And yet we have 60 Minutes interviewing big wigs of companies saying "we don't see people applying for retail jobs anymore" why do you think? Because we cannot live off a salary like this in 2023.
buck up, kiddo! get up off your boot straps like I did! jk I totally agree. it's horrible out there. and they have the nerve brag about low unemployment rates, too.
Heres another explanation besides greedy corporations and landlords. Back then, retail was a booming industry that was in higher demand. The internet basically took that away. So now, people work computer tech jobs or info analysts to be in the same socioeconomic status. The job market changed and we're adapting.
@@47rushing Yup, i feel like theres a trend with the generations that were coming of age between 1950s until 1980s... many of those individuals have no perception or foresight and view all change as the end of the world as we know it LOL
Yep! Definitely a memory I didn’t realize I had until watching this. (was 13 in 91) .. Some stores took longer than others to phase out that old tech, but it was gone before you knew it.
it's nice to see that the slow outdated technology sears used to use did not go to waste. Now what's left of JC penny uses it for their checkout lanes lol.
Christmas time in the malls during the 80's and early 90's was such a special time. Everything was decked out, they were absolutely packed with people, and not a single vacant space in the building. Now if the mall isn't closed down, there's only a couple shops open, and usually vagrants hanging around. So sad where society has fallen to.
It pronounces the adlibs with such a attic strict structure that the free lance becomes so intuitive of compromise of innocence that contain fine writing-use.
I still remember Elder Beerman having a huge Christmas display with a 2 story tree next to the stairs. It was at the main entrance and the stairs were all glass, wood and chrome with white marble floors ( no I dunno if it was actual marble bit to my kid brain it sure seemed like it) There was red velvet ribbon wrapped up the staircase and giant teddy bears at the base of tree.
No, it wasn't a classier and polite society back then! Using FBI data, the violent crime rate in the U.S. fell 49% between 1993 and 2019, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-68%), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (-47%) and aggravated assault (-43%). The years 1990-1994 were the years with the highest crime rates. I was in my late 20's during those years and I know from personal experience that there were a lot of evildoers committing lots of crimes in this country.
It's funny because I was 18 in 1991. You think it's always gonna be this way....but then, looking back, you see how much times have changed...the simplicity of things. I took them for granted.
It is funny that it seems so simple to us now. I was 19 then. I look back and realize the 90s really were a great time to be alive, much less in your 20s. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
My dad died 9 years ago but whenever we entered sears he would stay in the tool section for hours talking to everyone like he knew them lol. 😂❤ it was awesome when people would have real life conversations with people like it was a normal thing (which it was back then).
When I worked retail at lowes I did that with people. I made sure you left with what you needed because I knew that at the end of the day you were a person not just a transaction and that because of that no BS approach that you would come back. I got to learn a lot about people & for the most part we are alll the same person just wanting to be heard. I’m sure that your dad did that with people because he knew that sometimes those conversations were what people needed and deep down made him happy. God bless 🍻
YOUR DAD DID THAT TOO!? HAHAHA... My dad thought he was a tool salesman helper or something lol... I think a lot of dads did what yours did at that time.
Worked retail in 97. It was fun. I miss the 80's and 90's so freakin much. People were so much better and actually had social skills, patience, compassion, and interacted. No standing around face glued to cell phone oblivious to the world. I'm thankful there were no phones/internet when I went to school. In a way, I wish they had never been invented. Total downfall of humanity socially and mentally.
@@disappearintothesea in 1991? No, they absolutely weren’t. I feel like a lot of you don’t actually remember the 90s, and you’re just attributing a bygone era with what you wish life was like today. It’s weird as hell, honestly.
@@POLO-sj6og Yeah they did and even worse were the Sears Outlet stores in the 1980's that sold the past season, catalog returns, and overstock that no one wanted. My mom bought all my (super ugly) school clothes at Sears Outlet. 😢
Oh the days of dressing up for work, then heading straight to the mall for a quick bite at the food court and then shopping to find what we needed/wanted. It sounds so simple yet there was so much satisfaction in getting things done that needed to get done.
I was 7 years old in 1991 when this was filmed, but distinctly remember those clunky, loud cash registers. I really miss them. What I can't help but notice when watching these old videos, is how many "thank you's" were exchanged between both employees and customers. Customer service and doing business was special, and not merely just transactional. There was a level of respect and courtesy in our society back then that we desperately need to bring back. Thank you for sharing - this brings back so many memories!
that was the printing of the receipt, back when they used ink instead of this thermal ink stuff of the 2000's. I have receipts with ink that I can still read 30 years later, but the thermal ones fade in like a week!
@@jenniferburchill3658 of course if you notice they have gotten rid of the yellow receipt duplicates long ago where you signed on the white paper and they would hand you which ever one back those never faded
It’s because back then, this was the main way to buy things, outside of mail order (which took forever), so there was an added incentive to be polite. Acting rude and getting banned from your local Sears or K-Mart (Walmart hadn’t overtaken them yet) was the last thing anyone wanted to do. Now, customers can be as rude as they want, because they know in the worst case scenario, they can just order what they need on Amazon and have it shipped overnight instead. It’s all about instant gratification now. Wages have also stagnated since that time, which most likely has also significantly added to everyones’ stress levels as a whole.
I had the privilege of working for Sears during the late 2000’s for a couple of months as a sales associate, and met really good coworkers while working there. Back then even customers were more patient and respectful towards one another. How times have changed!
You’re looking at the past through rose colored glasses. I worked at Starbucks when I was 16-17, also in the late 2000s, and absolutely no one was patient. That’s absurd. In fact, I’d argue that people are more patient in stores today, because they are less crowded now that so many people shop online. Wait times are shorter, fighting over goods on Black Friday is becoming a thing of the past. Now everyone gets their deals online. You all seem to remember what you want to remember.
@@dewilew2137 your right about Black Friday deals and Boxing day sales too, It was a nightmare, a sea of people tightly packed by the door waiting for the store to open and whoosh!!!!!! everyone entered at once climbing over each other to get that special toy for they're kid or the latest tv, home movie player or gaming console, that's one thing from the 80s and 90s that i do not miss!!!!!
You're being ridiculous. I worked in a supermarket from 2007 to 2013 through high school and college, and I remember dealing with plenty of jerks back then
@@rosealldays Your comment makes the most logic sense. Starbucks are such a fast paced environment and customers tend to get angsty about their orders just like with any other fast food place. They also sound so pressed they had to work at Starbucks. People have different experiences and I had a good experience while I worked at Sears.
Funny thing is, they're swiping the credit cards. That's actually an advancement from the 80s, where you'd set you card in the little fixture and roll over it to make an impression of the embossed letters, numbers on the front of the card. Using a magnetic strip was hi tech!
Sears and most higher end retail stores were doing the magnetic strip by 1991 I remember as a youth. The only places I remember still sliding your card across that contraption was grocery stores mostly.
Take me back to this time, in a heartbeat. Ever since we invented smartphones, the internet and social media, we have become a dumber society with a rapid decline in morals.
@@TheFrenchPug actually our instant Internet knowledge takes longer to solve than talking to actual people who answered phone, knew the answer to your question. We waste so much time on internet esp social media. A waste of time.
@Deb In some cases, I can totally agree with you. I used to work at Circuit City in the late 80s, 90s, and mid 2000's. People used to contact us and consider us the subject matter experts. But when the internet landed, our customers started coming in much more knowledgeable and just verified the information they researched. Made it a lot faster sale for us :)
Me too. Growing up in the military we were often stationed overseas and received the Sears catalog through our APO address. It really was be a treat to receive and go through. Our mom allowed my brothers and I to go through the catalog and pick one thing out that we could buy with our savings. Our parents would match the amount that we had saved $ for $. We would spend hours at the kitchen table. Really innocent fun and it taught us the value of a dollar.
I'm feeling store Hallmark movie explained to come stereo with gestured foundation type of the vertue that was making nice vanity museums with stash stadium update.
I'm a thing that is vibrant on a level to-do list of things that are special in a thing that offers tribe with a true story of wireless Co functions that for obvious reasons category.
People were politically correct without being politically correct.. One thing I notice is women were much more feminine and classy back in those days, you can just see it in their body language and by listening to the tone of their voice.. Today young women, and by young I mean under 40 wanna act so tough, they strut like men, they got a mean look in their eyes, they just don't know how to carry themselves anymore.. This is something I especially see in my area..
I was 13 in 1991. What I take away from this video is how much the checkout has evolved over the course of my life. When I was a child every item’s price was manually keyed in to the register and there was a bagger that would even take your groceries to your car. As a teen the items were tallied with upc codes and the cashier bagged your things for you to carry out. As a young adult we scanned our own items, handled the money exchange and bagged our own purchases. Now in middle age you order online and you can have it delivered or you can pickup and now there’s even drone/robot delivery. There used to be so much more normal daily human interaction. We need that back.
