They announced a month ago that this Sears in Hicksville will be closing in April. When I first came to Long Island in 1966, this was the place I came for tools. When we were first married and living in an apartment, Kathy bought me a 10" Sears bench saw, which I used to build bookcases and furniture for our apartment. I still use this saw. When we bought our house, I bought even more tools at Sears to do all the improvements and repairs. My friend Jimmy Wildey always made fun of me, saying "For Ken, the world begins and ends at Sears!"
We needed some vacuum cleaner bags for our Sears vacuum, so I went by the store. I hadn't been by there in quite a while. They were out of vacuum cleaner bags, so I wandered around for a while. It was depressing seeing the tool department, above, with very few tools on display. We also bought our last washer and dryer here, and Sears was the first place I came to buy automobile batteries for all our cars.
I could be partially blamed for Sears decline. When the Home Depot stores opened I stopped coming to this store. I am not sure why, but I guess it was becauseHome Depot had tools and lumber and all the other things I needed for my projects, all in one place.
There was an interesting story in the paper about this painting. It was done by a local artist back in 1965, and it has been hanging in a stairway all this time. It is a beautiful painting and lists historical people connected to New York State. The concern is to find a museum or organization who can accept and display this painting. Because it is such a large painting, they are having trouble finding a home for this work of art.
2 comments:
Yes very sad. As kids I remember my parents taking us once a year to Sears to buy us all new Easter clothes and it was at this store during one of those trips that we were first introduced to one of the first interactive games on a screen - tennis or maybe it was called Pong. At the time it was magical. It is a shame that Sears lost it's edge and did not keep up with the times over the years. Between their tools and their famous catalog that were kings for a long time.
I used to frequent the Hicksville store in your photos. I'm surprised they held on this long. Craftsman tool quality declined. Multiple Sears auto centers were caught charging for unneeded repairs. "Kenmore" appliances are just names stuck on whichever manufacturer can supply it the cheapest; random spikes in quality from year to year.
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