Sears? Kayaking? Really?
See you on the water,
Marshall
The Connection, Inc.
9 W. Market St.
Hyde Park, NY
845-228-0595 main
845-242-4731 mobile
Main: www.the-river-connection.com
Store: www.the-river-connection.us
Facebook: fb.me/theriverconnection
@PaddleDog52 said:
If you want one cheap here’s a super deal. http://m.sears.com/kokatat-tropos-light-storm-cag-paddling-jacket-spray/p-SPM14379449432
Cheap? That’s twice the price at $550.
Yea I know but when you look for things on the net Sears pops up a lot. The prices are usually double what everyone else is selling stuff for if not triple. Now I sit and wonder if they ever sell anything. It is endless what they have listed. No clue how many people they have listing items. Stuff they would never be in there store. Trying to be like Amazon at double the price doesn’t really work. Now imagine if you did buy something off Sears to later find it’s have the price EVERYWHERE else. Would you go to their retail store or ever buy anything off them again. No wonder the fork is already stuck in them.
While that link is to Sears, it’s actually from some online marketer named Operose who is listed on the Sears “marketplace.” Operose is the ripoff artist.
K-Mart has it listed, too: www.kmart.com/kokatat-tropos-light-storm-cag-paddling-jacket-spray/p-SPM14379449432 No price came up on their site.
Couldn’t find it at Walmart, but they do list Kokatat products - supplied by Outdoor Play, which apparently worked out some deal with them.
I’ll stick with Marshall and The River Connection.
Yes! Saw wheelbarrow on Sears 3x Home Depot.
I get stuff from River connection in one day if I call before 10 am
Kmart and Sears are the same (failing) company. Have been for over a decade. Amazed they still have any presence in the economy at all anymore. All their brick and mortar stores in our major metro area have closed within the past few years.
Kind of sad – when I was a kid the Sears catalog was the “dream book” where we drooled over the toys we wanted to ask for at Christmas (we didn’t have a TV until I was in third grade.)
@willowleaf said:
Kmart and Sears are the same (failing) company. Have been for over a decade. Amazed they still have any presence in the economy at all anymore. All their brick and mortar stores in our major metro area have closed within the past few years.
Sears has independent stores in some locations. There’s a thriving one about 30 miles away; it carries all the top brands and has some excellent sales. We’re fortunate to have it in the area.
I recall there was a Sears still thriving fairly well and decently stocked as recently as 4 yeas ago in the rural mountain upstate community where my ex-boyfriend lived, I think that may be the sorts of communities where they still have a shot at survival if well managed and without a lot of other competition.
Since the big box building material chains took over appliance and tool sales and the “off price” stores and on-line vendors grabbed so much of the soft goods and homeware market, there is not a lot of customer base left for Sears in most metro areas. Kmart lost ground to Walmart on pricing and Target on quality and “hipness”. I had given up on Sears years ago due to the shabbiness of the stores, poor stock and negligent staff. I did patronize the nearby Kmart for much longer, but it too was depressingly grubby, understocked and understaffed.
Both Kmart and Sears also abandoned the inner city, at least around here – Target stepped up and placed a store with a full grocery department in one of our lower income communities and it’s thriving. What was once the Sears in that same neighborhood, only blocks away, is now a booming Home Depot.
Sears used to be the biggest.since they moved their wrenches and other hand tools to china I don’t bother going. They own much of the real estate they sit on. That’s the only thing that keeps them afloat as they sell it off. Used to look at All the toys in the catalog in the 50’s & 60’s. Then as I grew the tool section. Sad!
Johnnysmoke and Celia,
I saw an ultralight, ultracompactible cag made of ripstop nylon or possibly silnylon, about 6 or 7 years ago. Found out it was no longer being sold. But I was able to snag a used-one-time Valley cag for only $100. It is neither ultralight or ultracompactible, but it feels very durable and has lots of features: fleece-lined kangaroo pocket with an additional inner entrance so that the wearer can easily get hands inside (grab something in a PFD pocket, perhaps), full brimmed hood, retroreflective strips, and more. Since it is one-size-fits-all, it is HUGE on me, hanging well below the knees.
I have worn it only a couple of times while paddling, since normally my other clothes suffice. But where it really shines is on land. The thing is so big I can sit on the ground, tuck my legs with knees up, and the cag surrounds me—windproof, waterproof shelter. It could probably serve as an emergency bivouac bag.
I do not know what company actually made the cag, only that VALLEY is emblazoned on it.
BTW, the skirt part on mine is too big to fit snugly over my coaming. It must be used with a regular sprayskirt to prevent flooding the cockpit in a capsize. It is not the same as a tuiliq.
@pikabike said:
I do not know what company actually made the cag, only that VALLEY is emblazoned on it.
Found this old thread and apparently Valley made it. https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/847377/cag-comparisons
Sears and Roebuck was the internet of their time. Pioneers out west could mail order from the catalog and it would come to their door step. In fact you used to be able to order the door step. At one time they would ship via rail a whole house. Sq Footages were less than what we think is good today.
About all I’d buy at Sears was Craftsman tools. Now I can get them at ACE in my neighborhood without going to the mall.
Report this week on how Sears is being destroyed from the inside by an arrogant and incompetent CEO (who, like the present POTUS, has been known to use a faked name to promote his own product.) It is expected to file for bankruptcy within the next two years. The Craftsman brand is already in the process of being sold to Black & Decker : http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-failing-stores-closing-edward-lampert-bankruptcy-chances-2017-1
Incompetent? How’s the market doing?
@pikabike
Those Valley cags were great, as you found made only for a limited time period. The Kokatat version might be slightly better at holding over the skirt on a cockpit coaming, with how the adjustable bungie cord is set. But I would never consider one of the these to be a substitute for a regular skirt either. In this respect the cags are different from a proper tuliq, which is supposed to be both.
The value of having a big jacket to create an air pocket over a smaller person cannot be overstated, especially at break. That was a great find for you.
PD52 – read my post more carefully. Your comment is off base (and irrelevant). The Sears CEO is indeed incompetent as a business manager. Their share price, which was reliably around $35 has crashed in the last 30 months to barely $3 and the business will be toast soon. That’s how “the market” is doing in this case. He will “profit” through ruining the business, but the thousands of employees and shareholders will lose. This is how plutocrats game the system.
I liked Lands End clothes until Sears bought them. I looked at the LE catalog last week and it looks like they are dumping everything.
@string said:
I liked Lands End clothes until Sears bought them. I looked at the LE catalog last week and it looks like they are dumping everything.
Sears spun off Lands End as a separate IPO in 2014. Lands End has a new CEO who is trying to pick up the pieces, so maybe that’s why their catalog is in a state of flux.