Back in High School I worked at large grocery store as a bagger and if you were over the age of 60 it was pretty much a given that I'd load your car for you. It wasn't even a question. I just did it and they appreciated the heck out of it.
i'm sorry...but i was 13 also i '91. What store at that time was manually putting in the prices of each item? Every store I went into had scanners. We had baggers in our store but they never carried out the grocies to the car, who would bag the next customers groceries?
Remember when you'd go to the video store to rent something new? Sometimes you'd ask a stranger passingby for recommendation. Or you'd stumble on something new. Being able to pick a video with your girl was a way better experience then endlessly scrolling online for some movie. We exchanged memorable experiences over ease. We chose fast food over homecooked meals.
Phones aren't even phones anymore. They are more like consumption devices. The fact that you can make phone calls with them is ancillary to their primary feature of being for gorging "content". Peak cell phones probably happened around 2005-ish. So when we talk about what "phones" have done, I think it is worth pointing out that they aren't even really a thing anymore. You look like a dinosaur if you pull out a flip phone.
@@atomsmash100 I can recall when large-beaked birds complained about having to type in the prices on the register. All the cars at the automotive center had large holes in the bottom for feet. Okay... so I'm old.
@@Galidorquest yeah its very expensive to buy new cash registers so it made economical sense to stick with what worked. I even remember some small stores that used 1930s cash registers in the 1980s - the big tall ornate brass ones
Gosh I miss those days. Everyone was so polite and well dressed. My grandma used to take me to Sears for back to school clothes shopping. Love the sounds from those cash registers❤
One thing I always notice when I see an old video like this, is just how much older people worked normal "teenage jobs" back in the day. Today if that store was still around, every employee would be 16-25 and as a result the quality of service would be much lower. It's always interesting to see.
I work retail, been with the same company for 17 years...I'm 49 now. I'm grateful everyday that I have mostly older people as my coworkers....we get shit done.. Oh and blackroan, it may be shocking to you we have tatoos and I have a nose ring, GASP...are you clutching your pearls even more feverishly than before? It doesn't change anything about anyone's performance on the job and it's 2023 my friend...
That first one was pretty young. She was doing a 'warm transfer' while ringing people up, had to remember phone numbers, register codes, count cash, write on a receipt...she actually worked at work. Seems more common today for them to just be texting between customers and get annoyed at having to leave their conversation when you ask for help. Makes me think the differences are more culture than age related.
@@BoltRM Your comment made me LOL. That reminds me of how some of the big stores back then used to smell like popcorn. Also, there would always be a random Icee cup sitting around somewhere. I remember Sears used to have a candy counter that sold those colorful dots on paper that you scrape off with your teeth. Nothing like walking on smashed popcorn while scraping candy off of paper with your teeth!
Great. Then get off the internet. No one is forcing you to use it. It should be easy for you to do, seeing as things were so much better then. While you’re at it, give up your smartphone and get a corded phone. Maybe a clear plastic one. 😉
Using FBI data, the violent crime rate in the U.S. fell 49% between 1993 and 2019, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-68%), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (-47%) and aggravated assault (-43%). So things obviously improved quite a bit. Do research before leaving bogus comments.
@@salvation4all313 If you took the time to see the context in which I made my comment you would understand what I meant. Although I have MUCH better things to do than to educate brain dead people about a 4 week old comment, for you I will make an exception. This video was about shopping at Sears in 1991. Things have changed for the worse in that now most of these stores have closed and most of the purchases are made online with zero human interaction or being able to actually shop. Does this clear this up for you bonehead?
I will always be thankful to Sears for having ONE Sega Dreamcast left at launch, when everyone else were sold out. Just hearing the name "Sears" I always think about this one very fond memory from when I was 13. I remember I was going crazy running around my local mall on 9/9/99 trying to find a Dreamcast with no luck, I kept getting laughed at when I would ask a store if they had any left. So we were about to leave and I was like, "There's one last place we can check, but it's a long shot. Sears." Hey, I was desperate. 😂 I hadn't set foot in that Sears at the mall in freaking years because I never had any reason to, back then I got all my clothes from Pacific Sunwear, lol, so I didn't even know if they had a video game section anymore. Obviously, I assumed it was in the electronics section, so we ran straight to it, but unfortunately, no video games. At this point I was truly deflated and accepted I wasn't going to find one and we started walking towards the exit, but then, while walking past the children's clothing section all the way in one of the corners, I could hear a TV playing video game sounds but couldn't see where it was coming from, so we just followed the sounds. Squeezing through the racks of clothing we discovered this tiny little counter with a single cash register, one employee, and one single cabinet behind it holding the games for sale with a 12 inch TV integrated into the top of it playing game trailers on a loop, with a spot on the bottom for consoles, and there it was. ONE. SINGLE. DREAMCAST. I never bought anything so fast in my life! 🤘 Sorry for the wall of text, but I love that story, it's one of my favorite childhood memories.
The Dreamcast was sick, my homie had one. He had Resident Evil Code Veronica on there (my first exposure to RE) and I loved that during the loading screens Claire's face appeared on the controller screen. Imagine how many of those little animations were made to pair with games and they're long forgotten now ... I wish there was a collection of them all somewhere to view, maybe somebody compiled them
The Dreamcast was your Turbo Man haha Great story! I bet you had a blast just reading over the box on your way home and then playing it the rest of that day.
Remember the Sears Catalogue? I used to circle all the toys I wanted and would put the catalogue on my parents bed. Never worked, but it was always fun to flip through hundreds of pages of toys, electronics. and watches etc..
I miss Sears. A Sears store growing up in the 70s and 80s had everything including a candy counter where you could pick up some French Burnt peanuts or a hot, soft pretzel. Sears always had better toys than JC Penney, too. A few years ago, I needed to get a new electric razor and a new pair of shoes. Of course, I knew exactly where in the old Sears store I would have gone back in the day. It was always the best place to buy Father's Day gifts too. If it said Craftsmen, you knew it was a good gift.
You know what I remember about the 80s and 90s, was the fact that if you went into any store and your credit card didn't work or it was declined, they would cut it up right in front of everyone. Man, people use to really get their butts embarrassed back then.😂😂😂😂
I remember that. I was a cashier at a department store in the mid-late 90's. Everyone hated that call. The cashier, the owner of the card and the people in line.
My mom worked for Sears for years, mostly in hardware. The stories she would tell about people being rude, how mangers would make her accept returns on old, worn out tools that didn’t even come from Sears (they were other store brands), and how managers would NEVER back her up when a customer came in acting like a total prick. She wasn’t some seasonal employee, she was full-time with years of experience and a wonderful and caring personality. The customers just knew that if they pitched a fit on the floor, the management would do whatever it took to shut them up and get them moving. I always see these nostalgic posts about “times being simpler then”, how they wish “people were the way they where in the XX’s”. That’s the thing about nostalgia, you don’t tend to remember that at the time, you could not wait to escape your current problems in the future. There never was “a golden era”, though every generation claims there was in their childhoods.
Rude, unsavory customers are in every generation. And the notion that 'the customer is always right' was big back then. Yet that isn't the bar to consider what is or is not a golden era. I'd say it weighs heavily on prosperity and safety. And that weights heavily on opportunity, individual morality and cultural coherency. The people I experienced back then WERE generally nicer to each other in public more than they are today. It wasn't all roses, sure. Still dirtbags around. But I had more conversations with total strangers while shopping back then and a lot more manners 'excuse me' 'thank you' etc. More greetings and smiles too. Now most people are to themself and lots of impatience and rudeness. We also have more cultures too which doesn't help as each have different social norms that can clash. No more melting pot.
@@Dooblecaine Well, I would say that the more densely populated a place is, the more likely you are to run into rude, self-absorbed people. I travel full time for work, in an RV, not by plane. So, I spend everyday on the road dealing with every type of person in every state, rural and urban. I have been to every state twice within the last two years doing this, and I spend a couple of days to a couple of weeks in each. So, I see a huge cross section of Americans. Most people are nice or at least polite. Some are amazing and go out of their way to help. Some significant portion of people just keep to themselves and are indifferent to others around them. And some are real pieces of work that are best to be avoided. All kinds exist in all places, but it has been my experience that the less people there are in any given square mile, the less a-holes you run into. That may just be the law of large numbers working against us, and our tendency to remember negative experiences with people with greater fidelity than positive or neutral interactions. I haven’t found much of a correlation between cultures and baseline behavior that wasn’t better explained by the difference in income and social opportunity. Poor, blighted areas are less safe for everyone. Densely populated, poor areas are more unsafe because you are more likely to have a run in with one of those a-hole types who is also desperate and lacking security. The safest places seem to be less populated places with enough opportunity that personal security is a given. They don’t have to be rich places, in fact too much money can attract those who don’t have any. The best situation seems to be where people have enough not to worry about their own circumstances on a daily basis and aren’t right on top of each other.
Not so fast. I think you are the one painting with too broad of a stroke. Your mom would report the outliers, as any of us would. The 80s and 90s had crime, rudeness, and traffic wrecks, sure. But huge swaths of America were accustomed to very cordial retail situations with customer service being key. You have to go to a specialty shop to find it now. The big retailers just hire part-timers to press buttons and shrug their shoulders now.
