Sears and Roebuck

Montgomery Ward had already proven the success of mail order when one young man would take it to even greater heights of success.  Richard Warren Sears knew how to use other's capital and to make the most of the power of organizations, such as the railroad and the Grange. 

Raised in rural Minnesota, Sears needed to help support his family so he learned telegraphy and went to work for the railroad as a station agent on the St. Louis line in Redwood, MN (a town of three houses).  His job left him a great deal of free time so he sold lumber, coal and wood on the side to farmers and Indians.

In 1886 a shipment of watches from Chicago came to Redwood un-deliverable and  Sears saw an opportunity.  The watches were offered to him at half price by the jeweler rather than pay the freight of return.  Sears could buy the watches for $12 a piece and sell them to other station agents for $14 a piece.  Through some honest and not-so-honest means, Sears soon had a flourishing watch business, thanks to the un-deliverable freight.

By the end of six months, Sears had made $5000 and gave up his station agent job to set up R.W. Sears Watch Company.  From a kitchen table, he began advertising in the newspapers.  He moved to Chicago in 1887 and took a watchmaker as a partner, Alvah Curtis Roebuck.  Together, along with 20,000 other station agents across the country, the two men built a business on high volume and quick turnover of watches.

In 1889, the watch company was sold for $70,000, but the mail order watches, watch chains and jewelry continued.  Some the early claims such as "Last Forever" and "Best in the World" were unproveable.  The distance from the customer tempted the company to engage in some shady advertising stunts early on, such as advertising a beautiful, plush sofa which was available for just 60 days at the cost of shipping (95 cents), turned out to be a doll sized sofa.  A sewing machine turned out to be a needle and spool of thread.

By the time Sears and Roebuck became a common name in 1893, the company had cleaned up the advertising and offered real furniture, clothing, sewing machines, baby carriages, and musical instruments - in a catalog of 196 pages.  All company letters were hand written and personal to show respect to the farmers.

The business increased even during the depression years of 1893-94.  Sears continued to show his command of the mail order business on the cover of the 1907 catalog by stating that he would give $10,000 to charity if anyone could prove that five catalog houses, selling general merchandise, had combined sales to match Sears' $53 million.  No one could.

Next time...The Mail Order Calalog
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 15, 1903, Ford Motor Company takes its first order from Chicago dentist, Ernst Pfenning for an $850 two-cylinder Model A automobile with a backseat.
It was delivered a week later.