Corporate visit went well I've been told! Apparently they really liked the store layout and have told them they'll have the other stores copy them a bit. Ramon and the others are now heading to Braintree.

Other than that, check out the new Christmas decoration!

They've finished repainting the merchandise pickup section and there was new inventory coming in. New watches, jewelry and clothing. They've started getting all the Christmas decoration ready as well.

They're also preparing for a corporate visit on Thursday. Ramon and a few other Transformco execs are visiting them from Hoffman Estates. I'm guessing they're really interested in the renovation work that was done recently and the showroom they're planning.

In the mean time, some of the Kenmore small appliances I mentioned earlier starting popping up here.

The showroom isn't ready yet and the Kenmore small appliances seem to have disappeared into the backrooms for now but work has been completed on the new carpet. Furthermore, they started fixing all the broken floor files and repainted the walls in the tools section as well now. They've also installed new LED lights both inside the store (notably above the old escalators), as well as on the exterior building. Goodbye dim exterior and hello cozy and lit up Sears building! 😌

Forgot to mention, they've also started repainting the merchandise pickup section and got rid of the old vending machine and sadly the payphone as well. They told me apparently it was shipped back to Hoffman Estates, no idea why lol.

Things are happening 🤩 Sears comeback soon???

They actually let me keep a piece of the old carpet. Now I've got that Sears smell at home. 😂

They’ve also told me they repainted the walls on that entire side of the store a few days. The paint is now dark gray instead of light gray.

There's a bunch of appliances around the escalators now, although I'm not sure if that's permanent now of if they will be moved back once the new showroom opens. They've also got new winter coats.

This is also the first time they're having a dedicated Christmas section in several years.

Unfortunately their longest serving associate who has been working here for 36 years passed away recently. RIP Debbie :(

Here are some more pictures I've been sitting on. I've got about 300 in total of the Coral Gables and Orlando locations when I visited them about two months ago. If there's a specific spot in these stores you are all interested in, please let me know as I can only upload 20 at a time.

The tools section hasn't changed much ever since they remodeled the store in March but I've heard people were curious about it.

They did tell me they were planning to remove the carpet in the appliance section (former men's section) that was soaked in water earlier this year and replace it with a hard floor for appliances. I'm guessing this is where the new "Kenmore studio" (that won't actually be called a Kenmore studio since it will include other brands as well) will be going.

Other than that, not much has changed apart from there being blue tape marking all the damaged floor tiles everywhere. They're planning to get them fixed or replaced.

They're doing a fall event now and put some balloons everywhere.

They've now put up "manager's special" signs downstairs and are advertising fall deals.

My Reddit account was recently shadow banned for no apparent reason but luckily I was able to get it unbanned. I now mentioned to one of my Reddit friends that I'm on Lemmy and the comment was removed by Reddit.

This is the last remaining Kmart in the continental US. The other two are in Guam and the US Virgin Islands. Unfortunately, they've downsized it to just the former garden center now. Think of it like a convenience store rather than a traditional Kmart. That said, the small space they were still using did look decently stocked. I hope they survive.

Here are some pictures I took of the top floor of the Orlando store when I went on vacation to Florida last month. (I'm a regular at the Concord location)

Out of the five remaining Sears stores that are still open today, I'm lucky enough to be able to say I've visited three of them now. I'd say Coral Gables is the best looking one, followed by Concord, followed by Orlando. The top floor in Orlando still looks alright, the issue is just that it's only accessible via an elevator at the end of a long corridor as two thirds of the bottom floor are an active construction site at the moment as they are planning to subdivide the space between Sears and a Round 1 that's apparently going to move in.

Winter clothing is starting to come in. There's a bunch of new clothes in store!

Other than that not too much has changed, however they did mention they wanted to remove the last remaining checkout downstairs since the bottom floor has been turned into a warehouse. The new owners of Sunvalley Mall aren't requesting them to keep the bottom entrance open anymore so it's permanently closed now.