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Richard W. Sears Richard Warren Sears, was a train station agent in Minnesota but in 1886 he did something that changed the world. One day, a shipment of watches arrived at the depot where Sears was working and the jeweller, for which they were intended, refused to accept them. They sat on the loading dock of station going nowhere until the enterprising Sears telegraphed his fellow agents at otheer depots and offered the watches to them at very good prices. He managed to sell all the watches and in no time at all. Thus becoming the world's first long-distance direct marketer. Within a year, Sears quit the railroad business and started R.W. Sears watch company in Minneapolis. He eventually moved to Chicago and hired a watchmaker named Alvah C. Roebuck. In 1892, Sears changed the company name to "Sears, Roebuck and Co." and begun to sell products other than watches via mail order. Richard Sears produced a catalog himself and very quickly grew in size. He offered great prices and a "send no oney" policy. By 1894 the catalog had grown to five hundred pages of direct response copy supported by detailed and compelling graphics. Sears Roebuck is still going today.
© Peter Woodhead 2003 Tel: +44.8450534901 (24 hours)
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