Monday’s announcement that Sears would file for bankruptcy and close 142 stores came as little surprise to anyone who has followed the retail giant’s collapse in recent years. Still, the news inspired a wave of nostalgia for a company that sold an ideal of middle-class life to generations of Americans.
A lesser-known aspect of Sears’s 125-year history, however, is how the company revolutionized rural black Southerners’ shopping patterns in the late 19th century, subverting racial hierarchies by allowing them to make purchases by mail or over the phone and avoid the blatant racism that they faced at small country stores.
—Sears’s ‘radical’ past: How mail-order catalogues subverted the racial hierarchy of Jim Crow
I’m somewhat nostalgic for the Sears (officially Sears, Roebuck and Company) catalogs and the small outlet store we had here in town. We seldom went to Santa Fe to shop and used Sears and Montgomery Wards a lot. We could order things from the catalogs or at the outlets and return merchandise for free — no return shipping, which made it feasible to buy clothes sight unseen.
I was aware they were important to rural areas even more isolated than we were, but I didn’t realize the effect Sears had on rural black southerners in the days of Jim Crow and that Julius Rosenwald, at one time part owner and leader of Sears, was a philanthropist who gave millions towards educating black children in the South. That touches my heart. It’s sad to see how far the company has fallen — RIP, Sears.
there are some things that are just innately American. and Sears is one of them. the Sears Catalog was awaited with baited breath! and their Christmas catalog was even more special!
I too had no idea of the great part it played in helping the southern small town Black people of that time to be able to shop in peace by ordering from the catalog. what a shameful and sad thing to have to be afraid to go into town to even buy your children what they needed. good lord.
indeed. RIP dear Sears.
Yes, the Wish Book! That’s the part I remember the most. It was fun to look through even if one didn’t buy that much. They did a great job.
Apparently in the South the whites thought the blacks shouldn’t have nice things, so the blacks not only had to wait until every white had been served, they got only the lowest quality products.
Lots of shopping chains in the UK are closing branches or totally going out of business. A number of reasons – online shopping, poverty, big rent rises etc. City centres are looking very sorry for themselves with lots of empty buildings and “premises for rent” signs.
A lot of malls here are having trouble too. And when city centers have trouble the usual “solution” is gentrification, which spruces things up and brings in a lot of money but drives the poor out of their homes and communities.
yes RIP Sears, interesting history on the status of the Jim Crow period when it was difficult for certain people in the community to actually shop – at bricks and mortar – but hurrah for catalogue makers.
once long ago here, a clothing company had a (mailed out) catalogue, I bought quite a few things – now that same company as almagated with a bigger store front and has only retail spaces – but not with such good quality as before…
most other stores now have online “catalogues” to order from on-line…I sometimes buy art supplies and of course the bulk of shopping still comes from online food…
We buy most of our nonfood goods via email. And if it weren’t for online shopping Andy wouldn’t have access to a lot of the items he needs for his projects.
Sears in Canada has had a rough ride. The store in Victoria closed last winter, and I have missed it. When I was small, my family, living in a very isolated part of the North, depended on the Sears and Eaton catalogues to provide us with many of life’s necessities. I didn’t know about the philanthropic measures Sear’s undertook to assist the black population. Thanks for enlightening us!
In the distant past they were a godsend to isolated people, but our store in Santa Fe wasn’t very good so we don’t miss it. I was touched to hear about Rosenwald’s good works too.
One of the case studies that we had in Business School was about Sears and some of us wondered whether something like that in India would work in India. We came to the conclusion then that it would not due to very many factors then applicable, which are now applicable in the USA ie, alternate methods of shopping, delivery logistics etc.
That’s interesting, thanks!
Six weeks before Dave was due home from Viet Nam, Sears fired me because an unruly customer made a scene involving me. For years, I would not even walk through a Sears store to get to someplace else. I have not done business with Sears since 1968.
I don’t blame you! My sister worked for Sears for a while. She said they were a great place to work for at first, but then they were hard on the help so she left. In general if a retail company is rotten to the help then customer service, and the company, eventually suffers too.