Everything You Remember And Miss About…SEARS 

That was it! We spent so many hours with the dream catalogue. I still miss that excitement.

Oh yes oh baby how good it was and yah took all day to finish it.

Going through it circling everything you wanted while daydreaming about getting those things.

❤❤❤

Me and my cousins would go from the pantie section to toys.

Me too.

Teenage boys loved their catalog too back in the day lol

Yes me too. I also shopped from it and JCPenny

@@JustMe99999 oh yeah, I forgot about that… The bras and the panties on the young models lol.

They should have never stopped doing the catalog.

Sometimes it's for the better could've the internet generation appreciate sears a or any old school institution

Yeah.... CEO Mr. Lampbert screwed over KMart and SEARS....

I have an old cooking pot from Sears purchased in the late 1970s or early 80s. The side handles are worn out but it still works and I use to cook pasta a few times a month. Still going strong

Sears refused to change their business model with the times. Back in 2000, as an over-the-road big rig driver, I found myself in Del Rio, TX at one of their catalog houses. I was trying to purchase a replacement ballet outfit and shoes for my, at the time, six year old daughter who was outgrowing her clothing like you wouldn't have believed. Anyways, I had cash money on hand at the point of sale and wanted them to send it to the house. They kept on trying to get me to fill out a credit card application for a line of credit. I told them that I wasn't interested in that. Then, the only other way that they would accept payment is with a personal check. I paid cash for everything that I needed so that too was out of the question. I asked them what was the problem with the method that I had intended to pay for my purchases and they informed me that they do not accept cash at that location. When I asked them why they didn't accept cash, they kept on trying to get me to fill out the application. By this time, I was in this place for far longer than necessary so I told them to get Chicago (headquarters) on the phone. The situation was resolved when Chicago authorized that location to accept my method of payment. So, they ended up taking my cash after all! I refused to play their games with their old school business model because if you only make monthly payments on your purchases, they end up raking in more coin from you over time with the interest fees. And, that was their racket. Convert the cash customer over to a line of credit or accept their personal check giving the buyer an alternative option but at many of their catalog houses, they refuse to accept good old American coin as payment. If I'm not mistaken, Sears refused the utilization of the internet in addition as well. At the end of the day, would I like to see Sears still around? Sure, I would but when you refuse to adapt, improvise or overcome to your situations, then moving forward becomes an unnecessary struggle.

Same...KMart for me...I'm only 33...

+1 on that. I still use my dad's tools and I can remember using those same tools to help him fix things. A few years back, my mom called me at work (she's passed on too) and said the neighbor next door (who is still alive at 90+ years old) was cleaning her garage and came across some, "old Craftsman tools" and "would your son be interested in them?" My mom told my neighbor to wait until I got home. My neighbor gave them to me and they were a full set of sockets from the 1960s and a ratchet. I told her, "These are worth money. Let me give you something for them." She held up her hand and said, "I'll never talk to you again if you give me money. My kids will sell them for 50 cents at a yard sale when I'm gone. Take them now". They sit in a 1968 Craftsman six drawer top chest in my garage that was rescued from the curb in 2003.

Same here!

I drive a street sweeper in a small metropolitan city we’ll call Begas. Every now and then I’ll come across that 10mm socket you’ve been missing. This morning about 2am, I found a fairly new Craftsman socket wrench laying in “the invisible porkchop”. Sometimes I get lucky and find a Snapon or Matco, but this morning I let out a WOOHOO when I learned it wasn’t harbor freight.

@@scottystiffchicken I spotted a few sockets on my way to work this morning. I'll have to wait until I'm stuck in traffic to grab them though. LOL.

Dad had a Power Sander (1970's) that did that left - right shake, but it had a lever at the base that you flipped and it would change to forward and backward sanding parallel to the handle, for finish sanding with the grain...to this day NOBODY has made one like it. I don't know what happened to it...he probably loaned it to somebody.

At least you were lucky enough to live during that time 🥲

Sad it is.

@@HeatherB81 yes, it was an amazing time to grow up! I got to learn straight from the mouths of the GREATEST GENERATION (my grandparents), I was raised by the silent generation (and my parents never divorced so no 2 homes for me)and I married a baby boomer. I'm Gen X by the way. I was born in 1968 and my husband in 1961. We have been married for 23 years and going strong. I think I got to learn the best of every generation (and learn not to do the worst)

@@jackbean7195 it is sad when I think of all that will never be again!

