November 24, 2017 • 37 mins
Both companies started as innovative retailers-- shops without storefronts. But is Amazon unintentionally following Sears' path 100 years later? Will and Mango explore the genius and pitfalls of the early Sears business, while sorting through the weirdest products in the celebrated catalog.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mango? What's that? Will? You will not believe
what I found when I was looking through this old
box of things from my childhood. So what's that? All right?
I'm gonna show it to you? Ready for this? What
is that? A calculator? Why that? It is one of
the most coveted items in elementary school back in the eighties.
Were these a big deal in Delaware? Of course they were.
They definitely were in Alabama. And you know where I
got it? Where's that? The Sears catalog? Did you used
(00:22):
to look through the old Sears catalog? Yeah? I used
to thump through it. Oh man. It was so huge
for us. And for some reason, I never saw it
in my own house. I think my parents must have
just been good at making it disappears something. But at
mama's house, you know, a grandmother has to have this
on the coffee table. She always had it sitting out
and I would thumb through seriously every page of it,
circling things like remote control cars, ThunderCats figures. That's where
(00:46):
I got the light, right, so many awesome toys in there. Yeah,
there's really something so magical about it, all right? And
did you did you see my calculator. Watch I get
that on my face. Anyway, as the holidays are approaching,
we were talking about the old Sears catalog recently and
wondering how did it become such a big deal and
what are some of the weirdest things ever offered in it?
And speaking of weird, we talked about doing this topic
(01:08):
months ago and it's just so strange that, seriously, it
is just by accident that this ends up publishing on
Black Friday. So anyway, that's what we'll be talking about today.
Let's get started hei their podcast listeners, Welcome the part
(01:37):
time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined
by my good friend man guest and sitting on the
other side of the soundproof class man. I don't know
if you've noticed this, but Kristen has this fancy new
office chair out there. I think it's an executive chair.
It's like high back and everything. Wow. That's our friend
and producer Tristan McNeil. And on today's show, we're ushering
in the holiday shopping season with a fun look back
(01:59):
at the golden age of Sears. Now, you know, it's
no secret that the iconic American retailer has seen its
better days, and in fact, there's a good chance you
haven't stepped foot in a Sear store and quite some time,
or maybe even never at all. But you know, with
a hundred and thirty one years under the company's belt,
we thought, why focus on the negative exactly, So instead
we're gonna explore the solid hundred years or so when
(02:20):
Sears was at the top of its game, and we'll
cover some of the company's breakthrough ideas and not get
a sense of how a humble mail order service became
this massive retail giant. You know. So I want to
mention upfront that today's episode works is kind of a
companion to the show we did on Amazon just a
couple of weeks ago. And it's not to say that
you have to have listened to that one, but you
have to listen, you do. Okay, stop, now, go back
(02:42):
and listen to that one. But you know, they're all
kinds of interesting parallels between the two companies. So I
guess you are better off if you're up to date
on Amazon. Yeah, and and that's really one of the
great things about a company has long lived as Sears
like it takes on all this added historical value that
makes it way more interesting than like your typical retail
chan and so for younger companies, Series is kind of
(03:02):
this primer of what a business should and shouldn't do
in order to weather the ups and downs of the
American economy. But series is longevity also makes it useful
in other ways to like take the company's famous catalogs,
those at up being these great visual records of how
our society, styles and habits have changed over the last
century and a half. It was interesting reading up on
this something I had not thought about before. But often
(03:23):
producers will use Sears catalogs as references when they're working
on period films or Broadway shows. You know, they're also
a good way to find costumes or props that are
true to the era being depicted. And it's not just
Hollywood either, you know, historians rely on the catalogs to
look back and kind of get an accurate timeline of
when certain products or styles first appeared. Yeah, that's pretty awesome,
(03:43):
and those catalogs are such a big part of the
series legacy. We should definitely talk more about them. But
first I want to go back to the pre catalog
days and get a sense of how series really got
to start, all right, So I'll set the scene here.
It's it's eighteen eighty six, and you've got a twenty
two year old man named Richard Sears, and he's working
as a telegraph off operator and a station agent at
a railroad in Minnesota. It's kind of a boring job,
(04:05):
but the downtime allows Sears to start a side gig,
and he's selling lumber and coal just to kind of
supplement his income. Well, one day, a shipment of pocket
watches comes in, but the local jeweler refuses to sign
for it. It was pretty common in those days that
the companies would send these unsolicited merchandise to small town retailers.
They'd they'd act like it was this accidental shipment and
(04:26):
then say, you know, but you can have it at
this deeply discounted price. But he sends this opportunity for
this new side business. So Sears buys the unwanted watches
well below cost for himself. He then proceeds to sell
to other railroad workers up and down the line. Of
the next few months, he turned this fifty dollar investment
into a five thousand dollar profit. Yeah, it's an amazing story.
(04:48):
So let me pick it up here. He's emboldened by
that kind of result, right, So Sears decides to take
a stab at the American dream. He quits his job,
orders more watches, and then starts to R. W. Sears
Watch Company with in six months, then a year later
his business is booming. So he moved the company to
Chicago and he starts producing this mail order catalog. Now,
admittedly the series catalog starts small. It's less than a
(05:11):
hundred pages, and it advertises nothing but watches. A hundred
pages of watches. Yeah, but but but then it also
guarantees something revolutionary. And that's the first ever unconditional money
back guarantee. So as many times you see that, like
on TV or whatever, this all started with Sears. That's
pretty interesting. I mean, it's a great idea from a
marketing perspective, no question. And you know, it added a
(05:33):
nice sense of security to the prospect of these people
really kind of seeing it as sending strangers money through
the mail. And but but in practice, this revolutionary policy
turned into a huge headache for Sears. Happened pretty quickly.
I mean he was making thousands of dollars from watch
sales each month, but the cost of these refunds and
the replacements, it really started to eat into these profits.
(05:55):
But he was pretty smart about it. So what he
did next was he hired someone to repair the defective watches,
which would make it much cheaper than you know, for
for him to be able to honor this guarantee. Right,
So that's when alvat Roebuck enters the picture. He's this
watchmaker and repairman who he quickly becomes Sears full blown partner,
and together they expanded the business to include all sorts
of other products. So you've got jewelry than supporting goods,
(06:18):
quickly moves into clothing, bicycles, uh, you know, lots of
household products. You don't want to name every single one
of them. I could. So Actually at this point, was
it was Sears still all male order, or if they
already entered the physical store space as well. Yeah, so
Sears actually didn't open a brick and mortar store until
for its first thirty years, it was strictly a catalog company,
(06:39):
and that was a great business model for them because
nearly two thirds of the country's population lived in these
rural regions. This was back in the eighteen nineties, but
they decided to capitalize on this newly completed railroad system,
and through that, Sears and Roebuck were able to build
this loyal customer base in parts of the country that
had the most untapped market potential. Yeah. I mean, the
biggest competition for oil order in those days came from
(07:01):
these general stores scattered through American small towns, and because
most of those were either under stocked or overpriced, it
really weren't that much of a threat. Well yeah, I mean,
if anything, the general stores were the ones in danger.
In fact, I read that the store owners in some
towns started offering prizes to local kids who would bring
in copies of the Sears catalogs. And it wasn't that
the shopkeepers were interested in like studying the competition or
(07:24):
matching their prices. They just wanted to get all these
things and then have these huge public bonfires where they
would burn all the catalogs. That's pretty extreme, but I
mean serious. Stated goal was to save consumers money by
cutting out the middleman, and those general stores were the middleman.
But that wasn't series is only competition. They had already
come under attack from other mail order retailers like you
(07:45):
know Montgomery Ward. They had actually been selling city goods
to rural clients for about twenty plus years before Sears
got into the business. That's right, Montgomery Ward. I mean,
it has less of a presence today than Sears, so
it's kind of easy to forget that they were actually
the first on this mail order scene. Yeah, and as
you'd expect, the companies were arrivals from the start, though,
Sears grew so rapidly that it started to outpace Montgomery
(08:07):
Award in the eighteen nineties. By nine hundred, Sears of
sales had reached ten million dollars versus Wards about nine
million dollars. I mean, the rivalry had grown unfriendly by
that point too. So you know, Sears supposedly made his
catalogs shorter and narrower so that they'd stick out from
the Ward catalogs. Like when customers would stack the catalogs
at home, the smaller series catalog would always end up
(08:28):
on top. Oh, it's pretty clever. I was trying to
figure out how that worked, but that that makes sense, alright.
