(first posted 3/30/2016) In the late 1940’s, Henry J. Kaiser had an idea. This idea was to create a car for the “less affluent”; those that usually could only afford a used car. He thought that this crowd would rather own a new car with spartan accoutrements, than own a used car with better equipment. At this time, the retailing giant of Sears-Roebuck was basking in the glow of the postwar retail boom. They had correctly foreseen a great opportunity for expansion in the economic climate of Postwar America. They both expanded, and restarted divisions they had previously killed, such as the homes division. One of the ways Sears would expand was into the car market.
Photo from searsmotorbuggy.com
This was not Sears’ first foray into the automotive market. Their first effort was the short-lived and little-known Sears Motor Buggy. It was sold from 1908-12, and was produced by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago, IL (no relation to the oh-so-broughamy turned Matthew McConaughey laughingstock Lincoln we know and love today). It was a reliable, but dated mode of transportation, as the motor buggy had fallen out of favor by that time. Its market was supplanted by more modern motorized vehicles, such as the Ford Model T.
Henry J Kaiser had unveiled the Henry J in 1950. At the time, he had been trying to get a deal with Sears & Roebuck for three years. Kaiser thought that he could further mass-market this car by having t be one of the models that would be sold via the Sears catalog.
Sears Roebuck & Co. Department Store of Highland Park, MI
Designed by Nimmons, Carr and Wright of Chicago, IL.
15001 Woodward Ave, Highland Park, MI
Demolished circa 2000
At the time, Sears was undoubetdly one of the most, if not the most popular retailer in the country. In many areas, retailers like Sears would effectively have an “anchor store” along the shopping strip on Main Street. Henry Kaiser and his son Edgar both knew this well, and thought to use it to leverage sales. Independent companies like Kaiser-Frazer could not hope to have a dealer network as large as the Big Four at the time, but knew both that they could get a much greater reach via Sears.
It was a relatively rocky road for the little Allstate. It was-first and foremost-quite ungainly, and most people were not ready to buy a car from a department store, even if they were willing to buy a house from that very same store. Accordingly, sales were quite slow. Lastly, no matter what, one thing nagged at them, and likely helped to dissuade them from further branching out further into the Automotive market. This issue also apparently nagged at Sears when they sold Graham-Bradley tractors in the 1930’s.
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Perhaps one of the nastier issues was the trade-in. Sears, naive to the way car dealers worked, did not know how to easily deal with trade-ins. After all, they knew quite well about how to sell and deal with anything that was not often traded in, from houses, to clothes, to toys, to farm implements, to car parts, to tools. However, they did not know how to deal with items that were traded in for a newer and shinier, such as tractors and cars. Some might be apt to make a comparison to the lifetime warranty found on their Craftsman hand tools, but tools are often used (and often abused) until they are simply rendered useless. Cars, however, are traded in quite often. Sears simply did not know what to do.
Of course, any efforts at attempting long-term sales were absolutely pointless, as the Henry J was killed off after the 1954 MY. Accordingly, the Allstate car died with it. Still, for a brief moment in time, you could literally buy the postwar suburban American dream from the Sears store.
(1) 1654 Elmdale, Glenview, IL
(2) 609 E Indiana, Wheaton, IL
You could buy your Homart prefabricated home (See them *HERE* and *HERE*)…
Your Allsafe Car, to commute from your new suburban home, to the factories or office tower…
Your Kenmore and Hotpoint appliances, for the domestic doyenne……
Your Sears Furniture…
Your Sears Silvertone radios, TVs, and electrical musical instruments…
Your Sears clothes…
Your Sears Tower typewriter for nice Christmas cards, essays, and letters…
Your Sears toys for the kids…
And finally, your Craftsman tools to fix everything up in the near future.
It was a wonderful time, wherein the American dream seemed within the grasp of all who came upon a Sears store. Sears itself was an integral part of everyone’s life, being as familiar to Mid-Century America as Amazon.com is to millenials such as myself. Yes, the culture that prevailed in Postwar America at the time was rather corrosive in some views, but one had the rare opportunity to buy everything they may ever need, from one place. Even today, this cannot be matched, as Amazon has not sold cars, tractors, or houses through its pages (yet). Granted they are working on private space travel via Blue Origin, but this will only be accessible to the uppercrust and moneyed in the foreseeable future. Also, one can purchase non-perishable foodstuffs on Amazon, but they do not sell the essentials to the American Dream through their webpages. Amazon may sell the future to the rich and gadgets to everyone else, but Sears sold everything to the working and middle class. When you bought stuff from Sears, you were not just buying that item, but a way of life that much of Middle America practiced. Sears was not just a company; it was practically a way of life.
(1) Genesee Valley Center, Flint, MI, in 1970 and 2009
(2) A Sears Allstate, as it probably looked originally, and as it looks now.
(3) A Sears Crescent Kit Home at 2820 Washington St, Kenosha, WI in 1975 and 2012
Alas in this world, change is but a constant, making some things better and some worse. Above are some examples of change, occasionally paired with entropy and disfigurement. Sometimes, things may not change all that much, as in Genesee Valley Center. Sometimes, they change somewhat drastically, but still show their roots, such as our little Allstate. Sometimes, things even change to the point wherein they have little or no resemblance to how it once looked, as in the case of our little Sears Crescent in Kenosha, WI. It has long been said among investors that Sears is dying, and the entropy that it’s products have shown-from declining suburban mega-malls, to “remuddled” kit homes and rat rodded cars-is evidence of this. We must accept saying goodbye to a declining giant of retail, and accept that it may be a warning sign of the future to come. Change is a constant that refuses to simply quit. One can delay change, but it will still get its way.
“The times they are a changin”
-Bob Dylan, 1964
Recommended Reading:
Cohort Sighting: “Modernized” Kaiser Henry J Found In Havana
Cohort Outtake: 1954 Henry J – The Badges On The Front Fender Tell The Story
Car Show Classic: 1953 Kaiser Henry J Corsair De Luxe – Big Name, Little Car, No Sale
Automotive History: The First Wave Compacts – The Pioneers Take The Arrows
SIA Flashback – 1953 Allstate: Henry J in Drag?
When Sears Sold Cars: The Strange Tale Of The Kaiser Henry J
A Picture Review of the Henry J and Allstate
1952-53 Allstate (How Stuff Works)
Below are some blogs that touch upon that *other* big-ticket item Sears sold from their catalog: so-called mail-order or kit homes:
America’s Favorite Homes by Rob Schweitzer
American Kit Homes (This one is mine. As with CC, I should really do more with it)
Fantastic article Nigel. That Allstate looks great without the front bumper; logic says that maw should be filled but it really works as it is.