Yes, that it does 😢

@charlenemack7040 I'm 71 years old as well. Born prematurely. Mom had to buy doll clothes from the Sears catalog, since nothing fit me.

I’m 66 and remember that absolutely everyone bought most everything at Sears. Much like Walmart today. Sears I miss you!

You were extra smart.

I worked for Sears from 1998 through 2006. At the store I was in the associates were also like family. I remember once an associate who was in a blind, and we all contributed to help them. Where I work now, I am working with four other former Sears associates who used to work with me. We still treat each other like family.

@@ericknoblauch9195 that's wonderful! I think there really is a special bond with Sears employees it's like you bring out the best in each other.

I worked there 1984-86. Wish I hadn’t quit so early. The people I worked with were great.

​@@irvan36mm I wish I stayed longer at Sears as well 2005-2006. I worked at a repair center where all the mowers and other power tools were serviced. Best job I ever had,and a great crew of coworkers.

Good Lord, did you live in a cardboard box?

You got that right! Kenmore was da bomb! I was lucky enough to get my hands on a barely used 1982 dishwasher for $20 and I’m never letting it go.

@@privatelyprivate3285 don't blame you, better than the new crap they have today.

@@privatelyprivate3285 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

@@saminaneen um, my comment was about dishwashers, NOT soapboxes from which to vent personal frustrations with unrelated social issues.

I can make the same claim, Just about EVERYTHING in our house (including major parts of the house itself) were ALL from Sears. But to be fair my mother worked for Sears, LOL. I still have her last Kenmore refrigerator that she bought in 1984! Prior to 1977 ALL Sears refrigerators were branded "Coldspot", a perfect name for such a device. It was also an appliance maker "in joke" as the appliance maker "Hotpoint" ALSO made refrigerators. (They STILL do, IIRC) And let's face it. "Hotpoint" might be a fine name for a stove, It's a dumb name for a fridge. Sears was literally mocking "Hotpoint". Corporate trolling 1930s-1970s style! LOL.

I lived on a dairy farm in Richfield Springs NY. I moved to Florida in 88 and never went back until 2010. Many of the family dairy farms were shut down and it was a blow to my heart to see that. Like part of your life was ripped out of you.

There's nothing crazy about that feeling as I get it, too. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and K-Mart were our go-to big purchase stores. Now, they're all gone. It is sad to see American institutions like those fade away.

@@glenmoss02 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

Yeah even if they still exist they are not a American owned company like what we grew up with

@@dangreene3895 👍👍There is NOTHING more ironically "American" in the convenience store game than "7-11". It's owned by a Japanese company...

Well said!!

😢

Is it one of those Sears kit homes? I just think those are really cool.😊

In the town I live in there are still 2 Sears homes standing tall! One of them just went up for sale and has been sold my husband and I plan on buying a house within the next 6 months and I was soooo hoping it didn’t sell because I wanted to buy it so bad!!!! The pictures on the inside look exactly the same as it did when I used to go with my Mom to visit a friend of hers who owned it back in the 70’s and 80’s.

Ive visited a few of those houses was quite impressed! Wouldn’t mind one of my own at all!

@@shannon_w. I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

@@privatelyprivate3285 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

It's so awesome that you still have that!

I have a reprint somewhere, but it might be an older one.. I'd have to look ,1909 maybe?

I remember that. It's the one I looked at to see my 4 year old selves wishes.

I looked at the prices you mention out of curiosity and I found every single product to be a lot cheaper today, that's with the inflation adjusted for accuracy. Everything is cheaper in 2023. I was shocked, because we keep complaining about how expensive everything is today, but we are wrong. I couldn't find one product that was cheaper in 1973.

WOW! What a treasure to have ☺️

True. A colleague of mine sold appliances at Sears for years and made a good living doing it. Montgomery Ward was good too for management positions.

Yes totally. As a kid you looked up to and respected the staff. It was just a different time. Sadly.

Back when you could own a home and support a family while pumping gas. what the hell happened?

You could also buy the company stock (with a small discount) through payroll deduction

Yes, my uncle's neighbor worked there from 1953 to 1993 and bought the stock. Back then, he would meet yearly with the financial advisor the company had and he listened and bought the stock. It made him a fairly wealthy man and rightly so, because Sears eventually stripped his pension.

Yea, they even had telephone ordering as an alternative to mail-in. It would have been a natural to go on-line.

I'm sure 😢

Fully agree.

@@JohnDlugosz Yes, I used to work in the phone room at one of the stores. Once you hit Black Friday, the phone calls were practically non-stop.

