Sears, Roebuck, & Co. - Looking Back Over the Landscape of Americana
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- Опубликовано: 26 фев 2022
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Today's kids will never understand the joy and excitement of the Sears Christmas catalog arrival in the mail and its heartbreaking
By the middle of December our wish books were dog eared, marked up and my mother had already bought out of it what she was going to…
Yup couldn't have said it better myself! The good old days and the simple good old days!!
I loved Sears. My Grandad bought everything there. My Dad bought tools there and introduced me to Craftsman Tools. My Craftsman Tools have fed my family for the last 30 years. It breaks my heart to see what has happened to Sears. Dad and I have spent hours browsing the tool department.
A lot of hearts are broken.
My dad was a Sears salesman for 36 years. Everything in the house was from Sears. Today my washer & dryer are Kenmore and are 26 years old and still going strong.
Shut your mouth, you're going to jinx yourself.
I used to mark my initials on everything in the Christmas wishbook growing up. Grammy took me shopping at the mall in the 70’-80’s. Stuff used to be made to last
Yes it did.
Brings tears to my eyes seeing our beautiful Sears Store sitting empty and rotting (Savannah GA Oglethorpe Mall)
Place sucked I am glad they are gone!
I retired from Sears December 2019 after 45 years. Sears was very good to me and retired with a hefty 401k plus a pension plan. I still miss my co workers and my customers.
Wow, long history!
My mother in law worked in the furniture department upstairs at the St. Paul Minn. store. Just between I-94 and the state capital.
I don’t know when she had started with them but she was still there when i needed childs furniture in 1975 so i was able to get her discount.
Later her youngest daughter worked for Sears then lastly my son in law.
You will never have the same experience online as you did in some of these places. Computers and the internet and our over dependency on them, have killed so much.
If there is such a thing as "criminal mis management" Sears would be a Prime example of it.
@Dean Desantis my dad had a 1959 sears and roebuck dewalt designed home owner radial arm saw. it was very versatile. it was used in building a breeze way and garage in the 1960s. by 1962 he used hist tool design skills and designed a new rail system of hardened steel that was precision ground. and replaced other worn parts. in 1976 we took it up to our camp in vermont to build the 12×12 wooden stick framed shed. that and a sears Craftsman brand circular saw.
today the craftsman brand name is under the stanley black an decker company.
there are no craftsman factories the work is done in other brand name tools. i bought a 2nd hand craftsman brand tractor. it had tags for Husqvarna emissions standard. when i looked at a Husqvarna tractor i saw the looked similar except color husquvana had their orange and craftsman wes red with the briggs and stratton twin v cylinder 18 horse power. it is not the name that is important it is the quality and price than is important and how it works.
sometime you only pay for the name add it is higher because of overhead and design costs.
but as with all purchases buyer beware.
in thr sears and roebuck days. craftsmen had a very good name and you got a parts book where you cand order parts.
yet things change over time like every thing. the 1959 sears push mower with hand crank Tecumseh Indian engine when out of business and briggs honda and harbor freight pull start engines at varying price points.
and old farmer said it best. if you want good oats you have to pay a good price.
but if you can wait until the horse is finished with his oats you can have it for cheaper. if you know what i mean good oats goes in and sheet comes out and blake shelton sings some beach.
gotha go breakfast is calling and my stomach is.growling please feed me feed me please.
@Dean Desantis i never got the go cart but we had to improvise. we found a sears and roebuck low riding that was on the curb for heavy metal pickup. my younger brother and i pushed it home we gutted down to the chassis. we had a push mobile that when it went down hill we had a super duper craftsman derby racer. when dad took it to camp in vermont it was used for moving stone easy peazy. at we still had it to play down hill rider. and when we outgrew it. the neighbor kids got it to play with it it too. a worn out riding Craftsman lawn mower an adult toy converted to craftsman metal kid toy. it only difference with tha man toy and the salvaged kid toy was imagination and no money. the retired craftsman mower lived on as a Craftsman kids push cart. long live the Craftsman adult and kid toys. just remember gender equality there are girl and lady craftsmen too. we live in a time where man can be male ot female or undecided
The day they took the gold leaf off the top of every door that said satisfaction guaranteed,, was the day that the Sears Roebuck and Co. Died and the long slow walk to the end!
Corruption from within…. Even a mountain of wealth will soon flattened. And I’m looking at the next generations are doing the same.
I sure do miss Sears.
Sears could have been Amazon, but they were totally mismanaged for the last 20 years.
Good point.They could have been Amazon!
I bought a stereo at Sears in the 80's that fell apart after a few weeks. The manager was terribly rude.. Horrible customer service.
I never set foot in Sears from then on which probably cost them maybe $1,000 that I spent elsewhere.
Times and culture had sadly changed by then.
As a ex employee of the company that "took over Sears" ( * cough * K Mart ), all I can say is that mismanagement of Sears was intentional to profit the CEO and main "lender". Ever since Sears starting selling of its "brands" and "outside divisions", they were doomed, no matter if a financial predator gained control, or not. Could never understand how Sears never capitalized on internet sales. They even failed on rolling out their "electronic catalog" and internet sales ( which *might* have been... intentional as well ).
@@franksmith7247 Give us that managers name.
Sears was the Amazon, but a mole infiltrated their management and brought them down.
it’s sad seeing their downfall
No other store like Sears. School clothes when we were kids, those Toughskins jeans in the 70’s, and Kenmore appliances lasted for years. Even an automotive shop to fix your car. Good quality stuff. I miss them. I live in Massachusetts. I couldn’t believe they closed the store at the N. Dartmouth Mall. It was there for years.
Sears colorful catalog sure got me drooling in the 50s and 60s. and later in my 20s made some of the best tools using American steel and true lifetime warranty. And so many other quality appliances and most amazing things all made with American quality and products and pride not Chinese junk.
There's nothing like the Sears catalog to bring on some real childhood Christmas memories!! Thanks for this video it's great!!
Ahh, the sears catalog. What a wonderful book loved them every Christmas, and during the summer. When our local sears left, it was very sad. I hauled sears for 5 years as a truck driver.
Before the internet, before Amazon, there was Sears & Roebuck. Born in 1964, it was fun as a kid in the early 70's to go shopping. Even though I'm in a relatively small town, the Sears & Roebuck store here was 2 stories and a basement. Elevators, escalators, floor walkers who seemed to know where every single item was located... When Sears relocated to the new mall that opened in 1983, it was considerably smaller size. Store design, inside & out has become sterile. It's not an experience anymore.
My late mother worked at the largest warehouse of Sears on the West Side of Chicago from the winter of 1956 til spring 1957. She put in dolls and other items in boxes to be shipped by truck or train to all across the country. It was the biggest business she ever worked in.
Loved the story. So many facts I didn’t know. Loved the Christmas Catalog. Lived near Woodfield Mall, owned many Kenmore & Craftsman products. Loved WLS Radio Station during my teen years and visited the Sears Tower shortly after it opened to the public. Sad to see them go.
I'm just a few months shy of 60, and I have fond, childhood memories of Sears. From their catalogs, which I "greedily" perused during the holidays, to their department stores, I enjoyed their presence on the cultural landscape. Six years ago, they had their final clearance sale in one of their main stores in our city. We took advantage of that sale, to replace our linens and other household goods lost in a house fire the winter before. They are missed.
I turned 10 in 1979. I remember that Christmas catalog every year. Me and my brother wore it out every year.
I remember going to Sears and Roebuck to get my school clothes. The place was huge and had a lot of things all over the place on different floor. Seeing this video brings back great memories and times. Chicago did it first!
Thanks for this. A problem with online shopping is that you don't get to talk with anyone, have a conversation meet people, and possibly make a new friend. Deliberately shopping for something or just browsing, at Sears and other stores gave that possibility. I'd rather talk to a real person if I have a problem with a product rather than the AI-FAQ which misses my questions altogether.
I loved Sears. When I got my first job I bought a sewing machine and cabinet there, and I ordered so many things from their fabric and farm catalogs. I bought a saddle from them, bridle, other accessories, cowboy hat, and many more things. My dad bought alot of tools from them, and later appliances. The quality of things were so much better then. Their Christmas catalog was so exciting to get.