In contrast, Marshall Field & Co. offered the Ferrari Rainbow exclusively in their 1979 Christmas catalogue. I don’t believe there were any takers.
From back in the days when America could do anything – and did.
Thanks so much for your graphic presentation of the huge variety of products sold at Sears. Having all those pictures really makes the point.
Wow, my living room still looks much like the one in the photo, down to the modern pole lamp in the corner! Also had a Color TV similar to the one shown but with 19″ screen that died just recently after about 35 years of service. The flat-panel Chinese-made set that replaced it admittedly has a much nicer picture (lousy speakers though) but is unlikely to last 35 years. (Not that I’m likely to last that long either at this point!)
I remember decades ago that going downtown to shop at Sears was a special occasion. A shame what is happening to that company but nothing lasts forever.
EXCELLENT article. Especially the point about trade-ins. I hadn’t thought of that, and it doesn’t get mentioned in other writing about the Allstate. The only way Everyman can afford a new car is by trading up to it.
Henry Js were relatively common in the ’50s and ’60s, but I saw only one Allstate. It wasn’t owned by an Everyman; it was a K-State professor’s second car. (Nash understood this niche for small cars correctly, and marketed accordingly.)
Very nicely done. Gave a great flashback to life in the ’50s……..
In the dark days before Visa and Mastercard, Sears offered people the option of buying now and paying later, which enabled the purchase of large ticket items such as appliances. It also made many a middle class child’s Christmases a lot brighter, especially if their parents hadn’t participated in their bank’s Christmas Club that year..
The cars never quite caught on, but boys everywhere lusted after rebadged Cushman scooters that were sold under the Allstate name for years, along with an assortment of Italian two wheelers.
For many, Sears gave us our first credit card, which in turn helped us establish a credit history.
My first card – issued in the early ’80s, when I was working part-time and in college – had a $200 credit limit. I kept it for years; it was about three-quarters as tall as today’s credit cards, and no magnetic stripe on the back. The embossed card number was transferred onto the carbon paper-equipped sales receipt with what we bankers called “knuckle crunchers.”
I rarely used that card, but within two years it allowed me to qualify for a $5,000 loan on a $7,200 new car, and 10 years later, my first house. And at that point, I whipped the card out and bought my Kenmore washer and dryer.
Sears was an integral part of our shared culture. It’ll be sad to see it go away.
Likewise here. Sears was the first financial outfit who decided to trust a grad student with no credit rating back in 1974. I still have the active account, but (unfortunately for the company) only dredge it out two or three times a year. And invariably, any purchases I make on that car have the “Craftsman” brand. Sears has become a tool and hardware store to me anymore. Nothing else they carry tweaks my interest.
Update: Last month I received notice that my Sears card had been canceled, due to disuse. 1974-2021.
The last time I used it was three years ago at the close out sale of the last Sears in the Richmond area. There are no Sears stores within a couple hundred miles of me anymore.
Sears was in early with credit cards; unfortunately, they were very late in making the shift from vendor-specific cards to general-purpose cards like Visa or American Express. It used to be common for each gas station, each store, etc. to issue credit cards that were only usable at that business. Sears was amongst the last to accept Visa, MC, or AmEx, and having to use a separate Sears charge card was a deterrent to shopping there. Another peculiarity was that for a long time if you ordered something from the legendary Sears catalog, your items would be shipped only to the nearest Sears store, not your home. The catalog operation seemed to operate largely independent of the store. It was no surprise when Sears axed the catalog division and stopped printing the bi-yearly catalogs (plus the Christmas “Wish Book”). Of course, Sears has since effectively resurrected catalog sales, only now you order online instead of from a big book using your phone.
By the 60s, many gasoline company credit cards also were accepted by motel chains. I drove across country in 72 using my first credit card from Gulf (a “travel card”) – which was accepted by Holiday Inn (housing/meals). IIRC, Standard Oil/Chevron cards were accepted by Ramada Inn.
This discussion brings up memories of when you had to carry a wallet full of credit cards (some still called them “charge plates”) – gasoline, department store, etc.
Holiday Inn struck a deal with Gulf to allow use of Gulf credit cards for Holiday Inn motels and restaurants; Gulf was allowed to put their service stations on Holiday Inn properties. Holiday Inn postcards and advertising often showed a Gulf station next to the hotel, as well as a Trailways bus (which they owned in the late ’60s and ’70s).
At that, Sears cut the catalog at what turned out to be exactly the wrong time (early ’90s just before internet commerce became a thing) and ended up having to rebuild that whole infrastructure from scratch just a few years later.
Yes, I’ve often thought that if Sears was on top of things it could have easily transitioned into being a version of Amazon, plus house brands and standing behind their products etc. before Amazon happened. Of course all big chain stores are into a semi-Amazon deal now, with stuff below the minimum for free shipping going to the local outlet. I ordered something from Sears that way recently and the whole pickup experience could not have been done worse in every single possible way. Home Depot for example does it like you would expect.
When I got my first VW Beetle, Dad brought me over to Sears and paid $35 for a entire set of metric wrenches and sockets, tool box included!! Still have the set and various additions as time went along.
Thanks for the memories!!
Great article putting the little Allstate into the context of the once-great retailer. Do you suppose the sole plate being used as a gas pedal in photo number seven is from a Sears Hotpoint brand steam iron?
Just curious: Where did you find the connection between Hotpoint and Sears?
I only recall Kenmore as a brand of large appliances in their stores, at least until the “Sears Brand Central” experiment in the 1990s.
Hotpoint had some connection to GE, as I recall, and Kenmore large appliances were often built by Whirlpool (which, if I’m not mistaken, now owns the Hotpoint name after one of GE’s many divestures).
D’oh! In my febrile brain, BD. Of course Kenmore was the in-house Sears brand name. My bad.
You guys are probably confusing Hotpoint with Coldspot, which was a brand Sears used on refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners until the mid-’70s, after which they went with Kenmore on all their appliances (and eventually other electrical goods like sewing machines). Hotpoint was originally independent but soon bought by General Electric, which later sold UK/Europe rights to another company, which after several acquisitions is now owned by Whirlpool. In North America, GE sold their appliance division, including North American Hotpoint, to Chinese manufacturer Haier.
It’s up in the article, as well.
Our next door neighbor – who had five kids who almost perfectly matched my family’s five kids in age – sold appliances for Sears, so we were properly brainwashed in the benefits of Kenmore.
Another reminder from this old fart of how things once were: Approximately 20 years ago, our neighbor retired VERY comfortably from selling appliances at Sears, after having raised five children in a four bedroom brick house.
You don’t see many older, knowledgeable, career-oriented salespeople like this anymore…and I don’t care to start a debate for the purpose of pinpointing a single political or socioeconomic reason as to how and why that came to be. Fair to say it simply happened for a number of reasons, one of which we can attribute to my pesky habit of researching and buying things online, which I’ll gladly own up to. ?