So so obviously, the railroad was a big part of
Sears success, as was the case for many American companies
of that era, but we should give a shout out
to the postal system, which you know, it gave mail
order companies a huge boost in eighteen ninety six, and
that's when the Postal Service started guaranteeing mail to all
(08:50):
rural areas, so no matter where someone lived, they were
allowed to get their mail there, and so it made
it much easier for Sears and its competitors to get
their catalogs into these homes of even most out of
the way customers. Of course, the Postal Service didn't start
shipping packages until you know, a few years later in
nineteen thirteen, so customers still had to go to their
nearest railroad station in order to pick up their orders.
(09:11):
But you know, getting the catalogs at home at least
save them the trouble of having to go to these
distant post offices or higher private carriers just to bring
them their mail. Definitely, and I can't imagine having to
walk miles to a post office just to pick up
like what we think of his junk mail today. Yeah,
you know it is. It's interesting to think of it
that way now, But those catalogs we're we're not considered
junk mail at all in the nineteenth century. I mean
(09:33):
they actually served a purpose not too dissimilar from how
we use the internet today. You know, you've had anywhere
at any time people could flip through the pages of
a catalog and learn about a new piece of technology
or some breakthrough product, and then they could buy it
for themselves if they wanted to. And in fact, that's
another way the postal system helped the mail order industry.
So they allowed Sears catalog to be shipped for just
(09:55):
one cent per pound because they were considered public aids
and the spread of knowledge. I know, I mean that
sounds silly at first, like what could be crasser than
a company trying to pass off advertisements of some sort
of educational service, But I guess if you put yourself
in the shoes of someone living in the middle of
Wyoming way back in the eighteen nineties, like a serious
catalog really would be this window to a world you
(10:16):
wouldn't otherwise see. And the catalogs were definitely meant to
advertise products and make money, but consumer education was in
the mix as well. Yeah, And you know, you sometimes
hear that Sears taught Americans how to shop, and there's
clearly some truth to that for millions of shoppers, this
year's catalog was kind of their first introduction to mail
order services, and for better or worse, the catalog also
(10:38):
played a role in the development of America's consumer culture. Yeah,
that sounds right to me, especially when you look at
how the catalog ballooned year after years more products were added.
I mean, in the early nineteen hundreds, the Sears catalog
was over five hundred pages, and at its peak in
nineteen fifteen, the General Merchandise Catalog, it's swelled over twelve
hundred pages. Whoa nine year old will would have been
(10:58):
so jealous of that. Somebody paid so many circles. So
it included a hundred thousand items, weighed four pounds, and
brought the company over a hundred million dollars in annual sales.
Good lord, but so wait, you said that the catalog's
peak was in nineteen fifteen, so it started shrinking after
that was more than a hundred years ago. Yeah, so
the nation had urbanized quite a bit by then, and
(11:18):
cars were becoming the rage, and suddenly rural consumers were
moving to cities where easy access to stores lessen their
need for mail order services, and Sears kept track with
the shifting market until nineteen twenty five, when it responded
by opening their first physical department stores. Yeah, and it's
it's worth mentioning that by by this point, Richard Sears
and Alva Roebuck we were out of the picture. I mean,
Roebuck had sold his interest in the company decades earlier,
(11:41):
and Sears had retired back in nineteen o eight passed
away in nineteen fourteen. So rather than Sears himself, the
company's hugely successful for a into brick and mortar was
really overseen by General Robert E. Wood. Now, he was
a military man. That might seem like a little bit
of a random pick, but he'd actually been a procurement
officer back in the Panama can Now projects, so he
did have a lot of logistics background, another background that
(12:04):
really helped him think about how the company would grow.
There's actually a Storian here in Atlanta named Jerry Hancock,
and he was on an episode of Stuff You Missed
in History Class, which you guys should check out. It
was a really really interesting episode. But he talks about
woods contribution in this way. He says, basically, what Wood
did was he set up a territory system and divided
the nation into five territories. He supplied those five territories
(12:26):
by these ten distribution plants combined with retail stores. And
if you go you can still see the remnants of
these plants and how they fill orders with these huge conveyors,
these big spiraling shoots. Each floor would get a ticket
for whatever items, and they would have the merchandise divided
by floor and they would fill each order. And in
the bottom would be this massive mail room where all
(12:49):
the items would be collected and bundled together, and then
literally on the back of the building was a railroad.
They would put the items into the train and ship
them out. I mean, it's an amazing process and it
sounds so ahead of its time, but full disclosure. Will
and I actually work in one of Wood's old distribution
plans here in Atlanta, and nowadays it's this mixed use facility,
but you can still find traces of the building's industrial
(13:10):
past here and it's a great place to work, with
a great Raman restaurant downstairs. And so general, would we
salute you? Okay, So I know we're getting into sears
breaking bortar phase now, but if I'm honest, I'm not
really ready to leave the catalog behind just yet. So
what do you say we take a break and then
we can check out some of the craziest stuff to
ever grace the Sears catalog. Sounds like a plan to me.
(13:45):
You're listening to part time genius and we're talking about
how Sears managed to build a retail empire on the
foundation of mail order catalogs. All right, Mango, So what's
one of the weirdest products you came across while rummaging
through your huge collection of old Sears catalogs? So this
might be cheating, but I actually found a bunch of
these really outrageous medicines, you know, the quackery that was
(14:06):
all the rage in the nineteenth century America. All right, Well,
first of all, if you preface something by saying this
might be cheating, it most definitely is cheating. But I'm
always game for some medical quackery. So so what did
you find out? So one of the absolute worst remedies
has to be this one offered in the Spring catalog.
It's called Brown's Vegetable Cure for female weakness. Which can
(14:29):
you imagine trying to market something like that today? I
can't imagine that would go over very well. No. Yeah,
so I have no clue what was even in the stuff,
But Sears sold it in big bottles for sixty cents
of pop, and according to the writ up, they could
cure everything from mental cramps to back pain to really
terrifying stuff. So here's some of the quotes it cures.
Quote A dread from some impending evil, a craving for
(14:54):
unnatural food, and sparks before the eyes. So if you
have a craving for un natural food, you could just
you know, have some of this. Brown's vegetable cure for
female weakness takes care of that. This is so weird.
I not remember hearing about any epidemics of sparks before
the eyes. Such a strange thing. Yeah, so you might
be right. And the Atlas like fifty symptoms that supposedly
treats another terrible product. This is uh also aimed at
(15:18):
female customers. It was Dr Roses French arsenic complexion wafers.
All right, Now, that just sounds made up. I know,
I had to read it cause I couldn't remember, but
I wish it was. It is not made up. These
were toxic wafers that promised to rejuvenate quote even the
coarsest and most repulsive skin. And you knew they were
(15:39):
toxic too, because the very first words in the ad
coffee are quote perfectly harmless and big bold, not suspicious
at all. I like how they draw attention to the
fact that these aren't your typical round of the mill
arsenic waivers, you know, like you might just find around
the corner. I mean these these are French arsenic wafers. Yeah,
(15:59):
you can poison yourself in style here. Yeah. So the
ad tries to distract from the poison with all these
references to the magical effects of the wafers and how
users will experience quote the wizard's touch. Sears must have
been pretty confident because they recommended women start ordering them
a dozen boxes at a time, which would have been
twelve arsenic wave Wow. That is a lot of arsenic.
(16:22):
But I mean, you do have to remember it was
French arsenic, so I'm sure it was fine. So all right. Well,
while women seem to have the line share of these
dubious remedies inflicted on them, men were also on the
receiving end of a few of these, at least, so
I found one example the fall of nineteen o two,
Sears catalog advertised this belt and it sent electrical currents
through a guy's growing in order to provide quote, the best,
(16:44):
most reliable, most harmless yet powerful cheapest cure possible. So
that's obviously a ton of qualifiers. But what was this
supposed to cure? Exactly? I mean, like whatever ailes you're growing,
I guess. I mean, as usual with these medical ads,
the right up is short on details and super long
on this bizarre wording and these impossible claims, Like there
(17:06):
was this promise to cure a week or deranged nervous system.
So I found another It's called curtis Is Consumption Cure
or the Triple C, and it just straight up promises
to cure tuberculosis. Wow. You know, Sears is pretty lucky
that the FDC wasn't around back then, because I can't
(17:26):
imagine any of this stuff would have flown now. So
you know what the strangest part is. So, according to
the company, Richard Sears wrote just about every line of
coffee and the catalogs. But you're kidding, right, No, it's true. Alright, Well,
there was this funny nineteen o two add for something
called a toilet mask, so I'm impressed by his copywriters skill.