Back in the 1960s when I was a boy in NYC during the Mad Men era there were cars that were made 14 years and up to 20 years before I was born that were still running and once in a while I would see them pass by through the city. In Old NYC in Old America when things were built to last like an old NYC city Transit bus that I once took because my regular bus was late and it left me 2 blocks from my home. I sat at the front across the driver and I read the builders plate on the front of the dashboard and it gave the date of the year it was built and it said 1949, it was still running in 1971.
Used to get everything at Sears as a kid... it was sad watching it dry up as the quality decreased and items became fewer and fewer.
RIP old friend, and thanks again for another great video.
I wish to thank you for sharing this awesome Historical video with me .
I worked at a newly built Sears auto center from 1983 to 1990. That was one of the best job's I ever had and was the only one I had that provided a retirement pension for full time workers and I was fully vested in the pension after 5 yrs. employment. I was an auto tech and only left due to a serious back injury, too bad they did not survive the onslaught of the internet (they were too slow getting on line) and the discounters that became their Competetion.
The Sears catalog is an iconic legend. Loved shopping at Sears with my family as a kid.
I remember Sears had a Brach's candy counter & a popcorn machine
near the children's clothing section... Great placement! I used to love
to play in the Home Décor department which grouped furniture into
themed rooms so it felt like someone's home! Great video BTW!
So many memories of Sears. Hated to see them go. I wish there was more government intervention to save Sears. We had several locations around Memphis, we even had Sears wholesale stores where you could buy discount or marked down items. Growing up in the 70's, my family brought our appliances there. My last purchase from Sears was a GE washer-dryer set in APR 2017.
Too bad for Sears. I, like millions of Americans, shopped at Sears, and will always believe that Sears could have been what Amazon is today, except that it appears me, that Sears was mismanaged, by greedy high up CEO's!
Sears was my Dad’s and my favorite store. Back in the day Sears had everything. It was the Walmart back in the day. Sears had the biggest catalog, the biggest candy and sweets dept and the best auto repair shop. We bought everything from Sears. My Dad bought a gun from the Sears catalog snd had it mailed to our house. Boy times have changed. I used to always bring my car to Sears to get tires, oil changes and repairs. Sears had the best tools - Craftsman and the best power tools. Unlike Walmart where everything is made in China and cheap crap, Sears had the best quality American made products. I sure do miss Sears. RIP Dad. You are very missed today.
Such a great video. Thank you. I watched it with my mom and we were reminiscing make our Christmas lists straight out of the catalog. Truly better days. Thank you
As a kid my favorite book was the Sears Christmas catalog.
Mine too, and also JCPenny.
I was born in the early 50's. Nothing was better than getting the wish book delivered around November and going through the pages over and over
Sold prefab houses, wow!
My great grandfather was CEO of Sears back in the late 50s early 60s. He was once called the greatest mass merchandiser of his time. A man of impeccable integrity, and you'd never know he was who he was. He also was a dollar man during ww2, a top economic advisor to Eisenhower and Kennedy. Obviously everything we had was from Sears from our garden tractor to our clothes, all appliances and tools. It breaks my heart whats happened to a once great American institution. And im sure great grandaddy is rolling over in his grave.
My first paying job out of high school was Montgomery Ward. Second was Sears (1970's) as a cashier for household appliances and, toys, electrical, and sometimes hardware. Good times
I can remember my folk taking us kids to sears to buy our school clothes every year before school started! Back in the 70 & 80's!
I lot of people don't realize how deep Sears was as starting several popular businesses. I worked for Sears during the 2000s. I worked at several older stores. It was interesting to look around the older areas of the stores. They usually just put off walls and blocked off old areas. The basement of one store you could see where all the offices used to be and cubicles as it was a call center back in the 70s-80s. You could also see where the old phone switchboard room was.
Craftsman where amazing tools. Lifetime warranty. Still have mine from 30 years ago
SEARS WAS MY FAVOURITE STORE,I DO MISS IT SO!!!!!!!
It's crazy that this immense business, so influential and significant for decades, failed. For those who lived through the Sears period, it's very hard to believe that this major presence has disappeared.
