Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue

The Innovation of Catalogue Shopping

Soon after the Civil War, residents of large U.S. cities could shop at new department stores, which allowed pleasurable access to more product choices and better products at affordable prices than ever before. The parallel innovation of catalogue marketing through mail order developed, ironically, from urban-based industry seeking to supply the needs of the nation's predominately rural population. In 1890, 65 percent of U.S. residents still lived in rural areas, historically characterized by few shopping options [Page 1396]besides traveling salesmen and the general store, where product choices were few and prices high. Mail order revolutionized this environment. Railroad networks provided national mass distribution of goods, while rural free delivery (RFD) and parcel post guaranteed even isolated rural people home deliveries without the necessity of “going into town” to pick up their mail. Aaron Montgomery Ward, who had worked for Marshall Field's department store in Chicago, seized the opportunity to supply products at discounted prices to rural people through catalogue sales with a satisfaction guarantee. His pioneering 1872 endeavor, headquartered in Chicago, inspired imitation, none more successful than that by a once-obscure Minnesota watch seller, Richard Warren Sears.

Mr. Sears, Mr. Roebuck … and Mr. Rosenwald?

The man whose name became synonymous with trust and value in catalogue sales, Richard Warren Sears (1863–1914), ventured off the farm at age sixteen into employment as a railroad station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota, where he utilized his natural gifts as an entrepreneur and salesman, first by selling lumber and coal on the side and then, fortuitously, watches. A shipment of gold-plated pocket watches from a Chicago manufacturer went unclaimed, so Sears contacted the manufacturer to purchase and sell the watches himself; he soon ordered more watches. Within six months, Sears netted five thousand dollars.

In 1886, at age twenty-three, he established the R. W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis, increasing sales by employing direct-mail campaigns; Sears had an exceptional talent for writing ad copy with a personal touch that was enticing and yet created trust. His watch business thriving, he relocated to Chicago in 1887 and hired his own watch repairman, Alvah Curtis Roebuck (1864–1948), launching his first catalogue, featuring only watches and jewelry, the following year. Sears “retired” in 1889, selling his watch company, only to repartner with Roebuck to create Sears, Roebuck & Co. in September 1893, devoted to selling a wide array of merchandise—and issuing the catalogue that so dramatically captured the public's imagination.

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