Friday, November 4, 2011

Happy 125th Birthday to Sears

As a young child , beginning at the tender age of six, nearly every Saturday morning my Dad and I would drive to Erie Bld. in downtown Schenectady. It was always a happy excursion to be out with my Dad in one or another versions of his red and white autos. We nearly always stopped at Sears. More than often, sears was our sole destination. The Schrnectady store was a big rectangle - not by today's big store standards - but by a little girl's.

http://citynoise.org/upload/34333.jpg

Erie Blvd. had nose in parking because the street was wide. It appeared to begin at the base of General Electric's oldest big red brick buildings and ran not more than a mile to the major intersection with State Street - the city's biggest commercial avenue. But Erie Blvd was unique. It was as wide as four normal city streets- and with sidewalks - five times normal width. It was the filled-in and paved-over site of the original Erie Canal and ran vaguely parallel to the Mohawk River - about 1/4 mile away on the other side of one additional diagonal street. I always found it amazing to be driving "on" the Erie Canal. I still do.

Sears was a modest stand alone little store. Basically it was a hardware store. My Dad, a card carrying DIYer- always had something he knew could be found at Sears. So we traveled the six miles to town from the Glenville hills which overlooked the area. We were not an affluent family group. Any purchase had to be well considered and labored over. However that said, my Dad's discretionary tool money seemed limitless in my eyes. We always left with a bag. It might have contained only a few screws or nails but I think the purchase made all my Dad's week long of long hard work hours somehow balanced by his modest purchase. Have things changed much for today's consumers?

Dad must have known the men who frequented the store and the men who ran the store pretty well. Perhaps the trip was partly social since he did a lot of really boring talking to these guys. I know I was the only child in the store and probably the only female.

On one back side of the store a high counter was placed with a couple copies of the "big book" Sear's catalogue for viewing and for making certain the item numbers, sizes, colors etc were correct before handing in an order. This counter was also where one picked-up happened. Boxed or brown paper wrapped purchases ordered through the catalogue were delivered over this counter from wherever they mysteriously originated. This counter was also where you returned items that did not fit or suit the needs of the purchaser. Amazingly, even on a Saturday, the counter was often empty.

I used to carefully review the catalogue items - especially the toys in the "big book.". If I had seen all of these toys in person I probably would have swooned in over stimulation. In my family, it was years before items were regularly seen in person before they were purchased. Our catalogue was well fingered. Christmas lists and birthday presents originated with the Sear's Holiday Catalogue.

Perhaps twice a year, my Mother, Father and I would make the big trip to the Montgomery Wards store. Montgomery Wards known affectionally as "Monkey Wars" was Srars major catalogue competitor in my neck of the woods. The Mokey Wars store was a behemoth. Overwhelming with many floors of merchandize and very, very crowded with shoppers. It was the sort of store a child easily could be swallowed up inside of and lost forever - or at least the best part of the trip. As a result over-tired and cranky, sweaty in snow pants kids hung close to parents. Rowdies, tough children grouped in small huddles could be seen in the giant cement stairwells. They seemed to be on their own. They looked mean. There was something foreign about them. They were "city kids." I am not sure which city. Perhaps Albany. Someplace I only went through - not to and not with any regularity. Did they have parents?

But at Sears, faces were friendly. There was room to move, space to examine the brightly chromed tools or hardware in assorted sizes which sat in open bins and divided cabinet top sections of the big wooden under drawer structures which defined the aisles of the store. Everything was labeled on the bin - not on the thing. Noticeably absent were gummy stickers messing up the surface of the new stuff. The tools themselves had numbers molded into their surfaces. I imagine one walked around the store with the latest catalogue to secure the prices of wrenches and pliers and the amazing variety of tools in the Craftsman brand. Or one asked a sales guy. They knew everything.

I think these sales guys felt sorry for me. Every Saturday waiting for my Dad as he did his thing for tweny minutes, forty-five minutes, an hour while I wandered listlessly or shrank into a corner and sat on the floor or went outside on the sidewalk or out the backdoor near the dirt parking lot and loading dock.

I knew from a young age that Craftman tools were guaranteed for life. I did not know that was a remarkable piece of merchandizing. Sears stood behind these tools. Sixty years later, there are several of my Dad's tools in my bright red tool box. They work as good as new. They outlived my Dad by thirty years and counting and will remain after mine. So guaranteed for life is not exactly accurate... Craftsman brand are multi-generational tools. Would that this was true of a dish washer, an oven... or a washing machine.

So happy 125th birthday Sears. Odd to contemplate that I have stood with you for half your 125 years. Whenever I have an appliance to replace or tires to buy or switch off - where do I go first. Sears.com. Of course I always wait for big 20-30% off sales but still- Sears is a reliable and worthy retailer. And Sears has secured my appliance purchase loyalty. Their website sucks but the salespeople in my local store outside of Pittsfield Mass are always helpful and knowledgeable. They guide me through a big purchase. And, just like when I was a child, the store is always sort of empty. For me it echoes my earliest memories of shopping with Dad. It's in the air.

No comments: