I never shopped at Sears in downtown Saginaw, I am not old enough, I was born around the time the mall was built and that is where my Sears is. I did find this old postcard of downtown Saginaw that shows Sears down towards the river on Genesee near the bank building.

The thing I really remember from Sears, especially this time of year, was the Sears Wish Book, I remember getting that enormous catalog that was full of wonderful and fancy items, and of all the sections in the catalog, it was the toy section that every kid turned to. It seemed like endless pages of every toy imaginable that Santa’s elves could build, and the jolly old fat man would deliver them down the chimley ( yes I said chimley) on Christmas Eve. The one thing that always fascinated me was the slot car tracks that seemed like it went on for miles and miles with its endless twists and turns and a couple of loop de loops. Then the Atari 2600 came out and you could see all the games available for it and make a list for Santa so you could tell him what cartridges you wanted when you visited him at the mall. 

Sears began printing the Wishbook in 1933 and in 1993 they started limiting the size and production of the catalog until it slowly faded away.
I find it ironic that Sears built its retail empire with a mail order catalog and now the company is struggling with Amazon seemingly dominating retail sales with mail order items. I am thinking the kids nowadays go thru Amazon finding what they want from Santa, but it’s not the same as flipping thru a Sears catalog.

I hope you will consider subscribing to Pure Saginaw,

[fbcomments]