.jpg) |
 |
The Good Old Days?
"The Good Old Days” - how often we find ourselves yearning for some by-gone era. Mail order marketing is a peculiarly American Institution. It was the result of the rapid development of the frontier, coupled with the increasing reliability of the postal system, that made mail order selling possible.
In 1863, Richard Warren Sears, when in his teens, went to work for the railroad. While serving as a Service Agent in Minnesota he noticed that a local jeweler refused a shipment of watches and the shipper offered them on consignment to Mr. Sears. The deal proved so profitable that he ordered more watches for resale through other Station Agents, reaching a point in a mail order business in Minneapolis.
Roebuck came into the picture when he answered an ad by Sears for a watch repairman. In 1893 Sears & Roebuck & Co. was formed. Based in Chicago, they sold watches, jewelry, and sewing machines, on 32 pages of their catalogue. Year after year new products were introduced, including full house plans. As taken from the 1908 Sears and Roebuck catalogue, houses, including lumber, plans and hardware were for sale for $725.00. You could buy a house and furnish it through the catalogue. -
Sears still sends out specialty catalogues today
by Susan Maresco.