Everything You Remember And Miss About ... Sears

[gyrafoam]

The Sears on Ponce de Leon in Atlanta

was a huge playground when I was a kid. They always had a great working display of various appliances. The Plexi-Glass tub Lady Kenmore Wringer washer or the latest Lady Kenmore Automatic, always with a full tub of water, a couple dozen poker chips, set to agitate and ready for action.

Many, many childhood memories of this store. The Atlanta Crackers Baseball field was right across the street for even more action.

They eventually built a store up on the North side closer to where we lived and the folks stopped driving into the city. However, that store never had the charm of the old store on Ponce.

 

[fisherpaykel]

Sears in MEXICO

I visited Guadalajara in February and I saw two Sears stores, the one I went into was 12 or so blocks from the old Centro district on a busy four lane street, nice Mid-Century modern suburban design building white exterior. It appeared fully stocked, their was a friendly greeter inside the entrance- he spoke English as well after hearing my Spanish!, I don't know how many other Sears stores exist in Mexico. I remember Sears as a good department store but also for having one of the best appliance departments.

 

[washerlover]

Thankfully one of my Mom's good friends worked in the appliance department of the Eureka, CA Sears store, located in what was then called "The Mall" (Eureka was and is a small town in the middle of nowhere on California's north coast -- population approx 30,000). While my Mom and her friend would gossip, her friend would run a Kenmore washing machine for me to be entertained while the two of them gabbed about who knows what!

 

[frigilux]

Put me firmly in the “loved Sears” column.

My family (I was born in ‘59) bought nearly everything on offer at Sears, from appliances, TVs, and clothing to home furnishings, tools, and house paint, most likely due to the easy credit terms. I was pretty weary of all Sears mania by the time I was 10 or so and developed a serious case of Frigidaire envy.

Having said that, I loved wandering through the large appliance section of the store, looking into all the washers, refrigerators, ranges & dishwashers, much to the chagrin of the salesmen on duty.

Can’t believe there are fewer than 20 Sears retail stores left. Even when we moved to a small town of 2,000 there was a Sears Catalog Store with a few appliances and tires on display. They were Amazon before Amazon existed and a retail powerhouse of Walmart-ian proportions.

 

[jamiel]

Sears seemed to me to be the first store with a computerized POS system (remember the big tall Singer terminals). I remember being quite awed by them and at about 10 y.o. being quite impressed when I asked at our store in Crestwood Plaza, Crestwood MO"do they talk to something" and they said "oh yes, they talk to Chicago". After all, my grandparents lived up there and that was a 5 hour drive away!

 

[tomturbomatic]

The trouble with the POS terminals was that they were serving several departments and there were no sales people to help you with merchandise in the departments, at least in the store near me. Most department stores were not designed to be self service. I don't shop at Best Buy because I can't find people to answer questions about the merchandise or even where to find what I'm looking for. Sears might have had what you wanted in the stock room, but there was no one to get it for you.

I wonder if the clothes that Sears employees wore to work retained the smell of the nut frying oil that hit you when you walked in the door.

Sears had a funny arrangement for things. In the 50s, dishwashers were not sold in the major appliance department, but in the kitchen cabinet department, even the portables. There was a little department that sold closet stuff that also sold irons and that little Silex-made washer and dryer, even the little washers with the motor in the top.

 

[luxflairguy]

"Nut frying oil" THAT"S what I remember more than anything! Walking in the door and smelling frying nuts! Of course my family headed directly for the nut counter! Years later as an adult it's still my fondest memory other than the domed washers/dishwashers and of course the vacuums! We had an electrolux model 30 until 1969! Can't forget the laundry detergent that has a faint lemony smell (to me) and then of course the CATALOG! Wish I'd saved them! Memory's!

 

[qsd-dan]

Walking in the door and smelling frying nuts!

Reminds me of walking into Sprouse-Reitz and smelling popcorn.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Do you also remember the little metal railing between the fryer and the edge of the counter to prevent customers from getting too close to the heated surfaces?

 

[bradfordwhite]

1977 to 1986 Sears

EVERYTHING Sears. lol

 

[sambootoo]

Oh the memories! I loved the appliance department! During spring and summer I would linger in the fan department. They seemed to have 1 of every model plugged in so you could turn it on and try it out. I think I tried them all! Remember the brightly colored streamers attached to fans and window unit ac’s so you could “see” the breeze they produced? They also had a wringer washer with a hula dancing doll attached to the agitator. She could really make that grass skirt flutter if you switched the washer to high speed! I have no clue now where mom and dad were while I entertained myself! And don’t forget that paging system or whatever it was, the constant Ding….Ding Ding, Ding…Ding Ding!