@@AllAmericanGuyExpert That’s a fair point; that my mom would preferentially report the outliers. As you say, everyone would. Though, you must concede that more contemporary negative experiences are far easier to recall than decades-old ones. I will concede that the employment dynamics have changed completely, in fact began to change towards the end of my mom’s career with companies moving to part time employees to avoid paying decent wages and benefits due to full-time employees. I completely agree that this profit-taking strategy has disastrous effects on customer service. Employers are not invested in the success of employees beyond extracting maximum utility for their most productive years (or months) before discarding them for cheaper and more desperate labor. Experienced employees know that loyalty is now something expected but not reciprocated. The predictable result is young, inexperienced employees that take for granted that the job is temporary and unmeaningful, and experienced employees that have to take positions earning far lower buying power, fewer, more expensive, and less valuable benefits, with no stability or security whatsoever. People born in the ‘90s onward don’t even know what a pension or company retirement is. What used to be a stigma (bouncing around between jobs every couple of years) is now standard practice for survival and any hope for advancement. Accepting all of that, the “Golden Era” perspective remains serviceable. Another circumstance that colors people’s recollections of times gone by is what lot they fell into during their childhoods, and how the society divided resources among them. Since the 70’s-80s, we have seen a massive wealth redistribution upwards. People that felt secure in their lives by virtue of their race or other majority status are now being stripped of their wealth and influence as the people at the very top of the chain become increasingly unwilling to share and circulate wealth. We are hollowing out the “Middle Class” and a lot of people who feel like they had “made it”, or at least were convinced that they could make it, are finding out that Carlin was right when he said, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” But, for those groups that have never been secure, it’s the same old story. Nothing impoverishes the poor like poverty. So as more and more, formerly, “secure” folks are strip mined for resources, it feels like everything is spiraling downhill. But the truth is, it just used to not affect you so much, and now it is, and no one likes that.
I was 15, 16 years old in 1991. I remember it all so vividly. Terminator 2 was the biggest movie of that year, I was bonkers over that movie as a kid. I also remember defeating my arch nemesis, Chemistry and Algebra II in the spring of 1991, and pop culture really shifting in the fall of 1991. The 80s were old hat. Grunge started to become mainstream, along with gangsta rap. That was very different from how it was before 1991, where alternative music and gangsta rap existed on the fringe.
As someone has already said in comment section, it's a memory that I never knew I had till hearing this like over 2 decades later. Those sounds were the heartbeat of American stores back then. I was only 8 at the time of this video.
I miss those old school stores ..mervyns..zodys..gemco...Sears...Montgomery ward...kmart...gottchalks..aaaww and the sound of those old cash registers Bring back those old glorious times 1970s thur 2000s.
Gottschalk's was great, it was a one stop shop where I could buy everything my wife might want for her birthday, Christmas or even Valentines Day. Additionally, the courtesy gift wrapping was a real bonus. Couple that with their sales and newspaper coupons Gottschalk's hard to beat. My hometown had all of the stores you mentioned, each with their own merits. My grandmother loved to shop at Montgomery Ward and if she couldn't find the item on your Christmas list there, you weren't getting it and as a substitute, you got socks!
The beep reminds me of the beeps in Dr. Mario and other NES games of that era. I was just a little bugger in 1991 but my mother dragged me through there, and JCPenney and Kaufmanns all the time 🤣
The sound of that register instantly takes me back to going to Sears, Foleys, Joskes, etc with my mom! I recall those registers being used in the 80s too! I was fascinating with them, for some reason.
It’s amazing how many credit cards people used to carry around back in the day. We lived frugally on a farm when I was growing up so I never saw all the credits cards or how popular they were.
actually even by 1991 general purpose visa/mastercard type credit cards were not the norm for the working schmoe in the usa. a lot of the cards you see are store charge cards. us credit lending didn't start getting lax until the late 1990s
@@cosmeticscameo8277 Exactly, I came from a working class family, and I remember my dad basically being forced to get a credit card in 1990 because thats when they started really using a credit score to get a vehicle or house. My uncle had 1 credit card, but he was loaded. Most people didn't have them yet in 1991
For some reason, when I go to bed at night I will lament about the past. Maybe it's my body's way of calming myself (depressing myself to go to sleep! LOL) but, I think about the past. I think about things I miss and how badly I could go back there.
Good times! I bought several tools there with money I earned mowing yards and fixing things for neighbors in the late '90's to the early 2000's. One year Dad bought me a Craftsman tool set for Christmas, I still have it and use it often.
Wow! People used cash, sears CC! Now Apple Pay with ours phones.. the registers were so loud! Sounded like an old fax machine! Good times. Makes me nostalgic.
Late 80's/Early 90's: I am suddenly reminded of ALL the sounds in this fun "local news" archive b-roll clip with lots of well coiffed hair 😊 Upstairs Sears registers, anywhere near the clothing areas, were usually the big, loud, leftover box-stacked models, with ribbon tape that rattled in the one corner and let you know APPROVED OR DECLINED by the amount of receipt tape. Thems were kids visits with Mom. Downstairs, by the customer drive up, pickup area, was all the Craftsman, appliances and other outdoor lanai stuff (behind a fence, always). THOSE registers were so much more "cutting edge" sounding, usually manned by vets with amazing stories or whip-smart "early retirees." Those terminals downstairs always processed the big ticket stuff and so they were also usually the latest model register rollouts. Thems were trips with Dad. I had also forgotten about that damn WAND. Rarely was that thing ever without failure (swipe..... swipe.... 👃🏼💨 ssswwwwipe..... Acquiesce 🙄 .... MANUAL KEY IN that UPC bar code!!!..... machine go: trrrrkmkmmmmmmkkkkkmmmm CHK chk CHK chkrrrcrcc'rrrcc'rkrrrrr murr murrrrr mhmmhmmmmmmh'm'm'm') ✅💜
The sound of the register brings back good memories. Sears was a great place to shop. Burlington Center and Moorestown Mall had Sears. RIP to a once great department store.
@Vampire Robot I found out recently that we got a video rental place here in Jersey, called Video Express. Soon as I get a day off, I gotta go check it out. So awesome!!! 👌 We also got a couple of vintage arcades here, including one in Red Bank, that are so much fun to hang out at. Thank God they finally reopened after the stupid fuckin covid/pandemic shit.
Jesus Christ, I never thought I'd be on RUclips watching old videos of shopping at a department store. Life as we knew it is over, just waiting for the appocylpse now.
1991 was the year I graduated high school. I remember shopping at Sears and this is pretty much how it was. What blows me away is how similar things are today yet so much more complex & somehow society obliviously adapted with enthusiasm. I wonder if it was worth it 🤔
Sears' cash register system was later upgraded by installing sound deadening material or a "muffler" by CEO Eddie Lampert in 2020. A capital expense of over $4,000 that shockingly proved to not be enough to save the struggling retailer.
Eddy Lampert sure did install sound deadening material on the cash registers at Sears in 2020 when he closed most of the stores. He closed the stores and said he was closing the underperforming stores. He also made absolutely no attempt to open any Sears stores in thriving retail locations. All he wanted was the real estate, and assets Sears had. What a shame. He closed the stores so the cash registers could no longer ring. Before the closings he chased all the customers away by having poor customer service, and toxic Kmart management running the place.
I loved going to Sears with my parents, back when I was a kid. Something about the way it was laid out was always super practical, and it always felt awesome to wander around the appliance and tool sections - just made you feel like a man, looking at all the cool stuff that was "new" and "cutting edge". :)
Ours in Florida in the 80s had a little booth movie-watching thing. I don't know what it was called. My brother and I used to sit there while my mom shopped and watch old Mighty Mouse cartoons or we'd be in the toy dept. while she shopped.
I remember those older NCR cash registers - they would shake and vibrate so much when printing the receipt, journal, and imprinter. Plus they had that constant hum of the fan and what I thought was a built in drive.
The in-store Sears credit card was not easy credit to qualify for. If I'm not mistaken, consumers were not allowed to know the information in their credit report nor their credit score back then. Also, I think sears owned "Craftsman" tools back then and they had a lifetime warranty. This video brings back great memories, thanks for posting.
I seem to recall that you were allowed to check your credit on a limited basis. The rules on exactly how and when you could access that information were obtuse and confounding.
They still have Sears stores down here in Mexico, and they compete with other retailers as well as Amazon Mexico. The Sears stores down here are still viable because they try-and succeed-at being a viable alternative
I am so grateful some people decided to film some of the most mundane moments from our life so that we can watch them on youtube today. I would never in my life think that I would have been entertained by watching someone check out of sears almost 30 years ago but here we are in nostalgia world
Back when you can see Sears was fully stocked with merchandise, and there was none of that spread out look with big boxed items to make the place look like it was stocked when it really wasn't. Also this video was taken before the merger of Sears and Kmart which took place in 2004. Kmart destroyed Sears. Before the merger, , Kmart had a prior bankruptcy, and was poorly run, and managed. Kmart also already had Eddy Lambert as an investor, and already had several ownerships in other retailers. Kmart owned Sports Authority, Boarders Books, Walden Books, Payless Drug Stores, Builders Square (a home improvement chain like The Home Depot), and Sam's Club. When Kmart started loosing money before filing bankruptcy in 2002, Sam's Club was sold to Walmart, and Payless Drug Stores was sold to Rite Aid. All the other retailers they once owned and ran are all gone. When the shareholders of Sears and Kmart woted in favor of a merger in 2004, I knew at the time that Sears days were numbered.
