The slow death of the department Store ...

[Art]

In the heyday of department stores a lot of their business, maybe the bulk of it was mail order. I remember when I was a kid most of our Christmas presents were mail order from Sears or Montgomery Ward. Mail order was pre-computer ebay. The fact is these chains have been dying for 30 + years. I knew Sears was done when they sold off Craftsman tools. Sears and Penney's are the last two I know of and neither will probably survive the coronavirus lock down.

Woolworth's wasn't exactly a department store, at least not originally, it was a "five and dime" with a diner built in. Everyone of those went almost instantly when a Walmart came to town. Interestingly, Woolworth's still survives in Europe and Austrailia.

People will wonder now why one of the more impressive buildings in NYC is the Woolworth Building. Sears Tower in Chicago has been re named.

[Gun Smoke]

In addition to not adapting for the times:

Sears had the merger/buyout or whatever with bankrupt Kmart. After that they died with Kmart not paying venders for the merchandise and selling off their assets and product names like Craftsman tools, Kenmore and Lands End.

Montgomery Ward was bought by Mobil Oil as a tax wright-off. They put no money back into the store.

JCP had a queer (R. Johnson) for a CEO who took a hard stand on queer rights and proclaimed JCP was a store by queers, for queers and if people didn't like it they could just shop elsewhere---so they did.

All three were victims of pi$$ poor management.

Look at the success of Amazon now. These former catalog companies could be doing the same. Of course MW is completely gone.

[RED]

W.T. Grant, Monty Wards, Woolworth, Emporium - all nothing
now but fond memories. Then came Amazon with it's on-line
bargain basement outlet which allowed you to shop without
the tiresome necessity of showering, getting dressed and
leaving the house. As if this wasn't bad enough as far as brick
and mortar stores were concerned, along came the coronavirus
which as it turns out might well be the proverbial "Last Nail"
Penny's, and Neiman Marcos are filing for bankruptcy. Macy's
and Sears might not be far behind and if they don't actually go
belly up, they'll close hundreds of their stores. Many small shops
were struggling before the 'pandemic' struck, so their survival is
at the least extremely doubtful. Soon they'll be none left.
Personally, I miss the Monty Wards and Sears that had me as a
frequent visitor, and I still have a Sears 22 single shot rifle.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/...ile-bankruptcy

Is it a "Sears 22 single shot rifle." or a J.C. Higgins?

Almost all the American gun makers (maybe minus Remington) made guns for Sears.

[Gun Smoke]

Is it a "Sears 22 single shot rifle." or a J.C. Higgins?

Almost all the American gun makers (maybe minus Remington) made guns for Sears.

Yep, mostly Springfield and Stevens.

Their shotguns (mostly Winchester) were stamped "Ted Williams". I remember as a kid thinking "Who is that A-hole? A baseball player?". If they wanted to name their guns after someone of gun importance why not name them after Samuel Colt, John Browning, George Patton, anyone but a baseball player. Why not Fats Domino?

MW sold name brand guns but also did like Sears with their store brand name of Western Field.

Western Auto used the name Revelation.

Perhaps one day these will become collector items but probably no time soon.

[lyman]

Yep, mostly Springfield and Stevens.

Their shotguns (mostly Winchester) were stamped "Ted Williams". I remember as a kid thinking "Who is that A-hole? A baseball player?". If they wanted to name their guns after someone of gun importance why not name them after Samuel Colt, John Browning, George Patton, anyone but a baseball player. Why not Fats Domino?

MW sold name brand guns but also did like Sears with their store brand name of Western Field.

Western Auto used the name Revelation.

Perhaps one day these will become collector items but probably no time soon.

sears also sold a lot of stuff made by Mossberg, High Standard etc,

all commodity bought, at a price point,


there are collectors out there that buy up Higgins, Williams, Revelation etc, but the few I have meet and sold to only want minty examples, and will pay a small premium for boxes, hangtags etc,


still not a great deal of $$$ involved compared to a Mod 70 or a minty early 94 etc etc, but also consider most were used for what they were bought for, food to the table or sport, so not parked in a cabinet for light use

[dogtag]

Is it a "Sears 22 single shot rifle." or a J.C. Higgins?

Almost all the American gun makers (maybe minus Remington) made guns for Sears.

Don't know for sure. Thought maybe it was Marlin, but maybe Higgins.

[gpb]

Woolworths sealed their fate when they started throwing people out of their stores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaW0M6V85j8

[lyman]

Woolworths sealed their fate when they started throwing people out of their stores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaW0M6V85j8

is that just the one Woolworth Everett, or the entire chain?

[Gun Smoke]

One common sight I remember about Woolworth is when you went in they had a large lunch bar on each side. One for the whites and one for the blacks.

These days every country is considered a different race so they can use the phrase "racist" against anyone who offends them.

If still allowed to have separate dining bars a typical Woolworth would need a few hundred of them for all the various shades of white, black, brown, yellow, red and others.

In the later years our last remaining Woolworth started selling crappier crap instead of just plain crap. The merchandise looked like the quality seen inside the back cover of comic books (x-ray glasses, plastic cap firing grenades, rubber dog crap and etc). What they sold the last few years would have been considered cheap even by Chinese standards.