So the acid cured rubber is said to be coated
(17:47):
with just healing agents. Wait, so is the assets supposed
to improve your complexion like the arsenic wafers. Well, the
acid is supposed to burn off things like freckles and
liver spots. Sort of. I guess I don't know that
i'd call acid burns and improvement over freckles though. Okay,
so most of these are pretty disturbing products, so I'll
go ahead and mention another that kind of fits the bill. Apparently.
(18:09):
In the series, catalog offered a set of illustrated lecture
slides that depicted quote realistic views of the assassination of
President McKinley. Oh god. Yeah. Customers could relive the national
tragedy from the comfort of their living rooms using the
handy stereo opticon slide projector, which was also available through series.
That is horrible, I mean, I do feel I need
(18:31):
to point out the series also sold some pretty wholesome
things through the catalogs too, So, for example, the nineteen
thirties Sears advertised live baby chicks for sale. Each chick
costs ten cents and the company actually guarantee they'd be
delivered safe and alive or your money back. Well. I
like this positive direction you're heading in, but I want
to drag us back into the mud because I have
to mention one of my favorite all time uses for
(18:54):
the series catalog, which is that they provided the nation's
toilet paper of choice in the late nineteenth century, so
that Sears was selling toilet paper by mail. No, the
catalogs themselves used to be the go to choice when
rural Americans had to you know, w yeah, I believe
it or not. The paper pages of the catalog were
actually a big step up for most people. For those
(19:14):
who didn't have a lot of expendable paper on hand
in the late eighteen hundreds, corn cops were the next
best option, or maybe a muscle shell if you happen
to live near the coastline. I was trying to figure
out which of those sounds worse, But I don't really
even want to go down that path, so let's just
not talk about that exactly, Which is why people were
so happy when Sears started selling them giant free catalogs
twice a year. And supposedly we looked at this a
(19:36):
single catalog could meet the outhouse needs of a farm
family for an entire season, So you can imagine just
how upset folks were where the company switched from cushy,
absorbent newsprint to this unforgiving coded paper stalk. Apparently, Sears
got quite a few angry letters from customers who would
have gladly swapped the catalog's fancy color pictures for you know,
(19:57):
returned to the soft stuff. I love that people wrote
in letters about that. Well, we mentioned earlier that Sears
catalogs were something of a teaching tool in the early
days of the company. It kind of you know, served
as some of the public's first introduction to new technologies
like the electric sewing machine, the disc graphophone, and the
baby gate. Even and cars were actually another thing I
was surprised to learn the catalog introduced to the public.
(20:20):
So the company offered a tiny car. It was called
um Sears Motor Buggy, and this was in the Fall
nine catalog. The Boddy. You could actually reach speeds of
up to twenty five miles per hour and it costs
just under four hundred dollars, which is about ten thousand
dollars today. Wow, that's pretty pricey for Sears. I don't
think I ever circled that one in the catalog. Well,
speaking of expensive, I know this is kind of jumping
(20:41):
ahead of it, but I saw this ad from Sears
in nineteen eighty one. It was for the very first
VCR model, and it cost one thousand, one hundred and
twenty five dollars. I mean, it's close to three thousand
dollars today. I know it's expensive, but how else were
you gonna watch Ernest Goes to Jail? That's actually I
can remember. The first time I watched a movie on
(21:01):
a VCR was we actually rented the VCR. I think
it was from Blockbuster Videos so we could watch a
movie at home. Well, there's at least one item from
the early series catalogs that has only gone up in
value over the years, and I do want to make
sure that we talk about it. But but first let's
take a quick break. Okay, Mango, We've got one of
(21:28):
our listeners on the line to play a quiz with
us today. Stephen is joining us from the state of Washington.
Welcome to part time genius. Stephen. How's it going now?
You're the second person that we've spoken to this week.
That's that works an overnight shift. Earlier in the week,
we spoke to a truck driver who picks up milk
from fifteen different Amish communities in the state of Maryland.
(21:49):
And you've been working the graveyard shift. So tell us
a little bit about what you do. Well. I I
operate some five excess seeing c machines, some of the
largest in the world. Actually, um, and it's it's pretty
awesome that you do a little of that, Mango, don't
you the five axes? Yeah, but mostly on the weekends. Yeah,
well that's great. Well, we're gonna be We're gonna be
(22:10):
playing a quiz with you today. What quiz were you playing? Mango.
We're gonna play a game called real Sears Catalog item
or something we made up? All right, So Steve and
we are going to give you six quiz questions and
you just have to tell us whether it's a real
item we found that a Sears catalog or something we
made up. You're ready to play, all right? So the
first one is a mix at home after shave. It's
(22:33):
for people who love old spice but would prefer to
add some of their own spices. Was this a real
Sears catalog item or something we made up? You know.
I I believe that that was a real thing, and
that'd be pretty interesting. Actually, it wouldn't be pretty interesting.
But this one actually isn't true. They should have had it.
There were some far weirder things in there. That's okay, yea, yeah,
(22:56):
that's right. That's right, all right. Question number two, I
Love You Red twelve Bird Birdhouse. Was this something real
and a serious catalog or something we made up? M hmmm,
it's definitely. It has a hint of mango in there.
But I think I might have actually seen that at
my grandma's neighbor's house, So I'm gonna go maybe real.
(23:19):
It's absolutely right, He's right, it's uh, it's absolutely true.
The ventilated cubicles were supposed to encourage a family of
Martin's to join your own. All right, Okay, he's coming back.
Or one out of two. Still got plenty of time
for the big prize. Question number three, do it yourself
home delivery kit for mothers who don't want to bother
with a doctor until they need to. It's called a
(23:42):
do it yourself home delivery kit. Was this true or
something we made up? Uh? You know, uh, it seems
a little strange, but you know what, I think, you know,
i'd buy that. I think that's realistic enough like that
you'd buy it. Yeah, it's true. I see that it's
(24:02):
true here mango. But what was what was in it?
I know it actually came with rubber sheets, breastbinders, antiseptic soap,
and olive oil. And I think it came with gloves
as well, all stuff I keep in my backpack anyway,
So this is great. Alright, So Steven's two for three, alright,
Question number four, castrating knives. Castrating knives as this true
(24:24):
or something we made up? You know, I kind of
don't want that to be true, but it kind of
might be, but we'll see. You know, I think as
long as it's not for humans, I think that's I
believe that. Yeah, it's true. So at the time, the
Sears catalog also sold farming equipment as well as things
like baby chickens and donkeys, and the knives actually came
(24:46):
with one, two or three blades. Just to be as
surprised as the listeners. Sometimes I like to come in
without having seen the quizzes before, and this is one
of those. When I saw castrating knives. I was like,
all right, Mango, what kind of move? Alright, that's right,
Stephen is three out of four. Let's see. The next
one is a bald Eagle to pay kit fun for
(25:10):
all ages, yarn assembly kit to make the most patriotic
of birds better looking? Was this actually in a Sears
catalog or something we made up? You know? That's that?
That sounds a little mango and he's got you figured out, man. Alright, alright,
last one for the big prize. Here walk and Whear
(25:33):
hair dryers. It's like drying your hair at a beauty salon,
except on the go. A walk and Whear hair dryers.
It's true or something we made up. You know, I'm
not sure exactly how that would work, except well, I guess.
I mean you could probably have a portable powered one.
I you know, I believe that. Yeah, let go, Yes,
this is really true. It's true. Here. How does this work? Well,
(25:56):
it was only so mobile, so it had this beehive
it wearable hair dryer that came with an eight foot
extension courts you could walk eight feet if you're on
the go. That's great. Yeah, it actually reminds me one
of our our neighbors used to have one of those
electric or plug in weed whackers. Except the problem was
(26:16):
it's like the edge of his yard was five ft
beyond where it's stretched. So we would watch him like
get a running start with this thing and just like
run all the way to the end and get that
last five feet, then have to come back and plug
it in and then go do it again. It was
pretty great, all right. So yeah, uh yeah, so mango,
how did Stephen do today? Uh? Stephen did great. He
(26:39):
went five for six and as always, our guest wins
an official part time Genius Certificate of Genius along with
a part Time Genius T shirts. So congratulations Stephen. Alright, Stephen,
that was great. We're all wrapped up. Thanks again for
your patients and for joining us. Yeah anytime. That was
a great quiz man go you really got me good.
It was fun. Thanks. Enjoy your rest, take care all right,
(27:03):
bye bye you guys. Okay, well, so you're going to
tell us about this old timey Sears product that's proven
to be such a big investment. Well maybe unsurprisingly it's
(27:23):
actually real estate, or more specifically, their mail order houses,
so Sears would actually send you a whole house. Uh,
that's got to be this expensive shipping proposition, right, Well,
I mean, not a whole house, but like all the
pieces you need to build a house. Yeah, I mean
it was nineteen o eight and the catalog included an
ad that said, a hundred dollar set of building plans
(27:43):
for free, let us be your architect without cost to you.
