Monkey Ward
When I was a lad in the 1950’s we received both Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. The Sears was always quite a bit larger, nearly 3 inch thick, perhaps a third bigger but they both were large catalogs. Also every Christmas we received a Sears Wishbook, which was probably 1/2 inch thick.
I think we ordered from Sears most of the time simply because they had a bigger catalog. Montgomery Ward began in 1872 with a catalog of one sheet with 163 items. Clothes, furniture, farm equipment, nearly anything you could want. A standard Sears catalog had 672 pages and weighed nearly 4 lb. It was a monster. In 1896 Sears started producing a catalog nearly 24 years after Montgomery Ward. By the year 1900 Sears outsold Montgomery Ward and in 1950 they mailed out 20 million copies of their catalog each year.
Now anyone, from New York City to Antwerp, Ohio, could buy nearly anything. But in the 1920s, the roaring 20’s, another trend took place. People started getting cars and now they were able to travel to town to shop. Sears took the lead in brick and mortar stores. In 1926 Ward had 244 stores and Sears had over twice that, 531 stores. Sears clearly took the lead. I don’t remember any Montgomery Ward store in Fort Wayne, but we had a Sears since I can remember.
Now you could go to the store and actually sit in that rocking chair before you bought it. In 1940 there was a nationwide strike. Montgomery Ward would not cooperate. Also Roosevelt wanted all factories to produce war goods and Montgomery Ward didn’t cooperate so the government took over the company. The company had already been having trouble and in 1930 they lost 1 million dollars.
In 1930 JP Morgan replaced the CEO of Montgomery Ward, with a money man by the name of Sewell Aster. When the government took over, he would not leave so they carried him out in his chair. After the war Sewell thought there would be a depression so he started selling away assets. Sears responded by building brand new stores in the suburbs.
I personally remember two incidents. My dad had a trailer and he had a Sears tire on one wheel and a Wards tire on the other. The Sears was a big bulky tire and the Wards tire was a thin flimsy looking tire. The Sears tire went flat so many times he couldn’t keep it on the rim. The Wards tire had never gone flat. In the early ’60s My wife and I lived near Salem, Oregon. I went to town and bought a push mower, a Wards. Apparently they had had a store there.
The mower was terrible. Sears had a mower similar to Lawn Boy. Two cycle engine, and a heavy aluminum deck. My mower had a bent steel deck which let the wheels fall off, it was a piece of junk. I had one incident with it, we had a ditch along the road and I slipped and got my foot under the mower. To this day I thank God that I didn’t get hurt.
Montgomery Ward was the company that invented Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer. In 1998, their advertising agency produced a coloring book with the story of Rudolph. They distributed 12.4 million copies. Wards was the developers of satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. They also were the first to use credit cards.
I felt Sears did too many things. It did home improvement and was my competitor, and sold insurance. I think All State is still in business.
Montgomery Ward always took a back seat to Sears. I guess time changes and you must be looking ahead to the latest trend. If either one of these Giants have seen etrade coming we probably wouldn’t have Amazon today. Pretty tough for us guys that don’t keep up with the fashions.
—James Neuhouser
