Sears going out of business?
#46
(03-28-2017, 08:29 AM)TDKPE Wrote: Well, my poor little 24" NOMA 2-stage snowblower is almost 25 years old, with a 5 hp Tecumseh Snow-King engine, and it's still going strong.  We get around 100" a year on average, and that poor little underpowered machine just keeps on chugging.  Original plug.  Yearly oil changes.  Grease and chain lube when I think of it, like every few years.  I'm careful not to lug the engine.  MTD made it, I think.

I'm ok with cheap, though it really should'a had a 7 or 8 hp on it.  
Yes

My MDT is Tecumseh powered.  The carburetor went bad a couple of years ago and it took 8 months to get it replaced.  Tecumseh is now out of business.  My snowblower is 20 years old  (MTD) and it is falling apart and the engine probably needs a new carburetor again as it is running lousy.  I have a 20" unit (a good size for my property).  But they put that same engine in the 22" and the 24" that year, and it seems barely powerful enough in the 20" width.  

I will get a new snow blower next year.  I am not going to  invest any more money in a 20 year old snowblower.  I'm not seeing many 20" units anymore and the ones I see have a rubber auger and are single stage.  I don't think they can handle the deep stuff.
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#47
(03-28-2017, 02:29 PM)Cooler Wrote: My MDT is Tecumseh powered.  The carburetor went bad a couple of years ago and it took 8 months to get it replaced.  Tecumseh is now out of business.  My snowblower is 20 years old  (MTD) and it is falling apart and the engine probably needs a new carburetor again as it is running lousy.  I have a 20" unit (a good size for my property).  But they put that same engine in the 22" and the 24" that year, and it seems barely powerful enough in the 20" width.  

I will get a new snow blower next year.  I am not going to  invest any more money in a 20 year old snowblower.  I'm not seeing many 20" units anymore and the ones I see have a rubber auger and are single stage.  I don't think they can handle the deep stuff.

Right after I got mine, I gave my Dad a Sears snowblower on rubber tracks (long dirt driveway with stones - he could elevate the auger and it lock there) with the same 5 hp Tecumseh but a 20 or 22 inch auger, and a smaller 10" impeller.  It never slowed even with heavy snow.  Mine is fine with powder as long as it's not the dense, fine-grained stuff we got recently.  The really fluffy stuff is no problem.  Too little engine for 24" and a 12" impeller especially when it's heavy.  Forget wet - it just clogs instantly.

When it craps out, I'm calling the plow guy, as we're heading south as soon as we can.  Every tenth house around here has one or more plow trucks parked in the driveway.  
Laugh
Tom

“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
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#48
(03-28-2017, 07:52 AM)Cooler Wrote: Honda makes lawn mowers and their engines power the Black Max line of mowers.

They also make snowblowers.  

They seem awfully expensive compared to the other brands however.

When I moved back north from NC, I bought an Ariens for about $950 after a few seasons of hiring plows and paying $125 a pop for a lousy plowing job on my driveway; heavy duty, thought I was getting quality.  After one season of anemic throwing (I've got a big driveway, and it would throw no more than 20 feet) I sold it for $750 and bit the bullet and bought a Honda 928 with the wheels, not the track.  Cost a little more than twice as much as that Ariens at the time, but its the finest snowblower, hands down, I've ever owned, throws snow 50+ feet, eats anything, sleet, iced top layers, wet heavy snow, powder, it simply doesn't care.  Plenty of power.  Mine is about 10 years old and it paid for itself in about 5 years versus plow jobs.  Plus, the plows don't come along fast enough when the snow is heavy, and I'm cleared out before any of my neighbors.  I'm told by my local dealer when I bought some shear pins that the newer ones have only gotten better.  Regular maintenance and oil changes, never failed to start on the second pull (has electric start but I've never used it). Little things, like gas drain valves, hydrostatic tranny (not all that common when I bought it) makes it a great machine.  Highly recommended, bite the bullet and cry once (not like me, crying twice), you won't regret it.  They have sales in early summer around here, and I'm also lucky to have a dealer close.
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Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#49
It seems that the new owners of Sears bought it in the hopes that they could liquidate the company and make money on the real estate.  It could be that they are trying to go out of business:

The REIT Seritage holds leases on 170 Sears stores and 82 Kmarts.
 
Since 2004, when Eddie Lampert bought Sears Holdings, financial analysts have posited that prime retail real estate was what the successful investor was really buying. 
 
“Eddie Lampert made this a real estate play from day one. Now he releases this [SEC filing] and goes along selling off parts,” said Jim Bieri, principal of Detroit-based Stokas-Bieri Real Estate, a Midwestern real estate brokerage.
 
Sears may have less relevance in today’s retail sphere, but it remains a big player in retail real estate. Five years ago, GGP paid Sears Holdings $270 million for 11 stores, and at least $200 million of that went for the Sears location at GGPs high-grossing Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.
 
In its 2016 annual report, Sears Holdings reported owning 360 full-line Sears and Kmart stores and leasing 1,045 of them. Those leases can be milked as a substantial revenue stream for years to come.


My brother's in-laws own the property that the Sears is built on locally.  The original lease was for 99 years.  There are probably 50 to 60 years remaining on that lease.  Someone could make money off of that for a long time before the lease expires.
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#50
Good point although there is Is a growing glut in commercial property. The Kmart here in town closed back many years ago when they left Tx and it among many other Kmart locations are still sitting empty. Mall locations of sears (never seen a freestanding store) and others will sit empty as well as shopping malls die.

   I remember going to the Ala Moana shopping center, saw David Hasselhoff tthere on one of his pr trips during Knight Rider. Was a good location but we usually went to Pearl Ridge. That was a pretty busy place then and where our travel agent was.
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