For the St Louis folks on here, my dad used to work at the Sears on Kingshighway in North St. Louis and then worked in the credit department at the Sears in Northwest Plaza into the 80s. Much of our house was furnished in Sears and most Christmases came from there. I have great memories of shopping at Sears stores as a kid, looking at the tools, etc. Coming from Washington "into the big city", we would usually go to Crestwood Plaza (a now dead mall), Chesterfield Mall (on its last leg), and rarely Northwest Plaza (mostly razed and reused as offices now) because it was the furthest away. For some reason we never shopped at South County until I was married and living in South St. Louis with my wife. This pandemic is another nail in the coffin of malls.

The hilarious thing about the "going out of business sales" are that the prices are actually higher than what they had on any given sale, but people will buy it up because.....IT'S A GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE!

The Macy's here at the mall on Broadway went out of business - all they have left is display cases

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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
So I journeyed to Wasilla, the white trash capital of Alaska .....

I’m in Fairbanks for a few days re-supplying and thought it was the armpit of Alaska..Guess I won’t be going to Wasilla. Thanks!

When I got out of the Army in 1964 I got a job at Montgomery Ward in the service dept, worked there 9 years and changed jobs elsewhere. About 8 years the store closed, and about 10 years later the Mall closed and 3 years ago it was torn down. Malls are closing at increasing numbers every year. Don’t get a job in retail and tell your kids to stay away also.

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Originally posted by smlsig:

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
So I journeyed to Wasilla, the white trash capital of Alaska .....

I’m in Fairbanks for a few days re-supplying and thought it was the armpit of Alaska..Guess I won’t be going to Wasilla. Thanks!

Yes, Squarebanks does make Tijuana look like an HOA controlled community.

Here are Sears Christmas and Wish Books from 1940 to 2009. You can scroll through each catalog.

https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

In the Mid-1970's I was working for my small town Montgomery Wards store after school and on Saturdays.

I had a really cool boss, we're still friends to this day.

The small town Sears store was right next door, we shared a wall with them.

I told my boss I wanted to get a tool box and tools for my car for when I moved away to College.

I don't recall exactly how it happened, but I guess I got his blessing to go next door and buy Craftsman Tools. I still have those Craftsman Tools and they still work just fine.

When I got to College in "The Big City" 3 hours away I continued to buy Craftsman Tools as I needed and could afford them.

I purchased a Craftsman battery charger in the Fall of my 1st year in College, and I still have it and use it to this day. That would be 44 years ago.

As a young man growing up in my small town the Sears Catalog Store was always busy. Seems like all my friends parents bought everything from clothing to appliances to paint to laundry soap from Sears. We did a good business too at the Montgomery Wards Store.

The summer of my 2nd year in College I worked fulltime at the big Montgomery Wards store in the big mall of the big city. I have fond memories of that, it was fun, I learned a lot and made a few bucks.

Time changes as well as tastes and customs.

Sears was just absolutely an Institution for decades. It has died a slow and painful death and I'm glad it's out of it's misery.
.

Yes, it's sad to see the closed stores.

The pet shop at our local Sears was my Big Deal when I was a kid. Mostly tropical fish, but they did carry some pretty cool species. The rest of the store was rather meh to me during those early years of my life (lousy toy department), but my parents loved the place. Kenmore everything was the mantra of my dad's household. Didn't hurt that as a kid I loved to watch the rail cars shuttling around on the tracks that ran right next to their building.

The pet store went away during my early teen years, replaced by a gardening tools shop, I think. Rarely shopped there as I grew up into adulthood before I moved away, but would on occasion stop by to visit their old tool department whenever I came into town visiting friends or my parents, just to see what was new or if they had anything I just couldn't do without.

They rarely did. The last couple of decades the place felt run down and woefully out of touch with the then-current retailing trends. Probably didn't help that Home Depot built a store next door. Sears finally pulled the plug on that location about 5 or 6 years ago.

However I still have fond memories of that pet shop. And yes, it is a bit sad and even depressing.

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Originally posted by flashguy:
Childhood in Detroit, Michigan 1940-1960 involved a lot of shopping at Sears, Wards, and J. L. Hudson's (largest store in the US at that time). Many memories of wandering the aisles of Woolworth's and Kresge's, too.

flashguy

Ward's at Grand River and Greenfield? Sears at Grand River and Oakman? Hudson's Downtown or Northland?

There is a Mall in a local city that had a Sears that closed last year. In that Mall is a Penney’s and a Macy’s also. Nuf said?

I thought I was the only kid that suffered growing up in Toughskin shit colored jeans and corduroys.

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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
So I journeyed to Wasilla, the white trash capital of Alaska to check out the store closing sale at Sears. Have to admit, it really was kind of depressing.

Remembering all of the hours spent growing up in Sears at Southglenn Mall at the mini arcade playing Tempest, Asteroids and Galaga. Back to school shopping for Toughskin jeans in really horrid colors. Time spent with dad in the automotive and Craftsman sections. Thinking of how many hundreds, no probably thousands of dollars I've spent in the Craftsman section. Back when they sold really cool stuff like fishing rods, knives, rifles and shotguns. Then there was the Christmas catalog...

Now it's just a really bad clearance sale mostly made in China.

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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Grew up with K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney, the old outdoor mall that had a Stix Baer & Fuller (now Dillards) where my Mom would get her onion soup and I would get an "alligator roll" to gnaw on.

You made me smile.
My Mom still serves us the Stix Baer & Fuller french onion soup once a year with Christmas dinner. That stuff is delicious. She has their recipe and a set of the brown bowls with the handles that they served it in.

I forgot about the brown bowls with handles.

I just closed my wife's Sears card.

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Originally posted by nhtagmember:
The Macy's here at the mall on Broadway went out of business - all they have left is display cases

Many Macy's salespeople went over to Dillards several months ago. I guess they knew the end was near.

in the late 60's and early 70's, while making next to nothing in the Navy, I would head to Sears after most paychecks and purchase a few bucks worth of tools. I bought socket sets, wrenches, etc. I still have all of these today. They were good and cheap.

My recollection of Sears goes from the 50's as a kid to about 2000. Have had their credit card since 1966. Bought everything there, school clothes, suits, furniture, appliances, guns, ammo, mowers, chain saws, paint, tools, etc. etc. They were always there and dependable. One of my favorite memories as a kid in the 50's though was the hot roasted nut stand right by the escalators, I can still smell them.