Maggie's Farm

Sears is dying for at least 2 obvious reasons:

1) Their well-respected Craftsman brand that used to be the paragon of well-made tools, turned into junk that was made in China and didn't live up to the quality of yore.

2) Their clothes. OMG, their clothes. They lost me when I hit high school in the 80s and never came back from that. Sure, my mom bought Garanimals there and probably my underwear, socks and pajamas. But when I hit high school, did you see some of the stuff they were peddling? Mostly clothes for out-of-fashion moms and the elderly. They have decades of bad decision making to overcome, and you can do that over night.

However, what is interesting is that the stand-alone Sears home stores (or whatever they are called) are supposedly doing very well. We have one in my local area, and they just expanded and remodeled their store last year. Clearly an indicator of good sales. They most sell appliances, tvs, mowers, etc., but now have added gardening stuff, like a mini-Home Depot.

On the apprenticeship programs in Germany, our local high school actually offers something very similar to what is described here. They have career 'tracks' in certain areas: health care, welding, business technology, culinary arts (new next year), etc. You get involved with a certain career track, usually in your sophomore year, and near the end of the career track part of your 'classroom' time is working out in the real world with local business trying out your chosen field of work. The health care track, for example, results in a high school senior with a CNA license he or she can use to find work right out of high school...or take with them to a community or 4-year school to continue in the healthcare field.

You can also get your A+ certification or Net Plus certification through our high school. It's pretty awesome. I live in a red state which consistently ranks low on teacher pay, but has decent results. Our school district has made this type of learning a priority, and even found a way to offer the new culinary arts track in a year of declining state funds.