Snow Falling On Fazio's

An early 1971 view of a brand new suburban Cleveland Fazio’s supermarket. This store opened six years after the Fazio and Costa families had bought out the moribund Fisher Foods chain, which was at one time the dominant food chain in the area but by the early sixties had fallen on hard times. By the time the pictured store opened, the company (which still went by the official name of Fisher Foods

Searsizzle

One final look at Sears for now, and this time we’ll move inside for a gander at some indoor entrances to Sears stores within the context of the far-out, groovy atmosphere of a couple of brand new circa 1971-2 malls, in photos taken when they were new. (Ok, those expressions were already dated by 1971, but what the hey…)In my opinion, the real action from a design standpoint was inside the malls

Late Sixties Sears Scenes

As the sixties drew to a close, Sears continued to reign as the world’s top retailer, and a respected American institution. Probably the highest profile evidence of this was the company’s bold plan to move to a new downtown Chicago headquarters, Sears Tower, construction of which would soon be underway. The tallest building in the world at the time, Sears would relocate there from its antiquated

Easter Greetings

A very nice Easter display featuring a cross standing atop a “hill” of Easter lilies (crossing the 'line of separation' between church and supermarket?) in this early 1960’s view from a Southern California Vons location. In-town rival Alpha Beta went the secular route that year, as seen below. These photos are from an early 60’s Progressive Grocer article about “Spring Merchandising Ideas”. Hope

Seattle Sears at Sunset

A lovely evening view of the brand-new Sears at Aurora Square in Shoreline, Washington, a suburb just north of Seattle. This store, which opened in September 1967 and still exists, featured a somewhat unusual in-line auto center. With most Sears stores of this size, they were detached. A considerably less dramatic photo shows the store as it appears today.In 1967 Sears was near the peak of its

Live from Korvette City!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled posts to bring you this special report live from the “Korvette City” in Baileys Crossroads, (near Arlington) Virginia in the metropolitan Washington, DC area!Live in 1965, that is. This special footage was sent to me by Robyn Carter, an Arlington native, retro retail and postwar culture fan. Filmed in 8mm color in 1965 by Robyn’s grandmother, Izola Grubb,

Sears - Canoga Park, California 1964

On October 28, 1964, Sears opened the largest store in its history up to that time, a 300,000-plus square foot colossus in Canoga Park’s Fallbrook Square Shopping Center, located in the western reach of the San Fernando Valley. Complete with a massive Disney World-esque underground warehouse and service infrastructure, the store represented a major acknowledgment on Sears’ part of the sensational

The ____ Side of Sears

I’ll let you come up with your own adjective to describe this gasp-worthy (ok, that’s mine) group of four Class A Sears stores, which opened between August and October, 1964 and are pictured here shortly after opening. Showing a wide spectrum of architecture and (almost) every Sears logo combination, the individual charm of each of these stores speaks for itself.The first store pictured is the

Sears Had Everything

A few interior shots from 1962, including an attractive snack bar, (great way to take a break during a shopping trip, right?), some departmental views, and the ubiquitous catalog order desk. As mentioned previously, every Sears store had one of these, and the company also had hundreds of standalone Catalog Stores in small towns across the country, filling in the (fairly few) gaps market gaps

The Many Sides of Sears, 1963

The seven Sears stores pictured above were all opened in a seven-month period – from March through October, 1963. These stores – all type A “Complete Department Stores” help to illustrate the impressive breadth of architectural styles Sears employed during the period. It’s interesting to note, also, that Sears used multiple logo styles on their stores – the “script” type, which had been in use in