Hello, everybody, and Happy New Year!

Well, we begin the new year with some unbelievable news that none of us wanted to hear, but just might become a reality:  According to recent lackluster sales at both these stores, it looks as if Sears and Kmart just might go the way of Montgomery Wards and Woolworth.  That's right.  Sears and Kmart, which is owned by Sears, are going to shutter a combined 120 stores across the nation, which means more lost jobs in this country, which means, more of a strain on an already weakened national economy.  And, according to some, this all could signalize the beginning of the end of what was once both two of the most profitable department and retail stores, respectively, in the United States.

Once the nation's biggest and most popular department store, Sears began in 1886, when Richard Sears, a watch salesman, teamed up with partner Alvah Roebuck, creating Sears, Roebuck, and Co., Sears' original name and a name Sears went by for many, many years.  They started selling merchandize through the now famous and fabled Sears, Roebuck, and Co. catalog, which many people all over the country knew as "The Big Book," because of its immense size that resembled a telephone book. (Before the Scott brothers invented bathroom tissue, the "Big Book" was known for something else as well, as many people took it into the privy room, and not just to read it, either.)  Around the 1920's, Sears, Roebuck opened their first department store, which, like its catalog, sold everything from furniture to hardware supplies.  However, when specialty stores such as Home Depot and Living Spaces started cropping up, this was what signaled the beginning of the end of major department stores like Sears, because people no longer had one stop place that they had to go to buy everything they needed, which is sad, because I really enjoyed going to the Sears we have here in the Baldwin Hills mall.  I hope Sears, and Kmart, stick around for a very long time.

Well, that's all the time we have for this week.  Until next time, be well, stay well, and remember to help the disaster survivors!

Sincerely,




Marley Sue