Appliancegeek
Mpls,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, February 04, 2009
you are not the only person that this has happened to. I work for a competitor of sears and have taken advantage of these on numorous occasions. Most dealers in the appliance bussiness understand the simple point as to why this "sale" was advertised. 2008 was a horrible year for all retailers. Black Friday thru 12/31 would be a very crucial time to make up margin that was lost thru the first three quarters. Sears did a spectacular job doing this. They could sell a product that they knowingly did not have in stock, and show huge amount of cash on hand for the 4th quarter. To investors this looks great. What they anticipated is that they could purchase the product in 2009 from the vendor and start the year in the red (thats how most companies do it) however, the vendor or manufacturer needs to be aware of the supply that is needed to fill those orders, that was not communicated properly. I wouldn't expect to see these until at least april, from what i have heard. bottom line is sears did excatly what they wanted to do, show the cash on hand. wether they deliver the product to the consumers is still up in the air. You may have got a smokin deal, but you may want to consider cancelling the order and going somewhere else, otherwise you will have many false promises from sears. 2009 will be an even tougher year for retailers, and expect many, even large companies, to start dropping like flies. Its the sad but brutal truth to our economic state right now.