I remember when I was a kid going to the candy department at Sears. All the different colors and flavors. My dad loved their candy fruit slices. And the tools! Everyone knew that Craftsman tools were the best.
Craftsman tools were the best when they were manufactured in the United States But then they became crapsman tools when they were manufactured in china
I worked at Sears in 2009 when I was 18 years old. Believe it or not Sears had the potential to buy this little online shop called Amazon that was known for its ebook readers. Considering Sears had a catalog all they needed was e-commerce support. Instead they focused on buying Kmart and Lands End. Wanna guess which decision was better?
@Cosmetics Cameo I'm not sure what wasn't clear? People tend to wax nostalgic on these videos and leave comments that aren't factual. Like the above dude claiming that Sears could have brought Amazon in 2009. 😂
2009 or 1999? Amazon wasn't nearly as big in 2009 as it is today, but they still were a power company. In 1999 I don't remember hearing of amazon back then. I actually don't remember anyone talking about amazon in 2009 but still it held power.
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Like so many others commenting here, I loved Sears. Especially as a teenager. Especially the Craftsman tool section! Yeah, some of the wrenches and sockets were a little crappy but a lot of the other hand tools were really good. USA-made! I still have and use many of those tools today.
These nostalgic videos can sometimes be so cruel. Yearning for lost youth. Looking back at simpler times. We maybe living those simpler now but we just dont know it. Nothing beats our childhood though.
every time I go out, I'm still in disbelief at what a horrifying hell hole the USA has devolved into over the last 20 years. I'm hoping to visit the Scandinavian countries in the next few years to "shop around" for somewhere else to live. there's nothing left in the USA that I even recognize any more. how did the crime, chaos and filth get so bad?
There are a lot of factors, but one important one is that no one is willing to do anything about it. Everyone is complacent to go to their job and get their paycheck. If you push people to change, they wont.
I was 7 years old in 1991, and had a great memorable childhood. Kids use to go out and have fun outdoors. We would knock at neighbours doors to see what they were doing. The good Ol days.
Man this reminds of Kmart and the old version of Walmart. Just seeing this brings back the scent, the vibe of it all. I know my brother has a lot of stories when he was a kid during this time about getting ice cream at the food court at Kmart. Thrifty’s ice cream was something else back then.
Back when you could work retail, support a family, buy a home, car and eventually retire with dignity. Those days are gone.
And yet we have 60 Minutes interviewing big wigs of companies saying "we don't see people applying for retail jobs anymore" why do you think? Because we cannot live off a salary like this in 2023.
buck up, kiddo! get up off your boot straps like I did! jk I totally agree. it's horrible out there. and they have the nerve brag about low unemployment rates, too.
Heres another explanation besides greedy corporations and landlords. Back then, retail was a booming industry that was in higher demand. The internet basically took that away. So now, people work computer tech jobs or info analysts to be in the same socioeconomic status. The job market changed and we're adapting.
@@blatio8131 Finally, someone with some damn sense. It’s so obvious that times have just changed due to technological advances.
@@47rushing Yup, i feel like theres a trend with the generations that were coming of age between 1950s until 1980s... many of those individuals have no perception or foresight and view all change as the end of the world as we know it LOL
The sound of the cash registers really gets me. I remember those sounds as a kid like it was yesterday. 😭
For real! It’s like hearing an old song!
🖥️: Beep...beep...beep...whirr...tap...tap...tap...plink...rip...rip...rip...zzz...zzz...rip!
Yep! Definitely a memory I didn’t realize I had until watching this. (was 13 in 91) .. Some stores took longer than others to phase out that old tech, but it was gone before you knew it.
Yup it really takes me back too. I was 6 during this time
it's nice to see that the slow outdated technology sears used to use did not go to waste. Now what's left of JC penny uses it for their checkout lanes lol.
Christmas time in the malls during the 80's and early 90's was such a special time. Everything was decked out, they were absolutely packed with people, and not a single vacant space in the building. Now if the mall isn't closed down, there's only a couple shops open, and usually vagrants hanging around. So sad where society has fallen to.
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Where the f_ck do you shop ?
It pronounces the adlibs with such a attic strict structure that the free lance becomes so intuitive of compromise of innocence that contain fine writing-use.
I still remember Elder Beerman having a huge Christmas display with a 2 story tree next to the stairs. It was at the main entrance and the stairs were all glass, wood and chrome with white marble floors ( no I dunno if it was actual marble bit to my kid brain it sure seemed like it) There was red velvet ribbon wrapped up the staircase and giant teddy bears at the base of tree.
No empire lasts forever
A much classier and polite society than the shit show we live in today.
Yeah. By far.
Absolutely
No, it wasn't a classier and polite society back then! Using FBI data, the violent crime rate in the U.S. fell 49% between 1993 and 2019, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-68%), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (-47%) and aggravated assault (-43%).
The years 1990-1994 were the years with the highest crime rates. I was in my late 20's during those years and I know from personal experience that there were a lot of evildoers committing lots of crimes in this country.
lol you think it was sunshine and rainbows in the 80s? Loool
@@xaviSF actually no, it wasn't
You know you've gotten old when everyone thinks 1991 is nostalgia.
No duh broski ;)
This was I the year i was born
lol it is old its 2023
@@mollieanne 23 yrs ago so yea, it is.
@@mollieanne I was 20 in in 1991 🤣🤣
It's funny because I was 18 in 1991. You think it's always gonna be this way....but then, looking back, you see how much times have changed...the simplicity of things. I took them for granted.
It is funny that it seems so simple to us now. I was 19 then. I look back and realize the 90s really were a great time to be alive, much less in your 20s. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
We all did
Yes. Me too. I was working down the street from the Sears at Waldenbooks. Anywhere, USA
I was 23 in 1991
Same. It’s the year I graduated high school. The 80’s were the most fun lol.
My dad died 9 years ago but whenever we entered sears he would stay in the tool section for hours talking to everyone like he knew them lol. 😂❤ it was awesome when people would have real life conversations with people like it was a normal thing (which it was back then).
Yeah, now the country is flooded with illegal immigrants and I do not speak spanish. The Democrats have destroyed the country.
When I worked retail at lowes I did that with people. I made sure you left with what you needed because I knew that at the end of the day you were a person not just a transaction and that because of that no BS approach that you would come back. I got to learn a lot about people & for the most part we are alll the same person just wanting to be heard. I’m sure that your dad did that with people because he knew that sometimes those conversations were what people needed and deep down made him happy. God bless 🍻
YOUR DAD DID THAT TOO!? HAHAHA... My dad thought he was a tool salesman helper or something lol... I think a lot of dads did what yours did at that time.
@@Cluez31 we still do it
@@ImAlwaysFrisky That was a time when people communicated and bonded over similar interests, no matter what background you came from.
Worked retail in 97. It was fun. I miss the 80's and 90's so freakin much. People were so much better and actually had social skills, patience, compassion, and interacted. No standing around face glued to cell phone oblivious to the world. I'm thankful there were no phones/internet when I went to school. In a way, I wish they had never been invented. Total downfall of humanity socially and mentally.
Jesus is god
Agree with you 110%
It’s almost better for us, we can rob these idiots blind without them even knowing. Silver lining to every cloud 👍
Amen!!!!
@@mipassionanime From now on, please use a capital letter G. Thanks.
What an amazing company it once was. Real people, buying real products, in a real store, talking, etc. what an amazing concept.
with CASH!
Well, not really that much talking going on there, but definitely the old dot matrix register printers filling in the gaps.
unpopular opinion here- but I’m glad I don’t have to shop like this personally. Seems like an annoying time suck. I do however, miss toy stores.
And most things were still made in America
@@disappearintothesea in 1991? No, they absolutely weren’t. I feel like a lot of you don’t actually remember the 90s, and you’re just attributing a bygone era with what you wish life was like today. It’s weird as hell, honestly.
My parents would take us to Sears for back to school shopping. I was 11 in 1991. The nostalgia is real.
Sears had horrible ugly clothes.
@@POLO-sj6og Yeah they did and even worse were the Sears Outlet stores in the 1980's that sold the past season, catalog returns, and overstock that no one wanted. My mom bought all my (super ugly) school clothes at Sears Outlet. 😢
I turned 11 in 1991 also. I loved to shop at Sears. Our one in North Carolina closed several years ago. So sad.😭
I was 12 🥹😊
Do you know what that means... it means you were born in 1980.