And so customers then right into request a free copy
of a book called the Book of Modern Homes. And
it was this separate catalog that listed the building materials
and the plans for I think it was for forty
four different house designs that ranged in ice from around
seven hundred dollars to about four thousand dollars. Okay, so
then what happens like a pile of lumber and stuff
(28:05):
just shows up at your doorstep. Where wait, so if
customers were building houses, where were they sending these houses
to in the first place. Well, a few weeks after
an order was placed, you'd have two box cars full
of about thirty thousand house pieces that would show up
at the buyer's local train depot. Then the proud new
homeowner would have to haul these pieces to the build side,
you know, using a horse and wagon or maybe a
(28:28):
flatbed truck. And so for that reason, most of these
surviving Sears homes that you'll find them located within just
a couple of miles of these old railroad lines. Oh
that makes sense, But building a house seems like so
much work. And forget about trying to haul like thirty
thousand pieces of something up in mountain. Why do you
think all these houses are up abound? All right, So,
once all the pieces of the house were laid out,
(28:49):
it was time for the homeowner to crack open their
leather bound instruction book and figure out how the heck
to put the thing together. And so there was a
lot to figure out, with each kit containing twenty two
islands of paint and varnish and and seven hundred and
fifty pounds of nails. Not only that, there was about
twenty thousand shingles there to use for the roof in siding,
all of this and these giant kids. So there's gonna
(29:11):
be one thick instruction book, right. Actually, I was trying
to look into this because I would have thought the
same thing, And they were only seventy five pages. That's
not a lot of toilet paper, that's not that's insane.
So I can barely build my own idea. But wait,
so you mentioned these surviving houses. How many of these
were built? Well? According to Sears, the company sold between
seventy and seventy five thousand mail order homes during the
(29:33):
thirty two years that it offered them. And getting into
the housing business in the early twentieth century proved to
be a really smart move for Sears, and the timing
couldn't have been any better. He had more and more
Americans that were, you know, trying to ditch the family
farm in favor of this easier life in the suburbs,
and the Sears catalog homes were an affordable way to
make that switch. So you know, today they're buying us
(29:55):
Sears homes isn't nearly that affordable because there's this whole
community of Sears home enthusiasts. They try to hunt these
down and catalog these housing relics, and all that interest
can actually drive the prices way up. But we saw
someone we were looking into this that we're close to
a million dollars for some of these larger models. You know,
it's not just a history that they're paying for, because
(30:16):
these houses are really well built and and super durable.
Because the timber they were using was this old growth
would from back then, which you don't see used a
whole lot now. In fact, you know, in fact, some
enthusiasts estimate that as many as seventy Sears catalog houses
are still standing today. That's crazy and I'm still blown
away that there's this like a house Hunters Sears edition.
But these people just drive around and look for Sears models.
(30:38):
I mean, I think they're a little more methodical about
it than that, but but but more or less, yeah,
I mean, it's something the company actually encourages to The
Seer's archive website even includes a running list of confirmed
Sears house owners are willing to get in touch with
fellow enthusiasts, and that way they can share notes or
maybe meet up for a tour, and of course give
each other heads up if somebody ever decides to sell
(30:59):
there's which I guess isn't that likely. It is cool
that these d i y houses are still out there.
I mean, judging by the frequent Sears store closings and
the sale of its iconic house brands like Craftsman Tools,
it does feel like the company isn't long for the
world at this point. And it feels like these homes
that the company help people build are now kind of
this monument to its cultural impact. Yeah, I mean it
(31:20):
does make me wonder what else the company will leave behind,
you know, besides this treasure trove of hilarious ads that
we talked about. Well, I know one thing that will
definitely be part of Sears legacy, and that's the NORAD
Santa Tracker. You know how every year the news stations
report on Santa's progress as he makes his way from
the North Pole to houses all over the world. Yeah,
but I mean, what does that have to do with Sears. Well,
(31:40):
back in one of Sears department stores placed an ad
in a Colorado newspaper, and it encouraged kids to call
Santa on his private line so that they could tell
them what they'd like for Christmas. But something apparently went
wrong along the way. I don't know whether the phone
number in the ad was misprinted or people simply mistyaled,
but at least one child wound up calling Santa and
getting the Continental Air Defense Command instead. And so the
(32:04):
officer on duty who answered his name was Colonel Harry Shoop.
He asked his staff to provide the collar and any
future ones with the latest updates on Santa's progress. And
a couple of years later, Nora took over the duty
and they've been reporting on Santa's yearly flight ever since.
That's pretty incredible that they got this serious agency to
start a whole program devoted to tracking Santa Claus. I know,
(32:26):
and it's one area where Sears has Amazon, that's true. Well,
speaking of Amazon, I do want to quickly go back
to the idea that Sears and Amazon are, you know,
kind of like mirror images of one another. So both
companies rose the power by combining home delivery and an
emerging technology. For Sears it was railroads and for Amazon
it was the Internet. But you know, both companies started
(32:47):
with a single evergreen product of watches and books, and
then of course they expanded into these product ranges to
include everything under the sun. Well, there's also the fact
that Sears made the transition to brick and more or
retail after decades of success. Is this, you know, delivery
based company, And now we see Amazon starting to do
the same thing. It's interesting to see the future of
(33:08):
retail starts almost resemble its past. Yeah, and you know,
if you think about Amazon, would probably be smart to
keep an eye on those similarities, because while the two
companies find themselves in drastically different situations today, it is
worth noting that Amazon is only in its twenties at
this point. Who knows where it will be a century
from now? Yeah, and who knows where series will be
for that matter? All right, Well, even if the company
(33:29):
is truly on its way out now, the market made
on American culture will be with us for a long
time to come, definitely. But for now, what do you say?
We've partake in another beloved cultural institution. And that's the
fact off? All right, let's do it, okay, So I'll
(33:53):
kick us off. In the the CIA was trying to
find a good way to compensate Vietnamese spies that were
assisting them, and paper money really didn't do them any good,
and so they had to find another way. They then
discovered that they could pay them with items available from
the Sears catalog. I like that, So I feel like
we need at least one fact about the Sears Tower
(34:13):
in Chicago. And I know it's called the Willis Tower now,
but I'm going to join the fifty people who signed
a petition to try to have the name changed back
Now it may not be the tallest building in the
world anymore, but here's something you could still hang its
hat on the sky deck. Bathrooms at one three are
actually the longest trip up from ground level of any
other bathrooms in the Western Hemisphere. And that doesn't mean
(34:35):
they're the highest in elevation, just the farthest from wherever
the ground level is. That is pretty high up to
get to a bathroom. Hopefully there are bathrooms on other
floors before you get Now, that's it, alright. One of
the things we didn't really talk about Sears selling on
its catalog was insurance. And I don't know if you
remember this, but Sears actually founded All State back Yeah,
I didn't remember that, and they'd offer auto insurance deals
(34:57):
in the catalog. All the State is of course no
longer art of Sears. They've been completely independent from them
for I think it's a little over twenty years or
so now. So one of those something else that used
to be in the catalog that I don't think you'll
find serious selling anymore opium. Really, Yeah, you're right, I
don't think they're selling that. Maybe that's gonna be their
turnaround plan. We'll see. Well, just because the Sears catalog
(35:18):
isn't what it used to be, there's obviously no shortage
of catalog mailing going on these days, as we all
experience at this time of year. So I was looking
it up to see how many catalogs are mailed, and
they'll be about eleven billion catalogs mailed out in the
US alone this year. That's crazy. So just last months
Heres announced to be bringing back the Wish Book this
holiday season. It hasn't been printed since two thousand eleven,
(35:40):
and it's just a hundred twenty pager. It's only going
to a select number of loyal customers. But it's apparently
also available on the Sears app. Wait, what are you doing.
I'm on the app store. I'm trying to download the
Sears Sars had an app. I'm distracted. So I'm gonna
give you the fact. I've congratulations, thank you, and and
while Will staring at his phone, I want to thank
(36:01):
all of you for listening today. Don't forget we love
to hear fun facts from you guys. You can always
email us at part Time Genius at how stuff Works
dot com, or you can call us on our seven
Fact hotline. That's one eight four four pt Genius. You
can also find us on Facebook or Twitter, and Hey,
if you like what you heard today, feel free to
give us a review on Apple Podcast. Thank you so
much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius
(36:37):
is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be
possible without several brilliant people who do the important things
we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the
editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does
the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact
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from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and
Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to
(36:58):
your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard,
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for us. Did we did we forget Jason? Jason who
Guess what, mango? What's that? Will? You will not believe
what I found when I was looking through this old
box of things from my childhood. So what's that? All right?
