Sunday, January 7, 2018
Saturday, January 6, 2018
SEARS
| Store History - Indiana: Evansville |  |
Sears first free standing retail store opened October 5, 1925 in Evansville, Indiana
In 1925, Sears Chairman Julius Rosenwald decided to expand Sears operations into the retail store business. At first Sears opened retail stores in the large regional Catalog Merchandise Distribution Centers at Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and Kansas City. The very first Sears retail store outside of a Catalog Merchandise Distribution Center opened in Evansville, Indiana on October 5, 1925. Moving into the retail store business was not an easy task for Sears, Roebuck and Co., the largest mail order catalog company in the United States.Julius Rosenwald started the process when he hired Charles Kittle as the new president of Sears and Robert Wood as the new vice president of factories and retail stores. Wood previously worked for Montgomery Wards where he tried to get Wards to start opening retail stores. Wards management was skeptical of the idea and decided not to go into the retail store business. After Wood resigned from Montgomery Wards over their lack of commitment to opening retail stores, Rosenwald quickly hired him. Many people at Sears were not convinced that opening retail stores was a good thing. The greatest fear many Sears managers had was that the stores would take business away from the company’s profitable catalog operations. Rosenwald, Kittle and Wood believed that the urban farm population would continue to order from the Sears catalog. They also believed that city dwellers were more interested in shopping at stores than buying goods through the mail order catalog. The time was right for the company to start opening retail stores. The population in the United States was migrating from rural farms to cities. The root of this shift was an increase in labor saving mechanical technology on the farms. At the same time new factories were being built in the cities. These factories produced a wide variety of new consumer products that included radios, electric appliances, power tools, and man made wash and wear fabrics. Under Rosenwald, Kittle and Wood, Sears redefined the retail store concept. The strategy these men developed turned the Sears retail store into a new kind of department store, a place for the whole family to shop. As Robert Wood put it: Finding the right product mix was not as difficult as creating an organizational structure that made the retail store system work, and finding qualified people to run the new stores. Turning catalog sales people into retail sales people was a very difficult task. As Wood put it, "We were as green as grass in passing the goods across the counter—and we made many mistakes. But the concept was sound. We gave people values. In spite of our mistakes, they kept coming and the store was a success from the day we opened."The (existing) department stores were essentially for women. Eighty percent of their business was in women’s wear, hosiery, and all other apparel. A man in a department store was lost. We made it a store for the family; in other words, for the men, too. We added hardware, tires, service parts and other items of particular interest to men. Sears management struggled with creating a new Sears retail store system that took advantage of the existing catalog buying and distribution organization. After Kittle died suddenly in 1928, and Rosenwald retired in 1932 Wood took over as president of Sears. Wood completely redefined Sears. He created a whole new organizational structure to run the retail stores. The new field organization was based on managerial decentralization. Wood delegated responsibility and authority as far down the line as possible. He wanted well-qualified people in key posts at the scene of action. He gave the field people wide latitude to exercise initiative and judgement in light of local circumstances. Things were rough at first. The lack of skilled retail management was a serious problem for Sears. Wood persevered, he encouraged hiring people with potential and promoting them to management positions. Soon, a highly qualified group of retail managers emerged. During the first fifteen years of the Sears retail experience, Wood spent a great deal of time visiting the stores. He wanted to know first hand what kinds of problems the stores faced and what changes to make in company policies and practices to enable them to do a better job. It took nearly two decades of hard work to establish an efficient field organization. The success of the retail business at Sears was reflected in the skyrocketing sales figures for the company during the coming decades.
http://www.searsarchives.com/stores/history_indiana.htm
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Thought of The Day
Ben Stein. Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year, which prompted Ben Stein, to say, on CBS Sunday Morning:
My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a nativity scene, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'
In light of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.
My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Friday, January 5, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Happy Grown Up Day!
Family Tradition! Pizza on moving day!
I love these amazing kids, so glad they are mine! Eek
Doted On
I asked my friend to take me to the airport when I left on my trip. He did, then... when I was away....
He washed my car and filled it with gas. He checked out the funny sound I had heard under the hood. He picked up new remotes for my cable boxes, because mine didn’t work. Then he totally cleaned up my sad little garden. My backyard is so clean of everything. I was awestruck when I saw it last night. (It was one of those things I procrastinated and dreaded.)
He gathered my mail when I was gone, turned up my heat the day I came back home and picked me up from the airport. Then brought a pizza last night because he knew I had no food in the house.
I have to be honest, I have never been doted on like this before. Is this what it’s like to be important to someone? I know how to care and do for others, but I’m feeling a bit girly and I’m not sure how to react. Blushing!
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Quote of The Day
"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration I don't think you can go wrong."
Ella Fitzgerald
Dream
I was during home from the airport. It was late, and dark. I felt lost. I kept looking for signs. I kept trying to find the things that were familiar. The curve in the road, the house built into the hill, the big black barn. Then I saw the tire swing! It was late and dark but I knew you were there, you would be waiting for me. Then I woke up.
I miss you
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Monday, January 1, 2018
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