Since we're talking about Sears...

[franksdad]

Is it me or have any of you folks noticed that all Sears stores, even the scratch and dent and local appliance outlets have that distinct Sears smell? Every Sears I've ever been in from Greenville to Virginia to Mississippi all have that familiar Sears smell. Is that some kind of air freshner they put into the hearing and air systems? Jim

 

[112561]

I don't remember when I was in Sears last, but I'll ask you and any other person who might have an answer for this one: Remember the big ultra modern drug stores of the '50s and '60s, and the distinct smell they had? I can almost remember it, and I'd recognise it in a second if I ever smell it again.

 

[franksdad]

Drug Stores

I don't remember those as we didn't have any of those around here. I remember when Eckerd Drugs came to Greenville. Mama always went to our local family owned drug store. Mama kept a tab and every month she would pay it off then charge meds for her and my father. When the PaperMate Flair pens came out I slipped into the drug store and had the druggest charge one of those pens to Mama's account. It was blue and only 49 cents. I thought I had "pulled one over" until Mama went in to pay the bill the next month! Jim

 

[112561]

Cute story! I have a thing for the old school PaperMate pens, '50s, through the '70s, and Eckerd's being a big chain they didn't seem to have that distinct smell. The ones I was thinking about were indepentent drugstores, with maybe two or three in each company.

 

[rp2813]

Woolworths had a very distinct smell.  It was more pronounced downstairs.  Upstairs it kind of got mixed in with the aroma of popcorn.

 

[autowasherfreak]

All of our local True Value hardware stores have the same distinct smell.

 

 

[petek]

A lot of those old dept stores did have a smell.. Kmart to me was the worst, sort of a strong caramel, popcorny stench hit you as soon as you walked in. Sears did have a bit of a popcorny smell as well coming from the Peggy Kellogg candy counters they used to have.. remember those. I think it had to do also with the proximity of the candy/popcorn counter to the front doors. It wasn't near as bad as KMarts though. The stores that didn't have candy counters etc.always had a smell too. I think it's just gases given off by all the womans clothing and the perfume counters which are always on the first floor and usually close to the entrances.
As a little kid when my mom would take me downtown shopping dragging me through all the "ladies" clothings stores I remember that smell, it always made me sleepy.

 

[nurdlinger]

K-mart Smell

What I remember from walking into K-mart was the smell of onions from the stack of pre-made "sub" sandwiches they had nearby the door.  I don't know how old they had to be before the onion odor escaped, but for me it was most unappetizing.

 

[toploader55]

Woolworths

Popcorn and Grilled Cheese with esscence of "White Shoulders".

Seems like Every old woman in New England marinates in that stuff. They can clear a room in seconds. What a God Awful Scent.

 

[petek]

What I never liked about Kmart also was that the entrance foyers were always dirty looking and overloaded with gumball machines and the like and old 10 cent kiddy rides etc. Ugh

 

[aeoliandave]

We have 3 Shoppers Drug Mart franchise stores in Stratford owned by the same family. In every one, as you enter the sliding doors you HAVE to walk through the Cosmetics Department to get to the rest of the store. The stench is truly eye-watering and I no longer enter those stores without holding my breath and then the only reason is because they carry my favorite brand of Sun Screen and I have a damn discount card. I'm not the only one who loathes the smell and the fact you leave the store smelling like a teenage girl and her grandmother just back from a sample tour of the Duty Free Store at the border.
I know they've gotten the complaints but in two years, no change.

Dave

 

[112561]

Ok, how about the smell of a new house, back in the 1950s and '60s?