 

[DADoES]

 
Kenmore ... solid as Sears!  (Oh, my .... oops.)

 

[gansky1]

 

 

The popcorn.  Air-popped and smeared with buttery flavor oil, the scent was better than the taste.

 

[wayupnorth]

There WAS more for your life at Sears. I saved all my 1980 and after to when they ended the catalog.

 

[jamiel]

#15...Brian and I did a FB post from Fort Lauderdale a couple years ago where the location at US1/Sunrise (an amazing Deco masterpiece from about 1952) closed roughly 1/1/22. The store was depressing but it was a nostalgic visit. Got some responses on FB but the one that caught us in the feels was from a friend (gifted auto designer who collects Bentleys and Aston Martins!) who mentioned that his family was going to really really miss Sears...because it was the only store where his grandmother could try on clothing.

See, Richard's Black--and even the respectable family (Ebony on the coffee table, Jack and Jill after school, etc etc) couldn't have his grandmother try on a frock or chapeau.

(another cool Richard story--he saw a story in Ebony on Ed Welburn--the first Black car designer in Detroit--wrote a letter which started a correspondence...Ed was the president of GM Design in the late '00s and Richard followed him, recently designing the interiors for the Rivian)

 

[tomturbomatic]

Trying on clothes

In Washington, DC, knowledgeable Black women would call up and order garments to be delivered and try them on in the privacy of their homes.

RE: Greg's post about the popcorn reminded me of my experience with Cinnabon. After years of enjoying the fragrance, I bought one and the flavor was nowhere near as good as the aroma.

 

[appnut]

flavor was nowhere near as good as the aroma.

Tom, I've heard individuals make the same comment regarding coffee.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I agree. If the brewed coffee tasted like its fragrance in the ground state or like it smells while brewing, it would taste far more pleasant to me than the beverage. Tea, on the other hand has very little aroma in the dry state, but tastes good as the beverage, with sugar, of course.

 

[bradfordwhite]

We know there is a business of making aromas, right? $$$

Yes the stuff you can buy at the store is one.

Another are the industrial strength aromas that some businesses have specifically made for their product.

Have you ever walked into a restaurant or store and and were suspiciously blasted at the door with a fan blowing ....the smell of.... what you HOPE to find inside.

Fresh made Bar-B-Q perhaps,
Cinnamon buns baking maybe,
or Warm Apple pie is another possibility.
etc.

And don't forget the "New Car smell" most likely sprayed around new AND used cars of a certain age or quality.

It's so slightly annoying..... 'cuz you know it's fake.

The most recent one for me was walking into a Lucky's grocery and being blasted at the door with the smell of something baking. Never mind that they probably import most all the baked goods and the bakery dept is all the way at the back of the store so ... how did that smell happen to be, RIGHT THERE, at the front of the store?

Another annoying one is going to a place like Applebees., once my parents favorite place to go, so I doubt I'll ever be going there again before their final bankruptcy. The front door is literally at the tippy toppy corner of the building and the kitchen is all the way at the back of the building. It wouldn't make any sense to vent all the ACTUAL kitchen grease and odors to the front of the building when they could just go straight up and out the roof. So it's so fake
Yet is smells of .... ribs and potatoes seasoned just right.
As fake as the menu pictures are compared to what's ACTUALLY delivered to the table.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember when some grocery stores in our area used to have these big rotisserie broilers with glowing elements at the back and conveyors of chickens going round and round and up and down in front of them. The heat coming through the glass door was intense and the smell was delicious. My parents would never spend money on something like that, but one time when mom was sick some friends brought one of those chickens for our dinner. All the flavor was on the skin. If mom had been feeling better, she could have seasoned it to make it have more flavor. I suppose it would have made good chicken salad. My parents grew up during the Great Depression and ate a lot of chicken so the rotisserie birds held little attraction for them. Once when we went to visit daddy's mother she served us chicken that she had canned. That had no flavor either.

Popcorn that had real flavor was the kind that was popped in a pot inside a glass enclosure. What was that called, a popcorn machine? It was popped in oil and the flavor was in each kernel. Air popped is like rice cakes.