for electronics, hardware, a refrigerator and the occasional oil change or brake job.

Lampert really could care less about anything but the amount of cash he can squeeze out of the carcass of Sears.

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

Andypanda — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:03:17 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@KJinNC wrote:
Yes, but I'd expect some appreciation that Amex is giving customers an incentive to shop there. That 2% could easily have been at a competitor like Walmart. Though I wonder if Amex' strategy is to give 2% at stores people don't actually shop at so it doesn't cost them much. It would have been a great list of stores in 1995. Where's my 2% at Circuit City and Radio Shack??
I'm showing my age, but I want my 2% back at Montgomery Ward!
I recently to the $250 SUB to upgrade my BCE to Preferred and thought Amex had dropped department stores for something a little more with the times like streaming like they did for Preferred. But I checked and yep they still had dept. stores on BCE. I never did use my BCE at a dept. store, I haven't been one in years. Maybe Sears dropping accepting Amex will prompt them to update the 2% category to something that folks actually purchase?
And really stupid move by Sears, after all the expense they got rid of in BK - pensions, any severance pay for that had been with them for years - now they need to save the extra .5-1% swipe fee for Amex? How about cutting that CEO's salary from $220 million to $219 million?
I loved Montgomery Wards! (I still have my old MW "boombox" right here, from 1982!). I had a MW card back in the day and used it quite a bit for electronics, hardware, a refrigerator and the occasional oil change or brake job.

Lampert really could care less about anything but the amount of cash he can squeeze out of the carcass of Sears.

I inhereted chest freezer from my father that he bought from Montgomery Ward. It’s over 30 years old and still working great.