Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Originally Posted by Dutch
Originally Posted by EdM
I don't think tool sales was/is the made or break of Sears.


No, it was trying to sell women's clothing and curtains. Remember the "softer side of Sears" campaign?

Core competency is a concept accountants just can't grasp. You can't run a business without numbers, and you can't run a business by the numbers. As long as accountants are in charge, a business will decline.

Women's clothing was in Sears from the beginning. The original catalogs had about everything you could imagine, including clothing. A country person could easily get by if he had to buy everything he owned from Sears.
When this area was settled in the early 1900's, a lot of the houses built were Sears kits. They were quality houses and many are still standing.


Sears house kit plans - 1908 throurh 1940.

http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm