Christmas shopping at Sears 1982

[AutoMechanic]

I’d love to have Sears back. Can’t say I ever went Christmas shopping there though as I’m just too young for that but I went for some tools throughout my life and all the closing sales lol. I wish we still had the option to go there for Christmas cause then a lot more people would get me tools there and I’d get them tools lol. It gets kinda lame having to shop at Walmart for Christmas stuff. Seems everything they put out is the same ole same ole every year. I’d of done anything to have been around in that time period in the video. You don’t see shoppers looking at their cell phones crowding the aisles or anything they are just there to look and get what they need and want and get out. Nowadays it’s hard to navigate a store because people staring at their phones in the middle of the aisle. Christmas is especially bad for that but I still love the holiday. I still have to finish my Christmas list. Nothing will be from Sears though lol.

 

[y_p_w]

I mentioned the Sears store in Oakland, California. That was a really big place and I remember my parents taking me there where it was a big thing each time. And by the 80s they had this spot with several offices for the various Sears owned and affiliated service companies like Allstate Insurance, H&R Block, and Dean Witter. Also there might be an optical shop and a photography studio at some locations. They also had a locksmith with a booth in the parking garage. I'm sure we got key copies made there a few times.

Eventually the store closed and was turned into condos. But then a new store opened in downtown at what used to be the I Magnin department store. Of course that's gone now.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Me too, Sears was my first stop for most everything.

We purchased many,many products from Sears starting in the sixties. Never could understand why a company like Sears could go to s*@#.

 

[y_p_w]

I do remember seeing a question on a game show (the syndicated version of Tic-Tac-Dough) back maybe 1980-1982. It wasn't a question per se, but where the contestant would get the square by naming any of the top 10 companies in the United States - ostensibly from the Fortune 500 list. I think back then the obvious choices would have been the big oil companies (I think Exxon was the largest back then) and GM/Ford. However, this one contestant said Sears. While I don't believe it was terribly big, that was the common perception that it was some huge company on par with the big oil companies.

 

[dishdude]

I'm not young and even I'm too young to remember Sears in it's heyday, we never shopped there as a kid. The only thing I remember buying there was a 24v Craftsman cordless hammer drill that I still have, can't kill the thing. Even used it for years installing Dish Network and DirecTV while I was in college, two other relics from the past.

 

[billt460]

A microwave on sale for $399. There is a parking lot shot at the end. Probably not a single 4WD to be seen and maybe 2 trucks.

When you look back at what microwave ovens and television "sets" cost back then, compared to what's available today, it's unbelievable how much cheaper and better both have become.

You can but a nice microwave today for under $100.00. And TV's are almost a giveaway. 55" for $298.00 or less. My Wal-Mart has a 86" 4K for under $1,000.00.

It seems as though nothing gets cheaper faster than electronic technology.

 

[GMFan]

Every year as a kid I could hardly wait for the Sears Xmas toy catalog to come in the mail. Wore them out looking at all the loot!

Same! I’d circle all the video games and toys I wanted with a marker and purposely leave the catalog on the kitchen table or somewhere Mom or Dad would find it.

 

[R18Civic]

I remember going in the mid 90s. First time I had seen a Playstation console. Brings back memories of simpler times

 

[hrv]

I liked all of the Ted Williams endorsed fishing gear.....

 

[dishdude]

When you look back at what microwave ovens and television "sets" cost back then, compared to what's available today, it's unbelievable how much cheaper and better both have become.

You can but a nice microwave today for under $100.00. And TV's are almost a giveaway. 55" for $298.00 or less. My Wal-Mart has a 86" 4K for under $1,000.00.

It seems as though nothing gets cheaper faster than electronic technology.

Go through that 1982 Sears catalog and add up how much it would cost to purchase all the separate devices needed to duplicate the functions of a smartphone...it's insane.

 

[k1xv]

I remember, in the early 1960s, you could get a surplus World War One era Argentine Mauser military rifle, Model 1898/09, for under $20. And as this was before the Gun Control Act of 1968, there were no ID checks of any kind.

 

[nate379]

Some of those washers are probably still working.

The Kenmore set my folks bought in 86 were until recently. Could about toss a wheelbarrow of bricks in them and they'd laugh an ask for more.

 

[PF52]

Same! I’d circle all the video games and toys I wanted with a marker and purposely leave the catalog on the kitchen table or somewhere Mom or Dad would find it.

If I tried that, they'd intentionally not get me that item. The rule in our house was we could ask for whatever we wanted, but we couldn't open a catalog and pick items from it.

 

[PF52]

I'm not old enough to remember, but wasn't Sears a latecomer to the Visa/Mastercard era? Supposedly they accepted cash, check or Sears card only.... I remember buying a new battery at the Sears auto center and my dad was amazed I was able to buy it with my Visa card.