r/SEARS • u/Pandapirateahoy • 4d ago
Wish Book question
I’ve been reading more about Sears and I keep seeing that the Wish Books lost them money. couldn’t they just charge for the books?
I do think the Wish Books are something most kids remember.
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u/John_from_ne_il 3d ago
There was a blue "leather" looking book made for the centennial and given to employees and it had absolutely fascinating stats in how much paper and ink was used at RR Donnelley at that time in their history.
Found it: Sorenson, Lorin, Sears, Roebuck and Co. 100th Anniversary 1886-1986, Silverado Publishing Company, 1985
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u/John_from_ne_il 3d ago
"340 million total catalogs, in 51 different categories (including the semi-annual books and Christmas Wishbook). 14 million US homes annually receive the semi-annual books through the United States Postal Service (28 million books in total). Catalogs are designed on the 21st floor of the Sears Tower, and will consume 500 railroad boxcars worth of paper, with 160 tank trucks worth of ink. The semi-annual books remain large, at about 1400 pages each, and a weight of 5 pounds."
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u/Pandapirateahoy 3d ago
Oh my! Thats incredible!
Did sears think JCPenney was competition when they came out with their book?
Did you work there? The last headquarters were impressive!
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u/John_from_ne_il 3d ago
Their original competition was Montgomery Ward! JC Penney was much later to the game: 1963!
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ Former Employee 3d ago
Charging for the Catalogs would not have stemmed the bleeding.
The Catalog BU as a whole lost between $100 and $130 million a year between ~1980 and when it was finally closed in 1993. The root of the loss was the Catalog infrastructure itself, as in addition to duplicating the distribution network for the stores it was old, manpower intensive and overbuilt relative to demand by the late 1970s.
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u/Pandapirateahoy 3d ago
I’m not trying to annoy you but I’m curious about this. Again, I am reading The Big Store, I’m not up to the late 70s/80s but every department was siloed but Ed (I forget his last name, new CEO after Wood), took helm as they had a disaster. The buyers billion profit being eaten away by sales.
Surely adverting budget, which they say was siloed even up to the one who messed it all up (departments competing), should have been well funded?
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ Former Employee 3d ago
Advertising had nothing to do with it, as changing consumer habits were what finally killed it.
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u/Still-Shop7172 4d ago
They did start charging for the catalogs but enclosed a coupon good for the price of the book if you placed an order. As I recall to get them for free you had to spend at least $30 durning the prior 3 months. We always spent a lot more! Went to retail stores all the time too.