I love the idea 💡 of American brands in Canada 🇨🇦. 🇨🇦.

I love you recollection road.

Me too. Even from 1990!to 2023 has changed Soo much. Everything is fast turning digital. It's crazy. Our kids and youth can barely write, do Math, or write cursive. Now, many Elementary Education classes are skipping US History and the US Constitution lessons. Trying to teach morals without the Ten Commandments is useless. No wonder kids and youth are so messed up today. They don't even know who they are or where they came from!

Me too.

Same here, great memories back then growing up. Miss those days now more than ever before.🤔

The house that sits directly behind me is a Sears catalog house. Completely original. The house three doors down is likely also a Sears catalog house but needs verification.

Well you can't blame me Amazon that is a nonsensical story handed to the population that frankly knows nothing of business and it requires you to ignore logic and fact. So basically anybody who knows anything about Sears knows that Sears started out much the same way as Amazon the technology was different so they had to print a catalog but before they ever had a brick and mortar store they were a catalog company so there was a warehouse and they filled your order and sent it to you that was it. Another reason you just can't go on blaming the internet is the simple fact that most of these retailers serious included will they've all had a website for over 24 years they are in fact the internet and you could order directly from them even back in the late 90s so for them to blame the internet is basically blaming themselves it's bullshit. Patricia says internet retail sales only make up 8 to 10% of all retail sales meaning 90 plus percent still happens in the brick and mortar environment the reason for the downturn in the industry is simply because these companies have taken on mass amounts of debt coupled with the fact that their customer base me and you the public well there's an income deficiency across the population that's the real reason but you'll never hear any of these executives publicly announced that number one bad management is not going to take responsibility for driving these companies into massive debt number two their political pals don't want them to talk about how there's a massive income deficiency across the population so they conjured up the concept that they're going to blame the internet and sell that to stupid people!

Me too, I'm all in if someone could build one. 🚀

hey, I'm building a hot tub time machine. whenever i get it finished i'll let you know ! I'm 65 so i gotta hurry!! lol

Truth

@@halbud 😂😂😂

Back when you actually TALKED to someone on a phone, not just texted, and a phone was exactly that -- a phone, not a hand-held computer, camera, etc. The technology was simple: You lifted the receiver, dialed the number, spoke to the party and hung up after the conversation was over. None of this having to guess which button to press to do whatever. And you didn't walk everywhere with it, oblivious of your surroundings, no longer making eye contact with anyone. Is it really any wonder today's world is so messed up?

Now Walmart with all Chinese disposable junk.

I never cared much or their clothing. But I got a cashmere top coat for 60 bucks that was a return 😁

Making a special, little trip during my Birthday weekend with an extra day off...Headed to the last Sears here in So Cal this coming Friday AM- going to buy some Craftsman Screwdrivers. I could easily have them shipped but I'm certain it will be my last chance to actually shop there...I'll take my time...walk around...just me and my memories...and I'll be saying goodbye to another old friend. 🙁

Yes. Layaway was big thing in my family for xmas. Always going to Sears to put the money on layaway😅

I would memorize the Wish book! Miss the store 😕

@@lorinasr7910 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

Sears, Montgomery Wards and Spiegel catalogs were all fascinating while I was growing up. We also shopped a lot at J.C. Penneys. That's another one that went out of business. Who remembers Walker-Scott?

My 5th Grade School photo was taken in an outfit Mom let me pick out, it was a Dark Green crushed velour Pants and Jacket with a yellow shirt.

some assembly required... lol

I lived in one.😊

My son's mother lives in a Sears home, it was built in 1910.

The Sears catalog had everything PLUS an established nationwide distribution network, a fleet of delivery vans, AND a very good reputation. If Sears hadn't abandoned it (it was still making profit at the time!), Amazon would have never gotten off the ground.

Agreed. Sears shut down their catalog division just a couple of years before Internet shopping took off. Sears should have been the absolute king of online shopping.

