Here is a look at one of the Sears Hometown locations just outside of Houston in Cleveland Texas. This store closed in July of 2022 just a few months before the remaining Sears Hometown locations closed in January of 2023.
Kmart style A/C vents.
This store was already beginning to empty out roughly a year before closing for good. A lot of Sears Hometown stores had troubles with finding inventory after Transformco took over these locations.
There were a few deals to be found in the store. As you can see even the tool department was not the best, but they did have some old-school Craftsman tools left. Some of the off-brand tools that Sears carried in the later years were also available.
Sears Hometown stores continued to stock lawn and garden items after the mainline Sears stores had eliminated that department.
Another look at the tools.
Spare parts and filters.
As you can see here again, the store selection was really stretched out.
A small display of refrigerator filters with bedding.
Appliances were a little more stocked up with floor models and a few boxes.
I noticed this awesome sign on one of the appliances. This sign must have been from the era before Sears and Kmart merged.
More views from inside of the store.
The checkout counter.
A better view of the lawn and garden department.
It would not be a true Sears store if they weren't having register issues. Thankfully I had some cash on me to make my purchase.
RIP Cleveland Texas Sears.
More to come on the blog with more Sears Hometown stores in the future.
Cleveland had some interesting retail with both Sears Hometown and that RadioShack Dealer store being there even after both companies left Houston itself. I think the RadioShack Dealer is still there, but RadioShack is undergoing a corporate transition themselves so we'll have to see what is going on with them. It is really strange to see a Sears Hometown with the Kmart HVAC vents! This store is giving off some strong Kmart vibes.
ReplyDeleteThat Big Mart/Small Mart poster is quite interesting. That was a good find. I'm guessing it is from the 1990s, so pre-Lampert, but they did somehow manage to misspell Craftsman on the poster since they called it Craftsmen.
As thin as the inventory is here, it is still better than what I remember the Sears Hometown at Willowbrook Mall having in 2022. It seemed to me that the best stocked Sears Hometown Store in Houston was actually the Humble location which is strange since that was smaller than the mall-based locations in Pasadena and Willowbrook. There are many things about Sears Hometown which didn't make sense.
I wonder if those Craftsman and Kenmore stuff were brought in from closing Sears full-line stores. I'm guessing the Craftsman stuff especially wasn't being manufactured anymore given how few Sears and Kmart stores there were at the time. Those Craftsman garage door openers were quite good so at least they were selling good stuff at the end. Some of the stuff being sold at the Willowbrook Sears Hometown looked a bit dubious.
I had to buy a new water heater recently to replace an old Sears Kenmore one. I did look at Sears' website and noticed they stopped selling Kenmore water heaters and were selling the GE ones like in the photo here. It seems GE just started making their own water heaters again in the last handful of years and I suppose Sears was the only 'big box' store they could get into since Home Depot and Lowe's have their exclusive items. For what I can tell, the GE water heaters are built to be pretty good and they don't use misleading capacity sizes like a lot of the water heaters sold at Lowe's and Home Depot. It is too bad that most of the country won't buy those water heaters from Sears since Sears is completely off the radar for most people since the stores have closed. I guess most people will just deal with Home Depot and Lowe's with their misleading products (I didn't realize that some water heaters had fudged capacity ratings) and poor service.
I'm not surprised that Sears was having operational issues with credit cards. I was halfway surprised that I was able to buy something without running into issues when I bought something from the Willowbrook Sears Hometown Store. They were even able to find my SYWR account. I guess I still have one, but that SYWR account has become truly useless now. Oh well, I guess I got a lot out of that in the 2010s at least.
We went through Cleveland back in December and the Radio Shack was no longer open. I don't know if they moved elsewhere, but it looks like they ran a going out of business sale. Cleveland has an Ollie's that took over the vacant Palais Royal, so the retail scene is recovering. Who knows what will replace the old Sears space. As far as the Radio Shack company, I haven't seen anything new since the last time we talked about Radio Shack. The Ashtabula Town Square Mall continues to be one of their most visible stores still left. A lot of people have recently documented that mall with Radio Shack always showing up.
DeleteInventory was better here than at the two Sears Hometown stores in Willowbrook and Pasadena. The inventory at the Sears Hometown in Nacogdoches was the best that I had seen out of all of the stores I visited.
It is a shame that Kenmore products are gone from the Sears website. A lot of the remaining Sears stores have complaints about shoddy appliance quality as well as the big box hardware stores. It seems like refurbished appliances are the way to go these days. My last round of Sears appliances all suffer from various issues. Oven needs 2 starts to heat up, washer has a rusted top tray, dryer constantly has failing belts, and the refrigerator has cracked internal plastic, along with a failed water pump. All of these issues can be fixed, but why spend the money at this point. All but one of those items are more than 5 years old.
When I bought the tool set in Lafayette, I put in my SYWR info with the purchase. It was not like I was going to get a ton of points, but I wanted to at least put my number in one last time.