"I'm never shopping THERE again!" Share your story!

[Amara]

In my opinion, Lands' End became carp when Sears bought them. Their quality nosedived, and I have refused to buy from them since. And I hate Sears and have for a long, long, loooooooooong time. Kmart? I stepped foot in their store only once. I was doing a report on nonverbal communication for my college class (I went back to finish my degree in the mid-1990s). Rather than people I had chosen stores in order to compare four different ones for their "nonverbal communication" choices. (The report was fascinating!) Not surprisingly, Kmart was at the bottom of the four I chose, and it showed. I ended up reeling out of there with a very sick headache.

[Jones]

Our local Kmart is absolutely awesome.


Sears...not so much.

[Redneck Gravy]

When it was time to buy a new washer/dryer I called my repairman and asked what would be best - Kenmore he said.

"Kenmore is the Sear's brand and because there are gillions out there; parts will always be easy to find."

I have had Kenmore washers & dryers my whole adult life (over 30 years) and can't imagine any other brand at this point.   And I've rarely had problems with them.  I hate that they have to come from Sear's...no service anymore.  You pay for it and then you load it up yourself, you take it home, you unload it and you hook it up with the new hoses you bought.  They don't include hookup or delivery anymore and that's IF they will deliver it to you at all. 

[rose red]

Many moons ago, I applied for a job at Kmart way before they brought Sears.  During the interview, the interviewer was talking about how Kmart was the third largest retailer.  She also said Sears was first (I forget who was second).  How the mighty have fallen.  Sad because they both were pretty good stores back in the day.

[VorFemme]

Wow, I must have lucked out, my local Sears and Kmart are just great.  Well, I would never buy appliances from them, but that is unrelated to the store.

It really seems to depend on the regional manager, not just the store manager.

There is a KMart where we used to live that was always understaffed, behind in stocking the shelves, and the "attitude" from the people who were there was NOT the kind of attitude that encouraged people to shop...more along the lines of "why are you interrupting my day?"

[Piratelvr1121]

I will say the employees at Kmart are very friendly and helpful, I'll give them that.

[ladyknight1]

We only have a few KMart locations and the Sears locations at the malls are starting to close. I don't shop at either.

We buy all our Craftsman tools at Ace hardware.

[RingTailedLemur]

Going back a few pages, I tried the "break eggs on a flat surface" method today, and it worked!

There I was, looking at my shell-free egg and thinking "I'll have to tell the Ehellions about this!" at the exact moment one of the shell halves slipped out of my grip and straight into the egg...  D'oh!

[EMuir]

We bought a Kenmore washer/dryer five years ago when we moved.  The quality has gone downhill. The washer died already and I only hope the dryer keeps going.  We stopped buying from them when they moved their local call center to another country.

[MariaE]

Going back a few pages, I tried the "break eggs on a flat surface" method today, and it worked!

There I was, looking at my shell-free egg and thinking "I'll have to tell the Ehellions about this!" at the exact moment one of the shell halves slipped out of my grip and straight into the egg...  D'oh!

Ha! Funny coincidence. I tried the "knocking two eggs together" method myself - that worked well with one egg, but the other remained uncracked... so I tried the inside of the bowl for that one. No shell in my egg, but I certainly had a lot more egg on my fingers than I usually do.

I usually separate eggs using my hand - never could get the hand of transfering from one half of the egg shell to the other.

[cwm]

Going back a few pages, I tried the "break eggs on a flat surface" method today, and it worked!

There I was, looking at my shell-free egg and thinking "I'll have to tell the Ehellions about this!" at the exact moment one of the shell halves slipped out of my grip and straight into the egg...  D'oh!

Ha! Funny coincidence. I tried the "knocking two eggs together" method myself - that worked well with one egg, but the other remained uncracked... so I tried the inside of the bowl for that one. No shell in my egg, but I certainly had a lot more egg on my fingers than I usually do.

I usually separate eggs using my hand - never could get the hand of transfering from one half of the egg shell to the other.

I've used the flat surface for years now, and I'll never look back. But I've given up on trying to separate eggs, I'll just cook recipes where it's not needed or buy egg whites if I need to. No matter what method I use, the yolk breaks and gets everywhere. I've tried the spoon, I've tried an egg separator, I've tried the shells, I've tried my fingers, and I've even tried getting someone else to do it. The one time Sis managed to break the yolks while separating eggs, she was doing it for me. I give up, I'm cursed. Yolks it is.

[Garden Goblin]

But I've given up on trying to separate eggs, I'll just cook recipes where it's not needed or buy egg whites if I need to. No matter what method I use, the yolk breaks and gets everywhere. I've tried the spoon, I've tried an egg separator, I've tried the shells, I've tried my fingers, and I've even tried getting someone else to do it. The one time Sis managed to break the yolks while separating eggs, she was doing it for me. I give up, I'm cursed. Yolks it is.

Try a different source for your eggs.  The older the egg, the easier it is to break the yolk.  I can almost juggle the yolks of freshly laid eggs.

Also, the diet of the birds makes a difference.  The better the diet, the better the quality of the yolk.

[Momiitz]

Please, no more eggs.

[Where's the Quiet?]

Speaking of Kmart, the one closest to my house is on my list of places to avoid whenever possible. Especially during school hours. When the students are working, my experience is much better. During the day, my options for cashiers are:

*The lady who gets upset if you forget to slide things further down the counter as she scans other items in
*The lady who has three upsells and goes through each one every single time
*The lady who inspects each item and has a story for at least one or two

Combine that with the checkout lanes that are only slightly wider than the cart and the whole checkout experience is miserable. I will say one positive thing...they aren't doing the survey thing on the pinpad anymore so I can pay without having to rate my experience every time.

There is a Little Caesar's Pizza in that KMart and I won't buy pizza there anymore. We tried it once and even though it was pretty close to dinner time, they didn't have any pizzas going and refused to make breadsticks. We ended up with a pizza with not enough cheese and breadsticks that I'm pretty sure were on display the whole day because they were hard as rocks. Now if we're in the mood for Little Caesar's we drive another five minutes and get one that understands freshness and deliciousness.

[flickan]

*The lady who inspects each item and has a story for at least one or two

This drives me absolute bats.  I actively avoid a grocery story close to us because one of the checkers who always seems to be on duty will talk about the purchases.  It's nothing malicious and it's not too nosey but it's terribly irritating.  Last time I picked up a tub of italian beef she felt compelled to tell me that I could just make that myself.  Sure I could but I'm choosing to patronize your establishment instead.  Please stop commenting on my groceries.

Then there was a creepy moment at the photo counter many years ago where the clerk handed the pictures back to me with a big smile and said, "You guys look like you were having a good time!"

No repeat business after that.