Sears very generously provided me with a very comfortable part-time job for 16 years, through high school, college, along side my beginning career, and until about 20 years ago when I could no longer afford to work the part time hours as I was neck deep in my Ed.d. I socked half my pay into profit sharing, which helped me buy my first house. Due to a confluence of length of service and commission sales (the auto center), I was making more working 20 hours a week than I was full-time teaching.
But you could see the approaching storm and haphazard too-late attempts to stop first K-Mart (Sears tried to match their prices with a Good-Better-Best product approach) and then the 1-2 punch of Walmart and Target. Sears made some excellent products with reliable warranties (Kenmore, Craftsman, Roadhandler, DieHard, Easy Living), but spent too much time, effort and money diversifying (Coldwell Banker; Dean Witter) then meeting or setting trends. They were no longer the only show in town; they were for the older generations that would continue to die off.
There was a great book written 30 years ago about the history of Sears and the then-current dilemma of what direction to tack called “The Big Store”.
When we built the new house 15 years ago we opted to fill it with Kenmore appliances; except for the (hardly used) stove everything has been since been replaced. I do check their sales on occasion, but rarely buy Sears brands.
Like everything, all things must pass.
Hotpoint was and is owned by GE, although GE has been trying to sell their appliance business for years. A planned sale to Swedish manufacturer Electrolux fell through after raising antitrust concerns in both the US and EU. A sale to China’s Haier is currently in progress, and is less likely to derailed by antitrust concerns since Haier is a small player in the US market. (Note – a different company owns the Hotpoint brand in the UK).
From 1945 to 1952, Hotpoint was run by James Nance before he became CEO of Packard. Kenmore appliances were indeed often built by Whirlpool and many still are, although Kenmore also rebadges GE, LG, Electrolux, and many other manufacturers’ products.
It’s difficult to unravel the appliance OEM shell game in who builds what.
The antitrust busybodies are fantasizing; the door is wide open & there’s plenty of competition with Bosch, Samsung, LG, Haier et al. as alternatives.
Sears refrigerators were branded Coldspot. Get it? Hotpoint. Coldspot. Hotpoint. Coldspot. See?
The rest of Sears appliances were Kenmore, and tools Craftsman. Kenmore appliances were all or mostly all rebranded Whirlpool. Don’t know what Coldspots were. Maybe Whirlpool also.
Sears refrigerators were branded Coldspot. Get it? Hotpoint. Coldspot. Hotpoint. Coldspot. See?
Correct. I also suspect the confusing name was intentional on Sears’ part. According to Wiki, the Coldspot name was phased out in the mid 70s. My grandparents had a Coldspot chest freezer in their basement.
Hotpoint was a brand that eventually if not originally was another version of GE major appliances. Sometimes a different unit, sometimes about the same.
COLDSPOT (get it….Hotpoint….Coldspot….) was the Sears brand for their refrigerators, which were probably Whirlpool like the other appliances branded as Kenmore.
Today, or at least recently, Kenmore can be anything. The terrible Kenmore window air conditioners installed where I used to work were clearly terrible Frigidaire-Electrolux. Another branding story….Frigidaire was generally good quality well engineered GM applicances, and Electrolux was Swedish and expensive and built to last forever. The combo brand was just more junk.
Yep, I wondered about that, too. We always had Kenmore washers and dryers because they were made by Whirlpool, but better priced, and Sears had good service when needed.
My first bike that wasn’t a hand-me-down from my brother was a Sears “Good” bike that was a cheap knock-off of a Schwinn Stingray. Back then, they had Good, Better and Best for just about everything, which was rather like Biscayne, Bel Air, and Impala. Dang, that thing was cheap. It had no fenders, so it was great for popping wheelies, which I did constantly. Come to think of it, my first credit card was just like the one Buzzdog describes above, including the modest credit limit. You’re bringing back a lot of memories for the old farts who frequent this website. (The Allstate was definitely a “Good” car. If they’d kept it up, I wonder what their Better and Best cars would have been. Imagine buying a Cadillac Eldorado from Sears, re-badged as something else, maybe a “Silvertone Conquistador.”) Very enjoyable reading, Mr. Tate. (Nigel Tate? Sounds like a Formula One driver. I predict a successful future for you.)
According to Paul, Sears planned on selling higher-level Kaiser-Frazer cars under the “Allstate” moniker as time went on. Alas, the failure of the Allstate (Henry J) seemed to dissuade Sears from branching out any further.
I guess I’m not too surprised to hear that they at least toyed with the idea of selling the big Kaisers at Sears. Probably the best idea was what they actually ended up doing– moving to South America, a pretty extreme example of the “hit ’em where they ain’t” strategy.
Fine article, well written and perfectly illustrated, thank you. You nicely capsulized how integral Sears, Roebuck & Co. was to the optimistic, burgeoning postwar American society. It was change for the better after two decades of first deprivations of the Great Depression then by World War II. It was a racking emotional period which suddenly lifted and the burst of bright optimism was natural.
Sears, though, scraped the bottom of the barrel choosing the Henry J as basis for their badge-engineered Allstate. It was K-F lousiest automotive effort. Even worse, it was the project that diverted funds from their badly-needed own V8 engine, something no medium-priced car would continue to sell if it lacked.
Great write up. I too still have a Sears credit card that I have had since the late 60’s only now it is a Sears branded MasterCard. Purchased a lot of items with it in the late 60’s-through the early 80’s. K-F V8 engine program eventually ended up as AMC Gen 1 V8. As having several Rambler V8’s over the years I can say that it was a good engine IMO.
… it was the project that diverted funds from their badly-needed own V8 engine, something no medium-priced car would continue to sell if it lacked.
iirc, development of the Henry J was a requirement of the government when Kaiser came knocking on the RFC’s door for another loan. The government wanted Kaiser to make a compact car, and compete for defense contracts.
We know how the C-119 contract worked out: massive cost overruns and delays and a congressional investigation.
The Air Force cancelled all it’s contracts with Kaiser in June 53. That same month, Sears cancelled the Allstate contract and the UAW struck the Kaiser auto operation.
Nicely done, Nigel. I don’t believe I have ever seen an Allstate in person, and have seen precious few Henry Js. When I was a kid in the 60s, there were still quite a few cars from the early 50s running around, but not these. The HJ may have been the most disposable of used cars once it hit 2 years old.
I always found the styling on these attractive. It is too bad that they were built so cheaply.
As for the Sears angle, I remember Sears at the peak of its reach. We lived in a city with two or three Sears stores, but relatives who lived in smaller communities used the Sears Catalog extensively. I had never considered the trade-in problem with the Allstate.
