A big company can create value though, as an arbiter of quality like Sears was. Sears was a logistics company that offered push-button value for commodities much like Amazon basics. I think that before their economic philosophy was ruined(long story short one of the managers was a big fan of inter-departmental competition, same thing what killed RCA). Perhaps the problem here is America lacks a Sears option, save for Wal-mart, which doesn't offer the same quality. I think the middle class would benefit from a catalog offering push-button quality options, but such a thing does not exist, perhaps Sears undid themselves by making items that would last decades (still using all the power tools they made in the 90s and 2000s, and some of the clothes/blankets too)
The ones I'd say have high quality are usually "retreating upmarket" to combat fast fashion like zara or shein. I recently bought a coat from H&M that was fairly nice and seems like it will last quite a while, obviously priced to be that way. In terms of homewares, design within reach/Williams Sonoma seem to be the ones for durability. The only problem as you've likely noticed is these stores almost have "too much" variety, likely due to them fragmenting along specialization lines. The beauty of Sears was it's range, that it had almost everything, I'll link a catalog below, it has everything from standard dad-tools to survey gear, I don't think I've ever seen another retail store get this close to McMaster Carr.
