Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

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pseudo3d
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Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

One of the things that I found out in researching Sears Bakery Deli Cafe (page here) is that they were operated mostly in Texas by a Houston-based company that ran restaurants. At least in their early days, they were operated by another Houston-based store that sold sandwiches and imported products.

There was also Wolfe Nursery, a company owned by a Pier 1 spinoff called Sunbelt Nurseries that took over the garden centers in their last days (if briefly) in Hosuton. In the 1970s, Vendome, a California-based liquor store operated inside the Canoga Park Sears. I'm sure there were probably other small one-offs locating inside of Sears, but how they were all managed? Was it done on a division-by-division by basis? Were they actual departments where you could just buy everything in one trip or were they basically like small stores where items could only be purchased in that specific department? It's all very fascinating...
BatteryMill
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BatteryMill »

There was the partnership Sears did with Kmart in 2018, and Kroger also had stores inside a number of Sears back in the 1930s.
pseudo3d
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: 24 Nov 2022 23:48 There was the partnership Sears did with Kmart in 2018, and Kroger also had stores inside a number of Sears back in the 1930s.
Well, those are on two sides of the spectrum!

Post-Lampert Sears didn't do much in terms of localized shops. They had an Edwin Watts Golf Shops and of course that mini-Kmart which was basically if I recall some HBA items.

The stuff I'm thinking of was in their better days, the stuff that wasn't as well publicized.
jleyerle
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by jleyerle »

I remember that they had HBA in the stores in St. Louis in the late 70s...for some reason I remember they had strange price tags. It seemed like just another leased department, probably the same jobber as did other leased HBA departments in other discount stores.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: 25 Nov 2022 01:13
BatteryMill wrote: 24 Nov 2022 23:48 There was the partnership Sears did with Kmart in 2018, and Kroger also had stores inside a number of Sears back in the 1930s.
Well, those are on two sides of the spectrum!

Post-Lampert Sears didn't do much in terms of localized shops. They had an Edwin Watts Golf Shops and of course that mini-Kmart which was basically if I recall some HBA items.

The stuff I'm thinking of was in their better days, the stuff that wasn't as well publicized.
They sure are! Kroger's partnership with Sears was also the grocer's first entry into Minnesota, where they attempted once again in the 1960s.
pseudo3d
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: 29 Nov 2022 01:04
pseudo3d wrote: 25 Nov 2022 01:13
BatteryMill wrote: 24 Nov 2022 23:48 There was the partnership Sears did with Kmart in 2018, and Kroger also had stores inside a number of Sears back in the 1930s.
Well, those are on two sides of the spectrum!

Post-Lampert Sears didn't do much in terms of localized shops. They had an Edwin Watts Golf Shops and of course that mini-Kmart which was basically if I recall some HBA items.

The stuff I'm thinking of was in their better days, the stuff that wasn't as well publicized.
They sure are! Kroger's partnership with Sears was also the grocer's first entry into Minnesota, where they attempted once again in the 1960s.
There's an article in the New York Times that talks about the Kroger/Sears collaboration. I do know that for many years, Hillman's Pure Foods operated in some Chicagoland-area Sears. In 2017 I made a thread on it, but alas, no replies.

One common thread between the garden center and the coffee shop is that they were operated by third parties in departments that were going away anyway...so I wonder if that's how some of the other departments ended. In some cases, those departments were operated by Sears themselves...I know they had "HomeLife" departments in the 1990s when Sears had the "Sears HomeLife" (not to be confused with Sears Home & Life) stores.

In regards to the HBA department, the Seminary South Sears in Texas (the first Homart mall) had a pharmacy as part of a trial run by the company...and of course, liquor wasn't a common department in Sears either.

When the full-line Sears at Ala Moana Center (not the Sears Appliances and Mattresses store that closed a few months ago, and existed since 2017) closed in early 2012, it had upwards of 20 concessionaire stores and restaurants but I'm not sure if they were actually operating any departments....and I would think that probably the reason the localized leased departments didn't exist by the Lampert era is that were too consolidated, whatever local offices that had that authority disappeared, and Sears wasn't interested in pursuing partnerships like that, even localized ones...even as major vendors stopped dealing with Sears directly.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: 29 Nov 2022 19:52
There's an article in the New York Times that talks about the Kroger/Sears collaboration. I do know that for many years, Hillman's Pure Foods operated in some Chicagoland-area Sears. In 2017 I made a thread on it, but alas, no replies.

