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1940s Sears Heating & Plumbing Offering

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HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 637
edited August 2021 in THE MAIN WALL



Sears Heating & Plumbing Offering

This 1940s catalog shows the broad range of products and services Sears had to offer homeowners at the time.

Read the full story here.

Comments

  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 1,967
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    What a great old add.
    Brings me back to when I was a kid and Dad would tell me to go fill the boiler.
    We had a gas fired steam boiler in "Burgundy".
    I was less than ten years old and my Dad had me starting as a boiler tender.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,843
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    What a lot of people don't know is that Sears (and Wards too) did not manufacture these units. Dunkirk made a lot of boilers for both companies. Sears got their bathroom fixtures from Universal-Rundle, and I think Eljer was Wards' supplier.
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
    Erin Holohan Haskell
  • rick in Alaska
    rick in Alaska Member Posts: 1,457
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    I miss Sears.
    Rick
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,544
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    I miss Sears as well.

    Big box and cheap China junk ruined them as well as a lot of the good hardware stores.

    Some of Sears stuff was a little odd but it was usually decent quality.

    Maybe someday we will realize (hopefully before it's too late) that we need to make our own stuff in the USA.

    Maybe it's too late already?

    Intplm.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,544
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    @Steamhead

    The oil burner on Pg 5, is that a "quiet may"?
  • STEVEusaPA
    STEVEusaPA Member Posts: 6,505
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    4 digit phone number..

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,062
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    I always thought that Sears could have been where Amazon is today.

    They had the solid name, good products, warehouses, plenty of stores in good locations that could have been distribution centers.
    Keep a few stores open and get tuned in online.

    They apparently just did not have the right people in place for this to happen.

    Or possibly because they would not sell the cheapest junk made.....more people want to buy this today, complain a little and then throw it away.
    Intplm.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,843
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    EBEBRATT-Ed said:

    @Steamhead

    The oil burner on Pg 5, is that a "quiet may"?

    Looks like a Quiet-Heat.
    STEVEusaPA said:

    4 digit phone number..

    Either a small step-by-step office or they still had operators doing everything.
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,260
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    JUGHNE said:

    I always thought that Sears could have been where Amazon is today.

    They had the solid name, good products, warehouses, plenty of stores in good locations that could have been distribution centers.
    Keep a few stores open and get tuned in online.

    They apparently just did not have the right people in place for this to happen.

    Or possibly because they would not sell the cheapest junk made.....more people want to buy this today, complain a little and then throw it away.

    Yes it boils down to management. Bezos hired people who did the job while Sears had employees who obviously did not care enough about their employer. Another example is how Sears insisted that Prodigy fail when Sears bailed out.
    Intplm.
  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 906
    edited August 2021
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    @STEVEusaPA; A 4 digit phone number? I do remember that we had to say the town we lived in and then a 4 digit number. We also used 2 cans and a string.
  • rick in Alaska
    rick in Alaska Member Posts: 1,457
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    When I first got to Homer, it was small enough that there was only one prefix, so people would just give you the last four numbers. That took a bit of getting used to. And the village across the bay is small enough that they only give the last two numbers. Both areas have grown so much that it is not like that now. Times have changed.
    Oh yeah; Homer still had ten cent pay phones!
    Rick
    Intplm.

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