They had a good run.
Long before Amazon, there was the Sears Catalog, and you could get anything from them. It was all made in the USA too, no Chinese junk. Our little town had a Sears Catalog Store, and you could place your order, and pick it up a few days later. Sweet.
They got feminized and let K-mart buy them out.. They didn't sell much that a man would be interested in...well, maybe tools, but everyone else does also.. And cheaper..
They did. My mom lives in an old Sears Roebuck house.
“I remember Sears and Roe, when they started, didn’t have a buck to their name!” Tributes to Redd Foxx.
****
Charmin, put Sears out of business!
They once sold their own brand of automobile, the “Sears Allstate.” It was really a rebadged version of the Henry J built by Kaiser Motors in the early 1950s.
In 1962 I bought a Craftsman 40 piece SAE mechanic’s tool kit with tool box. Don’t remember what I paid. Still have all the tools.
Had to replace a 3/4” socket that broke when I used it with an impact wrench to remove car lug nuts. Wasn’t designed to work with an impact wrench.
Sears replaced it no charge. I can still remember the salesman saying, “Go over there and pick you out another one.”
My friend lives in a Sears home, I think from 1922. Beautiful wood interior, lovely design. Surprising for a "mail order" home. I see it and think of how much crap we build nowadays.
End of an era.
I worked part time at Sears for three months in 2019.
If the store was typical of Sears I can see why it is in sharp decline. Little employee training, outdated and often broken cash registers, unreliable inventory system, trying to sell nearly useless appliance warranties, and an odd assortment of merchandise which turned off customers.
Those old catalog corset ads were quite saucy back in the day.
I didn’t appreciate Sears taking weeks to process catalog orders, at least as I remember it. I realize that it wasn’t the internet age, but still, no need to take that long, in most cases. They were just lazy and wanted to get their orders bunched up to save a few bucks in shipping.
Their stubborn refusal to accept Visa/MC/Amex was the beginning of their demise long before Amazon came around.
Back in the day when we used to go to the mall to shop I would hang out in the Craftsman section in Sears while my wife and daughters shopped. Haven’t been to a mall in years now other than to the department stores. The malls in my area are thug draws, so not worth the risk. The only Sears left in my area is a small store where you can order appliances and get them serviced, about 25 miles from home.
My son’s law firm is handling the Sears bankrupcy.
I used to live a block from a Sears regional distribution center back in the late 80’s. There were probably 100 loading bays and the in-going/outgoing traffic was heavy.
10 years later the place shut down and was sold to developers who tore down half of it to build a mega shopping center and saved the other half for manufacturing and warehouse space.
My wife got me a huge rolling toolbox before they closed.
Sad to see. My grandfather bought my
first .22 rifle at a Sears store when I
was 12. Back then, you could purchase
just about anything in one location.
Wal-Mart wiped them out
Sears/Roebuck was an American institution.