I always found the styling on these attractive. It is too bad that they were built so cheaply.
Dutch Darrin suggested that Kaiser make a cut down version of the large Kaiser as a compact. Kaiser rejected it because they didn’t want to pay Darrin’s royalty on the design.
Can’t help but wonder, if they had cut down the big Kaiser, the way Studebaker took the Sawzall to the Champion to make the Lark, would they have saved enough in tooling to pay Darrin’s commission, with money to spare, and ended up with a more satisfying car?
I’ll be very sad to see SEARS go if it does…..
GREAT article here .
-Nate
Good one Nigel. I was very amused at all the Sears merchandise from the 60’s, my father has those wrenches so it looks perfectly normal. The other stuff, not so much.
I can only imagine what would happen if I bought the family a typewriter for Christmas!
Back then, roughly analogous to buying them a PC for Christmas now. Minus the game playing, of course.
As I learned in typing class, there are several games to play with typewriters:
– Try to get all the keys jammed up in the middle on manual typewriters
– Spitball catapult wars, electric ones have better range and accuracy 🙂
The venerable IBM Selectric, with its type-ball, & the Xerox MemoryWriter with its daisywheel, are no fun here as they’re jam-proof & can’t do hurling, either.
If I bought my wife a typewriter for Christmas, I’d have to also buy a Craftsman crowbar so I could pry it off of my head!
Today, Sears is losing money badly. Don’t know if this has to do with it, but we bought a Bosch dishwasher which had a mechanical defect, & had a nightmare trying to get our money back after we returned it. Lots of phone promises, but no results. Finally a diligent manager came through for us.
The reprint Victorian Sears catalogs are a hoot, e.g. groceries, panaceas for “Women’s Complaints,“ narcotics like heroin & cocaine, & firearms. Railways made their success possible just as air freight today makes Amazon possible.
This article from 2012 explains a big part of the problem.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120421/ISSUE01/304219970/sears-where-america-shopped
Yes, America’s greatest commercial advantage has always been logistics, and having lived and worked in Europe, Japan, and China, I can confirm it remains the case.
When my dad bought his new house in ’62, Sears provided a carport, and chain link fencing around the back yard. Later on, it was a furnace and a 1968 model typewriter (that I still own!) and some other things as well that I don’t remember at the moment. Growing up, we shopped at Sears for clothing, shoes, & eyeglasses; the credit plan was of great benefit. Today I own a Kenmore refrigerator, and washer/dryer, and a host of Craftsman tools. I used to swear by DieHard batteries, until they overpriced themselves. Sadly, Sears turned my little white & gold Sears credit card into a Mastercard; and there’s not as many Sears stores around nowadays, so it doesn’t get used.
Was the house from Sears as well?
Having been in that pictured Sears store on Woodward Avenue many times as a child, I can tell you that is was in Highland Park, Michigan, not Detroit.
I’m not sure what your computer/tablet/phone is displaying, but I mentioned the HP location (and address) twice in the caption.
Henry J’s were definitely around in the 50’s when I was growing up in Indiana. They were gone within a few years because they rusted so badly – seemingly worse than about any car (other than Nash) on those heavily salted roads. I do not recall ever seeing an Allstate version until spotting them at car shows here in CA years ago.
I have friends who live in a Sears house in Virginia. One is an architect so it no longer bears much resemblance to the original plan.
As many note here, Sears was omnipresent in American life back in those days. My parents bought televisions, radios, kitchen appliances, washers/dryers, tools – you name it – from Sears. It was a big deal when they broke with Sears to buy a new color console TV in 64 – an RCA New Vista model. IIRC it was mostly because the RCA dealer was a friend who also serviced the TV. Sears service reputation in those days was outstanding. I do remember a few households with rooms decorated entirely by Sears, including assemblages of matching wall art composed of pictures, little mirrors, golden helmets (“Spanish style”), etc. One did not need a decorator – just rely on Sears to put it all together for you.
Thanks for this interesting piece that really brings back the memories.
Henry Kaiser’s premise that people would choose a bare-bones new car over a nicer used car didn’t turn out to be true.
In the 1970s I read an article in CAR magazine arguing that a really cheap new car just wasn’t going to happen. The author also made an interesting point: The VW bug, Renault 4CV, and Citroen 2CV were bare-bones new cars, but late-1940s Europe wasn’t exactly awash in used cars, for obvious reasons.
The Tata Nano has had the same problem in India: too expensive for scooter owners, but too little for those who can afford a car at all. While I appreciate the ingenuity of such minimalism, circumstances make it hard to create another game-changer like the Model T & Beetle. One of these today is, you have to pay more for the most fuel-efficient drivelines.
Yes, the bare-bones approach only works during certain periods. And it explains why nobody tries to sell a bare-bones cheap car in the US. The Yugo was about the last one.
Even the Nash Rambler that the Henry J competed against was a well-equipped car for the time that was marketed as a classy 2nd car for the middle class and above rather than stripped-down cheap wheels for poor people.
The Ford-Chevy sales/price war that started as soon as Korean War supply restrictions were lifted is another factor. You could have a low-priced “regular” car for the less than one of the independents’ cheapskate specials.
Rambler’s bright spark, possibly spurred by the same Korean War shortages, was to concentrate on high profit-per-unit convertibles, hardtops and wagons whose Chevy and Ford counterparts were less likely to be piled high and sold cheap than the strippo two-door or volume leader midline four-door sedans were.
Don’t forget Musical instruments!
Silvertone?
Doh! Missed that!
I have some Sears lore, The Silvertone name was applied to electronics made in the USA only. The imported electronics were labeled just Sears.
There was even a Sears mountain dulcimer for the eclectic folk music lover.
Or J. C. Higgins sports, fishing and camping supplies.
I remember an Allstate at my home town Sears. It was tucked into the far back corner of the store next to where they sold insurance.
Sears used to be the place where lower, middle and upper-income people all shopped because they had something for everyone. My parents bought a lot of stuff there in the 1970s and a trip to the local Sears store at the mall was an exciting thing back then, Sears was where it was all happening.
I worked for Sears Canada from 1991-2009 and witnessed a huge decline during those 18 years. This was a mirror reflection of what was also happening in the States. There was no attempt to stay competitive, even the Craftsman tools were left to rot. Sad really.
I read about this Allstate car years ago. Not surprised it failed. Not only was it ugly, but it was also a stripper, like the Henry J, and priced not that much lower than a base Chevy. Rambler had a better idea, make a small car but dress it all up nicely so it doesn’t feel like a penalty box, and people will buy it.
In downtown Vancouver there are still quite a few Sears kit homes. Went to a backyard wedding in downtown and the family owned a beautifully restored 1920’s Sears home. It was just like it looked when it was new, all the beautiful wood trim restored and still in place. Other than the modern appliances, it really is a time capsule.
