Here it is, the Sears in Juarez Mexico.
The view of the first floor mall entrance.
Second floor mall entrance.
A Sears credit card display.
Now we begin our store tour. As you look at how nice this store is and the variety of products available here, you wonder why this was never tried in the US. This store is very popular along with the mall in general. Prices are not bad, but tend to be priced for a high to middle level Mexican income. Sales clerks here had to wear at least business attire. Clothing sales male clerks had to wear suits. The Women had fashionable attire, probably items sold at the store. Just about every department had staff ready to help which made it difficult at times to get photos. Registers were also readily available in every department. Each entrance to the store also had security stationed there. All in all, this store is awesome and shows what Sears could have been here in the US.
The second floor has a variety of departments, we will start here first. Furniture department where it meets housewares.
A mini-checkout station.
Nice, clean, and organized furniture section.
Appliances
Now we will see an electronics department that puts all Sears in the US to shame. Why can't they have this here in the US?
Electronics are one of the few categories of items that costs more to buy in this part of Mexico than in the US.
Multiple cell phone providers.
Car stereos, did Sears in the US ever carry car stereos I can't remember.
The monthly advertised deals with kids bikes and mini electronics across from the main electronics department.
American music and a variety of Latino/ Mexican CD's for sale here.
Hardware and sporting goods just on the other side of the electronics.
The tool department is much smaller here than in US Sears stores. Just about everything they carry here is Craftsman branded.
Motorbikes
The center part of the store.
The directory of departments.
1st level jewelry department.
The Sears logo seems out of place in this upscale store.
Sears credit card ad roughly translated to "Live the most exclusively, if you don't have it apply today".
Clothing wraps around the entire first floor. Cosmetics, jewelry, cologne, perfume and shoes are in the center of the first floor all the way to the mall entrance.
Legs
Swiss army knives and Zippos were available here in the Men's department.
Lots of suits for sale here.
Young Men's clothing.
Shoes
An up-close look at the store directory.
Back upstairs we go. Here is another look at the tool department.
A personal favorite of mine, the video game section. This department is at the end of the main electronics department.
Nintendo
XBOX and PlayStation were also here too.
Lots of laptop computers here also.
Sears "gets me or understands me" is the rough translation of the slogan.
Movies are here as well.
Of course what complete department store would not have a toy department.
A view of the electronics department across from the toys.
And several more photos of the electronics department.
How the toy department looks from the electronics.
As I already mentioned, the electronics selection here is huge.
Living room sofas across from the TV's.
Appliances
Spring in fashion was a promotion they were running that included a live fashion show inside of the mall. I did not get photos of the fashion show that they had while I was here, sorry. It was another thing that Sears does here that you would not see in the US anymore.
Mattresses
This part of the appliance and furniture department had odds and ends that did not fit anywhere else. A/C units, fans, humidifiers, hot water heaters, and kitchen setups. I guess ever Sears has to have a section of random items put together, lol.
More furniture
Housewares
A small display of religious items that is located at the edge of the housewares department.
And what's this? Yes they even had a candy counter with ICEE's.
There is a Pier 1 Import store within a store concept at the second level mall entrance.
Another view of the candy counter. This is the first thing you see once you enter the store from the mall on the second level. These advertisements show the monthly Pier 1 Import specials.
Here is what you see going into the second floor mall entrance. The other side not shown had a security guard standing there.
Sanborns chocolates in the candy department. As I mentioned earlier, Sanborns and Sears are part of the same company in Mexico.
The center of the store with electronics directly in the middle towards the back. Kids clothing is located around this open part of the store surrounding the escalators.
Video game counter looking towards the toys.
A better view of the toy department.
The special in toys was, buy $499 pesos and get $100 pesos off. Roughly $27 dollars to get $5 savings.
You can get tires here too.
Welcome to Sears floor mats.
Back to the first floor for some final images of Women's clothing. This is the kind of display you would see in a Macy's or Dillard's.
The sign at night was so awesome. You can even see the glow off of the cars.
Bright lights.
This is the final stop on the Juarez tour. More content to come, including lots of Sears and Kmart stuff stay tuned.
This is what Sears would have looked like in the US had they not given up years ago under Lampert. My general sense is that the Mexican Sears does a lot of things the now independent US Sears does, but does them in a much better way. We just don't see many empty shelves for unorganized racks like we'd see at a US Sears.