Oh the days of dressing up for work, then heading straight to the mall for a quick bite at the food court and then shopping to find what we needed/wanted. It sounds so simple yet there was so much satisfaction in getting things done that needed to get done.
I was 7 years old in 1991 when this was filmed, but distinctly remember those clunky, loud cash registers. I really miss them. What I can't help but notice when watching these old videos, is how many "thank you's" were exchanged between both employees and customers. Customer service and doing business was special, and not merely just transactional. There was a level of respect and courtesy in our society back then that we desperately need to bring back. Thank you for sharing - this brings back so many memories!
that was the printing of the receipt, back when they used ink instead of this thermal ink stuff of the 2000's. I have receipts with ink that I can still read 30 years later, but the thermal ones fade in like a week!
@@jackson5116 You have to wonder if that's done on purpose to prevent returns...
@@jenniferburchill3658 of course if you notice they have gotten rid of the yellow receipt duplicates long ago where you signed on the white paper and they would hand you which ever one back those never faded
It’s because back then, this was the main way to buy things, outside of mail order (which took forever), so there was an added incentive to be polite. Acting rude and getting banned from your local Sears or K-Mart (Walmart hadn’t overtaken them yet) was the last thing anyone wanted to do.
Now, customers can be as rude as they want, because they know in the worst case scenario, they can just order what they need on Amazon and have it shipped overnight instead. It’s all about instant gratification now. Wages have also stagnated since that time, which most likely has also significantly added to everyones’ stress levels as a whole.
Yes. People working in Retail were incredibly professional.
Obviously these people realize they are on camera but I’m amazed at how much more calm the shopping atmosphere seems.
And no chimps randomly starting a brawl. Good times right 😂
Right??? People BE SO IMPATIENT nowadays, the internet really ruined our Society. Everything has to be faster better more efficient.
It wasn’t a Black Friday sale. Even in the 90s people lost their mind on Black Friday.
The only thing not calm about the atmosphere were those mini-jackhammer receipt printers. You'd have to yell to be heard if those were running.
Well it obviously wasn’t filmed between thanksgiving and Christmas… probably a weekday early afternoon is my guess.
I had the privilege of working for Sears during the late 2000’s for a couple of months as a sales associate, and met really good coworkers while working there. Back then even customers were more patient and respectful towards one another. How times have changed!
You’re looking at the past through rose colored glasses. I worked at Starbucks when I was 16-17, also in the late 2000s, and absolutely no one was patient. That’s absurd. In fact, I’d argue that people are more patient in stores today, because they are less crowded now that so many people shop online. Wait times are shorter, fighting over goods on Black Friday is becoming a thing of the past. Now everyone gets their deals online. You all seem to remember what you want to remember.
@@dewilew2137 your right about Black Friday deals and Boxing day sales too, It was a nightmare, a sea of people tightly packed by the door waiting for the store to open and whoosh!!!!!! everyone entered at once climbing over each other to get that special toy for they're kid or the latest tv, home movie player or gaming console, that's one thing from the 80s and 90s that i do not miss!!!!!
You're being ridiculous. I worked in a supermarket from 2007 to 2013 through high school and college, and I remember dealing with plenty of jerks back then
@@dewilew2137 or maybe their experience was different then yours. The environment at Starbucks isn’t the same as a retail store
@@rosealldays Your comment makes the most logic sense. Starbucks are such a fast paced environment and customers tend to get angsty about their orders just like with any other fast food place. They also sound so pressed they had to work at Starbucks. People have different experiences and I had a good experience while I worked at Sears.
Funny thing is, they're swiping the credit cards. That's actually an advancement from the 80s, where you'd set you card in the little fixture and roll over it to make an impression of the embossed letters, numbers on the front of the card.
Using a magnetic strip was hi tech!
They actually had real-time validation systems going back to the late 70s but you had to manually punch in the numbers.
Sears and most higher end retail stores were doing the magnetic strip by 1991 I remember as a youth. The only places I remember still sliding your card across that contraption was grocery stores mostly.
Take me back to this time, in a heartbeat. Ever since we invented smartphones, the internet and social media, we have become a dumber society with a rapid decline in morals.
And life flies by at a much faster pace because you are compressing so many things that can get done in a day versus a week.
@@TheFrenchPug actually our instant Internet knowledge takes longer to solve than talking to actual people who answered phone, knew the answer to your question. We waste so much time on internet esp social media. A waste of time.
@Deb In some cases, I can totally agree with you. I used to work at Circuit City in the late 80s, 90s, and mid 2000's. People used to contact us and consider us the subject matter experts. But when the internet landed, our customers started coming in much more knowledgeable and just verified the information they researched. Made it a lot faster sale for us :)
Truer words were never spoken.
Wasn't the murder rate at an all time high around 1991, especially in and around Washington DC where this video was taken?
I miss Sears and the Sears catalogues
Especially the Christmas catalogue
Me too. Growing up in the military we were often stationed overseas and received the Sears catalog through our APO address. It really was be a treat to receive and go through. Our mom allowed my brothers and I to go through the catalog and pick one thing out that we could buy with our savings. Our parents would match the amount that we had saved $ for $. We would spend hours at the kitchen table. Really innocent fun and it taught us the value of a dollar.
the Wish Book I believe the Christmas catalog was called
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Mee too
Back when people were normal, calm, reasonable & used common sense & courtesy.
People have never been like that. Lol
It’s still like this for the most part in middle (red) America.
@@getcreative01 Red America? Lol You mean there's still racism and backward, knuckle dragging behavior.
Amen to this twice!!
People were politically correct without being politically correct.. One thing I notice is women were much more feminine and classy back in those days, you can just see it in their body language and by listening to the tone of their voice.. Today young women, and by young I mean under 40 wanna act so tough, they strut like men, they got a mean look in their eyes, they just don't know how to carry themselves anymore.. This is something I especially see in my area..
I was 13 in 1991. What I take away from this video is how much the checkout has evolved over the course of my life. When I was a child every item’s price was manually keyed in to the register and there was a bagger that would even take your groceries to your car. As a teen the items were tallied with upc codes and the cashier bagged your things for you to carry out. As a young adult we scanned our own items, handled the money exchange and bagged our own purchases. Now in middle age you order online and you can have it delivered or you can pickup and now there’s even drone/robot delivery. There used to be so much more normal daily human interaction. We need that back.
I agree. I still go to the brick & mortar grocery store. You have to bag your own, but there is still human interaction at least.
Back in High School I worked at large grocery store as a bagger and if you were over the age of 60 it was pretty much a given that I'd load your car for you. It wasn't even a question. I just did it and they appreciated the heck out of it.
i'm sorry...but i was 13 also i '91. What store at that time was manually putting in the prices of each item? Every store I went into had scanners. We had baggers in our store but they never carried out the grocies to the car, who would bag the next customers groceries?
Remember when you'd go to the video store to rent something new? Sometimes you'd ask a stranger passingby for recommendation. Or you'd stumble on something new. Being able to pick a video with your girl was a way better experience then endlessly scrolling online for some movie. We exchanged memorable experiences over ease. We chose fast food over homecooked meals.
@@mstrikesback168 Those were great times.
Social media and phones has done so much damage to our society, people had more respect back then and seemed happier.
"Seemed"
Predictable comment.
Phones aren't even phones anymore. They are more like consumption devices. The fact that you can make phone calls with them is ancillary to their primary feature of being for gorging "content". Peak cell phones probably happened around 2005-ish. So when we talk about what "phones" have done, I think it is worth pointing out that they aren't even really a thing anymore. You look like a dinosaur if you pull out a flip phone.
@@Wayzor_ and reply
👍🏻 agree 10000000000000%
I love those 80's/90's retail cash registers!
Wow, those sounds really take me back too. Love it!
@@atomsmash100 I can recall when large-beaked birds complained about having to type in the prices on the register. All the cars at the automotive center had large holes in the bottom for feet. Okay... so I'm old.
Some businesses still used those in the Early 00's.
@@Galidorquest yeah its very expensive to buy new cash registers so it made economical sense to stick with what worked. I even remember some small stores that used 1930s cash registers in the 1980s - the big tall ornate brass ones
No sweetie
The things we took for granted 😢❤
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Gosh I miss those days. Everyone was so polite and well dressed. My grandma used to take me to Sears for back to school clothes shopping. Love the sounds from those cash registers❤
One thing I always notice when I see an old video like this, is just how much older people worked normal "teenage jobs" back in the day. Today if that store was still around, every employee would be 16-25 and as a result the quality of service would be much lower. It's always interesting to see.
The employees now would likely have nose rings, tattoos, and pink and purple hair also.
retail jobs were generally always teens or older "retired" people who wanted a part time job to pass the time
I work retail, been with the same company for 17 years...I'm 49 now.
I'm grateful everyday that I have mostly older people as my coworkers....we get shit done..
Oh and blackroan, it may be shocking to you we have tatoos and I have a nose ring, GASP...are you clutching your pearls even more feverishly than before? It doesn't change anything about anyone's performance on the job and it's 2023 my friend...
