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Sears stopped accepting American Express

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DaveInAZ
Senior Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

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.

Message 11 of 27
KJinNC
Valued Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

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.



FICO Resilience Index: 64. Cards: 5/24, 2/12, 2/6. Accounts including loans: 8/24, 4/12, 3/6. Card CLs total $213,900, or $240,400 including the AU card. Cards (oldest to newest)

Authorized user / Corporate / Auto loans / Personal loan
Message 12 of 27
kdm31091
Super Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express


@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.

Message 13 of 27
KJinNC
Valued Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

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?? Smiley Happy



FICO Resilience Index: 64. Cards: 5/24, 2/12, 2/6. Accounts including loans: 8/24, 4/12, 3/6. Card CLs total $213,900, or $240,400 including the AU card. Cards (oldest to newest)

Authorized user / Corporate / Auto loans / Personal loan
Message 14 of 27
ChargedUp
Senior Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

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.

 

 

Message 15 of 27
KJinNC
Valued Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express

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.



FICO Resilience Index: 64. Cards: 5/24, 2/12, 2/6. Accounts including loans: 8/24, 4/12, 3/6. Card CLs total $213,900, or $240,400 including the AU card. Cards (oldest to newest)

Authorized user / Corporate / Auto loans / Personal loan
Message 16 of 27
DaveInAZ
Senior Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express


@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?? Smiley Happy


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

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?

Message 17 of 27
DaveInAZ
Senior Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express


@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.

Message 18 of 27
ChargedUp
Senior Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express


@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?? Smiley Happy


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

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.

 

 

Message 19 of 27
Andypanda
Established Contributor

Re: Sears stopped accepting American Express


@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?? Smiley Happy


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

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.

Message 20 of 27
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