Well see that's just it they did convert to online it's just unfortunately a lot of you either ignore that or you don't know about that but I can remember in the mid to late nineties yeah they were one of the first with a website and you would click on the tab labeled catalog and you could buy whatever you wanted right from their website see this is the problem with blaming the internet this past decade. In order to blame the internet for brick and mortars downfall frankly you'd have to be a complete idiot because you have to ignore logic that clearly states that most of these retailers have been the internet for literally 24 to 26 years with the capability to either ship to your house or you could pick it up in the store much like today there's virtually no difference so you can't go on blaming Amazon that is a bullshit claim. So every time I hear these retailers and other assorted people blame the internet to me it makes absolutely no sense because it's pretty much well wait a minute if you've been the internet since pretty much the late 90s early 2000s then you're blaming yourself. internet retail sales only make up 8 to 10% of all retail sales that didn't even time 90 plus percent still happen in the brick and mortar environment the reason for the downfall in the industry and or downturn in the industry is simply due to an income deficiency across the population this is what bad management doesn't particularly want you to talk about because they're political pals don't want you to talk about that. But you also have the major situations that bad management had also ran these companies into a ditch with taking on mass amounts of debt this is exactly why these companies are in the shitter it's bad management bad decisions that cost a lot of money they cannot make up the money they borrow to try and stay afloat only to getting the company deeper in debt then there's no real way to pay it back because the customer base is low on cash they're screwed. Of course we have another problem in this country and it's called education most people have zero analytical skills much less zero mathematical analytical skills meaning most of the population do not understand percentages and they barely understand the numbers that they're taught to look at. Meaning the vast majority can't understand how Amazon can take in a bit more money per year than Walmart even though they have a smaller percentage of the retail sector people don't understand how you can squeeze more money out of 8 to 10% of the market versus brick and mortars 90 plus percent they don't understand that. So they automatically assume that Amazon is the biggest snail they that's where people are led to believe nonsense that Amazon is bigger than Walmart when it is not. I would also like to point out another reason why blaming the internet is frankly stupid is simply it is the same thing as the Sears catalog the difference is instead of looking at a paper printed book you're just looking at a digital catalog via the computer or cell phone okay that's the only damn difference but the business itself still functions the same which is you the customer please is your order a person in a warehouse feels that order and then it goes on a truck and shipped okay it's the same difference as it was 100 years ago when Sears started out because that's how serious started out before they ever had a brick and mortar store they were a fucking catalog company. Here's the deal when Sears decided to expand into stores and of course Montgomery words also had a catalog JCPenney had a catalog and they all ran physical brick and mortar stores as well as the catalog business but there were other companies that were around that were nothing but dedicated catalog companies much like Amazon today is a dedicated internet catalog company but here's the track why is it during the 1930s none of these retailers of brick and mortar bitched pissed and moaned and whined that their business apparently is being hurt by the catalog company? You'll never find an article about that anywhere it does not exist because it did not happen!

And at one time WLS was one of the greatest rock stations.

@@paulj6756 I lived in St. Louis and still loved to listen to WLS. 89-W-L-S‼️Used to be able to listen all day. Was one of the bigger stations. 3:41 one of my favourite shortwave radios was my uncle’s Silvertone 5 band radio. It was tremendous.

larry lujack and little tommy

@@longhairscorpio3976 👍🏻

@@longhairscorpio3976 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

You were very lucky. I was born in 1981 😞

61 here Yes its missed@@HeatherB81

@@HeatherB81 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

@@Darren97381 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

It was a much more simple time, when men were men ,women were women, and that was the norm

And gas grills after July 4th ! 😅 I worked in their Buffalo area credit central dept, late 70s during college. Everybody and everything so professional, organized, and classy. Great place to work, so many friendships there, warm memories and prepared me for the future

Tool warranty lifetime is still honored .

And here I am, born/raised in North America, fascinated by the GDR’s state catalogues. I can only imagine how foreign mass consumerism must have indeed seemed to you!

@@privatelyprivate3285 Indeed!

In the 70s I heard the suggestion that Sears should mail a catalog to every adult in the Soviet Union. The People of the USSR were never our enemies. The enemy was the leadership and the party.

@@mpetersen6 hmmm…I’m not sure a single catalogue would have been delivered there, and I’m VERY sure no _order_ from one would’ve (let alone afforded/payable by anyone there) 😉

@@mpetersen6 Yes, that is true! It's the brainwashing that counted the most. They were kept in constant fear. Same as it is in China, today. P.S. Mailing catalogs to the USSR would never have gotten off the ground! Having those catalogs in the hands of the ordinary citizens would have been. the fuel for a revolution. Cheers

Sears used to have a great variety of merchandise you could purchase from them. Sadly, the later stores I visited didn't have much to offer. Their selection had become very limited. And, in later years, their customer service went downhill, as well. My own family experienced this. They didn't always hold to their policy of satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. My dad almost had to sue the management of one Sears store because they refused to honor the warranty on a water heater he had bought from them. They finally, begrudgingly came through. But it didn't bode well for their reputation.

I'd spend hours looking at it.

Yeah me too I would put little check marks next to the toys I wanted so my Mom would know for Christmas.

The cashews. Little white and pink bags served up to you ladies in white and pink uniforms. And the coconut or peanut clusters...

@@stanleycostello9610 The double-dipped chocolate peanuts were most excellent.

@@stanleycostello9610 I can't eat nuts or seeds anymore! Their popcorn was also great.

I remember the in store "snack bars"! Seems like for a while they even had cafeteria style meals and lunch specials but I know for sure they served hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, chili, etc. Also a separate kiosk with confectionary candy sold by weight, popcorn, cotton candy, candied apples, nuts, and just regular candy bars.

Lovely!

Ha, CCR was the first concert I ever went to! Good times. 😊

I was going to say the same thing. I remember going to Sears with my grandparents. It always included a bag of hot cashews, something we never got any other time. What a great memory.

I'm 63 and my favorite candy was the real malted milk balls that they had.

@@mattpobursky850 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.

Yeah similar lifestyle back in the 60's and 70's loved sears

@@jackbean7195 Gen Xer here and I would always get cherry sours.

I reccomend the Plaza Las Americas Sears, Sears Brand Central, and Sears Home Improvements stores. Still open and it's the only one of the 14 remaining Sears that's been renovated (2018).

Chapel Hill?

@@summerrose4286 Toledo, Ohio!

Many of those Sears kit homes are still being lived in today. If I'm not mistaken, I think there is a town in Illinois that has a lot of those homes being lived in today. Carlinville, IL is the town.

I lived in a Sears kit house in Michigan; it had been built around 1920, and was still both sound and absolutely beautiful.

@@christinebutler7630 That's outstanding. I've recently become hooked on house-fix-up shows and I'm not at all surprised that those houses were built to last. I'm in Ohio and the climate is less than hospitable for us both. Apologies if you were/are a Michigan fan.

@@jenniferhansen3622 That's tremendous. Makes you wonder how a company that offered that kind of longevity could end up where it is now.

Sears sold a lot things through the years I remember they sold motorcycles boats and boat motors and I remember somebody saying they even sold cars at one time the even sold Cemetery monuments

Today's sewing machines, regardless of where you buy them, are probably made in China, and wear out in five years.

Yes, I use to buy my oldest daughters jeans only from them because she was so rough on them. No matter how many times she wore a hole, they'd replace them as long as it was the same size.

The striped Oshkosh overalls outlasted every kid and hand-me-down while still looking brand new.

Yup we had Toughskin jeans and jackets as a kid in the late 60's thru the 70's.

@@privatelyprivate3285 The only ones my mom would buy for me, as a was a rough tomboy.

You're right. Amazon became the modern version of Sears, and Sears didn't adapt. I miss Sears, too. I have a garage full of Craftsman tools, a 28 year old Craftsman lawnmower, a 30 year old Kenmore washing machine and a 16 year old Kenmore dryer. And they all work great.

I use to like seeing the mini motor bikes and they sold guns while folks were decent.

I agree. I used to work at a Sears store back in 2012-2013. The Red Craftsman riding mowers that used to be bulletproof in terms of reliability became foreign-made junk. One customer went on a rant on Black Friday about going through his third riding mower in 5 years. The online ordering system, where a customer selected "ship to store," became a nightmare. Customers would receive an automated e-mail telling them their order was ready for pickup...when it would be sitting at the nose of a fully loaded trailer. Not staged in a bin with the customer's name on it. As you can imagine, that didn't go over well with many people. In addition, morale at the store I worked at was in the toilet. The company was in the midst of a raise freeze. One person I worked with had been there four years and was making the same wage as me...$8 per hour.

Who was Deuce?

I worked at the Niles store at Golf Mill in high school. I moved to Wisconsin and people I talked to never went to a Sears with candy and cashews!!! That was a good smell memory!!!

@@roseknott2832remember the Karmelkorn Shop? The Sears store we hung out at was the one in Golf Mill. Greetings from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!

Yes yum! And greetings from Kaukauna WI!

I remember that store in my teens in the '90s

3" thickness in pages!

Sears had the Amazon business model in their hands and never realized it. The catalog only lacked the interner

“Whose turn is to ‘read’ the wishbook in bed tonight!”

@@privatelyprivate3285 I just miss, the REAL times, when boys, were REALLY boys, and girls were REALLY girls, and there was no confusion, or mental illness, when it came to using public bathroom.