Sears was really a cultural phenomenon in the 50s and 60s. They made some brilliant assumptions about the suburbanization of America in the late 40s (as contrasted with Wards and Penneys) which let them get "out in front" just enough of the wave of suburbanization.
That wave of suburbanization coincided with the need to stuff the new houses full of goods, again, available with easy payment terms (one bill---what a concept) from your local Sears store or from the catalogue. Remember, there was no national credit system or credit cards in those days...credit was a very local decision...but you could take your Sears charge plate to any store nationwide and buy.
For the mobility of the upwardly moving junior executive, what could be easier than visiting the local Sears store in the new city, and find everything just about where it was before you left. No risk in trying to get a, say, Wizard washing machine serviced in Bangor, Maine when you ended up there on your next posting...
Wards was 10 years behind Sears (and in worse shape at that 10 year point) and Penney's was 12 years behind (but in better shape than Wards...and you can see how that turned out).
Sears was in nearly every shopping center built in the second half of the 50s (interestingly, they didn't play in some of the early suburban malls...Southdale in Edina, MN and Northland in Southfield, MI went in in 1952-1954 without Sears) and was able to lock out Wards until well into the 70s from those Class A malls
An interesting case was in Overland Park, KS where Sears went into Metcalf South (95th and Metcalf...ground central of 1960s suburbia) in roughly 1961, but that mall was eclipsed in 1973 or so with the building of Oak Park Mall about 4 miles away which ended up with Wards....this was an unusual situation where Sears ended up in what was in the Class B mall and Wards was in the Class A mall.
They actually had industrial designers and labs working for them...hence some of the interesting innovations which they used their market power to place into the market (Dual Action Agitator is one case, Toughskins jeans would be another...no one in the kids clothes marketplace could get their minds around adding some nylon to normal denim to make it tougher...all the other players (Levi's...Lee...Wrangler..) in the market had too much invested in the normal 100% cotton denim process and positioning.
Finally, it all boiled down to...anyone could shop at Sears without apology. Just like the traditional IBM mantra (you never get fired for recommending IBM), you were never out-of-line shopping at Sears. You wouldn't be fashionable, but the shopper wouldn't be laughed at either.
We've got a similar thing going on here in the Great Lakes areas with mass merchants...here in Detroit we've got Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and a local chain, Meijer. The only 2 of these where you can shop without apology are Target and Meijer, and Meijer has the benefit of having everything (they originated the supercenter with food and hardlines back in the 60s). Wal-Mart, well, is just tasteless/declasse, and K-Mart around here at least has the benefit of formerly being headquartered here, so has the dual benefits of familiarity and proximity (there are still lots of them around, and we've got several Super K-Marts as well). We don't have SuperTarget (and, in my experience in Atlanta, they don't do a very good/comprehensive job with food...about all they have unique are some interesting processed frozen prepared meals...their food sections remind me of Trader Joe's). Meijer has terrific food (they started out as a supermarket) and they take the place Wal-Mart has in smaller midwestern towns (you see everyone there).