My grandmother worked for sears for many years. She sold custom-designed kitchens. Cabinets, counters, and all the appliances. I remember everyone in our family would get appliances with just a tiny scratch or dent for practically nothing.
I miss Sears. Grew up buying from Sears. Got my first tool set from Sears. Still use them to this day. Still have many Sears and Craftsman power tools. So many happy memories of Sears. When Sears closed here, it was like losing a member of the family.
Also houses. My great-grandfather bought a Sear Roebuck house in parts and assembled it himself, using the instructions with which it came. Sadly, my family relinquished it when his daughter, my grandmother, died.
Used to be fun shopping at all the stores that are disappearing. Damn internet has destroyed malls, great retail stores and shopping in general.
I loved getting the Sears Christmas Catalog in the mail every year! Me and my family enjoyed shopping at Sears back in the day!
I miss Sears- and their catalogs! Especially the Christmas ones. Too bad we can’t find a warehouse with the houses that we could purchase! 😅
They had the best fruit cake ! I’ve ever eaten we would get one every Christmas they were 5 pounds in a decorative box
Nothing comes close now !
As a child going into Sears was Just a wonderful experience going past the Allstate motorcycles and go karts then you would go into another room where all the candy and nuts were as a child growing up in rule America it was such a wonderful experience back in the 60s
Hello from Finland. I am a collector of SEARS magazines. They really are interesting reading and they tell you so much of the time of the past. Unfortunately the postages are humongous today and sending a large Sears magazine costs around 50 usd. 😢
Awesome video! Love Sears. We need to bring it back.
In Canada in the 50s we had two major retailers with Catalogues.. Simpsons and T.E.Eaton Co. Sears later bought Simpsons and branded it Simpson Sears. As kids we eagerly awaited the Christmas catalogues and based our Christmas wishes on the items. Later the Simpson name was dropped and Sears brands , Craftsman, Kenmore became the best known brand of tools and major appliances. They had first class auto and tire stores with quality products and service. Their clothes and footware were top drawer. They started the Grow a Size kids clothing line. As young parents in the early 60s are kids were almost totally clothed at Sears. They had credit long before Visa and Mastercard, admittedly at exorbitant interest rates, but we would outfit the kids in the spring and have it paid off just in time to finance their winter clothes. It was an exciting time for the kids and us. Sears after service was exceptional as parts for their Kenmore appliances were a phone call away. When Sears closed it was like losing a family member !
We were a Sears household. I still remember the night in 1965, (just a few months after we came to the U.S.), when Dad took the whole family to Sears and we got decked out in our school clothes for the coming year and our house got decked out in Kenmore appliances (and yes they did sell refrigerators back then). We outgrew the clothes but the washer, dryer, fridge, and oven were still going strong when I moved away from home for good in 1984. By that time, a Kenmore stereo had been added to the mix. It was actually a Pioneer system wrapped in a Kenmore shell but man, did that thing rock! I blew out the left channel one day with the Black Sabbath Paranoid album. It could be heard clear as a bell at the school yard around the corner (yeah, I caught hell for that one). I still have my Craftsman socket set from 1986. Going to Sears was a back-to-school ritual as they sold the Catholic school uniforms we needed at a cheaper price than other stores. Every house had a Sears catalog on the coffee table. I remember begging my parents for a five-speed bike that looked like a Mercedes to me when I was nine-years old.
If you had told me as late as 1990 that Sears was like a dying giant star, heading into its red-giant phase, I would have said you were NVTS nuts. But in short order that was the case. Yeah, I get the whole Wal-Mart thing, cheap goods at a cheap price, but the fact they let online outlets like Amazon take what should have been Sears natural habitat away from them still boggles my mind. Sears was THE innovator in home-shopping. How they didn't see shopping online as the logical evolution of that method of purchasing is beyond me. But they didn't, and they just let em come in and take it without ever putting up much of a fight. I prefer brick and mortar stores but I'm the exception (being the luddite I am I also still prefer cash). I've said this before, but I wonder how long it will be before someone is making videos about the rise and fall of Amazon and Apple. Like the big space-rock that has our name on it, it's not a matter of if, only when.
