07-06-2016, 11:51 AM
Yes, Sears has franchised stores. Among various names used is Sears Hometown. They contract with independent operators who sell various Sears branded merchandise.
They have been doing this and similar since about 20 years ago. Back in the early to mid-90's after closing most of their small local and catalog stores to concentrate on operating big stores located in malls they found they lost a lot of walk in business. So a couple years later Sears started to advertise for independents to open up Sears branded stores to sell some of their lines that people weren't willing to travel to the nearest mall store.
As an example, here they closed their catalog, appliance and outlet store for scratch and dent items as part of that small store closings. About two years later they took out a large ad (full page or nearly so) in the local paper that ran for a while looking for someone who wanted to open a store under the Sears brand. They would have to obtain the location and Sears would provide the merchandise. There were no takers here, but I understand they did get persons to do the same at other places.
They have been doing this and similar since about 20 years ago. Back in the early to mid-90's after closing most of their small local and catalog stores to concentrate on operating big stores located in malls they found they lost a lot of walk in business. So a couple years later Sears started to advertise for independents to open up Sears branded stores to sell some of their lines that people weren't willing to travel to the nearest mall store.
As an example, here they closed their catalog, appliance and outlet store for scratch and dent items as part of that small store closings. About two years later they took out a large ad (full page or nearly so) in the local paper that ran for a while looking for someone who wanted to open a store under the Sears brand. They would have to obtain the location and Sears would provide the merchandise. There were no takers here, but I understand they did get persons to do the same at other places.