Warsaw Sears Not Closing
October 17, 2018 at 5:10 p.m.
Warsaw Sears Not Closing
By Mark [email protected]
Ken Ashpole is the owner of the Sears Hometown Store at 2816 Frontage Road, in the Marketplace of Warsaw shopping center, and he has plans to stay open for years to come.
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He said his business is separate from Sears Holdings in many key ways.
“It’s similar to a franchise. I’m not a Sears employee; I’m an owner with a (limited liability corporation) to run the store. Sears provides me the merchandise, and they pay me a commission, a cut for expenses and support, technical and otherwise,” Ashpole said.
“But I don’t own the merchandise; Sears does,” he said.
Ashpole said there might be some confusion about the local ownership he has because of the well-publicized troubles of the parent company. He said other Hometown Store owners saw these troubles coming, and took steps to create a gap.
“We separated from Sears Holdings about four years ago,” he said. “There’s about 750 of these stores across the country. We’re setting up separate contracts with suppliers, setting up our own supply chain and basically, we’re headed toward independence from Sears Holdings.
“So their bankruptcy does not affect us. We’re financially stable. We’re still, of course, going to honor warranties and service plans that customers associate with Sears, Craftsman and appliances.”
Ashpole said the new supply chain has contracts with several nationally known companies, which allows him to carry appliances by Whirlpool, Maytag and KitchenAid, to name a few.
Still, there are those who believe the Warsaw operation might go away soon. Ashpole said that’s simply not the case.
“Guilt by association is what some of us are going through, but we saw a better path four years ago, and that’s why we split off to become a Hometown organization,” he said. “We feel like we’re a good, strong organization and our strength is in being smaller and providing the best customer service. It’s my money involved in here, so I’m going to concentrate on taking care of the customer, because I’ve got skin in the game.”
Ken Ashpole is the owner of the Sears Hometown Store at 2816 Frontage Road, in the Marketplace of Warsaw shopping center, and he has plans to stay open for years to come.
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He said his business is separate from Sears Holdings in many key ways.
“It’s similar to a franchise. I’m not a Sears employee; I’m an owner with a (limited liability corporation) to run the store. Sears provides me the merchandise, and they pay me a commission, a cut for expenses and support, technical and otherwise,” Ashpole said.
“But I don’t own the merchandise; Sears does,” he said.
Ashpole said there might be some confusion about the local ownership he has because of the well-publicized troubles of the parent company. He said other Hometown Store owners saw these troubles coming, and took steps to create a gap.
“We separated from Sears Holdings about four years ago,” he said. “There’s about 750 of these stores across the country. We’re setting up separate contracts with suppliers, setting up our own supply chain and basically, we’re headed toward independence from Sears Holdings.
“So their bankruptcy does not affect us. We’re financially stable. We’re still, of course, going to honor warranties and service plans that customers associate with Sears, Craftsman and appliances.”
Ashpole said the new supply chain has contracts with several nationally known companies, which allows him to carry appliances by Whirlpool, Maytag and KitchenAid, to name a few.
Still, there are those who believe the Warsaw operation might go away soon. Ashpole said that’s simply not the case.
“Guilt by association is what some of us are going through, but we saw a better path four years ago, and that’s why we split off to become a Hometown organization,” he said. “We feel like we’re a good, strong organization and our strength is in being smaller and providing the best customer service. It’s my money involved in here, so I’m going to concentrate on taking care of the customer, because I’ve got skin in the game.”
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