The retailer that invented ordering from a catalog couldn't beat Amazon...
Posted on 12/27/2018 2:49:09 PM PST by NRx
I was in a production of The Music Man a couple of years ago. Back in the day, people would order stuff from the Sears or Monkey Wards catalog and the Wells Fargo Wagon would deliver it from the railroad depot. Too bad they couldn't adapt to the Internet era.
History repeats itself. Sears put tens of thousands of local mercantiles out of business in the early 1900’s thru the 1950’s. Exactly what Amazon and the internet has done to Sears. Just a newer version of catalog sales.
IMO, SEARS’S downward slide began with an AFA BOYCOTT for its open support of ABORTION in the 80s. It was the first retail boycott of its kind. Pro-life people stopped buying and most never came back.
Just not quite enough queer couples in their ads to keep them open. Goodness knows,they tried. Shame.
I remember Sears.
I have owned probably 7 or 8 Winchester model 94s, The best one was a Sears Ted Williams. It was used and the bluing or whatever passed for bluing on the receiver looked awful.
It had a really smooth action and was more accurate than most.
The best thing is someone had installed an expensive Redfield receiver sight. Probably worth more than the gun.
The pawn dealer apparently did not know how valuable the sight was and sold the gun for $50.
Sears was the analog version of Amazon.
The retailer that invented ordering from a catalog couldn't beat Amazon...
I’m truly surprised the PLA didn’t buy it.
Seems like a great fit for China.
They were Amazon before Amazon. Over 100 years before Amazon.
68,000 is a bunch of folks to drop on the economy in a short time. That’s gonna sting.
Yup, if they would have put the catalog online for online sales, that would have been their great internet presence.
Penneys too.
The historic large brick and mortars ignored the internet, and after losing more market to them, had trouble maintaining their buildings and modernizing them.
Just got back from shooting. One of the guns was a bolt action Sears brand .22 rifle. (Winchester 141)
Sears catalog and Penneys catalog was the internet of the 1900s.
I’ve always enjoyed shopping at Sears and Kmart. Unfortunately, I am apparently the last of a vanishing breed for Sears Holdings.
Not sure about Sears, but IMHO the following policy helped to destroy another Sears Holding company (Kmart):
Corporate HQ would send mystery shoppers to photograph messy displays in a store.
Then, as punishment, Corporate HQ would cut funding to that store.
Result: Fewer and fewer employees working led to more messiness and even less money. Not to mention no money for upkeep, heat or A/C.
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