used to have many of the wish list catalogs that i would save from the late 70s to the mid to late 90s lost them to flooding and been searching for a set since they were great catalogs to flip thru esp the early ones from the turn of the century you could see kit(s) in building complete house(s) to horse drawn carriage(s) not the mention the different assortment of other item(s) like ; knives , guns , clothing , dolls , watches , and so it was a general store for its era , imo
Never seen one of those before - or I do not recall it. And yes I remember the 60's riding the bus to go to sears and then to woolsworth's store with Grandma - getting grilled cheese and a coke - what a treat. And yes she is the one who first got me into coins - my brother and me got to search her penny jar for wheat cents to fill in our old whitman albums back then. I still have some of those albums - the wheat cents I moved from whitman to dansco album. Basically only had buy/add the key dates to complete them. Good old days!!!!!!!!!!
Growing up in Chicagoland, Sears held Illinois hostage for huge tax breaks in the 70s and 80s, and the always corrupt and inept government caved in big time. Sears sold a lot of crap and mastered in the bait and switch selling approach.
I don't recall Sear's ever being overpriced. It's where I used to go when I was a teen to spend my hard-earned summer job money on things like fishing gear. Our local Sear's had a large candy bar on the ground floor. When I was in 5th grade we could buy like a half pound of M&M's there for something like 50 cents.
I remember at my grandmother's home when I was young, the previous year's catalog being the emergency backup...
The "back-up" was always in my grandfathers house/farm in the outhouse as well, Sears but sometimes Monkey Wards. They didn't get indoor plumbing until about 1959 and that was in Iowa. It was awful with 8 cousins, and the last one up in the morning had to take and dump out all the chamber pots, but we all called those thunder pots. Nice porcelain or stoneware lidded low pots about 8-9 inches wide and 3-4' tall. All my fishing gear was always from Sears or Western Auto.
I might haul it out later but the entire 1922 catalog is online. Mostly shotguns. Some revolvers listed under miscellaneous police goods but no pictures. Take note of the restrictions on who they will ship those to. Index: https://archive.org/details/SearsRoebuckAndCoCatalog1922_201812/page/n499/mode/2up Shotguns: https://archive.org/details/SearsRoebuckAndCoCatalog1922_201812/page/n783/mode/2up
