[PLUG-TALK] Sears doomed

Paul Heinlein heinlein at madboa.com
Fri Jun 1 19:45:00 UTC 2018


On Fri, 1 Jun 2018, Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Fri, 1 Jun 2018, Aaron Burt wrote:
>
>>  Sears was built on mail-order, and prospered on the spread and
>>  decentralization of America.
>
> And their catelogs supplied outhouses in every rural area of 
> fly-over country. Softer than corncobs.

While I have nostalgic memories of training myself in the ways of 
consumerism poring over the Sears catalog in the months leading up to 
Christmas, I haven't purchased anything of significance in a Sears 
store for years, probably decades.

When I lived in Denver, I drove down streets full of Sears kit homes, 
most of which were built in the 1910s and 20s. Any individual instance 
was only as good as the person who assembled it (often the owner), but 
at their best those houses provided quality entry-level housing for 
communities that couldn't rely on local resources for home building.

Sears also raised the bar for quality of merchandise available in 
rural areas and small towns across the country.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W


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