I was in a Sears a while back at the local Mall, and I don’t think I saw a dozen customers in the store. Sad, but time marches on. I remember my dad selling appliances at a local Sears in the late ’60’s. Didn’t work there for very long, but he was always changing jobs.
The catalogs were always a great read. In rural areas, I have heard they sometimes did double duty.
Are you sure these aren’t Eaton’s houses? Eaton’s was active in mail-order houses in western Canada until the ’30s, and Sears didn’t enter Canada until the early 1950s, initially in partnership with Simpson’s as “Simpsons-Sears”.
For non-Canadians, Eaton’s and Simpson’s were large Toronto-based department store chains, both now gone from the retail scene. The Eaton’s catalogue was a historically important part of the settlement of western Canada.
As I mentioned above, Sears entered Canada in a partnership with Simpson’s to build stores in suburban areas and cities that did not have a Simpson’s. The stores were known as “Simpsons-Sears” until the early ’80s.
Sorry, off topic a bit. 🙂
Sears did sell some houses in Canada, but they are very, very rare. Sears never officially sold the houses, but there are still a few. However if I was to place money on the manufacturer, I would probably say they are Eaton or Aladdin homes. Eaton officially sold kit homes, and so did Aladdin (under their Canadian subsidiary Aladdin Canada).
Nicely done, Nigel. It might have been fun had Sears’ major competitor sold their own rebadged car as the Montgomery Borgward.
Sorry, had to.
With Victor Borge as spokesman?
It would have to be Ward Cleaver, since Mr. Borge was already the spokesman for the Vauxhall Victor.
Our local SEARS ROEBUCK store in Hackensack NJ sold the Allstate car. Down in the cellar of the store where the tool department was, there in the center of it all sat the Allstate car.
I have purchased tools and tires from Sears, and still have and use the creeper and 6v/12v battery trickle charger that my dad bought for me back in the ’50s, to use on our first car, a 1940 Dodge.
Yes, My Dad has one of those 6v/12v Sears battery chargers (he owned a ’59 Beetle, so the 6v got used sometimes) back in mid 60’s.
My first toolkit that he bought for me as a Christmas present while I was in college (and had to learn to work on my own car) was from Sears, it is still the basis for my portable handtools when I carry them from home….I think the single most useful present anyone ever bought for me.
My Dad had a bit of a problem with the Sears/Allstate (insurance) connection…in 1967 he bought my sister and I bicycles (still have my sister’s Spaceliner bicycle)…but putting the boxes in the back of our ’65 Olds F85 wagon they tore the headliner…no problem, they told my father, he thought they would pay to repair it, but instead somehow they found out he had Allstate insurance and the put a claim on his policy to repair it (maybe the deductable just about covered it). My Father was so angry, he ended up cancelling his insurance policy with him and (in the 49 years since then) refused to consider Allstate insurance…he used to call them the “slippery hands” people (spoofing their commercial where they say you are in “good hands”).
I still shop at Sears (I’m not much of a shopper, but I lament the passing of general merchandise stores like Sears and Montgomery Wards). I also liked getting the detailed manuals (with spare parts you could actually order and fix things yourself) which lamentedly have become part of the past…that was a big reason I used to buy stuff at Sears (but of course they understood that if they made it easy to fix things you would delay becoming a repeat buyer of the same thing when it broke…just like every other store these days). Some car dealers are kind of the same way, not stocking even consumable parts, such that I do most of my parts ordering online anymore…guess I also deprive my local community of sales tax by doing that.
Their appliance parts stores are still very useful….we had a “funeral” last year where my daughter and I buried my 1976 college-era Kenmore canister vacuum. Remarkably the new vacuum has many exceedingly similar parts….
Their appliance parts stores are still very useful
Amen. The baking element in my 1982 Kenmore range burned out a few years ago. Consulting the easily visible tag for the model number, I started my search for a new element. No-one local had it. Tried the Sears Parts web site. In stock, in Texas. I ordered it. Heard a knock on my door on Christmas eve (a day or two after ordering) There was my new element! Just in time to heat up my Christmas pizza.
Nice post, Nigel! Sears sold literally everything… dentures, violins, tombstones, beehives! When people today compare Amazon to Sears it’s a weak comparison, as you pointed out.
In the late 1970’s one out of every three Americans had a Sears credit card. Three out of every four people had shopped at a Sears store in the past year. 1 out of every 204 working people in the United States worked for Sears. Sears sales represented one percent of the entire gross national product of the United States. (That means of all the goods and services sold in the United States, Sears was responsible for one percent.) The numbers are staggering.
Lara
Sears Homes of Chicagoland
sears-homes.com
For a time in the 1980’s, my mom would have been one of those millions of Sears employees.
I miss the old Sears; it really was the closest thing to an Amazon.com you could go to and walk out with everything you need for yourself and your home, including the house itself for many years. I remember from my childhood Sears had departments for toys, gardening supplies, records, musical instruments, chocolates & candy, kitchen and bath fixtures, carpeting and flooring, lighting, plumbing, automotive supplies & repair, marine supplies, swimming pools, gasoline, a dentist, optometrist, barbers, and loads more. One by one, entire departments have been eliminated. They’ve retreated to the few departments they do well in, like tools and appliances, but mostly Sears is just another big clothing and accessories retailer like Macy’s.
An interesting article–I learned plenty.
Though “Consumer Reports” has its critics (re auto testing), here’s what they had to say about the Allstate cars (mostly by referencing the analogous Henry J’s):
Interesting – CR indicates Allstate cars were sold only in the South and Southwest (maybe at the beginning?). Yet a poster above mentions them being sold in New Jersey. I don’t recall the car being sold at the Sears stores we frequented in IN or ever having seen one until decades later at car shows here in CA (and I think in a car museum or two).
Elsewhere in that CR article, IIRC, it said the sales were Southwestern initially. I just found this late-1951 article listing intended sales locales (don’t know if this is how it actually turned out, of course):
Congratulations Nigel on a job well done. I know you put a lot of time and effort into it, and I know I’m partly to blame. But the result is worth it.
BTW, in case any of you don’t know, Nigel is a high-schooler.
PN: BTW, in case any of you don’t know, Nigel is a high-schooler….
Well, then, double-bravo to Nigel. No way I could have turned out something that cohesive at his age! (And, thanks to Nigel for helping to lower the median CC age a bit.)
And for at least upholding the median quality of CC articles!
Great article Nigel and hope we’ll be seeing more……..
I’ve written here before under the pseudonym “Mr. Edward Mann”. I’m now on year 2 of occasional contribution.
