Tests 1 through 20…merely a warm up.
This week, we’re focusing on Sears-exclusive (well, at one time) brands. These brands have what it takes to measure up to the other elite brands in its class, while their identity is tied back to a well-known retailer.
In more recent months, Sears (and several other well-known department store retailer chains) have fallen on hard times. No one, it appears is safe from the agony of the title Chapter 11. Geoffrey the Giraffe got evicted from his well-known toy stores, Sears filed for bankruptcy, and recently, I found out that JC Penney is the next one to go. My mall recently lost our Sears location, and in July, JC Penney will be closing as well. That leaves my local mall even more vacant than it already is. If we lose Macys, we will officially have a dead mall a mile from my house.
That’s not cool.
Recently though, and this gives hope to me (if not for the vacant store in the mall – it is too late for them), Sears won its bankruptcy auction, which is allowing them to remain in business, albeit in a scaled down way. They’ll operate less than 400 stores as part of this bid to stay open. It’s too late for my local store, but it is not too late for other stores that are still open and weren’t in the wave of stores set to close prior to the auction win.
Anyway, the reason we are here today!
Sears has three prominent brands under their belt that are synonymous with the name Sears – Craftsman (tools), Kenmore (home appliances), and DieHard (automotive). Yesterday, we visited two very very very fine houses, both equipped with Kenmore appliances bought at Sears (one ad focused more on Kenmore than Sears, the other focused on a sale on Kenmore appliances at Sears). Today, we’re visiting the automotive section to run the ultimate test on our car battery…
Ooooh!
Click play below to find out what Test No. 21 is!
Basketball under the lights…the head lights of a car powered by a DieHard Gold battery!
Two hours later, at midnight…
The lights still work!
That’s awesome!
DieHard batteries have been part of Sears since their inception in 1967. The brand, sold through Sears and sister store Kmart, are owned under KCD IP, LLC, which is Sears’ special purpose entity for securitization purposes. The name extends beyond batteries to battery chargers, booster cables, power inverters, alkaline batteries, tires, work boots, and more recently, the batteries for Craftsman power tools.
In San Antonio in 2017, Sears opened a pilot location called DieHard Auto Center Driven by Sears Auto in close proximity to a Sears that had recently closed. Its purpose is to operate as a standalone Sears Auto Center. There are still several Sears Auto Centers (and Sears locations) near me, but the closest DieHard Auto Center is in Troy, Michigan (source: Google / Website), which is actually not near me at at all.
But hey, the brand still exists, and it even has its own auto centers named after it!
So…win win!
And with that, we leave Flashback Friday on a high note. Two wins in one week is a victory here, my friends. Maybe we could be so lucky next week?
Perhaps. But until then (well, until next week), have a fantastic Flashback Friday, and a great weekend!