Great memories as a child going to Sears with our Dad. He always bought us candy.
Loved this. I grew up in Pomona in Southern California and one of my fondest childhood memories is going to the Sears there with my mom. Amazing that some of their DIY mail order houses are still extant. Thank you for the nostalgic stroll down memory lane.
im native american. my mom remembers the days of the sears catalogs and a lot of my family on the rez relied on sears. I started working for the company when it started doing poorly. My mother was so proud, she would tell her sisters how i worked for sears. Now sears is my side job because ive grown to love my coworkers, so i do 4 hours every other day.
Yeah sorry to see the end of sears. Bought a lot there
I’m in my 70s and I can remember getting the Sears catalog. When it came it meant that Christmas was
not far off. I would spend hours with the catalog times again gone…
Sears only owned WLS radio for a few years before selling the station to The Prairie Farmer, which would later be bought by ABC. WLS-TV came long after Sears ownership, and in fact began under different call letters. Sears also sold WLS-brand tubes when they had the station.
Sears did on-line shopping before there was an internet. What a missed opportunity.
My daughter and son-in-law, have a house suspected of being a Sears house, it was built in 1928 and located on the the border area of the Historic Disctrict, in Downtown Riverside just a little bit from the Mission Inn, you can see it and walk two streets over, to it. It is beautiful especially around the holiday's!!!
I owned a sears home. One of my neighbors bought his new when the neighborhood was built. I can't remember how much he said the lots were back then but the houses were $10,500 for a single story with attic or $12,500 got you 2 sort of usable rooms upstairs. They basically just made the walls slightly taller so you could use it for kids bedrooms. I'm only 6' but could only stand up in the center of the rooms up there. Some had a basement but I think the majority were just built on a slab. I had one of the fancy ones. Corner lot, basement and tiny upstairs.
I live in a Sears Vallonia, built in 1920. It’s been changed so little that it has been photographed and featured in lectures by Sears catalog home historians. It is a great pleasure to be able to live in a bit of history.
Great run for Sears.
Well done on this video.
I like this channel better than another one I can think of. It seems to focus more on history and fact vs. sentimentality and evoking "those were the good old days" comments.
Sears was more than the Walmart of the times, I remember the one in our area had multiple levels with escalators, elevators, and stairs with a great little snack counter in the middle of the store, miss it very much. Walmart just ain't the same. 👍
I go to Sears every weekend when I’m in Mexico 🇲🇽
They have good brands like macys here in the us!
My first job was working at the Sears New York Buying Office in Manhattan. I was there for 10 years until the company moved everything to Chicago. At that time it was like one big family.
I have a Sears Kenmore Freezer that I bought in 2001 and it still works very well. Eddie Lambert purposely not only destroyed Sears, but also K Mart(what I called Junk Mart). They purposely failed to updates and make changes to survive.
I worked as a sub-contract flooring installer (mostly carpet) for Sears for 9 years mostly in the 80's here in the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida area. The work didn't pay all that well, but it was steady and I made a decent honest living. Sad to see them go.
Miss sears and Kmart!
Lots of great times at both places.....
Thank you for this video pal!
The Allstate car was was sold through Sears from 1952-53. It was a rebadged Henry J. They also has a line of electronics called Silvertone from 1916-1972.
I totally agree with the last comment. An American dynasty like Sears could only fall through mis management! So sad to see an icon and such a large part of our lives like Sears go under.
I worked as a commissioned salesperson in the 70s. The company chased us all away then by overcrowding our departments with too many salespeople so we could no longer make a living. They also began eliminating middle management. Since commissioned salespeople were paid well, we had motivation to HELP the customer. Change those folks to ill-paid part time help, and there is no help for the customer. People quit shopping there for big ticket items because they couldn’t help when they had problems. Sears brought the disaster on itself.
The only tool any serious car mechanic would own was Craftsman. Th lifetime guarantee was amazing, all you had to do was walk into any Sears anywhere, show them the broken tool and pick out the replacement, show it a salesperson and walk out. No questions asked about how the tool was broken, no haggling, no proof of purchase, just having the Craftsman name on the tool was l you needed. Beyond being guaranteed for life, they were rugged tools. During my drag racing days, they were the only tools I owned.
Sears was the go-to store for just about everything you could ever want or need. Here in South Florida in the Miami area, every shopping center was anchored with a Sears, along with J.C Penney, and either Burdines, or in upscale areas, Jordan Marsh.
Well done we had five over the years in my area
5:35 was that Donna Reed? I am sure there were many famous spokes-people over the years. The Sears we went to in Lincoln Park, Mi had an ice cream shop. It may have served other items too but I remember the ice cream---especially the superman---it always looked so good I had to pick it. Just where does the Kenmore name come from?
Nice video, thank you. At many times I said to myself, "what do you know?"
I remember in the late 70's listening to the Sears Radio Theater, 5 nights a week with a Host setting the scene for that evenings story.
Sears also sold CARS under the "Allstate" brand. It was a gussied-up Kaiser "Henry J", an early compact American car.
I spent 35 years in a Sears store. I was there when catalog stores closed. The best years of my life was in the Catalog store. I loved going to work back then. I saw a lot of changes in the 35 years. The worst change I saw was Sears headquarters loss focus on who wrote their check. The customer wrote your check. The men in Sears headquarters is the ones who helped destroy the company.
With the decades of mail order sales, and the background skills they had, Sears should be the internet leader, equat to what Amazon is today. Unfortunately they didn't embrace technology and didn't go that direction. They fought giving up their catalogue printing and concentration on brick and mortar merchandising. What a shame it is the now just history.
Man! It would be so cool to own one of those Desoto cars at the 9:30 mark
I worked for Sears Roebuc&co in Dallas,Tx unit 487 CMDC best job I ever had the benefits were great I wish I still had that last catalog from 1992 could have retired now.
My grandma use to buy shoes for her kids two times a year when they could afford it and fabric yarn my grandma couldn't wait for the book
I sure remember those Sears catalogs growing up. I bought a lot of Craftsman tools. They last a long time way after you grow out of the clothing. The company unfortunately was a victim of changing times and management got too greedy.
You got that right, “Lil Fast Eddie T. is a corporate pirate…he ran that in the ground and came out smelling like the proverbial roses 😵💫 All legal beagle…🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♂️
Really miss Sears!!
My aunt worked for Sears in some where in Chicago area. She retired after I don't remember how many years.
Good video
The tower of the building shown at 4:46 still stands in place whereas the rest of the building is long gone. This is at Homan & Arthington in Chicago. Sears made appliances with the name HOMART which is so called from the combined names of these 2 streets.
I've been there. I bought a sterling silver charm for my charm bracelet.
The Sear (now Willis tower) tower is 110 stories not 100 stories. The John Hancock build, also in Chicago, is 100 stories.
If Sears had seen internet coming they could have been Amazon.
Everything Sears was good at was outdone by specialty stores - Best Buy, Home Depot, many clothing chains, etc. etc. @ 100+ years, it was a great run.
My Papaw in Madisonville, TN, had a large farm and a Sears Catalog ordered little house.
At 3:54 and following, no truer words were ever spoken
I Really Appreciated The Sales People, Working For Sears, Roebuck And Co. They Always Had Quality Merchandise 👌🏼And Backed It Up. Most Made In The USA 👍🏻🇺🇸
My mother retired from Sears. Commercial Credit dept. Memphis, Tn. She started in the shipping room when i was a baby and she retired when i was 17.
I miss Sears and Roebuck Wish Book at Christmas
I miss going to Sears.
I made riding lawn mowers ,log splitters ,chain saws and these were great products. What a shame our government can bail out banks but a company that employs so many with a wonderful history they don't even offer to help.I bought furniture, clothes and even Concert tickets here and had my cars worked on here.A real tragedy
I worked for Sears in the 1970s. At that time middle management was under fire for costing the company too much money. The big wigs of Sears had the delusion that the business would run better on one store manager and a bunch of part time workers-part time to save again on benefits. They went with this model and now they are practically out of business. Nice going, management!!
I LOVED sears…🥲