I haven’t shopped at Sears for years. The salesmen work on commission and don’t go away and the Kenmore brand is just dumb. There is no Kenmore factory. I’d rather know exactly who makes what I buy so that if it doesn’t last, I don’t buy it again. I hope they see this and take it into consideration.
Kenmore is mostly rebranded Whirlpool products.
Years ago that was the case but not so much anymore. Kenmore appliances are currently built by not only Whirlpool, but GE, Electrolux, LG, Sanyo and more. They are manufactured to Sears specs, which can be quite different and in many cases a higher level than their own products.
A short while ago I returned my broken 20 year old Craftsman pruning shears to Sears. They were replaced free of charge with no hassle.
Whirlpool made the majority for a while; in fact I thought at one time Sears owned Whirlpool.
Regarding the commissioned sales force – sometimes that’s a good thing, some times a bad. We had a lot of pressure on us to always sell the top merchandise with all the add-ons, and had to answer to our managers (or even higher on occasion) if we were lagging in any specific areas.
I know I was a handful for my managers – I always guided my customers to what I thought they truly needed, not what Sears thought they wanted them to have. If you have a 5 year old car with 15k miles on it, Granny doesn’t need to invest in a 100k tire. My managers hated to have to pull me in for “the talk” – they saw the customer loyalty I had developed and my sales numbers were usually the strongest on the floor. You just bought a new car you plan to keep for a few years? Definitely get a lifetime alignment. Well worth the upgrade.
Get job, Nigel. You brought me back to an earlier time when I was (gulp) your age….
Great article and wonderful job of placing the Allstate in context of the Sears juggernaut of post-war USA.
We have a large Sears at the mall in the next town over, and it seems pretty busy, at least in certain departments. Craftsman ain’t what it used to be, but the tool inventory is good and well-maintained. In the five years we’ve lived here, I’ve bought a compressor, several 19.2V cordless tools and a stove there. As for Allstate cars, I’m aware of them but not sure I’ve ever seen one. But I do remember looking longingly at the Riverside motorcycles, made by Benelli, at the “Monkey Ward” as a kid. And ten or twelve years later, I had both Sears and Ward credit cards before I ever had a BankAmericard, as Visa was known (in California) at the time. I still have my first set of metric combination wrenches from Ward’s that were a high school graduation gift from my parents … I used them just today. Congratulations Nigel on a superb and informative CC debut after shedding your pseudonym.
Craftsman ain’t what it used to be, but the tool inventory is good
A year or so back, my 1/4″ Craftsman ratchet decided to stop ratcheting. Walked into the local Sears and waved it at them, and they handed me a new (refurbished) ratchet. No demand for a receipt or anything. Their name was on it, so they honored the warranty.
I believe that was part of their downfall. I bought a lot of their tools,but first they stopped honoring the warranty on power tools, then it got harder and harder to get them to honor the warranty on hand tools. Finally I quit buying craftsman altogether.
Ha, this is crazy! I had no idea that Sears sold a car (the Henry J, no less). Yeah, one could only wonder how ill prepared that they were to deal with trade-ins.
Sears sold pre-cut barn kits. i have a photo book of barns with some beautiful green Sears barns in it. From what I’ve read they were nicely designed.
I didn’t know Sears still sold house kits later. I believe they are more well known for ones they sold more around the early 1900’s. I’m sure books have been written about them. They didn’t look like modular houses that were one step up from a double wide, but were regular big two story houses like any others of the period.
I was at a week long seminar at Montpelier, James Madison’s estate. It had been owned by DuPonts, and they put up a bunch of Sears houses for their workers, which are now used to house seminar attendees etc.
I just searched Amazon for “Sears Houses” and yes, there are several books about them.
Small error in article… Bezos has his own space travel company: Blue Origin. Space X belongs to Elon Musk
Fantastic article, Nigel. I’m not sure how I missed this the first time around. It hit on several things with which I had personal experience:
1. Sears… I really hope they pull it together, but things don’t appear to have improved that much between when this article originally ran and now;
2. The Genesee Valley Center / Mall in Flint. That was my mall when I was growing up!! And the Sears store there used to be so awesome. They had a candy counter over by the riding mowers, which was also a stone’s throw from the Atari video games;
3. The prefab houses. My grandparents had a Sears house that they assembled on the plot of land adjacent to the farm my grandpa inherited. It was not a fancy house, but it had a cool layout and there was room enough for everyone when we visited.
It’s mindblowing in 2016 that Sears used to have such a handle on what American consumers wanted and used to be the go-to for many. I feel like shopping there now just because I can.
Yeah, the general consensus for several years now is that Sears is a ‘dead company walking’. They’ve cut back stores (both Kmart and Sears) regularly and it’s generally assumed that, at some point soon, they’re going to pull the plug on what’s left and call it a day.
Interestingly, one of the suspected culprits is the reliance on their rewards program which was significantly pushed around 2009. What happened was the clerks pushed it, hard, when customers were trying to check out. When someone decided they wanted to sign up, well, it held up everyone else in line. Supposedly, this was the last straw for many regular customers (the few that were left). Then there was the deal of getting about a half-dozen ‘coupons’ every time you checked out. It made checking out of a Sears store quite an ordeal.
Finally, there was the switchover from US-made to entirely Chinese-made Craftsman handtools. US-made Craftsman handtools with their unlimited warranty were a stalwart of Sears and there were many loyal followers for that reason, alone. I can’t cite any statistics, but I would venture to guess that a lot of DIYers figured ‘what’s the point?’ of making the effort to buy tools from Sears when you can get the same (or better) quality at a Walmart just around the corner for the same (or less) cost. The Craftsman tool department is a mere shadow of what it once was.
The irony is that the internet place to shop, Amazon, is going like gangbusters. You would think that would be exactly the sort of venue for Sears to thrive, an electronic Sears catalog, if you will. Of course, anyone who’s tried to maneuver and drill-down through the Sears website can attest to how badly bungled they managed to make it.
It’s just so sad that an American icon like Sears was mismanaged to death and it didn’t have to come to such a sorry end.
Joe, as a lifelong resident of the soulless and bland void known to the French as “Big White”, Genesee Valley is “my mall” as well (that being one of the two reasons I included it, with the other one being the fact that it is anchored by a Sears).
P. S. If you haven’t already caught on, “Big White” = Grand Blanc.
Forgot about the Sears houses! Somebody told me there are a few of them on the backroads of Howell,NJ. This is mostly a farming-agricultural area, and he told me that they are close to the ‘rabbit farm’. Maybe someday when I have nothing to do, or if I`m really bored, I`ll take a ride and see if I can find them .Another vanishing piece of Americana.