ReplyDeleteWhile the video game department may not be as impressive as some of the other ones we've seen at the department stores of Juarez, Sears makes up for it with a very impressive selection and display of TVs and laptops. It's really impressive to see how they've displayed those products. It's even better than electronics stores here in the US. I wonder how knowledgeable the salespeople are in the electronics department. Anyway, the electronics department here seems like a fun place to spend some time. That's not really something we can say about Sears stores here in the US.
The hardware department does seem remarkably similar to the US ones, albeit without the thinned out inventory. I wonder if the Craftsmen tools they sell in Mexico are the same ones they sell in the US. If so, hopefully Sears Mexico does not run into supply problems because of the problems the US Sears is having.
The mattress department actually looks remarkably similar to some of the US ones. It actually looks a lot like the old Baybrook Mall Sears mattress department. The sofa displays seem nicer than what we see in the US and the sofas themselves seem a little more stylish than what you'd see at a US Sears.
The clothing department seems quite different from the US Sears. The clothes seem much more modern and upscale. I don't think a US Sears has had a suit selection like that since at least the 1980s.
The Pier 1 store-within-a-store thing is interesting. The US Sears could benefit from something like that. It would certainly help their reputation in terms of having more modern home goods. I'd also love to get an Icee at a Sears here!
Sears here has sold car stereos before, but I can't specifically remember how they were displayed. Here's a Sears commercial from 1983 showing a car cassette deck for sale. Car stereos aren't as big of a thing now here in the US as they used to be due to cars having complex entertainment systems now that can't really be removed, but I suppose there might be more demand for upgraded car stereos in Mexico where people may have older cars or more basic cars with more basic or non-existent standard audio systems.
Anyway, I wish our Sears looked like this Mexican Sears. Well, heck, even the Mexican Woolworth would be an upgrade over the US Sears in many ways. I'm happy for our neighbors that they have great places to shop at, but it makes me sad to think what Sears here could have been if they just tried harder in the 1990s and certainly during the Lampert era. I can only imagine people from Mexico coming to the US, going to one of our Sears, and wondering what the heck is wrong. Actually, they may ask that at any number of US mall stores given some of the well-maintained and interesting Mexican malls and mall stores we've seen.
I'm looking forward to seeing the new blog posts. It's been an interesting few months on the blog seeing these interesting new stores.
This Sears is miles ahead of our Sears stores. It was an awesome experience to see this store. Hopefully one day I will be able to check out more stores in Mexico.
DeleteThere is a strong difference between discounters and department stores like Sears and Liverpool. You can see and feel the upgraded quality of the clothes and they have better brands of electronics as well.
The furniture and appliances are also much better than the discounters sell. It is not like here where quality is similar from store to store.
If I would have to guess, it looks like employees earn commissions. Since each department has a checkout and most departments were staffed at all times and the employees were quick to assist.
Thanks for the car stereo ad. There are a lot of older vehicles like taxis and the buses that need stereos. The cars I paid attention to had a mix of both Mexico and Texas plates. More people would probably shop in Juarez but it can take a significant amount of time to cross back into the US.
Hola! I've been following your website for some time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and
ReplyDeletegive you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to say keep up
the good work!
Thank you for the kind words. I look forward to visiting Lubbock one day to check out the mall in that area.
DeleteAnything on Pecanland Mall in Monroe, LA?
ReplyDeleteNot yet, every time I planned on going to that part of Louisiana something has come up. It is on my radar, and hopefully I will make it out there sometime soon.
DeleteI'm very glad that the Mexico stores got bought by someone who going to put effort and make them great stores. Apparently, the CEO of the company that ones Sears Mexico is one really rich guy being on the World's Billionaires list for the last 13 years so it's nice to see his company renovated and keeping up with the times. If only the Sears in the US can get that lucky.
ReplyDeleteI think the owner of Sears Mexico was a large stock holder of Circuit City prior to them going under. These stores are so much nicer than what we have here in the US. The electronics department alone is so much better than we find in most US stores.
DeleteI like the posts about stores in Mexico, but there are also Sears stores in Shreveport and Bossier City, Louisiana that are closing. Maybe do another entry on both of them? I know that you’ve done entries on Mall St. Vincent 2 times and Pierre Bossier Mall once, but it would be nice to see you cover these again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Ben, looks like I missed out on these stores. The last day for those stores was this past Sunday. I did get some excellent footage of the Lake Charles Kmart in the final days. I will probably do an update on North Louisiana sometime in the future, Pierre Bossier Mall is on my radar.
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