RIP Sears and Toys R Us

Recently two major companies, with large stores in my area, finally went out of business, permanently.  These would be Sears and Toys R Us.  At this point both are in CH11, not CH7, but all their stores are closing permanently.  It’s unclear as to whether they will be resurrected in the future.   I have seen the local stores of each company close and go dark, but I have not seen anyone else move into them or the stores demolished for something completely different.  The Sears at Landmark Mall has a large sign indicating it is still open, though this may be because the mall itself closed.  I have not tried to ascertain whether it’s actually still open as of now.  I have been there numerous times in the past and have had automotive work done at various Sears locations in this area over the years.  See below. [As of 1/16/19 the Sears chairman won a bankruptcy auction for the firm, and may keep it in business.  As of now, 400 stores remain open.]

Hostess recently went out of business, only to be resurrected again by new owners with considerably more imagination and ingenuity, the variety of flavors available expanding well beyond the prior line which had continued with few (if any) changes for entire decades.  I’m guessing the original owners had grown fat, lazy and complacent on their own snack foods and showed little inclination to do anything different.  Roy Rogers also enjoyed a remarkable rebirth once new owners with a conscientious commitment to expanding the chain did a fantastic job of opening new locations to satisfy our insatiable hunger for their delicious roast beef sandwiches – and no, Arby’s is NOT an acceptable substitute.  AMEN!

For the time being, though, it appears that Sears and Toys R Us are effectively gone.  Here are my thoughts.

Sears.   Originally established in Chicago in 1893, much of the business being mail order for farmers in the Midwest.  The largest and tallest skyscraper in Chicago, now known as the Willis Tower, was originally called the Sears Tower.  We have one of those hardbound reproductions of a catalog from 1897, complete with practically anything you might expect to buy at that time:  the boys’ clothes are knickers, you can buy guns (hunting rifles and shotguns, though, not Lewis or Browning machine guns), and the most bizarre thing is complete houses, a program which lasted from 1908 to 1940; apparently Montgomery Ward had a similar program, which appears in their (similar) 1922 catalog, which they referred to as Wardway Homes.   The firm would ship you literally all the pieces in a rail car to the vacant lot where your house would be built, and either you or your contractor would build it on the spot (“some assembly required”).  Very useful for farmers, but what’s even more remarkable is that many of the houses in Arlington, Virginia are Sears houses as well.  They’re fairly small by modern standards but have that obvious early twentieth century style to them.   By comparison, the houses built around WWII and the 1950s are brick and very plain and boring – 100% utilitarian with zero style or charm whatsoever.  Finally by the ‘60s and ‘70s we start seeing some actual character again – a home, not just a brick box to live in instead of a cardboard box or a tent.  Anyhow.

As kids, our primary interest in Sears were the officially licensed NFL products, in particular the jerseys and letter jackets.  Oddly, the former would have the actual name of the team on the front over the player number, presumably because the children for whom they were intended might not be sharp enough to recognize the specific team simply by the colors on the jersey.   By now our stuff is way too small and long gone, Minnesota Vikings for me, Pittsburgh Steelers for my brother – both doing particularly well back in the 1970s, with Fran Tarkenton and Terry Bradshaw at the helms of their respective teams; in 1975 the two teams actually played each other in the Super Bowl.  Sadly, unlike the more successful Steelers, the Vikings have 4 Super Bowl appearances all within a ten year period but as yet no victories.  In the late ‘70s Lakeforest Mall opened, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with a Sears there as well.  My recollection is that we ordered the products through the catalog and either picked them up at the local store or they were mailed to our doorstep – along with our Funny Face cups. 

As an adult, my primary interest in Sears was tools.   In early 1994 I lost my job, as my employer could no longer afford to pay me.  With a surplus of free time, I decided to teach myself about cars, something I knew almost nothing about.  I bought a high school auto mechanics text book, read it from cover to cover, and voila – looking under the hood of my 1992 Firebird, I could suddenly identify every item there.  Soon thereafter I started taking classes at NOVA Alexandria, and eventually passed ASE exams.   I changed my own oil, my transmission fluid, my brakes, and was also able to have meaningful conversations with the technicians when I went to get my car serviced for anything I couldn’t handle myself.   That also meant buying tools, and Sears’ Craftsman tools, built to high standards of quality with lifetime warranties, were excellent.  And like their ancient catalogs of the early century, the Craftsman catalog had tons of special tools like micrometers, rare low demand things they didn’t sell in the local stores. 

Driving School.   Before I forget!  In summer 1986 my brother and I learned to drive at the Sears school at Montgomery Mall.  Our classes were in the breakroom over by the auto shop, and our actual driving classes were in downtown Silver Spring.   We can honestly say that Sears (!) taught us how to drive.

Toys R Us.   Of course we can remember this as kids.  Not nearly as old as Sears, this company essentially began in 1957, twelve years before I myself came into business in Maryland as a baby.  The main stores we went to were in Rockville, Maryland, now long gone as well.  There was one on Route 7 at Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, within walking distance of where I live now.   As kids the whole place was a wonderland of toys. 

Whenever we wanted to go someplace my father wasn’t thrilled about taking us, he’d joke, “didn’t you hear?  There was a huge fire, it burned down.”   Typically, the burned down place would be a Toys R Us, of course.  My dad had a warmth and humor which Red Forman couldn’t hope to match.  All my cousins remember “Uncle Eddie” warmly and fondly, as do I.   As yet, my father’s humor notwithstanding, I’m not aware of any toy store actually closing due to fire. 

The other thing was “lights on”.   Later at night we’d pass by a Toys R Us, and I’d ask to go there, seeing as the lights were still on, which meant it must still be open.  My dad explained that this was to deter thieves, and not because Toys R Us was open 24/7.  (“It’s 2 a.m., I want a toy…now!”)

As an adult, Toys R Us was to buy presents for my nephew Ian and nieces Zoe, Beatrice, Shelby and Eleanor, or Intellivision games – when they were still available – and more recently XBOX games.  My last Toys R US purchase was a South Park XBOX game, at half price.

Incidentally, a backwards “R”, as in the Toys R Us logo, is in the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet as “YA”, and means “I” (first person singular). 

RIP SEARS and TOYS R US.