Which famous retailer started out as a mail-order watch business? | SouthernPaddler.com

Which famous retailer started out as a mail-order watch business?

oldyaker

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
1,949
31
Old Timers should get this one... :confused:
•Sears&Roebuck
•Montgomery Wards
•JC Penny
•Wal-Mart
Sharpen your cognitive state geezers!

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The retail behemoth that dominated the 20th century got its start in a rather modest way. Richard W. Sears began working as a station agent for the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway when he was a teenager, and when a local jeweler refused a watch shipment, Sears sold them to other station agents for cheap. He used his $5,000 profit to start a mail-order watch business in 1886, soon hiring Alvah C. Roebuck as a watch repairman. In 1887, he began publishing a mail-order catalog featuring watches, jewelry, and diamonds. After a variety of twists and turns, the pair established Sears, Roebuck and Company, and moved the company to Chicago in 1893. Sears became famous for its catalog, which expanded into home goods in the 1890s and used a number of catchy titles, including “the Book of Bargains” and, later, “The Great Price Maker.”
Source: Britannica | Date Updated: August 6, 2020