Falling giant

News that the local Sears store was closing, one more step in the slow descent of the giant, was like hearing that an acquaintance who’d once been a close friend was now on his deathbed. Although we had not been close for some years, there had been a time when Sears was a part of my life.

The once-pervasive Sears and Roebuck annual catalog was referred to as a “wish book” for good reason. Big and heavy, its pages overflowed with a near-endless assortment of luxuries and necessities. It offered access for families, no matter if urban or rural, to an assortment of goods far beyond anything a local store could carry, and if you couldn’t afford to order from it, you might at least peruse it and wish you could.

I clearly remember, stretched out on the floor because the huge book was too heavy for me to hold at the age of 5, looking at illustrations of work clothes, trying to imagine being as old and as capable as the men in the pictures. Three years later, with World War II raging and soldiers all around, I would study the current issue and yearn to own the small boy’s khaki uniform, complete with necktie and service cap. My parents ignored my pleas, but I could still enjoy the looking and the imagining.

Sears granted me my first charge account when I was still a teenager with a miniscule and sporadic income. The occasional clothing items I ordered might not have been Savile Row quality and style, but they were acceptable, durable, and reasonably priced. And available to me for a few dollars a month, paid over many months. I knew that the company was a business, and that it catered to me because it made a profit on what it sold and drew interest on the credit it extended, but that didn’t keep me from feeling that Sears was a benevolent being, that it was on my side.

As I matured, I maintained my association with the giant retailer. Over the years I bought major appliances, hand tools, power tools, furniture, whatever. I bought more power lawn mowers than I can recall, and a rugged riding mower that was in active use for a dozen years or so; I wore out before it did. I bought car batteries and oil changes and tune-ups. When I needed durable, useful, everyday products, I was likely to think of Sears first.

Then things seemed to change gradually. Sales persons appeared somehow not so down-to-earth and personable as I remembered. Maybe I was the one who was changing, but I didn’t think so. Where I had once felt that the company’s employees were genuinely interested in finding out how best to meet my needs, I began to sense that the interest was primarily on selling something and quickly moving on to another customer.

The end came when, faced with an emergency and a time crunch, I went back for one more car battery instead of going to the established battery dealer with whom I’d more recently done business and who would, had my schedule allowed, have gladly changed out the battery for me. My encounter with Sears did not go well. My complaint about unexpected charges, revealed when the job was finished, was met with repeated statements of “company policy.” My life didn’t exactly pass before my eyes, but a montage of childhood dreaming over the wish book and thousands of dollars spent with my benevolent friend over more than six decades did. As I prepared to leave, I stated my determination never to return. I never did.

I would guess that the decline of Sears results from many factors. Changing demographics and changing tastes, no doubt. Increased competition by less staid and time-tainted retailers. And there’s the fact that I no longer have to make a 20-mile round trip and waste an hour in search of something that may be out of stock anyway, but can sit down at my computer and order much of what I need in a matter of minutes.

Still, I can’t help but suspect that the weakening of the bond I, and so many others, once felt with Sears had something to do with its faltering, too. In any case, I will miss Sears. The Sears I remember from before the slow estrangement began.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Falling giant."