Would you happen to have the addresses? Myself and some other researchers have been compiling a kit home list of kit homes over the last few years (we recently reached the milestone of having 6000 homes on the list). If you would like to post them in public, feel free to do so, or you can privately contact me through the link below (its the contact form for my kit home blog; copy and paste it into your browser, and you can access it from there). Either way, once I get the address, myself and the other researchers will look over the homes, and determine what they might be.
https://americankithomes.wordpress.com/contact-me/
My folks bought so much stuff from Sears, always through the catalog, even though there was a store downtown just a few miles away. Kenmore washers (two of them over the years, a Kenmore dryer (Dad said it wasn’t Whirlpool, but White-Rogers), so many Craftsman tools, a Coldspot air conditioner, a Kenmore humidifier, a Homart wall furnace, and on and on. They got lots of clothing there as well, and sheets and towels, too.
Sears Kit Home…….
My wife and I bought our first home in 1976. It was located in Villa Park,IL
It was a Sears kit home as we found out after a few years. The house was built in 1925 and had a one car matching detached garage. The home and garage were built from brown color brick which was fairly rare I was told, most kits were frame.
It did have a stand up attic and full basement also, 2bd Rm 1 bath.
It served us well for 12 years. The home style was called a Queen Ann.
The Aurora Elgin RR was only a couple of blocks away,closed down in1962
so I would guess it was the source of delivery bringing home kits to the western burbs..
Would you happen to have the address? Myself and some other researchers have been compiling a kit home list of kit homes over the last few years (we recently reached the milestone of having 6000 homes on the list). If you would like to post it in public, feel free to do so, or you can privately contact me through the link below (its the contact form for my kit home blog; copy and paste it into your browser, and you can access it from there). Either way, once I get the address, myself and the other researchers will look over the house, and determine what it might be.
https://americankithomes.wordpress.com/contact-me/
Ahhhhh Sears [and Roebucks] remember `em well.There was a sears in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, on Bedford Ave,practically behind the magnificent Loew`s Kings theater.In the late `70s when the area went south and the Kings closed, Sears bricked in all their street level windows,and put steel roll down gates on all the doors, possibly because they feared looting like what occurred in the summer of `77 blackout . It made the store look like a fortress.I left Brooklyn three years ago and they were still open, but their closing seems inevitable. Ironically, the Kings reopened as a concert and music venue, but there are no plans to show movies there, even revivals of classics on the big screen. A missed opportunity. Also, getting a Sears catalogue was always an event in my youth. I would spend hours just looking at it, but, of course that was decades before on-line shopping became all the rage I`m showing my age, but I miss those days..
The really sad thing about Sears is that Sears basically WAS Amazon, in pre-internet form. Sears had, of necessity, the same kind of regional and national distribution network, to deliver anything you ordered to your doorstep in a matter of days. The photo below is the former Sears catalog distribution center in Philly (demolished in 1994 or so). At its peak it had 5 million square feet of space and employed something like 4000 people. Amazon more or less re-created this infrastructure with updated technology. Imagine if Sears had managed to translate the catalog to the Internet.
Upon re-reading this article a second time, a couple of late thoughts:
1. Amongst all the other stuff they sold, Sears had a short-lived fine arts division where you could actually buy paintings for your home. And it came with a tie-in with the actor Vincent Price, who was as well known back then as an art collector and person of taste and high-brow fashion as he was for horror movies.
2. Regarding that first credit card: The first thing it bought me was a set of Craftsman metric wrenches, which were the core of my first tool kit, which took me into my first real job – mechanic for A.R. Adams Cycle, a Schwinn/Raleigh dealership. Those tools are still the core of my garage workshop.
It’s difficult for younger people to understand the influence Sears had in this country – you could buy anything and everything – and we did!
They even sold firearms – I wanted a Ted Williams/Winchester .30-.30 because I liked the subtle style differences, but the birch wood instead of walnut prevented me from buying one, especially since they were basically identical in price.
I actually have two Sears-branded bicycles right now; one is a rebadged Austrian bike, a Puch, I believe. The other, which I inherited from my uncle, is branded a “Ted Williams” and seems like a rebadged Huffy.
The Austrian bike rides really nicely, and it weighs quite a bit less than your average lightweight of the time.
…one is a rebadged Austrian bike, a Puch
Puch must have done a lot of contract work in the 60s. I remember reading a test in Popular Science of a 125cc bike sold by Wards or Sears, can’t remember for sure which, that was also made by Puch. The author commented on the high level of finish, how nice the welds, paint and chrome were.
This is the Puch branded version of that bike. I remember the odd cooling fins on the head.
Sears / Allstate sold mo-peds scooters, and motorcycles that were rebadged Cushman, Puch, Gilera, and Vespas. Earlier (1910 to 1914) they sold rebadged Spake big singles and V twins.
Yeah ~ I wanted a Ted Williams M1 Carbine but discovered I could buy a real M1 Garand for less and it was a markedly better firearm .
I remember Sears houses, there used to be a fascinating web site for them .
-Nate
There is a very nice Sears house not far from where I live. “Craftsman” style, of course!
Those .30 carbines were “Universals”, I believe, and not very good. Our son has a 1954 H&R M1 Garand and a museum-quality American 1917 Enfield from WW1 – it’s a six-shooter: 5+1, plus a very nice German K98k Mauser with all appropriate markings, too.
Just so but when you’re poor you tend to overlook things like quality….
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I had to borrow money to buy that Garand .
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I still buy things @ SEARS ~ tools mostly .
Andy dickwad is going to kill them one of these days =8-( .
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I bought a recliner there a few years ago, it was pretty good until it broke, my Brother kept saying ‘let’s fix it’ but never showed up to help me drag it out to the porch and flipping it ~ I gave it to him after my Son brought home my new recliner, Brother found a bolt had fallen out and it’s O.K. again although needing some padding across the Lumbar killing pain bar…
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-Nate
Zackman, would you happen to have the address? Myself and some other researchers have been compiling a kit home list of kit homes over the last few years (we recently reached the milestone of having 6000 homes on the list). If you would like to post it in public, feel free to do so, or you can privately contact me through the link below (its the contact form for my kit home blog; copy and paste it into your browser, and you can access it from there). Either way, once I get the address, myself and the other researchers will look over the house, and determine what it might be.
https://americankithomes.wordpress.com/contact-me/
Nate, there are still many fascinating websites about Sears Homes. I listed a bunch in the “recommended reading” section at the end of this article, including the one I run.
Fascinating bit of Americana – we in backward Israel did not even have proper supermarkets until the 60s. Henry Js on the other hand we had, assembled in Haifa by Kaiser-Ilyn. By the time I was growing up in the 60s they were already old cars, not wanted by many, their only saving grace being the common mechanical connection with the CJ Jeeps which meant that spares were relatively cheap. Given that we never had any drag racing or hot rodding in Israel back then they were not even desirable as potential race cars and most have now disappeared.
