Death Of A Salesman
Death Of A Salesman
Sears filed for bankruptcy last month. They are closing stores everywhere. The last Sears store in Chicago closed in July.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck & Co., based in Chicago, was the largest retailer in the world, with about 350,000 employees.
The iconic Sears (now Willis) Tower was completed in 1973.
In this Southern town, the local Sears store, with its fancy escalators and rooftop parking deck, was closed in 1975, when it moved to the newly opened indoor Mall. Word is, that store will also be closing within the year.
I grew up in the Era of the Shopping Center as part of a Planned Community. Parkmerced/Stonestown Shopping Center in San Francisco, Cameron Village in Raleigh, others.
When we lived in Parkmerced, shopping was mostly done at Stonestown, which was anchored by the Emporium, not Sears. Still, some of our appliances came from Sears (no doubt because of the charge card), and some came from House of Louie (probably with cash).
And truthfully, most of our Sears shopping was done from the Wishbook, first and foremost. We mostly only went to the store to get what we saw in the catalog.
The linked article below is bemoaning the closing of the Mission District Sears store, in 1975.
Amazon was said to employ 566,000 people worldwide in February of this year, but declined by almost 3,000 people by its earnings report in April.
I think we'll be riding this seesaw for some time to come. The Big Box stores dealt a blow to smaller retail, but didn't kill them completely. There is still a need for better customer service.
Amazon has punished the Big Box stores AND smaller retail, but has weaknesses that can also be exploited. IMO, it has only survived and thrived by the support of a tidal wave of optimistic investors seeking a Retail Killer, and the always fickle General Consumerist.
Sears wasn't the kindest Consumer Overlord, but they looked a damn sight better than Amazon, especially for folks employed by manufacturing (Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances) and their retail distribution network.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/02/01/archives/death-of-a-store-jolts-historic-san-francisco-district.html
Sears filed for bankruptcy last month. They are closing stores everywhere. The last Sears store in Chicago closed in July.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck & Co., based in Chicago, was the largest retailer in the world, with about 350,000 employees.
The iconic Sears (now Willis) Tower was completed in 1973.
In this Southern town, the local Sears store, with its fancy escalators and rooftop parking deck, was closed in 1975, when it moved to the newly opened indoor Mall. Word is, that store will also be closing within the year.
I grew up in the Era of the Shopping Center as part of a Planned Community. Parkmerced/Stonestown Shopping Center in San Francisco, Cameron Village in Raleigh, others.
When we lived in Parkmerced, shopping was mostly done at Stonestown, which was anchored by the Emporium, not Sears. Still, some of our appliances came from Sears (no doubt because of the charge card), and some came from House of Louie (probably with cash).
And truthfully, most of our Sears shopping was done from the Wishbook, first and foremost. We mostly only went to the store to get what we saw in the catalog.
The linked article below is bemoaning the closing of the Mission District Sears store, in 1975.
Amazon was said to employ 566,000 people worldwide in February of this year, but declined by almost 3,000 people by its earnings report in April.
I think we'll be riding this seesaw for some time to come. The Big Box stores dealt a blow to smaller retail, but didn't kill them completely. There is still a need for better customer service.
Amazon has punished the Big Box stores AND smaller retail, but has weaknesses that can also be exploited. IMO, it has only survived and thrived by the support of a tidal wave of optimistic investors seeking a Retail Killer, and the always fickle General Consumerist.
Sears wasn't the kindest Consumer Overlord, but they looked a damn sight better than Amazon, especially for folks employed by manufacturing (Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances) and their retail distribution network.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/02/01/archives/death-of-a-store-jolts-historic-san-francisco-district.html
When I was growing up, the arrival of the Wish Book every fall was a BIG DEAL in my family. My brother and I would pore over the toy pages, carefully marking what we hoped Santa would bring us (of course, we never got ALL of it, but we could count on getting one or two of the things on our Sears list each Christmas...) RIP, holiday traditions; somehow, searching Amazon just isn't the same.
ReplyDeleteWell, it wasn't one thing, to be sure. Sears certainly had strengths that it squandered, and like all big, successful entities, it was not prepared to downsize intelligently. There are things about Sears that I will miss, and not nostalgically. I won't have to do without, but I will have to go farther afield and differently than I was accustomed to.
ReplyDeleteone of my brothers used to call all stores he went to "Sears." He was already a teenager when he stopped. my dad bought back to school clothes there ever year for us 5 boys.
ReplyDelete