I'm gonna show it to you? Ready for this? What
is that? A calculator? Why that? It is one of
the most coveted items in elementary school back in the eighties.
Were these a big deal in Delaware? Of course they were.
They definitely were in Alabama. And you know where I
got it? Where's that? The Sears catalog? Did you used
(00:22):
to look through the old Sears catalog? Yeah? I used
to thump through it. Oh man. It was so huge
for us. And for some reason, I never saw it
in my own house. I think my parents must have
just been good at making it disappears something. But at
mama's house, you know, a grandmother has to have this
on the coffee table. She always had it sitting out
and I would thumb through seriously every page of it,
circling things like remote control cars, ThunderCats figures. That's where
(00:46):
I got the light, right, so many awesome toys in there. Yeah,
there's really something so magical about it, all right? And
did you did you see my calculator. Watch I get
that on my face. Anyway, as the holidays are approaching,
we were talking about the old Sears catalog recently and
wondering how did it become such a big deal and
what are some of the weirdest things ever offered in it?
And speaking of weird, we talked about doing this topic
(01:08):
months ago and it's just so strange that, seriously, it
is just by accident that this ends up publishing on
Black Friday. So anyway, that's what we'll be talking about today.
Let's get started hei their podcast listeners, Welcome the part
(01:37):
time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined
by my good friend man guest and sitting on the
other side of the soundproof class man. I don't know
if you've noticed this, but Kristen has this fancy new
office chair out there. I think it's an executive chair.
It's like high back and everything. Wow. That's our friend
and producer Tristan McNeil. And on today's show, we're ushering
in the holiday shopping season with a fun look back
(01:59):
at the golden age of Sears. Now, you know, it's
no secret that the iconic American retailer has seen its
better days, and in fact, there's a good chance you
haven't stepped foot in a Sear store and quite some time,
or maybe even never at all. But you know, with
a hundred and thirty one years under the company's belt,
we thought, why focus on the negative exactly, So instead
we're gonna explore the solid hundred years or so when
(02:20):
Sears was at the top of its game, and we'll
cover some of the company's breakthrough ideas and not get
a sense of how a humble mail order service became
this massive retail giant. You know. So I want to
mention upfront that today's episode works is kind of a
companion to the show we did on Amazon just a
couple of weeks ago. And it's not to say that
you have to have listened to that one, but you
have to listen, you do. Okay, stop, now, go back
(02:42):
and listen to that one. But you know, they're all
kinds of interesting parallels between the two companies. So I
guess you are better off if you're up to date
on Amazon. Yeah, and and that's really one of the
great things about a company has long lived as Sears
like it takes on all this added historical value that
makes it way more interesting than like your typical retail
chan and so for younger companies, Series is kind of
(03:02):
this primer of what a business should and shouldn't do
in order to weather the ups and downs of the
American economy. But series is longevity also makes it useful
in other ways to like take the company's famous catalogs,
those at up being these great visual records of how
our society, styles and habits have changed over the last
century and a half. It was interesting reading up on
this something I had not thought about before. But often
(03:23):
producers will use Sears catalogs as references when they're working
on period films or Broadway shows. You know, they're also
a good way to find costumes or props that are
true to the era being depicted. And it's not just
Hollywood either, you know, historians rely on the catalogs to
look back and kind of get an accurate timeline of
when certain products or styles first appeared. Yeah, that's pretty awesome,
(03:43):
and those catalogs are such a big part of the
series legacy. We should definitely talk more about them. But
first I want to go back to the pre catalog
days and get a sense of how series really got
to start, all right, So I'll set the scene here.
It's it's eighteen eighty six, and you've got a twenty
two year old man named Richard Sears, and he's working
as a telegraph off operator and a station agent at
a railroad in Minnesota. It's kind of a boring job,
(04:05):
but the downtime allows Sears to start a side gig,
and he's selling lumber and coal just to kind of
supplement his income. Well, one day, a shipment of pocket
watches comes in, but the local jeweler refuses to sign
for it. It was pretty common in those days that
the companies would send these unsolicited merchandise to small town retailers.
They'd they'd act like it was this accidental shipment and
(04:26):
then say, you know, but you can have it at
this deeply discounted price. But he sends this opportunity for
this new side business. So Sears buys the unwanted watches
well below cost for himself. He then proceeds to sell
to other railroad workers up and down the line. Of
the next few months, he turned this fifty dollar investment
into a five thousand dollar profit. Yeah, it's an amazing story.
(04:48):
So let me pick it up here. He's emboldened by
that kind of result, right, So Sears decides to take
a stab at the American dream. He quits his job,
orders more watches, and then starts to R. W. Sears
Watch Company with in six months, then a year later
his business is booming. So he moved the company to
Chicago and he starts producing this mail order catalog. Now,
admittedly the series catalog starts small. It's less than a
(05:11):
hundred pages, and it advertises nothing but watches. A hundred
pages of watches. Yeah, but but but then it also
guarantees something revolutionary. And that's the first ever unconditional money
back guarantee. So as many times you see that, like
on TV or whatever, this all started with Sears. That's
pretty interesting. I mean, it's a great idea from a
marketing perspective, no question. And you know, it added a
(05:33):
nice sense of security to the prospect of these people
really kind of seeing it as sending strangers money through
the mail. And but but in practice, this revolutionary policy
turned into a huge headache for Sears. Happened pretty quickly.
I mean he was making thousands of dollars from watch
sales each month, but the cost of these refunds and
the replacements, it really started to eat into these profits.
(05:55):
But he was pretty smart about it. So what he
did next was he hired someone to repair the defective watches,
which would make it much cheaper than you know, for
for him to be able to honor this guarantee. Right,
So that's when alvat Roebuck enters the picture. He's this
watchmaker and repairman who he quickly becomes Sears full blown partner,
and together they expanded the business to include all sorts
of other products. So you've got jewelry than supporting goods,
(06:18):
quickly moves into clothing, bicycles, uh, you know, lots of
household products. You don't want to name every single one
of them. I could. So Actually at this point, was
it was Sears still all male order, or if they
already entered the physical store space as well. Yeah, so
Sears actually didn't open a brick and mortar store until
for its first thirty years, it was strictly a catalog company,
(06:39):
and that was a great business model for them because
nearly two thirds of the country's population lived in these
rural regions. This was back in the eighteen nineties, but
they decided to capitalize on this newly completed railroad system,
and through that, Sears and Roebuck were able to build
this loyal customer base in parts of the country that
had the most untapped market potential. Yeah. I mean, the
biggest competition for oil order in those days came from
(07:01):
these general stores scattered through American small towns, and because
most of those were either under stocked or overpriced, it
really weren't that much of a threat. Well yeah, I mean,
if anything, the general stores were the ones in danger.
In fact, I read that the store owners in some
towns started offering prizes to local kids who would bring
in copies of the Sears catalogs. And it wasn't that
the shopkeepers were interested in like studying the competition or
(07:24):
matching their prices. They just wanted to get all these
things and then have these huge public bonfires where they
would burn all the catalogs. That's pretty extreme, but I
mean serious. Stated goal was to save consumers money by
cutting out the middleman, and those general stores were the middleman.
But that wasn't series is only competition. They had already
come under attack from other mail order retailers like you
(07:45):
know Montgomery Ward. They had actually been selling city goods
to rural clients for about twenty plus years before Sears
got into the business. That's right, Montgomery Ward. I mean,
it has less of a presence today than Sears, so
it's kind of easy to forget that they were actually
the first on this mail order scene. Yeah, and as
you'd expect, the companies were arrivals from the start, though,
Sears grew so rapidly that it started to outpace Montgomery
(08:07):
Award in the eighteen nineties. By nine hundred, Sears of
sales had reached ten million dollars versus Wards about nine
million dollars. I mean, the rivalry had grown unfriendly by
that point too. So you know, Sears supposedly made his
catalogs shorter and narrower so that they'd stick out from
the Ward catalogs. Like when customers would stack the catalogs
at home, the smaller series catalog would always end up
(08:28):
on top. Oh, it's pretty clever. I was trying to
figure out how that worked, but that that makes sense, alright.