Henry Js on the other hand we had, assembled in Haifa by Kaiser-Ilyn.
In my readings about Kaiser, there is some indication that the Henry J tooling was shipped to Israel, but was lost in shipping.
Steve, that’s news to me but I would not discount it out of hand, it sounds like something Ephraim Ilyin might have done. Shame he was in no position to buy the remains of Studebaker when the chance came…
… it sounds like something Ephraim Ilyin might have done.
And it is consistent with Kaiser selling the tooling for the large sedan to Argentina and the tooling for the Willy Aero to Brazil. I read two books about K-F a couple years ago, and that account of the fate of the Henry J was in one of them. It sounds a little fishy to me for *all* the tooling to be lost in shipment, but maybe a few key parts were lost that were too costly to replace.
As for Ilyin buying the Studebaker tooling, accounts I have read say production in Hamilton ended when one of the dies for the trunk lid broke. Studebaker refused to spend the money for a new die, so that was the end of production. I have read claims that the last Studebaker built was by Ilyin as their inventory of CKD cars lasted beyond the shutdown of Hamilton.
I remember when Sears was “IT” They were huge! Remember the Sears Tower? Now, they are totally irrelevant. Does anybody actually go to Sears anymore? They failed to keep up with the times, and I simply can’t believe they’re still in business. NOBODY goes to Sears anymore!
I haven’t thought about it for years, but in the ’70s they sold home improvement services (siding, windows, roofing, and insulation) which I installed so I guess I worked for them too.
Yes, America’s greatest commercial advantage has always been logistics, and having lived and worked in Europe, Japan, and China, I can confirm it remains the case.
There was a universal false belief in the late 40’s to early 50’s that Americans needed fuel efficient economy cars. Witness even the US government funding Kaiser so they could produce the Henry J. It was all for naught with cheap gas, a booming economy, and gas guzzling Buick was number 3 in the sales race.
The Allstate wasn’t about Sears. It was about Kaiser automobiles. So tying it to Sears gives Sears a black eye that isn’t deserved. The problem was the car – not the store. Sears was on the verge of another two generations of explosive growth, while Kaiser was gone within a year after the Henry J was discontinued.
We have good CC coverage regarding the last years of Kaiser and of the Henry J as well.
The chance to sell through Sears was an act of desperation on Kaiser’s part, not Sears.
Finally, I know it is tempting to fit the WWII generation into a Gray Flannel Suit cookie cutter. TV sitcoms didn’t help offset reality. But they weren’t troglodytes, or narrow minded people. They built our society in ways that reflected their experiences during wars and after witnessing horrific mind-blowing moments in human history. They built the world we’ve been milking since. The UN. NATO. The Moon Landings. They marched on Washington for civil rights. These people were real, not Jim Anderson from “Father Knows Best”, tooling around in an Allstate to a Klan rally.
The worse corrosion they caused was how they spoiled us into seeing them as perpetually flawed. Only the stereotypes differ between them and us.
Kaiser and Sears had discussed some kind of partnership involving autos for a number of years, as Sears was genuinely interested in the possibility of leveraging its very highly regarded Allstate brand into selling cars too.
Sears and Kaiser had other business ties; Sears bought large quantities of steel and enamel ware from Kaiser, and Sears VP Theodor Houser sat on the K-F board.
This was a deal both parties were interested in pursuing. Kaiser didn’t put a gun to Sears’ head to make it happen. And the failure of the Allstate was n=for a number of reasons, perhaps the biggest by far is that Sears wasn’t prepared to take trade-ins, which is how most Americans bought new cars.
If anyone deserves a black eye, it’s Sears, for that reason and for thinking shoppers would be willing to buy a car at a department store. They clearly weren’t. It was an experiment that didn’t turn out. No big losses on either side.
Was 13 the first time I ever set foot in an actual “Sears” store. The wstrn PA town I grew up in had a “Sears Catalogue” until about 1980.
A car trip to “New Castle PA” ((about 35 minutes due west)) took us to the “Towne Mall” and a spiffy “mo dern Sears store”!!
Right across from the mall was a “Burger Chef” as i recall. Was “high living”!
We got out own actual Sears in 1981.
A little off subject, but it really is a shame what Eddie Lamprey has done to Sears/Kmart over the last few years. I think there are like 5 Kmarts left and only about 40 Sears. When I was a kid, I LOVED Sears. I knew it wasn’t the very best stuff, but it was good enough in a happy way. Lagom as the Swedes say.
There are still 40 Sears stores left?
There are about 20 Sears stores left in the US (not including small “Sears Hometown” stores that were independently-owned and just sell appliances, mattresses, and a few other items) and all of 3 Kmarts, their sister store. Also recently closed were all 15 remaining Sears Auto Centers.
It should be obvious what Eddie Lampert has been doing the last 15 years – trying to separate Sears’ assets (mainly the valuable real estate their stores sit on, and well-known brands like Craftsman and DieHard) from their liabilities (the crumbling and unprofitable stores). To do this, he set up a hedge fund ESL and a REIT called Seritage to take over the properties, then rent them back to Sears, and if possible close the Sears and separate mall stores into smaller spaces that could be rented by other stores at much higher prices. Almost nothing was reinvested into the retail stores themselves, and employee turnover has been fast as well. Lampert has done very well for himself even as thousands of stores have closed.
Good column about Lampert: https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2019/06/03/the-shameless-sears-world-of-eddie-lampert-continues
The last “conventional” Sears store in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (there remains one appliance clearance outlet) closed on March 5, 2022. It was in the Philadelphia suburb of Willow Grove, in another dying mall.
The Sears corporate website still shows the Willow Grove store as open daily, 11am-7pm.
The Facebook page managed by the store itself does properly report the closure.
That is how far the mighty Sears has fallen…the closure of its last store in PA gets reported in social media while the corporate webmaster is in ignorance.
That’s just about right. The irony of the fall of Sears is that, decades ago, some genius decided to close down Sears catalog division and concentrate on brick-and-mortar sales. This worked well enough until Amazon began its rise by filling in that vacuum Sears had left with online sales instead of a thick catalog.
So, Sears attempted to get back in the game with its own version of Amazon. The problem is it was a miserable failure. Anyone who tried to buy something from Sears through their online division knows exactly what I’m talking about. It didn’t help that Sears was constantly having some kind of weekly sale of the same, overpriced stuff. I can’t recall her name but there was a specific person at Sears who championed this kind of malarky.
Lampert’s selling of Sears’ most valuable assets pretty much sealed the company’s fate.
100%, rudiger–the Sears website was almost impossible to use for purchases or even just navigate. For several years I would go there first, trying to support them but never successfully purchased anything online. Sad.