CHEAP WATCHES

[dorminWS]

Yes, it's another unvetted e-mail that is fascinating if true and a good story nonetheless. I certainly didn't know that's how that particular enterprise got it's start - if it is true.

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Here’s a bit of history for the day.........

CHEAP WATCHES

If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right? Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches, you went to the train station! Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found.

Why were the best watches found at the train station? The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all The telegraph operator was. Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line.

Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and that was the primary way that they communicated with the railroad. They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station. And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.

This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them.



So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.

That started it all. He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers. It worked! It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people other than travelers came to the train station to buy watches.

Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders. That was Alvah. And the rest is history as they say.

The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods.

Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.

YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station. It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alvah Roebuck!




Bet You Didn't Know That!!!

PS: The first Sears catalogue published in 1893 offered only watches.

[Taggure]

Now that is kinda cool

[Swampman]

Gonna have to research that one. It is really cool! This is the kind of mindless trivia you talk about at parties.

[GeneFrenkle]

You could buy houses and have them shipped to you through Sears & Roebuck. If you look, you can still find Sears rifles, too.

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[SHMIV]

I have spent some time in a Sears and Roebuck house. There's a little plaque by the front door that identifies the house.

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[Reverenddel]

And most of those houses? VERY CLOSE TO TRAIN STATIONS OR RAILS!

Why? Because that's how they were delivered!

[dusterdude]

We have quite a few sears houses here in hopewell


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[Swampman]

This is from the Sears Archives and if true, verifies that story as accurate. Pretty cool!

http://www.searsarchives.com/history/history1886.htm

Keep hitting the 'next' button to see more of the story.

[KaosDad]

I still remember waiting for the "Big Book" from Sears.

Oh, and Craftsman Tools? Just wonderful!

[Snakester]

[quote="dusterdude"]We have quite a few sears houses here in hopewell


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote


You're exactly right....There's many Sears Houses in Hopewell. I've owned two and worked on many ! I've heard stories about how Sears actually started...This is very interesting !

[Gotlabs]

I'm not that old, but I remember back in the late 70s, early 80's flipping through the Sears catalog and seeing all the guns. I use to circle just about every one of them for my Christmas list for my parents, needless to say they wouldn't buy their little boy a bunch of firearms.

[SHMIV]

Yep, Rev. Now that you mention, that Sears house was close to the rails. Well, where there used to be rails, anyway. In LaCrosse, Va; that house had the right of way for the old tracks right in the back yard. And, where the two railroads intersected was a 90 second walk away. The train station was about a 3 minute walk, or less.

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[Jakeiscrazy]

This story is best read with the voice of Paul Harvey and know you know the rest of the story.......

Great post, I learned something!

[Reverenddel]

You know? Craftsman tools I think is the ONLY saving grace of Sears, and K-mart!

I like DeWalt, and Snap-On, but I have Craftsman tools that were my GRANDDADS, and he pass in 1978!

[JustinCase]

As a kid, of course there was the woman's undies section, but other than that... I *LOVED* flipping pages of the Sears catalog. I looked at the tools and stuff.... and I remember to this day, a portable TV that took 9 "D" size batteries, at the time a PORTABLE TV, it was a 5" screen and B&W, but I wanted it so damn bad. I think it was like $259, which at that time might as well have been $1K today.

EB

[SHMIV]

That portable TV sounds like one that my Grandfather had. And, he still may have the thing.

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