I watched a video the other day of a house being built in the 40s that was sold by Sears and sent by mail order to the buyer. A house! Do you realize we used to live in a country where people had the wherewithal to look at a picture of a house in a catalog and say, “How hard can it be?”
And many of those houses are still standing! I can’t even buy a gas grill without paying for my local hardware store to deliver and assemble it. And they were ordering whole houses back in the day.
Of course, since the internet is always watching and feeding us more of what we just watched, I’ve been bombarded with old videos and nostalgic Sears articles. One in particular made me laugh. Here are some of the odd things you could buy from the Sears catalog:
Bees: Yep, you could order up to 6000 bees and have them delivered right to your door. And of course, that included a queen, because who doesn’t love a queen bee? How much fun would it be today to send one of the neighbors you don’t get along with a few thousand bees for no particular reason?
And Sears didn’t just sell bees. In fact, up until the 60s, you could buy birds, dogs, and fish. You could even order chickens. Can you imagine Uber Eats delivering a live chicken today? I can, and I’m laughing my #$% off!
Tombstones: Don’t pay those high cemetery prices for your loved one’s tombstone! Order it from Sears, and they will throw in the engraving! Delivered right to your home or gravesite, in marble or granite. Again, I would love to send these as a prank!
Heroin: After the Civil War, there was a rise in morphine addiction in the U.S. Doctors treated it with heroin. Yep, I had to read it twice too! And why bother going to the doctor or pay those high pharmacy prices when Sears would send to your door 2 vials of heroin, 2 needles, a syringe, and a carrying case for just $1.50 ($60 bucks adjusted to today).
Courses: Sears even offered a six-month bookkeeping course for the low price of $5! This would come in handy if you’re starting a new career as a beekeeper.
In a way, Sears was the last century’s Amazon. They started as a mail-order watch business. Amazon started as an online book business. In a short time, Sears was selling anything you could imagine. You can pretty much say the same about Amazon these days.
And because I do the research, so you don’t have to…
Amazon does sell live fish (sorry, no bees), tombstones, no heroin (but they do sell meds of all kinds), and Bookkeeping for Dummies. Amazon is just Sears with better tech and logistics.
Carry on, Citizens!