So so obviously, the railroad was a big part of
Sears success, as was the case for many American companies
of that era, but we should give a shout out
to the postal system, which you know, it gave mail
order companies a huge boost in eighteen ninety six, and
that's when the Postal Service started guaranteeing mail to all
(08:50):
rural areas, so no matter where someone lived, they were
allowed to get their mail there, and so it made
it much easier for Sears and its competitors to get
their catalogs into these homes of even most out of
the way customers. Of course, the Postal Service didn't start
shipping packages until you know, a few years later in
nineteen thirteen, so customers still had to go to their
nearest railroad station in order to pick up their orders.
(09:11):
But you know, getting the catalogs at home at least
save them the trouble of having to go to these
distant post offices or higher private carriers just to bring
them their mail. Definitely, and I can't imagine having to
walk miles to a post office just to pick up
like what we think of his junk mail today. Yeah,
you know it is. It's interesting to think of it
that way now, But those catalogs we're we're not considered
junk mail at all in the nineteenth century. I mean
(09:33):
they actually served a purpose not too dissimilar from how
we use the internet today. You know, you've had anywhere
at any time people could flip through the pages of
a catalog and learn about a new piece of technology
or some breakthrough product, and then they could buy it
for themselves if they wanted to. And in fact, that's
another way the postal system helped the mail order industry.
So they allowed Sears catalog to be shipped for just
(09:55):
one cent per pound because they were considered public aids
and the spread of knowledge. I know, I mean that
sounds silly at first, like what could be crasser than
a company trying to pass off advertisements of some sort
of educational service, But I guess if you put yourself
in the shoes of someone living in the middle of
Wyoming way back in the eighteen nineties, like a serious
catalog really would be this window to a world you
(10:16):
wouldn't otherwise see. And the catalogs were definitely meant to
advertise products and make money, but consumer education was in
the mix as well. Yeah, And you know, you sometimes
hear that Sears taught Americans how to shop, and there's
clearly some truth to that for millions of shoppers, this
year's catalog was kind of their first introduction to mail
order services, and for better or worse, the catalog also
(10:38):
played a role in the development of America's consumer culture. Yeah,
that sounds right to me, especially when you look at
how the catalog ballooned year after years more products were added.
I mean, in the early nineteen hundreds, the Sears catalog
was over five hundred pages, and at its peak in
nineteen fifteen, the General Merchandise Catalog, it's swelled over twelve
hundred pages. Whoa nine year old will would have been
(10:58):
so jealous of that. Somebody paid so many circles. So
it included a hundred thousand items, weighed four pounds, and
brought the company over a hundred million dollars in annual sales.
Good lord, but so wait, you said that the catalog's
peak was in nineteen fifteen, so it started shrinking after
that was more than a hundred years ago. Yeah, so
the nation had urbanized quite a bit by then, and
(11:18):
cars were becoming the rage, and suddenly rural consumers were
moving to cities where easy access to stores lessen their
need for mail order services, and Sears kept track with
the shifting market until nineteen twenty five, when it responded
by opening their first physical department stores. Yeah, and it's
it's worth mentioning that by by this point, Richard Sears
and Alva Roebuck we were out of the picture. I mean,
Roebuck had sold his interest in the company decades earlier,
(11:41):
and Sears had retired back in nineteen o eight passed
away in nineteen fourteen. So rather than Sears himself, the
company's hugely successful for a into brick and mortar was
really overseen by General Robert E. Wood. Now, he was
a military man. That might seem like a little bit
of a random pick, but he'd actually been a procurement
officer back in the Panama can Now projects, so he
did have a lot of logistics background, another background that
(12:04):
really helped him think about how the company would grow.
There's actually a Storian here in Atlanta named Jerry Hancock,
and he was on an episode of Stuff You Missed
in History Class, which you guys should check out. It
was a really really interesting episode. But he talks about
woods contribution in this way. He says, basically, what Wood
did was he set up a territory system and divided
the nation into five territories. He supplied those five territories
(12:26):
by these ten distribution plants combined with retail stores. And
if you go you can still see the remnants of
these plants and how they fill orders with these huge conveyors,
these big spiraling shoots. Each floor would get a ticket
for whatever items, and they would have the merchandise divided
by floor and they would fill each order. And in
the bottom would be this massive mail room where all
(12:49):
the items would be collected and bundled together, and then
literally on the back of the building was a railroad.
They would put the items into the train and ship
them out. I mean, it's an amazing process and it
sounds so ahead of its time, but full disclosure. Will
and I actually work in one of Wood's old distribution
plans here in Atlanta, and nowadays it's this mixed use facility,
but you can still find traces of the building's industrial
(13:10):
past here and it's a great place to work, with
a great Raman restaurant downstairs. And so general, would we
salute you? Okay, So I know we're getting into sears
breaking bortar phase now, but if I'm honest, I'm not
really ready to leave the catalog behind just yet. So
what do you say we take a break and then
we can check out some of the craziest stuff to
ever grace the Sears catalog. Sounds like a plan to me.
(13:45):
You're listening to part time genius and we're talking about
how Sears managed to build a retail empire on the
foundation of mail order catalogs. All right, Mango, So what's
one of the weirdest products you came across while rummaging
through your huge collection of old Sears catalogs? So this
might be cheating, but I actually found a bunch of
these really outrageous medicines, you know, the quackery that was
(14:06):
all the rage in the nineteenth century America. All right, Well,
first of all, if you preface something by saying this
might be cheating, it most definitely is cheating. But I'm
always game for some medical quackery. So so what did
you find out? So one of the absolute worst remedies
has to be this one offered in the Spring catalog.
It's called Brown's Vegetable Cure for female weakness. Which can
(14:29):
you imagine trying to market something like that today? I
can't imagine that would go over very well. No. Yeah,
so I have no clue what was even in the stuff,
But Sears sold it in big bottles for sixty cents
of pop, and according to the writ up, they could
cure everything from mental cramps to back pain to really
terrifying stuff. So here's some of the quotes it cures.
Quote A dread from some impending evil, a craving for
(14:54):
unnatural food, and sparks before the eyes. So if you
have a craving for un natural food, you could just
you know, have some of this. Brown's vegetable cure for
female weakness takes care of that. This is so weird.
I not remember hearing about any epidemics of sparks before
the eyes. Such a strange thing. Yeah, so you might
be right. And the Atlas like fifty symptoms that supposedly
treats another terrible product. This is uh also aimed at
(15:18):
female customers. It was Dr Roses French arsenic complexion wafers.
All right, Now, that just sounds made up. I know,
I had to read it cause I couldn't remember, but
I wish it was. It is not made up. These
were toxic wafers that promised to rejuvenate quote even the
coarsest and most repulsive skin. And you knew they were
(15:39):
toxic too, because the very first words in the ad
coffee are quote perfectly harmless and big bold, not suspicious
at all. I like how they draw attention to the
fact that these aren't your typical round of the mill
arsenic waivers, you know, like you might just find around
the corner. I mean these these are French arsenic wafers. Yeah,
(15:59):
you can poison yourself in style here. Yeah. So the
ad tries to distract from the poison with all these
references to the magical effects of the wafers and how
users will experience quote the wizard's touch. Sears must have
been pretty confident because they recommended women start ordering them
a dozen boxes at a time, which would have been
twelve arsenic wave Wow. That is a lot of arsenic.
(16:22):
But I mean, you do have to remember it was
French arsenic, so I'm sure it was fine. So all right. Well,
while women seem to have the line share of these
dubious remedies inflicted on them, men were also on the
receiving end of a few of these, at least, so
I found one example the fall of nineteen o two,
Sears catalog advertised this belt and it sent electrical currents
through a guy's growing in order to provide quote, the best,
(16:44):
most reliable, most harmless yet powerful cheapest cure possible. So
that's obviously a ton of qualifiers. But what was this
supposed to cure? Exactly? I mean, like whatever ailes you're growing,
I guess. I mean, as usual with these medical ads,
the right up is short on details and super long
on this bizarre wording and these impossible claims, Like there
(17:06):
was this promise to cure a week or deranged nervous system.
So I found another It's called curtis Is Consumption Cure
or the Triple C, and it just straight up promises
to cure tuberculosis. Wow. You know, Sears is pretty lucky
that the FDC wasn't around back then, because I can't
(17:26):
imagine any of this stuff would have flown now. So
you know what the strangest part is. So, according to
the company, Richard Sears wrote just about every line of
coffee and the catalogs. But you're kidding, right, No, it's true. Alright, Well,
there was this funny nineteen o two add for something
called a toilet mask, so I'm impressed by his copywriters skill.
So the acid cured rubber is said to be coated
(17:47):
with just healing agents. Wait, so is the assets supposed
to improve your complexion like the arsenic wafers. Well, the
acid is supposed to burn off things like freckles and
liver spots. Sort of. I guess I don't know that
i'd call acid burns and improvement over freckles though. Okay,
so most of these are pretty disturbing products, so I'll
go ahead and mention another that kind of fits the bill. Apparently.
