The seven Sears stores pictured above were all opened in a seven-month period – from March through October, 1963. These stores – all type A “Complete Department Stores” help to illustrate the impressive breadth of architectural styles Sears employed during the period. It’s interesting to note, also, that Sears used multiple logo styles on their stores – the “script” type, which had been in use in various forms since the early 1950’s and the “serif” type, which began to appear on store facades and in catalogs and print advertising around 1960. The company used them interchangeably (which is amazing, when one considers the intense emphasis placed on having a “uniform corporate identity” today). In more than a few cases, they even used both styles on the same store!
As a company, Sears went from strength to strength during this period, enjoying record yearly sales and profit increases, with total sales of over $5 billion in 1963. The following year, Sears would overtake The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company as the world’s largest selling retailer, a position they would hold for nearly three decades afterward. Also, Sears’ shopping center development division, founded in 1960 and named Homart Development Corporation (after the company’s home office location at the corner of Homan Avenue and Arthington Street ) began to gain steam. Homart had opened its first shopping center, Seminary South in Ft. Worth, Texas (now called Fort Worth Town Center) the previous year. The company would open its second shopping center, the Hancock Center Mall in Austin, Texas in 1963. The Austin Sears store is pictured in the second photo above.
The photos, top to bottom, are of the following stores – (1) Downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, near the Minnesota State Capitol and still open, (2) Austin, Texas, at the Hancock Center mall, also still open, (3) Park Forest, Illinois, in the famous early “planned community” which was originally founded in 1948. Through the 1950’s an impressive array of stores opened up in Park Forest’s shopping plaza, including such Chicago standbys as Marshall Field & Company, Goldblatts and Jewel Food Stores, among many others. Sears finally joined the group in ’63. None of those stores exist today, though several of the buildings still stand in one form or another. (4) Montgomery, Alabama, with very cool smaller logos above each entrance, (5) Orlando, Florida, with a two-toned Sears service truck heading out, (6) Denver, Colorado, and (7) Wilmington, Delaware at Prices Corner Shopping Center. This store still exists and has been greatly expanded over the years.
the oldest Sears near me has the serif logo too on some parts.
ReplyDeleteOH!!!! I wanted to ask...are you ever planning on doing a piece on "Sears Homes" Back in the 20's and 30's Sears had those pre fab homes at different price ranges, and you picked it out of a catalog and the sears guys would come put it up for you. THere is still one standing today in Point Pleasant NJ. Its got condemned signs all on the doors and stuff...but I'm gonna try and take a pic when I get a free moment.
ReplyDeleteBy the late 90's Sears had updated most of the signage on their stores, so the serif logo is becoming a rare sight.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a lot about the Sears Homes, but I found an interesting link since you asked, on the About.com site:
http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-bungalowplan-sears.htm
This site features a lot of the floor plans from these houses. Pretty interesting!
You can pick out the similar basic structural arrangement for these stores, but beyond that and some common logos, there are few similarities. How cool.
ReplyDeleteSince it was the early 60s, I wonder why Sears didn't jump on the discount store bandwagon like Target's and Kmart's creators did? Or was the class tier of stores addressing that somehow?
ReplyDeleteVery cool stuff there. I keep logging in with hopes of seeing Downtown Peoria's former Sears store which was one of the company's largest stores on the riverfront. It was built in the mid-sixties and was adorned with both the script and sans logos in white over dark brown brick. The building was vacated a decade ago and demolished last year. Hope you can find some pictures to post here.
ReplyDeleteSteven - I'm frankly amazed by it, and think that it's largely due to it the fact that Sears let their individual regions run with their own architects. Great results, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteDidi - The differences between the A and B stores were more or less limited to store size and amount of product selection. The price and quality of goods sold were consistent in either type. The C stores were a different animal, with just tools and appliances.
Instead of getting into discounting, Sears did the exact opposite - they moved upscale, shifting to higher priced goods as their customers became more successful and affluent. By the mid-60's, lower middle income customers (and tons of young families - i.e. future affluent customers)began leaving Sears in droves and flocking to the discounters. Instead of going to a real two-tier offering (easier said than done, of course), they ceded these customers to Kmart and the other discounters. Within 10 years, Kmart would become a huge thorn in Sears' side.
Jack - I don't have a photo of the Peoria store at this point, but if I find one, I'll definitely post it. Thanks!
Dave:
ReplyDelete'Following your customers upscale' has bit American business in the tail repeatedly. Notably Kmart kinda tried to do it with the customers Sears ceded to them - except those customers had moved on to Target, while Kmart's incoming cohort moved to Wally World. It's also a large part of how the US automobile industry ended up in such a disarray in the 1970's.
Neither Sears, Kmart, or the automobile industry has ever fully recovered.
Derekl -
ReplyDeleteThat's great analysis - you're absolutely right. The auto industry analogy certainly applies. These are all cases of companies who in effect traded one customer base for another when history has proven they should have danced with their original partner.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI am from Montgomery, AL, the city where the Sears store you have pictured on your site with the name above each entrance (#4 I believe) is located. I have so many fond memories of going to that store when i was a kid with my parents and brother and heading straight to the toy department. After I found your site and discovered that shot I went to the old building to take a look. It does still exist and I took pictures of it. I would be happy to send them to you if you'd like. Just let me know. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. There are other stores here in montgomery I wish you had information on.
Scott - Sorry for taking so long to get back with you. I'd love to see those pictures. The Montgomery store with the signage above each door was one of the most unique (and cool-looking) Sears stores I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteThe Park Forest Sears is so amusing to me. I live about 1 minute from where it used to stand. The downtown mall area still stands but is largely vacant. The movie theater is still there and operating. The old marshall fields building is still there but is scheduled to be torn down this september or october. Its really too bad that that mall is dying. I remember it when I was a kid in the 80's and it was a walkable outdoor mall. Lots of memories!
ReplyDeleteShannon (or Scott!) – Thanks for the comment! I would love to have seen the Park Forest Shopping Center in its heyday. The whole Park Forest story is fascinating to me, considering its famous “planned community” origins. It says to me that even planned communities have a lifespan, and changing times would affect a mall inside one of those just as they would any other mall.
ReplyDeleteI’d love to see the Field’s store before they tear it down. And the Sears was a real looker, at least when it was new!
Dave,
ReplyDeleteSorry for not getting back to you on this sooner. I have the pictures of the Sears store here in Montgomery. Please email me at s.arendsen@knology.net and I'll be more than glad to pass them along.
ScottA