That first one was pretty young. She was doing a 'warm transfer' while ringing people up, had to remember phone numbers, register codes, count cash, write on a receipt...she actually worked at work. Seems more common today for them to just be texting between customers and get annoyed at having to leave their conversation when you ask for help. Makes me think the differences are more culture than age related.
Awww, what I wouldn’t give for a candid video of shopping with my Grandma. I hope some of the people in these videos stumble upon them .
We've had a few which is exciting...more would be better though 🙂
I loved going to sears with my grandma. God time flys
@@ballinonabudget1130 I'm nostalgic for popcorn smushed into the carpet 😋
@@BoltRM Your comment made me LOL. That reminds me of how some of the big stores back then used to smell like popcorn. Also, there would always be a random Icee cup sitting around somewhere. I remember Sears used to have a candy counter that sold those colorful dots on paper that you scrape off with your teeth. Nothing like walking on smashed popcorn while scraping candy off of paper with your teeth!
@@starfishcoffee8933 LMAO
Our world has changed so much, and not for the better.
Great. Then get off the internet. No one is forcing you to use it. It should be easy for you to do, seeing as things were so much better then. While you’re at it, give up your smartphone and get a corded phone. Maybe a clear plastic one. 😉
@@dewilew2137 You are angry lonely person. I hope you don't kiss your cats with that mouth.
Using FBI data, the violent crime rate in the U.S. fell 49% between 1993 and 2019, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-68%), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (-47%) and aggravated assault (-43%).
So things obviously improved quite a bit. Do research before leaving bogus comments.
@@salvation4all313 If you took the time to see the context in which I made my comment you would understand what I meant. Although I have MUCH better things to do than to educate brain dead people about a 4 week old comment, for you I will make an exception. This video was about shopping at Sears in 1991. Things have changed for the worse in that now most of these stores have closed and most of the purchases are made online with zero human interaction or being able to actually shop. Does this clear this up for you bonehead?
I will dance on your grave
I will always be thankful to Sears for having ONE Sega Dreamcast left at launch, when everyone else were sold out. Just hearing the name "Sears" I always think about this one very fond memory from when I was 13. I remember I was going crazy running around my local mall on 9/9/99 trying to find a Dreamcast with no luck, I kept getting laughed at when I would ask a store if they had any left. So we were about to leave and I was like, "There's one last place we can check, but it's a long shot. Sears." Hey, I was desperate. 😂
I hadn't set foot in that Sears at the mall in freaking years because I never had any reason to, back then I got all my clothes from Pacific Sunwear, lol, so I didn't even know if they had a video game section anymore. Obviously, I assumed it was in the electronics section, so we ran straight to it, but unfortunately, no video games.
At this point I was truly deflated and accepted I wasn't going to find one and we started walking towards the exit, but then, while walking past the children's clothing section all the way in one of the corners, I could hear a TV playing video game sounds but couldn't see where it was coming from, so we just followed the sounds. Squeezing through the racks of clothing we discovered this tiny little counter with a single cash register, one employee, and one single cabinet behind it holding the games for sale with a 12 inch TV integrated into the top of it playing game trailers on a loop, with a spot on the bottom for consoles, and there it was. ONE. SINGLE. DREAMCAST. I never bought anything so fast in my life! 🤘
Sorry for the wall of text, but I love that story, it's one of my favorite childhood memories.
The Dreamcast was sick, my homie had one. He had Resident Evil Code Veronica on there (my first exposure to RE) and I loved that during the loading screens Claire's face appeared on the controller screen. Imagine how many of those little animations were made to pair with games and they're long forgotten now ... I wish there was a collection of them all somewhere to view, maybe somebody compiled them
i really hope you still have that Dreamcast! its like walking through the forest and finding something interesting
I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks from Ireland 🇮🇪
The Dreamcast was your Turbo Man haha
Great story! I bet you had a blast just reading over the box on your way home and then playing it the rest of that day.
Thats Awesome!😊
Remember the Sears Catalogue? I used to circle all the toys I wanted and would put the catalogue on my parents bed. Never worked, but it was always fun to flip through hundreds of pages of toys, electronics. and watches etc..
Straight to the Bra section🤣
I miss Sears. A Sears store growing up in the 70s and 80s had everything including a candy counter where you could pick up some French Burnt peanuts or a hot, soft pretzel. Sears always had better toys than JC Penney, too. A few years ago, I needed to get a new electric razor and a new pair of shoes. Of course, I knew exactly where in the old Sears store I would have gone back in the day. It was always the best place to buy Father's Day gifts too. If it said Craftsmen, you knew it was a good gift.
The Craftsman tools were made in USA in those days. I still have my fathers old set of craftsman tools.
Craftsman tools are better than any tools made today😊
@Rick in Mexico there is still the Sears store
I remember the candy counter well!!
Yep, I remember the candy counter.
You know what I remember about the 80s and 90s, was the fact that if you went into any store and your credit card didn't work or it was declined, they would cut it up right in front of everyone. Man, people use to really get their butts embarrassed back then.😂😂😂😂
I remember that. I was a cashier at a department store in the mid-late 90's. Everyone hated that call. The cashier, the owner of the card and the people in line.
They gave no fucks about feelings back then. You messed up, you messed up.
My mom worked for Sears for years, mostly in hardware. The stories she would tell about people being rude, how mangers would make her accept returns on old, worn out tools that didn’t even come from Sears (they were other store brands), and how managers would NEVER back her up when a customer came in acting like a total prick. She wasn’t some seasonal employee, she was full-time with years of experience and a wonderful and caring personality. The customers just knew that if they pitched a fit on the floor, the management would do whatever it took to shut them up and get them moving. I always see these nostalgic posts about “times being simpler then”, how they wish “people were the way they where in the XX’s”. That’s the thing about nostalgia, you don’t tend to remember that at the time, you could not wait to escape your current problems in the future. There never was “a golden era”, though every generation claims there was in their childhoods.
Rude, unsavory customers are in every generation. And the notion that 'the customer is always right' was big back then. Yet that isn't the bar to consider what is or is not a golden era. I'd say it weighs heavily on prosperity and safety. And that weights heavily on opportunity, individual morality and cultural coherency.
The people I experienced back then WERE generally nicer to each other in public more than they are today. It wasn't all roses, sure. Still dirtbags around. But I had more conversations with total strangers while shopping back then and a lot more manners 'excuse me' 'thank you' etc. More greetings and smiles too. Now most people are to themself and lots of impatience and rudeness. We also have more cultures too which doesn't help as each have different social norms that can clash. No more melting pot.
@@Dooblecaine Well, I would say that the more densely populated a place is, the more likely you are to run into rude, self-absorbed people. I travel full time for work, in an RV, not by plane. So, I spend everyday on the road dealing with every type of person in every state, rural and urban. I have been to every state twice within the last two years doing this, and I spend a couple of days to a couple of weeks in each. So, I see a huge cross section of Americans. Most people are nice or at least polite. Some are amazing and go out of their way to help. Some significant portion of people just keep to themselves and are indifferent to others around them. And some are real pieces of work that are best to be avoided. All kinds exist in all places, but it has been my experience that the less people there are in any given square mile, the less a-holes you run into. That may just be the law of large numbers working against us, and our tendency to remember negative experiences with people with greater fidelity than positive or neutral interactions.
I haven’t found much of a correlation between cultures and baseline behavior that wasn’t better explained by the difference in income and social opportunity. Poor, blighted areas are less safe for everyone. Densely populated, poor areas are more unsafe because you are more likely to have a run in with one of those a-hole types who is also desperate and lacking security. The safest places seem to be less populated places with enough opportunity that personal security is a given. They don’t have to be rich places, in fact too much money can attract those who don’t have any. The best situation seems to be where people have enough not to worry about their own circumstances on a daily basis and aren’t right on top of each other.
"The Good Old Days" owes it's existence to a bad memory.
Not so fast. I think you are the one painting with too broad of a stroke. Your mom would report the outliers, as any of us would. The 80s and 90s had crime, rudeness, and traffic wrecks, sure. But huge swaths of America were accustomed to very cordial retail situations with customer service being key. You have to go to a specialty shop to find it now. The big retailers just hire part-timers to press buttons and shrug their shoulders now.
@@AllAmericanGuyExpert That’s a fair point; that my mom would preferentially report the outliers. As you say, everyone would. Though, you must concede that more contemporary negative experiences are far easier to recall than decades-old ones. I will concede that the employment dynamics have changed completely, in fact began to change towards the end of my mom’s career with companies moving to part time employees to avoid paying decent wages and benefits due to full-time employees. I completely agree that this profit-taking strategy has disastrous effects on customer service.
Employers are not invested in the success of employees beyond extracting maximum utility for their most productive years (or months) before discarding them for cheaper and more desperate labor. Experienced employees know that loyalty is now something expected but not reciprocated. The predictable result is young, inexperienced employees that take for granted that the job is temporary and unmeaningful, and experienced employees that have to take positions earning far lower buying power, fewer, more expensive, and less valuable benefits, with no stability or security whatsoever. People born in the ‘90s onward don’t even know what a pension or company retirement is. What used to be a stigma (bouncing around between jobs every couple of years) is now standard practice for survival and any hope for advancement.
Accepting all of that, the “Golden Era” perspective remains serviceable. Another circumstance that colors people’s recollections of times gone by is what lot they fell into during their childhoods, and how the society divided resources among them. Since the 70’s-80s, we have seen a massive wealth redistribution upwards. People that felt secure in their lives by virtue of their race or other majority status are now being stripped of their wealth and influence as the people at the very top of the chain become increasingly unwilling to share and circulate wealth. We are hollowing out the “Middle Class” and a lot of people who feel like they had “made it”, or at least were convinced that they could make it, are finding out that Carlin was right when he said, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” But, for those groups that have never been secure, it’s the same old story. Nothing impoverishes the poor like poverty. So as more and more, formerly, “secure” folks are strip mined for resources, it feels like everything is spiraling downhill. But the truth is, it just used to not affect you so much, and now it is, and no one likes that.
Jesus I just want to go back to this !!!!
I felt this comment in my gut 😢
no
Go to target than.
Iam at family dollar right now bro 90s are here
Ew why
When malls were malls, lots of food courts, arcades, a place where you can meet all kinds of people not the mausoleums of today😅
God
Bless who ever
Filmed
This
I was 15, 16 years old in 1991. I remember it all so vividly. Terminator 2 was the biggest movie of that year, I was bonkers over that movie as a kid. I also remember defeating my arch nemesis, Chemistry and Algebra II in the spring of 1991, and pop culture really shifting in the fall of 1991. The 80s were old hat. Grunge started to become mainstream, along with gangsta rap. That was very different from how it was before 1991, where alternative music and gangsta rap existed on the fringe.
I was 16/17 in 1991 and yes music was doing a change at that time for sure.
I wish it would go back to the fringe.
It helps when record companies tell radio stations to stop playing heavy metal and start playing grunge relatively on the same day.
Love the sound of the cash registers ❤ the memories And everyone was nice back then what happened to the good times ???? we need it back ! 🙏
As someone has already said in comment section, it's a memory that I never knew I had till hearing this like over 2 decades later. Those sounds were the heartbeat of American stores back then. I was only 8 at the time of this video.
I wonder what makes the sound on the cash register that makes it sound like one of those old phone switch boards
The decay of society.
When people looked natural and had conversations with each other. Now it seems like a foreign concept.
Today we get to see nose piercings and stretched earlobes.
@@RADIUMGLASSso what? If us tattooed and pierced people bother you don't look then 🙄
1991 in my opinion the best year I have been alive to see. Born 1980.
1000% agreed. Best year of my life too. I was 13.
Wow. The patience. The calmness. And that cash register is like a diesel engine starting up after each purchase lol 1:16
not nearly as many entitled Karens causing a scene when they didn't get their way in 1991
I miss those old school stores ..mervyns..zodys..gemco...Sears...Montgomery ward...kmart...gottchalks..aaaww and the sound of those old cash registers
Bring back those old glorious times 1970s thur 2000s.
Montgomery Wards was my moms favorite
Beep...beep...beep...rip...whirrr...tap...tap...tap...plink...crinkle...crinkle 😇🎶
Woolworths, Herman's World of Sporting Goods, Sportsmart, Toys R' Us 🦒
Don’t forget Caldor and KB Toys!
Gottschalk's was great, it was a one stop shop where I could buy everything my wife might want for her birthday, Christmas or even Valentines Day. Additionally, the courtesy gift wrapping was a real bonus. Couple that with their sales and newspaper coupons Gottschalk's hard to beat. My hometown had all of the stores you mentioned, each with their own merits. My grandmother loved to shop at Montgomery Ward and if she couldn't find the item on your Christmas list there, you weren't getting it and as a substitute, you got socks!
Dang the old school keyboard beeps and the loud reciept spitting out ..haha...brings back memories
The beep reminds me of the beeps in Dr. Mario and other NES games of that era. I was just a little bugger in 1991 but my mother dragged me through there, and JCPenney and Kaufmanns all the time 🤣
Those receipts do not cause cancer
This brings back memories from my childhood. I had forgotten how LOUD those cash registers were! Thanks for sharing this bit of nostalgia.
The sound of that register instantly takes me back to going to Sears, Foleys, Joskes, etc with my mom! I recall those registers being used in the 80s too! I was fascinating with them, for some reason.
It’s amazing how many credit cards people used to carry around back in the day. We lived frugally on a farm when I was growing up so I never saw all the credits cards or how popular they were.
actually even by 1991 general purpose visa/mastercard type credit cards were not the norm for the working schmoe in the usa.
a lot of the cards you see are store charge cards.
us credit lending didn't start getting lax until the late 1990s
@@cosmeticscameo8277 Exactly, I came from a working class family, and I remember my dad basically being forced to get a credit card in 1990 because thats when they started really using a credit score to get a vehicle or house. My uncle had 1 credit card, but he was loaded. Most people didn't have them yet in 1991
The internet has really spoiled us, I just want Blockbuster back
Ruined*
Satan has spoiled this world. Spoiled like rotting milk.
Jesus has spoiled this world. Spoiled like decayed butter!
@@tanburanbuSatan is a figment of your imagination
@@LizLevan you are rotten on the inside and out.
Those machines are working 10x harder than the current generation's teens
Oh shut up boomer!
Youve probably never worked retailed before
I was 20 in 1991 and I really do miss this time.
Going to the mall on a Saturday was the coolest.
For some reason, when I go to bed at night I will lament about the past. Maybe it's my body's way of calming myself (depressing myself to go to sleep! LOL) but, I think about the past. I think about things I miss and how badly I could go back there.
Me too
Same here
Good times! I bought several tools there with money I earned mowing yards and fixing things for neighbors in the late '90's to the early 2000's. One year Dad bought me a Craftsman tool set for Christmas, I still have it and use it often.
They were solid good products
Oh how I wish I could jump into the video and buy up all the craftsman tools back there. Back when craftsman was real quality
Wow! People used cash, sears CC! Now Apple Pay with ours phones.. the registers were so loud! Sounded like an old fax machine! Good times. Makes me nostalgic.
Late 80's/Early 90's: I am suddenly reminded of ALL the sounds in this fun "local news" archive b-roll clip with lots of well coiffed hair 😊 Upstairs Sears registers, anywhere near the clothing areas, were usually the big, loud, leftover box-stacked models, with ribbon tape that rattled in the one corner and let you know APPROVED OR DECLINED by the amount of receipt tape. Thems were kids visits with Mom. Downstairs, by the customer drive up, pickup area, was all the Craftsman, appliances and other outdoor lanai stuff (behind a fence, always). THOSE registers were so much more "cutting edge" sounding, usually manned by vets with amazing stories or whip-smart "early retirees." Those terminals downstairs always processed the big ticket stuff and so they were also usually the latest model register rollouts. Thems were trips with Dad. I had also forgotten about that damn WAND. Rarely was that thing ever without failure (swipe..... swipe.... 👃🏼💨 ssswwwwipe..... Acquiesce 🙄 .... MANUAL KEY IN that UPC bar code!!!..... machine go: trrrrkmkmmmmmmkkkkkmmmm CHK chk CHK chkrrrcrcc'rrrcc'rkrrrrr murr murrrrr mhmmhmmmmmmh'm'm'm') ✅💜
Lots of memories shopping at sears with my dad back in the late 90s and all of the 2000s
Same here I grew up going to the sears in boyle heights
Bring back the days.
Please! We need them back!
Still have my SEARS card from 1985-1996. Paid every penny I owed...SEARS then closed the account. Then SEARS began closing its stores. Sad & true.
Right!
The sound of the register brings back good memories. Sears was a great place to shop. Burlington Center and Moorestown Mall had Sears. RIP to a once great department store.
Man I remember the sound of those receipt printers and going to the mall with my Mom in the early 90s. Things were so much better back then
I miss shopping at Sears, they had some of the best clothes and good prices.
Look, kids, it's a sears from over 30 years ago. They're almost extinct now.
I miss going out to rent DVDs and VHS
So do I William
Yup! I remember going to Blockbuster MANY times and renting videos. I miss the 80s.
@@SR-iy4gg I remember Blockbuster as well. We would rent 2-3 vhs movies, buy popcorn and soda and we would be on our way. I miss those days. 😢
The salespeople were dressed professionally.
@Vampire Robot I found out recently that we got a video rental place here in Jersey, called Video Express. Soon as I get a day off, I gotta go check it out. So awesome!!! 👌 We also got a couple of vintage arcades here, including one in Red Bank, that are so much fun to hang out at. Thank God they finally reopened after the stupid fuckin covid/pandemic shit.
Jesus Christ, I never thought I'd be on RUclips watching old videos of shopping at a department store. Life as we knew it is over, just waiting for the appocylpse now.