(18:09):
In the series, catalog offered a set of illustrated lecture
slides that depicted quote realistic views of the assassination of
President McKinley. Oh god. Yeah. Customers could relive the national
tragedy from the comfort of their living rooms using the
handy stereo opticon slide projector, which was also available through series.
That is horrible, I mean, I do feel I need
(18:31):
to point out the series also sold some pretty wholesome
things through the catalogs too, So, for example, the nineteen
thirties Sears advertised live baby chicks for sale. Each chick
costs ten cents and the company actually guarantee they'd be
delivered safe and alive or your money back. Well. I
like this positive direction you're heading in, but I want
to drag us back into the mud because I have
to mention one of my favorite all time uses for
(18:54):
the series catalog, which is that they provided the nation's
toilet paper of choice in the late nineteenth century, so
that Sears was selling toilet paper by mail. No, the
catalogs themselves used to be the go to choice when
rural Americans had to you know, w yeah, I believe
it or not. The paper pages of the catalog were
actually a big step up for most people. For those
(19:14):
who didn't have a lot of expendable paper on hand
in the late eighteen hundreds, corn cops were the next
best option, or maybe a muscle shell if you happen
to live near the coastline. I was trying to figure
out which of those sounds worse, But I don't really
even want to go down that path, so let's just
not talk about that exactly, Which is why people were
so happy when Sears started selling them giant free catalogs
twice a year. And supposedly we looked at this a
(19:36):
single catalog could meet the outhouse needs of a farm
family for an entire season, So you can imagine just
how upset folks were where the company switched from cushy,
absorbent newsprint to this unforgiving coded paper stalk. Apparently, Sears
got quite a few angry letters from customers who would
have gladly swapped the catalog's fancy color pictures for you know,
(19:57):
returned to the soft stuff. I love that people wrote
in letters about that. Well, we mentioned earlier that Sears
catalogs were something of a teaching tool in the early
days of the company. It kind of you know, served
as some of the public's first introduction to new technologies
like the electric sewing machine, the disc graphophone, and the
baby gate. Even and cars were actually another thing I
was surprised to learn the catalog introduced to the public.
(20:20):
So the company offered a tiny car. It was called
um Sears Motor Buggy, and this was in the Fall
nine catalog. The Boddy. You could actually reach speeds of
up to twenty five miles per hour and it costs
just under four hundred dollars, which is about ten thousand
dollars today. Wow, that's pretty pricey for Sears. I don't
think I ever circled that one in the catalog. Well,
speaking of expensive, I know this is kind of jumping
(20:41):
ahead of it, but I saw this ad from Sears
in nineteen eighty one. It was for the very first
VCR model, and it cost one thousand, one hundred and
twenty five dollars. I mean, it's close to three thousand
dollars today. I know it's expensive, but how else were
you gonna watch Ernest Goes to Jail? That's actually I
can remember. The first time I watched a movie on
(21:01):
a VCR was we actually rented the VCR. I think
it was from Blockbuster Videos so we could watch a
movie at home. Well, there's at least one item from
the early series catalogs that has only gone up in
value over the years, and I do want to make
sure that we talk about it. But but first let's
take a quick break. Okay, Mango, We've got one of
(21:28):
our listeners on the line to play a quiz with
us today. Stephen is joining us from the state of Washington.
Welcome to part time genius. Stephen. How's it going now?
You're the second person that we've spoken to this week.
That's that works an overnight shift. Earlier in the week,
we spoke to a truck driver who picks up milk
from fifteen different Amish communities in the state of Maryland.
(21:49):
And you've been working the graveyard shift. So tell us
a little bit about what you do. Well. I I
operate some five excess seeing c machines, some of the
largest in the world. Actually, um, and it's it's pretty
awesome that you do a little of that, Mango, don't
you the five axes? Yeah, but mostly on the weekends. Yeah,
well that's great. Well, we're gonna be We're gonna be
(22:10):
playing a quiz with you today. What quiz were you playing? Mango.
We're gonna play a game called real Sears Catalog item
or something we made up? All right, So Steve and
we are going to give you six quiz questions and
you just have to tell us whether it's a real
item we found that a Sears catalog or something we
made up. You're ready to play, all right? So the
first one is a mix at home after shave. It's
(22:33):
for people who love old spice but would prefer to
add some of their own spices. Was this a real
Sears catalog item or something we made up? You know.
I I believe that that was a real thing, and
that'd be pretty interesting. Actually, it wouldn't be pretty interesting.
But this one actually isn't true. They should have had it.
There were some far weirder things in there. That's okay, yea, yeah,
(22:56):
that's right. That's right, all right. Question number two, I
Love You Red twelve Bird Birdhouse. Was this something real
and a serious catalog or something we made up? M hmmm,
it's definitely. It has a hint of mango in there.
But I think I might have actually seen that at
my grandma's neighbor's house, So I'm gonna go maybe real.
(23:19):
It's absolutely right, He's right, it's uh, it's absolutely true.
The ventilated cubicles were supposed to encourage a family of
Martin's to join your own. All right, Okay, he's coming back.
Or one out of two. Still got plenty of time
for the big prize. Question number three, do it yourself
home delivery kit for mothers who don't want to bother
with a doctor until they need to. It's called a
(23:42):
do it yourself home delivery kit. Was this true or
something we made up? Uh? You know, uh, it seems
a little strange, but you know what, I think, you know,
i'd buy that. I think that's realistic enough like that
you'd buy it. Yeah, it's true. I see that it's
(24:02):
true here mango. But what was what was in it?
I know it actually came with rubber sheets, breastbinders, antiseptic soap,
and olive oil. And I think it came with gloves
as well, all stuff I keep in my backpack anyway,
So this is great. Alright, So Steven's two for three, alright,
Question number four, castrating knives. Castrating knives as this true
(24:24):
or something we made up? You know, I kind of
don't want that to be true, but it kind of
might be, but we'll see. You know, I think as
long as it's not for humans, I think that's I
believe that. Yeah, it's true. So at the time, the
Sears catalog also sold farming equipment as well as things
like baby chickens and donkeys, and the knives actually came
(24:46):
with one, two or three blades. Just to be as
surprised as the listeners. Sometimes I like to come in
without having seen the quizzes before, and this is one
of those. When I saw castrating knives. I was like,
all right, Mango, what kind of move? Alright, that's right,
Stephen is three out of four. Let's see. The next
one is a bald Eagle to pay kit fun for
(25:10):
all ages, yarn assembly kit to make the most patriotic
of birds better looking? Was this actually in a Sears
catalog or something we made up? You know? That's that?
That sounds a little mango and he's got you figured out, man. Alright, alright,
last one for the big prize. Here walk and Whear
(25:33):
hair dryers. It's like drying your hair at a beauty salon,
except on the go. A walk and Whear hair dryers.
It's true or something we made up. You know, I'm
not sure exactly how that would work, except well, I guess.
I mean you could probably have a portable powered one.
I you know, I believe that. Yeah, let go, Yes,
this is really true. It's true. Here. How does this work? Well,
(25:56):
it was only so mobile, so it had this beehive
it wearable hair dryer that came with an eight foot
extension courts you could walk eight feet if you're on
the go. That's great. Yeah, it actually reminds me one
of our our neighbors used to have one of those
electric or plug in weed whackers. Except the problem was
(26:16):
it's like the edge of his yard was five ft
beyond where it's stretched. So we would watch him like
get a running start with this thing and just like
run all the way to the end and get that
last five feet, then have to come back and plug
it in and then go do it again. It was
pretty great, all right. So yeah, uh yeah, so mango,
how did Stephen do today? Uh? Stephen did great. He
(26:39):
went five for six and as always, our guest wins
an official part time Genius Certificate of Genius along with
a part Time Genius T shirts. So congratulations Stephen. Alright, Stephen,
that was great. We're all wrapped up. Thanks again for
your patients and for joining us. Yeah anytime. That was
a great quiz man go you really got me good.
It was fun. Thanks. Enjoy your rest, take care all right,
(27:03):
bye bye you guys. Okay, well, so you're going to
tell us about this old timey Sears product that's proven
to be such a big investment. Well maybe unsurprisingly it's
(27:23):
actually real estate, or more specifically, their mail order houses,
so Sears would actually send you a whole house. Uh,
that's got to be this expensive shipping proposition, right, Well,
I mean, not a whole house, but like all the
pieces you need to build a house. Yeah, I mean
it was nineteen o eight and the catalog included an
ad that said, a hundred dollar set of building plans
(27:43):
for free, let us be your architect without cost to you.
