And Then Came Sears…

“Ward was not the only man who tried his hand at building a mail-order store.  One of the cleverest of these others was a young railroad station agent named Richard Sears.  Sears was a clever man, and a near genius at selling by mail.  Of course, Sears could not have succeeded for long in the mail-order business unless he, like Ward, had been honest.  He too gave good value for the money, and let customers return any goods they did not like. 

But Sears was not afraid of a good joke.  He knew that lonely farm families were glad to be entertained.  In a rural weekly newspaper in 1889 he made an “Astonishing Offer.”  It was illustrated by a drawing of a sofa and two chairs, all of “fine, lustrous metal frames beautifully finished and decorated, and upholstered in the finest manner with beautiful plush.”  Sears offered to ship this furniture “for a limited time only” for the ridiculously low price of ninety-five cents. 

The customers who sent in their money really were astonished when they received a set of doll’s furniture, made exactly according to the description. 

There were lots of stories about how clever Sears was.  One of his advertisements offered a “sewing machine” for a dollar.  When the customer sent in his dollar, he promptly received by return mail a needle and thread.  But Sears used such stunts only to attract attention.  Like Ward, Sears actually built his business on trust and on the personal touch.”