2024 07 17

Goose makes itself at home in a strip mall parking lot. Chicagoland exurbs. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

[Book Review]

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears
Donald L Katz

Previously, I wrote about my interest in the story of Sears (see blog post 2024 03 29). Having been born myself at the tail end of this massive corporation’s lifespan, in its home city, I was aware of the existence of Sears, with its massive headquarters, the word’s tallest building, towering over the city and even visible on my bus ride to school many miles outside of downtown. Much like the previous run-on sentence, Sears clung to life for decades beyond its best by date before finally sputtering out of life. New technologies and modern shopping habits fueled by cheap goods resulting from globalization changed consumer habits and ultimately Sears was not able to adapt quickly enough with the times to survive. Ultimately, Sears was a beneficiary of prosperous years and massive growth in the American economy (from my notes: Growth in the post-WW2 era was rapid as they opened stores everywhere. Employees were loyal and well compensated. The company was seen as a safe place to work for military and country-boy types. FDR said we should drop Sears catalogs over the Soviet Union to show them the benefits of capitalism). In many ways, Sears represented the best America had to offer at the time.

As the tides changed, the structures of Sears became dated and out-of-sync with corporate America. The government eventually came after the company for unfair hiring practices (from my notes: Autonomy to local managers was innovative at first but eventually was scrutinized by the government for discriminative hiring practices. The managers were like warlords ruling over their regions with assistants and assistants to the assistants. Tudor: The ideal Sears employee was a man from a small Midwest town that understood authority. (Board of directors in 1975). They were late to embracing computers).

At the peak of their power, Sears leadership couldn’t see the ways in which their massive business could fail. They decided it was justified to erect the tallest tower in the world and fill it with employees to direct their ever-growing company. Insiders called the Sears Tower “Gordon Metcalf’s last erection” as doubt grew inside the company that it would be able to fill the entire building by the end of the century, as was planned. Before the Sears Tower, many customers around the country had no idea where Sears was based and just assumed it was somewhere near them. The Tower became a symbol with negative connotation. In my opinion, the fall of Sears came about largely due to a lowering economic tide and inability to adapt quickly to a changing society.

All of this information was incredibly well reported in Katz’s book The Big Store. What led me to read his in-depth and thorough re-telling of Sears was my curiosity in how one company came to own or control so many other famous American brands (Allstate, Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker, Discover Card, Kenmore, DieHard, Craftsman, Kmart). Perhaps to be expected, a company as large and complex as Sears was compelled Katz to write a book equally as labyrinthian. Katz was given incredible access and is clearly well-versed in business details (he went on to become a corporate CEO himself). However, while this book is great at telling the business side of the Sears story, it largely fails at forming a compelling character-driven narrative that withstands changing dynamics of our society to remain a critical read for audiences of this generation, unfamiliar with Sears.

While The Big Store is a great book covering a specific period of time in corporate America, that age is well over and the lessons learned from it mostly no longer apply. While I’m not here to claim the task an easy one, I do feel there is more of a story to tell with Sears, one that may better connect to rising inequality (Sears was a store built for the middle class, therefor lost its customer base!), the financial-engineering of corporate America (Sears was a pioneer in consumer credit and later merged with multiple financial institutions to try and keep the engine running…and eventually picked to pieces by investor Eddie Lampert, which this book doesn’t delve into), and the globalized world we find ourselves living in today (cheap shit from China… the rise of Walmart and the Dollar chains).

Long story short: this is a well-researched and solid book overall but a great book about a very specific thing which most people will have little to no interest in. It had the potential to be a great and timeless book had the author decided to think bigger and connect the narratives to a changing world. Likely, these changes only became apparent in later years, but I do think this story is still one deserving of a better telling.

[author’s note: the most notable and compelling character in the book is the chairman Ed Telling who was in control of the company from the late 70’s through the mid 80’s. This is why the final sentence of this review deserves a polite chuckle and/or a roll of the eyes.]

-Clayton

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My Notes from The Big Store:

Sears

Growth in the post WW2 era was rapid as they opened stores everywhere. Employees were loyal and well compensated. The company was seen as a safe place to work for military and country boy types. 

FDR said we should drop Sears catalogs over the Soviet Union to show them the benefits of capitalism. 

“All the tall men for big jobs.” 

Insiders called the Sears tower “Gordon Metcalf’s last erection” as doubt grew inside the company that it would be able to fill the entire building by the end of the century, as planned. 

Autonomy to local managers was innovative  but eventually was scrutinized by the government for discriminative hiring practices. 

The managers were like warlords ruling over their regions with assistants and assistants to the assistants. 

Tudor: The ideal Sears employee was a man from a small Midwest town that understood authority. (Board of directors in 1975) 

They were late to computers. 

Ed Telling is a great character. 

The unexpected transition to Telling as CEO is filled with difficulty. He did a college speech where he said he sensed many institutions needed a good shaking. It seems to me he is an example of seeing the writing is on the wall and the boom times are over and things need to change, but instituting these changes are nearly impossible. Lifelong Sears secretary retires with massive savings accounts from Sears stock. This became expected to continue forever which was an impossible task. 

Before the Sears Tower, many people had no idea where Sears was based and just assumed somewhere near them. The Tower became a bit of a symbol that became a negative 

IMO, the fall of Sears came about largely because of a falling economic tide and inability to adapt quickly. 

WLS (radio) stands form worlds largest store because Sears started it when they were trying new things to diversify. 

The old guard started getting buyout deals and people were taking them. The stock was down. There was shit talk in the media. There was no longer a sense of community loyalty 

Sears toyed with the idea of creating “The Great American Company” by merging with Deere and/or Disney 

Sears did have lots of access to new capital (debt) in its early years of decline, however, due to a lack of vision and leadership they were slow and didn’t know how to allocate it. 

Before Sears moved out of the west side HQ, the neighborhood had become so bad, Sears had thr 3rd largest police squad in Illinois. But also, nobody left the building. Everyone ate together and everyone talked. 

Sears was the first retailer to execute windowless shopping spaces. 

The staff and sales people stopped caring about the customer when they went part time. Sales people started making more than managers. People starting disliking and having contempt for their fellow employees. 

Chapter 16: Dark Times 

“You gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them”

Late in the Telling era, Sears did do much better and the stock was way up, largely due to their combining with various financial institutions — can we draw a connection here to the early days of “late stage capitalism” where financial engineering becomes increasingly vital? 

Sears started opening “stores of the future” with more technology. They made more money so they stared closing 2-3 old stores and replacing them with one new store. (Makes sense on paper but not in practice??)