1991 was the year I graduated high school. I remember shopping at Sears and this is pretty much how it was. What blows me away is how similar things are today yet so much more complex & somehow society obliviously adapted with enthusiasm. I wonder if it was worth it 🤔
Seeing that Lawn & Garden Department brought back some great childhood memories!
Sears' cash register system was later upgraded by installing sound deadening material or a "muffler" by CEO Eddie Lampert in 2020. A capital expense of over $4,000 that shockingly proved to not be enough to save the struggling retailer.
Eddy Lampert sure did install sound deadening material on the cash registers at Sears in 2020 when he closed most of the stores. He closed the stores and said he was closing the underperforming stores. He also made absolutely no attempt to open any Sears stores in thriving retail locations. All he wanted was the real estate, and assets Sears had. What a shame. He closed the stores so the cash registers could no longer ring. Before the closings he chased all the customers away by having poor customer service, and toxic Kmart management running the place.
@@ericknoblauch9195 and he left with a golden retirement.
This is amazing to see, I remember those days shopping in Sears at the mall. Those were the good ole days. ❤
I loved going to Sears with my parents, back when I was a kid. Something about the way it was laid out was always super practical, and it always felt awesome to wander around the appliance and tool sections - just made you feel like a man, looking at all the cool stuff that was "new" and "cutting edge". :)
Ours in Florida in the 80s had a little booth movie-watching thing. I don't know what it was called. My brother and I used to sit there while my mom shopped and watch old Mighty Mouse cartoons or we'd be in the toy dept. while she shopped.
I remember those older NCR cash registers - they would shake and vibrate so much when printing the receipt, journal, and imprinter. Plus they had that constant hum of the fan and what I thought was a built in drive.
The in-store Sears credit card was not easy credit to qualify for. If I'm not mistaken, consumers were not allowed to know the information in their credit report nor their credit score back then.
Also, I think sears owned "Craftsman" tools back then and they had a lifetime warranty. This video brings back great memories, thanks for posting.
Your welcome Nutty Squirrel 🐿️🐿️
I was a framing carpenter back then and traded in many a hammer for a new one.
That was my very first Credit card- got it in 1984!
I seem to recall that you were allowed to check your credit on a limited basis. The rules on exactly how and when you could access that information were obtuse and confounding.
Yes. Craftsman, at least used to be, a Sears brand.
They still have Sears stores down here in Mexico, and they compete with other retailers as well as Amazon Mexico. The Sears stores down here are still viable because they try-and succeed-at being a viable alternative
I am so grateful some people decided to film some of the most mundane moments from our life so that we can watch them on youtube today. I would never in my life think that I would have been entertained by watching someone check out of sears almost 30 years ago but here we are in nostalgia world
$25.18 for TWO shirts???? Man what a deal! 😂👍
This is the comment I was looking for!! 😂 Sheesh $25 dollars for 2 shirts!! Yikes!!
It's the same now
Adjust for inflation is $56
minimum wage was $4.25 at the time.
And making $4 an hour!
I hear these sounds and I’m back to the old days of visiting my mom at the K-Mart jewelry counter 💕
The sound of the Sears register made me so nostalgic. Simpler time that I miss so much.
I miss those days. My husband was alive. Our kids were young. Life was good♥️💔
I remember going to Sears every Sunday with my Grandma.
Sears will be missed ☹️
That specific sears cash register noise is so recognizable and takes me right back
Thank you for the upload. I have always had an ASMR for those 90s cash registers. I don’t know why but I’ve always loved it
I worked at Sears in 93,,,the sound of that register cadence brings it all back.
Back when you can see Sears was fully stocked with merchandise, and there was none of that spread out look with big boxed items to make the place look like it was stocked when it really wasn't. Also this video was taken before the merger of Sears and Kmart which took place in 2004. Kmart destroyed Sears. Before the merger, , Kmart had a prior bankruptcy, and was poorly run, and managed. Kmart also already had Eddy Lambert as an investor, and already had several ownerships in other retailers. Kmart owned Sports Authority, Boarders Books, Walden Books, Payless Drug Stores, Builders Square (a home improvement chain like The Home Depot), and Sam's Club. When Kmart started loosing money before filing bankruptcy in 2002, Sam's Club was sold to Walmart, and Payless Drug Stores was sold to Rite Aid. All the other retailers they once owned and ran are all gone. When the shareholders of Sears and Kmart woted in favor of a merger in 2004, I knew at the time that Sears days were numbered.
sam's club was founded by Sam Walton and was never owned by kmart. what the hell are you talking about??
I went to Sears about 7 years ago and they did not have proper stock. The retail stores started having less stock.
Sam's club like Sam Walton the founder of Kmart? Clown alert. Wonder how much else of your little story is untrue.
Forgot how noisey those old cash machines were 😂😂 OMG😂
I remember when I was a kid going to the candy department at Sears. All the different colors and flavors. My dad loved their candy fruit slices. And the tools! Everyone knew that Craftsman tools were the best.
Wow the candy department - childhood flashback! I also remember buying records at Sears as a kid. :)
Craftsman tools were the best when they were manufactured in the United States But then they became crapsman tools when they were manufactured in china
I feel for her husband.... How many damn credit cards does she have. I bet the poor man is still trying to pay that Sears card off lol
Just think how easy it would have been to steal someone's credit card info back then compared to today's world
To this very day😂😂😂
😂
😂
Women pay bills too, you Neanderthal 😂
I worked at Sears in 2009 when I was 18 years old. Believe it or not Sears had the potential to buy this little online shop called Amazon that was known for its ebook readers. Considering Sears had a catalog all they needed was e-commerce support. Instead they focused on buying Kmart and Lands End. Wanna guess which decision was better?
uh....no
by 2009 amazon was already bigger than sears
now if it was 1995 and sears wanted to buy amazon...it was possible.
@@cosmeticscameo8277 the stuff people make up in the comments on these old-timey videos is absolutely wild 😂
@@au_barb what do you mean?
@Cosmetics Cameo I'm not sure what wasn't clear? People tend to wax nostalgic on these videos and leave comments that aren't factual. Like the above dude claiming that Sears could have brought Amazon in 2009. 😂
2009 or 1999? Amazon wasn't nearly as big in 2009 as it is today, but they still were a power company. In 1999 I don't remember hearing of amazon back then. I actually don't remember anyone talking about amazon in 2009 but still it held power.
Thanks for all your vids and hard work in editing and uploading Vampire Robot man.
I appreciate it.
I was born in 1991 and I'm so grateful that most of my childhood was in the 90's! Where did the time go? 🥺
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Most of your childhood wasn't in the 90s. Did they stop teaching math in the 00s?
@@lmrbeerbellyl childhood is really ages 3-12 so ya 91 childhood was mostly 90s bud
@@lmrbeerbellyl childhood is generally agreed to be between the ages of 3-12, which would have been 1994-2003 for her. So yes, mostly in the 90s
Like so many others commenting here, I loved Sears. Especially as a teenager. Especially the Craftsman tool section! Yeah, some of the wrenches and sockets were a little crappy but a lot of the other hand tools were really good. USA-made! I still have and use many of those tools today.
These nostalgic videos can sometimes be so cruel. Yearning for lost youth. Looking back at simpler times. We maybe living those simpler now but we just dont know it. Nothing beats our childhood though.
This is great. Memory lane. Subscribed and sharing. Thank you.
judging by the sound, i think our local sears still used those registers up until they closed a couple years ago.
Can’t get over how frikking loud the cash register is…😂
Worked at the Sears in mid NC in 92/93 during freshman college
This takes one back!😎
Back when people use to look at each other and not at their phones.
I sure do miss those register noises lol
every time I go out, I'm still in disbelief at what a horrifying hell hole the USA has devolved into over the last 20 years. I'm hoping to visit the Scandinavian countries in the next few years to "shop around" for somewhere else to live. there's nothing left in the USA that I even recognize any more. how did the crime, chaos and filth get so bad?
"Inclusion" and demographic changes
the donkey logo ring a bell ?
There are a lot of factors, but one important one is that no one is willing to do anything about it. Everyone is complacent to go to their job and get their paycheck. If you push people to change, they wont.
"The people" are part of the blame. All people do is complain instead of putting those who work for THEM in their rightful place.
Sin
I was 7 years old in 1991, and had a great memorable childhood. Kids use to go out and have fun outdoors. We would knock at neighbours doors to see what they were doing. The good Ol days.
Yep me too.
The sound of the cash register printing those receipts took me back
The present is nice and all, and I'm happy I grew up in the 2000s, but sometimes I just wonder what life would've been like back then if I was older.
Man this reminds of Kmart and the old version of Walmart. Just seeing this brings back the scent, the vibe of it all. I know my brother has a lot of stories when he was a kid during this time about getting ice cream at the food court at Kmart. Thrifty’s ice cream was something else back then.
The Kmart in our town was still using these machines up until around 2015- they closed the store in 2016.
I remember Sears used to sell everything. Clothes Electronics and even computers.
Love your videos, I’m 40 and worked at sears in 2011. Fun to watch.
I came for the leftover 80's fashions and shockingly low prices. Always a sucker for nostalgia!