I won’t be one of those shoppers looking for bargains as Sears Canada liquidates its inventory and closes its doors in January.

No way will I put a penny into the pockets of the creditors/ financiers/managers who pulled the plug on this Canadian institution, putting more than 12,000 people out of work with no or very little pay.

The rich guys will try to squeeze as much cash as they can out of shoppers, and no doubt the stores will be filled in the days to come by people looking for deals.

But as someone who has shopped at Sears for more than four decades, I am too saddened and too angry to to return there now. I think I would feel like a vulture if I did. And I don’t think I could look into the faces of the clerks there without crying.

Most financial analysts agree that Sears Canada has failed because of bad management, particularly a lack of vision from its top brass. There is so much they could have done to compete with the likes of Amazon and Wal-mart, but didn’t. Instead, they cut back on its offerings, ceding territory to competitors.

There was a time when Sears was the go-to store for almost everything. Sears would even reshingle your home’s roof and change the spark plugs in your car. As I write this, I’m sitting on a sofa I purchased at Sears at least three decades ago, and it is still in fabulous condition. My bed’s foam mattress is the same age, and is a firm now as it was when I bought it. Sears sold quality products, and they backed up their sales with excellent service and a no-questions-asked return policy.

But the Sears that is closing now is a mere shadow of what it was. Sears management stripped away the things that made it an important part of so many lives. In the end, Sears was little more than a clothing and makeup/perfume store, with a few appliances, dishes and bits of furniture thrown into the mix.

Still, there are exclusive Sears items I won’t be able to buy anymore, such as the Jessica line of clothes.

There are so many ways management could have saved Sears. But it seems there just wasn’t a will to do it.

So, a few seemingly incompetent people at the top as well as a few rich guys have destroyed an institution, and Canada will be the poorer because of them.

No, I won’t put any money into their pockets.

— Jillian

Photo: The Sears store in Fairview Mall, Toronto, one of the stores acquired from Simpsons in 1991. (Wikipedia)