Jones, a Fort Dodge native, started with the company in 2004.

“It was an extremely knowledgeable, hard-working crew at the old store,” Jones said. “Everyone would pitch in and help if others needed it. Almost became a work family. You could easily concentrate and learn the skills of your department and learn some of the skills of other departments.”

At its peak in the mid-2000s, Sears employed about 80 people.

When the announcement of the store’s closure came, Jones was caught off guard.

“It kind of caught us by surprise,” Jones said. “But it was inevitable.”

Fast forward to 2022 and Jones is the owner of the Sears Hometown Store in Fort Dodge. Its new location at 1828 First Ave. S. opened on Jan. 12. The Hometown Store was located at the mall for the previous six years.

The former Fort Dodge Machine & Supply Inc. building was renovated to become the new store. The front parking lot was also rebuilt.

Jones said the new location is more visible.

He and the store’s two employees, Cody Sleiter and Jim Toftee, have been busy bringing in merchandise and getting the store ready for customers.

The store sells most major appliances like washers, dryers, stoves and refrigerators. Tools like drills, circular saws, wrenches and screwdrivers are all sold at the store.

“We sell more washers than we do anything else,” Jones said.

In terms of tools, Craftsman products are harder to carry.

“With the advent of Stanley Black and Decker buying Craftsman from Sears, it’s a bit hard to get some Craftsman products,” Jones said. “We do carry a fairly good selection of Craftsman hand tools. Power tools we have upgraded to Skil and or Workpro.”

After the old Sears store closed, Jones was called a few months later to run warehouse deliveries for the new Sears Hometown Store.

The local outlet opened in May 2015 in a space at the mall once occupied by Walgreens and, later, Hancock Fabrics. It debuted just months after the large Sears store, which had been an anchor at the mall since 1964, closed as the company downsized nationwide.

Throughout his time in the business, Jones has held positions like preventative maintenance technician and back room lead. Jones has owned the local store since January 2020.

“Management at the old Sears was top-notch,” he said.

Some of the processes at the Hometown Store are different.

“Hometown Stores share some of the infrastructure from regular Sears but most of the processes are a little different,” Jones said. “With the regular Sears, we had scanners to scan merchandise as we unloaded from the truck. With the Hometown, they never got that type of equipment, so we had to manually receive them in the computer or would automatically receive them the next morning.”

The number of appliances arriving at the Hometown Store at one time is less than it would have been at the old Sears.

“Instead of having to unload a 70-piece appliance truck and scan each item, the biggest truck we have had at the Hometown Store was 20 pieces and you just have to take the manifest and double check that everything came in,” Jones said.

One advantage to Sears Hometown is the relationship the store has with manufacturers.

“Hometown has a very good relationship with the manufacturers to bring in appliances a lot faster than other smaller appliance stores since you can’t really find a big Sears store anymore,” Jones said.

There have been some delays in the supply chain caused by the pandemic.

“The way COVID has hit the shipping industry and the manufacturers, that has complicated things,” Jones said. “If someone buys a fridge in March and says it’s supposed to be here at the end of the month, sometimes it keeps getting delayed every two weeks. And nobody can tell us exactly why.”

Jones said delays have been frequent.

“It’s almost every other week we notice delays,” he said. “Some manufacturers we can get the following week and then the next week that same manufacturer might be out three weeks. The biggest culprit was GE, especially on their fridges. We have now noticed that Whirlpool has a lot of their stuff coming in April.”

Sometimes delays have caused customers to cancel their orders.

“(We are hoping for) a little faster supply chain, so those customers don’t get grumpy when their new appliances take three months to get,” Jones said. “But all in all, it really hasn’t been horrible. A few customers have canceled because of the back orders, which is their right. We do have the tools to keep on top of when the inventory is coming in, if it’s sitting at the distribution center or not.”

Jones is looking forward to doing business in the new location.

“We have a lot of repeat customers,” he said. “It’s pretty personable. That’s what we strive for being a locally owned store.”