Sears Was the Amazon.com of the 20th Century-- Part 1: "God Almighty, Sears Roebuck and Gene Talmadge"

From the May 14, 2017, Chicago Tribune "Chicago Flashback"  by Ron Grossman.

As I read the nearly weekly accounts of the demise of Sears, this makes for a sad article.  It is a victim of the American people and that guy and his hedge fund who bought it and K-Mart.

From 1906 to 1987, Sears, Roebuck and Co. shipped the ingredients of a middle class life from its sprawling distribution center at 925 S. Homan Avenue in Chicago.  And, sprawling it was.  One of the buildings alone stretched a block wide  and a quarter-mile long with every inch used.

By July 4, 1906, Sears was receiving 75,000 letters a day.  In response, the mail-order company sent its 6 million customers everything from clothing, shoes, furniture, white leghorn chickens, a fully assembled Sears buggy and even kits to build a two-bedroom home.

Many of Sears' early customers were farmers out in rural areas where stores were rare and prices high.  Sears proclaimed itself to be "The Cheapest Supply House on Earth."

"The poor dirt farmer ain't got but three friends on this earth:  God almighty, Sears Roebuck and Gene Talmadge," said Georgia's populist governor in the 1930s and 1940s.

--CootSears