And so customers then right into request a free copy
of a book called the Book of Modern Homes. And
it was this separate catalog that listed the building materials
and the plans for I think it was for forty
four different house designs that ranged in ice from around
seven hundred dollars to about four thousand dollars. Okay, so
then what happens like a pile of lumber and stuff
(28:05):
just shows up at your doorstep. Where wait, so if
customers were building houses, where were they sending these houses
to in the first place. Well, a few weeks after
an order was placed, you'd have two box cars full
of about thirty thousand house pieces that would show up
at the buyer's local train depot. Then the proud new
homeowner would have to haul these pieces to the build side,
you know, using a horse and wagon or maybe a
(28:28):
flatbed truck. And so for that reason, most of these
surviving Sears homes that you'll find them located within just
a couple of miles of these old railroad lines. Oh
that makes sense, But building a house seems like so
much work. And forget about trying to haul like thirty
thousand pieces of something up in mountain. Why do you
think all these houses are up abound? All right, So,
once all the pieces of the house were laid out,
(28:49):
it was time for the homeowner to crack open their
leather bound instruction book and figure out how the heck
to put the thing together. And so there was a
lot to figure out, with each kit containing twenty two
islands of paint and varnish and and seven hundred and
fifty pounds of nails. Not only that, there was about
twenty thousand shingles there to use for the roof in siding,
all of this and these giant kids. So there's gonna
(29:11):
be one thick instruction book, right. Actually, I was trying
to look into this because I would have thought the
same thing, And they were only seventy five pages. That's
not a lot of toilet paper, that's not that's insane.
So I can barely build my own idea. But wait,
so you mentioned these surviving houses. How many of these
were built? Well? According to Sears, the company sold between
seventy and seventy five thousand mail order homes during the
(29:33):
thirty two years that it offered them. And getting into
the housing business in the early twentieth century proved to
be a really smart move for Sears, and the timing
couldn't have been any better. He had more and more
Americans that were, you know, trying to ditch the family
farm in favor of this easier life in the suburbs,
and the Sears catalog homes were an affordable way to
make that switch. So you know, today they're buying us
(29:55):
Sears homes isn't nearly that affordable because there's this whole
community of Sears home enthusiasts. They try to hunt these
down and catalog these housing relics, and all that interest
can actually drive the prices way up. But we saw
someone we were looking into this that we're close to
a million dollars for some of these larger models. You know,
it's not just a history that they're paying for, because
(30:16):
these houses are really well built and and super durable.
Because the timber they were using was this old growth
would from back then, which you don't see used a
whole lot now. In fact, you know, in fact, some
enthusiasts estimate that as many as seventy Sears catalog houses
are still standing today. That's crazy and I'm still blown
away that there's this like a house Hunters Sears edition.
But these people just drive around and look for Sears models.
(30:38):
I mean, I think they're a little more methodical about
it than that, but but but more or less, yeah,
I mean, it's something the company actually encourages to The
Seer's archive website even includes a running list of confirmed
Sears house owners are willing to get in touch with
fellow enthusiasts, and that way they can share notes or
maybe meet up for a tour, and of course give
each other heads up if somebody ever decides to sell
(30:59):
there's which I guess isn't that likely. It is cool
that these d i y houses are still out there.
I mean, judging by the frequent Sears store closings and
the sale of its iconic house brands like Craftsman Tools,
it does feel like the company isn't long for the
world at this point. And it feels like these homes
that the company help people build are now kind of
this monument to its cultural impact. Yeah, I mean it
(31:20):
does make me wonder what else the company will leave behind,
you know, besides this treasure trove of hilarious ads that
we talked about. Well, I know one thing that will
definitely be part of Sears legacy, and that's the NORAD
Santa Tracker. You know how every year the news stations
report on Santa's progress as he makes his way from
the North Pole to houses all over the world. Yeah,
but I mean, what does that have to do with Sears. Well,
(31:40):
back in one of Sears department stores placed an ad
in a Colorado newspaper, and it encouraged kids to call
Santa on his private line so that they could tell
them what they'd like for Christmas. But something apparently went
wrong along the way. I don't know whether the phone
number in the ad was misprinted or people simply mistyaled,
but at least one child wound up calling Santa and
getting the Continental Air Defense Command instead. And so the
(32:04):
officer on duty who answered his name was Colonel Harry Shoop.
He asked his staff to provide the collar and any
future ones with the latest updates on Santa's progress. And
a couple of years later, Nora took over the duty
and they've been reporting on Santa's yearly flight ever since.
That's pretty incredible that they got this serious agency to
start a whole program devoted to tracking Santa Claus. I know,
(32:26):
and it's one area where Sears has Amazon, that's true. Well,
speaking of Amazon, I do want to quickly go back
to the idea that Sears and Amazon are, you know,
kind of like mirror images of one another. So both
companies rose the power by combining home delivery and an
emerging technology. For Sears it was railroads and for Amazon
it was the Internet. But you know, both companies started
(32:47):
with a single evergreen product of watches and books, and
then of course they expanded into these product ranges to
include everything under the sun. Well, there's also the fact
that Sears made the transition to brick and more or
retail after decades of success. Is this, you know, delivery
based company, And now we see Amazon starting to do
the same thing. It's interesting to see the future of
(33:08):
retail starts almost resemble its past. Yeah, and you know,
if you think about Amazon, would probably be smart to
keep an eye on those similarities, because while the two
companies find themselves in drastically different situations today, it is
worth noting that Amazon is only in its twenties at
this point. Who knows where it will be a century
from now? Yeah, and who knows where series will be
for that matter? All right, Well, even if the company
(33:29):
is truly on its way out now, the market made
on American culture will be with us for a long
time to come, definitely. But for now, what do you say?
We've partake in another beloved cultural institution. And that's the
fact off? All right, let's do it, okay, So I'll
(33:53):
kick us off. In the the CIA was trying to
find a good way to compensate Vietnamese spies that were
assisting them, and paper money really didn't do them any good,
and so they had to find another way. They then
discovered that they could pay them with items available from
the Sears catalog. I like that, So I feel like
we need at least one fact about the Sears Tower
(34:13):
in Chicago. And I know it's called the Willis Tower now,
but I'm going to join the fifty people who signed
a petition to try to have the name changed back
Now it may not be the tallest building in the
world anymore, but here's something you could still hang its
hat on the sky deck. Bathrooms at one three are
actually the longest trip up from ground level of any
other bathrooms in the Western Hemisphere. And that doesn't mean
(34:35):
they're the highest in elevation, just the farthest from wherever
the ground level is. That is pretty high up to
get to a bathroom. Hopefully there are bathrooms on other
floors before you get Now, that's it, alright. One of
the things we didn't really talk about Sears selling on
its catalog was insurance. And I don't know if you
remember this, but Sears actually founded All State back Yeah,
I didn't remember that, and they'd offer auto insurance deals
(34:57):
in the catalog. All the State is of course no
longer art of Sears. They've been completely independent from them
for I think it's a little over twenty years or
so now. So one of those something else that used
to be in the catalog that I don't think you'll
find serious selling anymore opium. Really, Yeah, you're right, I
don't think they're selling that. Maybe that's gonna be their
turnaround plan. We'll see. Well, just because the Sears catalog
(35:18):
isn't what it used to be, there's obviously no shortage
of catalog mailing going on these days, as we all
experience at this time of year. So I was looking
it up to see how many catalogs are mailed, and
they'll be about eleven billion catalogs mailed out in the
US alone this year. That's crazy. So just last months
Heres announced to be bringing back the Wish Book this
holiday season. It hasn't been printed since two thousand eleven,
(35:40):
and it's just a hundred twenty pager. It's only going
to a select number of loyal customers. But it's apparently
also available on the Sears app. Wait, what are you doing.
I'm on the app store. I'm trying to download the
Sears Sars had an app. I'm distracted. So I'm gonna
give you the fact. I've congratulations, thank you, and and
while Will staring at his phone, I want to thank
(36:01):
all of you for listening today. Don't forget we love
to hear fun facts from you guys. You can always
email us at part Time Genius at how stuff Works
dot com, or you can call us on our seven
Fact hotline. That's one eight four four pt Genius. You
can also find us on Facebook or Twitter, and Hey,
if you like what you heard today, feel free to
give us a review on Apple Podcast. Thank you so
much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius
(36:37):
is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be
possible without several brilliant people who do the important things
we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the
editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does
the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact
producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support
from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and
Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to
(36:58):
your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard,
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