Was There A Real Person Named Sears?

Many of us know Sears as the massive, mall-based department store our parents saw as a go-to for all Christmas shopping, necessities, appliances, and more. Kids grew up getting their back-to-school clothes there, while other shoppers have left with larger purchases — lawnmowers, refrigerators, treadmills, televisions, etc. But did you know it started out as a mail-order jewelry and watch company? Even more interesting, its first profitable goods were a bundle of watches that didn't make the cut (via Britannica).

While it's more commonly known as just "Sears," you have probably heard of "Sears, Roebuck and Co." And that's because there actually was once a Sears, a Roebuck and, well, there still is a co. While its founders are long gone, their legacy remains, and it has grown from a few watches being transported through the post, ordered via personally-written fliers, to the mega store and corporation that it is today.

While working for the Redwood Falls railway as a station agent, Richard Warren Sears came across a shipment of watches that were rejected by the package's intended recipient, a local jeweler (via Britannica). He was instructed to dispose of the shipment, but instead, he took the phrase "another man's trash is another man's treasure" quite literally. He started a makeshift watch business via mail, marketing the accessories by letters he wrote to fellow workers at other railway stations.

Then in 1886, with the quick $5,000 he made through this chance exchange (considering the generous discounts he gave to his colleagues), he founded the mail-order, Minneapolis-based jewelry company that started it all. It was originally called the R.W. Sears Watch Company, and he operated it alone — creating all marketing and literature for it. But soon after came the Roebuck in "Sears, Roebuck and Co.," just before up and moving the operation to the big city.

Those very first watches Richard Warren Sears sold during his days as a railway station worker were marketed by mail to his colleagues at other stations (via Britannica). Many say his personal appeal, creativity, knack for sales, and persistence didn't stop there — he is credited for quite literally writing the playbook for Sears as we know it today (via Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum).

As of 1893, when Sears' company was just getting started, the catalog — written primarily by him — was about 196 pages (per Britannica). It included ads for various goods, ranging far from its roots of watches and jewelry to sewing machines, shoes, instruments, and more. In just a year, the page count nearly tripled to 507. Sears was a creative at heart, not only authoring the catalogs but also creating all advertisements and marketing for newspapers, magazines, and other media. The company's reliance on mail-order systems grew so large that they built a plant dedicated solely to mail orders in 1906 (per Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum). At the time, the Chicago building was the largest business building in the world.