I mentioned the Sears Wish Book earlier this week. Sure, back in the day, the Sears Wish Book encouraged men to buy their wives a dishwasher for Christmas so she would have more time to spend with him, but that was just a sign of the times.
Sears didn’t do well with keeping up with the times, did they. The chain was purchased by Kmart just when they should have become the next Amazon. Yes, Kmart Holdings bought Sears and then renamed the whole thing Sears Holding, it was Kmart that did the buying. Kmart got too big for their britches the moment they dropped the big red “K” with the lowercase turquoise “mart” for a logo.
So many malls all over the country have shuttered Sears stores at one end of a prominent wing and it’s a reminder to all that what was in the world of retail is no more. We spent time at the mall tonight and despite it being the last shopping weekend of the season, the mall wasn’t particularly busy. People point, click, and wait for a delivery. The JCPenney was sparsely stocked and Macy’s was a mess but at had a decent selection of merchandise. Only Dillard’s looked like a department store of the before times.
Remember the before times? They were lovely but they’re never coming back. Despite all efforts to “return to normal” during these pandemic times, there’s uncertainty as to what that normal is or what that normal should be.
I wish the new normal included going to Sears.
Sears was the very first store where I witnessed the use of an electronic cash register. It piqued my interest and eventually led me to a very good career as a software engineer.
I wouldn’t mind seeing one of those old Sears cash registers from the 1970s again. In person.
At Sears.
