A Short History of the Late Great Sears-- Part 1: The Beginning

From the May 14, 2017, Chicago Tribune "Sears was the Amazon.com of the 20th century" by Ron Grossman.

The history of Sears began on April 1, 1887, when Alvah Roebuck answered a want ad in a Chicago newspaper:  "Watchmaker wanted who can furnish tools, State age, experience, and salary required.  Address T 39."  Two days later he go a letter from Richard Sears, who was selling watches by mail.

Sears and Roebuck became partners, established a firm in Chicago and revolutionized the mail-order business by offering a money-back guarantee if customers weren't satisfied.  In the new firm's catalog, they boasted "We Can't Afford To Lose a Customer.

It didn't take them long to branch out from those watches.  Then came jewelry. silverware and then all sorts of things.

In 1897, Roebuck sold his interest in the company.  Hit hard by the stock market collapse in 1929, he returned to the company in 1933.

An American Success Story.  --DaCootBuck

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

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 1: Vacuum Cleaner and Mail-Order Retail

From the January 12, 2014, Chicago Tribune by James Janega. //// A lot of noteworthy things have been accomplished in Chicag in its 180 years and these are 20 of them. I will be listing and saying a little about some of them, but to see the whole thing, go to www.blueskyinnovation.com. //// 20. THE VACUUM CLEANER 1868-- Before 1868 and Ives W. McGaffey, "cleaning up" meant sweeping. McGaffey used prior technology in the area and created a $25 *(a real lot of money back then) machine that used a hand crank and models were sold in Chicago and Boston. Most were lost in the Chicago Fire of 1871, but two remain. // 19. MAIL-ORDER RETAIL (1872)-- Aaron Montgomery Ward came up with the idea of mail-order retail. In those days before the malls and such, store owners had the local monopoly and middle men ran up prices. Ward's idea was to buy inventory with cash, cut selling costs by eliminating retail overhead and deliver drygoods at local train stations. Farmers were his primary market. Sears soon followed suit and the great catalogs came to be. I sure loved looking at the catalogs while I was growing up, especially the Christmas ones when I was a kid. //// Especially the Soldier sets Like Blue and Gray. --Cooter