Sears Oakbrook Center, 1962

Here’s a unique Sears store from one of my all-time favorite malls, Oakbrook Center, which is located in Chicago’s Western Suburbs. This store, which opened along with the rest of the mall in March 1962, was designed by famed architect Richard Marsh Bennett, who also designed many of the mall’s other structures (including the exterior of the Oakbrook Jewel Food Store, featured in one of this

The Signature of Sears

If you are around 30 years old or so, you probably have some good memories of shopping at Sears. If you’re over 40, chances are they’re great memories. The sights (and smells) of the Sears “experience” , if it may be called that – the “Karnival Korner” candy and popcorn stands, the smells from which permeated a large portion of the store, the toy department, bringing the Christmas “Wish Book”

The ABC's of Sears

One of the most significant keys to Sears’ success was the company’s ability to provide the appropriate size and type store for each community they did business in. General Wood, having successfully launched Sears’ initial entry into the retail store field, realized early on that a “one size fits all” approach wouldn’t work. A strategy to develop three primary basic types of Sears stores was put

Sears - Daytona Beach, Florida 1955

These day and night photos are of a new Sears store opened in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1955. The store was located at the intersection of Beach Street and 3rd Avenue, just off of the west end of the Broadway Bridge (U.S. 92, which traverses the Intercoastal Waterway) and across from Riverfront Park. The building still exists.The last two photos are detail shots of two of the store entrances

A Mid-50's Inside Look at Sears

A set of interior views typical of larger Sears stores from the mid-1950's. From the end of World War II up to that time, the company opened over 100 stores in new locations and had relocated more than twice that number of existing stores to larger, suburban facilities. Sears’ sales by this time were more than double that of their arch competitor, Montgomery Ward. Their approach to

Sears, Roebuck and America

Sears didn't have a single retail location for nearly the first forty years of its existence. Founded in 1886 by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck, the company established its initial reputation and fame as a “catalog supply house”, shipping all manner of goods to (mostly rural) locations all over the country from its Chicago headquarters. Along with its chief competitor Montgomery Ward, founded

The All-Weather Sears

Two views of classic Sears stores from the early nineteen-sixties - the Anchorage, Alaska store, which opened in 1966, and a Phoenix, Arizona store which opened four years earlier. Sears took a backseat to no one in terms of architectural design, variety and quality of construction during the postwar go-go years (or in many pre-war examples, for that matter). Fortunately, a decent number

The After Hours - Bradlees/Stop & Shop

One last look at Bradlees and Stop & Shop for now - here’s a night view from 1967 featuring Stop & Shop’s distinctive new logo, one the company would use into the 1980’s. The further refinement of the combo concept is nicely in evidence here. The difference in lighting styles between the discount store and the supermarket sections, described in detail in the article quoted in the previous post,