The Sears and Roebuck Catalog
Wow! an American institution that has affected all of us. In 1886 Richard Warren Sears was a station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota when a shipment of watches was received but no one claimed them. Rather than send them back Richard offered to buy the lot for $12 each.
He printed a flyer and sold his watches for $14 each. Then he met Olva Roebuck, a watchmaker, and they decided to go into the watch business together. They made a brochure of watches and mailed the brochure as a mass mailing, and were selling watches through the mail, which was an entirely new concept. Then in 1896 something happened that was revolutionary. Rural free delivery, RFD.
They made up a catalog which sold virtually everything. Farm machinery, household items, clothing, sewing machines and plows. In the days when the nearest store was a days wagon ride away, the ordinary person could buy anything at their fingertips. People spend hours pouring over the catalog thinking about things they wanted.
Sears produced a special catalog called a Wishbook for Christmas, and kids would go through and spent hours marking things that they would like to have for Christmas. In 1925 they opened up a brick and mortar store on Chicago’s west side. I remember the first Fort Wayne Sears store was the building that Kohl’s operates in Northcrest Shopping Center. The thing that set Sears apart was their unmatched guarantee and customer service.
Everyone remembers the Craftsman line of power tools, Kenmore refrigerators, Diehard batteries and many more. Kenmore was actually made by Whirlpool which is still one of the best. I remember using Craftsman tools in the 1950s on up until almost the year 2000. You could dig a Craftsman tool up out of a cemetery or find one on the street, take it in and they would give you a new one.
I bought my first car in 1956 and when I needed tires I bought a set of Sears white walls. Tubeless tires were just coming out and they had a problem of developing a bulge under the outside layer. They must have given me several new sets of tires before they got that problem fixed. I used a 16-ft steel tape and They broke quite often through constant use. I must have used nearly a dozen new tape rulers. Who guarantees a tape ruler? It carried the name Craftsman.
I remember walking into the Sears store in Glenbrook with the smell of caramel corn and shoe leather, and heading to the tool section. In the center of the store was a candy store with the best chocolates I have ever eaten. I remember at winter time they had a butter fruit cake that was to die for. Later, they took out the candy store and things just weren’t the same. We probably clothed our entire family with clothes purchased from Sears.
In 1974 the company built Sears Tower in Chicago, which was the tallest building in the world for 20 some years.
But there were some new kids on the block. Kmart sold a cheaper line of goods. In 1993 Sears merged with Kmart but they both kept sinking. If they would have seen the trend of selling on e-commerce, they would have been in business.
Things change and it is difficult to see what is trending. For our entire family Glenbrook Mall was the happening place. It’s been eons since I’ve been there and I don’t think I would care to go. I would rather just remember it the way it was.
One of the coolest uses for a Sears Roebuck catalog, was shooting a rifle bullet into it. Would the bullet go through? Only one way to find out. A 22 caliber bullet would go about halfway through. It smashed the bullet and took an unusual shape. Guess we could have been forensic guys.
—James Neuhouser
