Before Fashion Square Mall, Sears was located on West Main, built in 1957. In my hometown of Lewisburg, WV, we had a Sears Catalog Store, mostly where customers picked up their orders, but this Sears was something else.
When Nancy and I married, the only thing I owned was a stereo and she had a single bed. When we moved into our first house on Commonwealth Drive in Berkley, we had to start from scratch. We scanned the want ads and bought every piece of used furniture we could find, then went to Sears on West Main and opened a charge account.
Back then, if you could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, Sears would give you a line of credit. We used ours to buy a washer, a dryer, and a freezer – for $300 total. We had each of those old Kenmore appliances for over 25 years. They may still be working for all I know. Sears made good stuff; I know that. I bought Craftsman tools that I still have, and their sports department – with Ted Williams brands – was the best quality.
We bought clothes at Sears, we bought camping equipment, we bought appliances and gifts. We bought so much, that we ran a Sears credit tab for 40 years before we could finally pay it off. Sears closed the old store around 1979 and moved to Fashion Square Mall. That old location will soon become a Home Depot as Sears is no more.
But how I would love to return to the old Sears store on West Main, buy a nice set of tools and just say, “Charge it.”