One common thread between the garden center and the coffee shop is that they were operated by third parties in departments that were going away anyway...so I wonder if that's how some of the other departments ended. In some cases, those departments were operated by Sears themselves...I know they had "HomeLife" departments in the 1990s when Sears had the "Sears HomeLife" (not to be confused with Sears Home & Life) stores.

In regards to the HBA department, the Seminary South Sears in Texas (the first Homart mall) had a pharmacy as part of a trial run by the company...and of course, liquor wasn't a common department in Sears either.

When the full-line Sears at Ala Moana Center (not the Sears Appliances and Mattresses store that closed a few months ago, and existed since 2017) closed in early 2012, it had upwards of 20 concessionaire stores and restaurants but I'm not sure if they were actually operating any departments....and I would think that probably the reason the localized leased departments didn't exist by the Lampert era is that were too consolidated, whatever local offices that had that authority disappeared, and Sears wasn't interested in pursuing partnerships like that, even localized ones...even as major vendors stopped dealing with Sears directly.
I would certainly like to see the Kroger/Sears NYT article then.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: 30 Nov 2022 23:16
pseudo3d wrote: 29 Nov 2022 19:52
There's an article in the New York Times that talks about the Kroger/Sears collaboration. I do know that for many years, Hillman's Pure Foods operated in some Chicagoland-area Sears. In 2017 I made a thread on it, but alas, no replies.

One common thread between the garden center and the coffee shop is that they were operated by third parties in departments that were going away anyway...so I wonder if that's how some of the other departments ended. In some cases, those departments were operated by Sears themselves...I know they had "HomeLife" departments in the 1990s when Sears had the "Sears HomeLife" (not to be confused with Sears Home & Life) stores.

In regards to the HBA department, the Seminary South Sears in Texas (the first Homart mall) had a pharmacy as part of a trial run by the company...and of course, liquor wasn't a common department in Sears either.

When the full-line Sears at Ala Moana Center (not the Sears Appliances and Mattresses store that closed a few months ago, and existed since 2017) closed in early 2012, it had upwards of 20 concessionaire stores and restaurants but I'm not sure if they were actually operating any departments....and I would think that probably the reason the localized leased departments didn't exist by the Lampert era is that were too consolidated, whatever local offices that had that authority disappeared, and Sears wasn't interested in pursuing partnerships like that, even localized ones...even as major vendors stopped dealing with Sears directly.
I would certainly like to see the Kroger/Sears NYT article then.
Unfortunately you need a subscription to the "Times Machine"...but maybe someone was able to log on somehow and attach a copy of the article for fair use purposes.
2022-11-30 23_03_41-TimesMachine_ August 24, 1930 - NYTimes.com - Brave.png
BatteryMill
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: 01 Dec 2022 01:05 Unfortunately you need a subscription to the "Times Machine"...but maybe someone was able to log on somehow and attach a copy of the article for fair use purposes.

2022-11-30 23_03_41-TimesMachine_ August 24, 1930 - NYTimes.com - Brave.png
Thank you. I do wonder if the previous grocery departments were generic. We do have Sears lists now so we could know which were home to a Kroger store. Nice to see they got the deal done not long after the first physical department stores were in operation.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by jleyerle »

I remember poking through the Ala Moana store in the early 2010s during a trip, and being impressed that they sold ukeleles (a rack or two of them--well past the time I'd have thought Chicago had any buyers dealing with stringed instruments). Wonder if the local instrument vendor was one of those concessionaires.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by retail_person_247 »

K B Toys used to have stores inside of Sears
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pseudo3d
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

jleyerle wrote: 03 Dec 2022 17:30 I remember poking through the Ala Moana store in the early 2010s during a trip, and being impressed that they sold ukeleles (a rack or two of them--well past the time I'd have thought Chicago had any buyers dealing with stringed instruments). Wonder if the local instrument vendor was one of those concessionaires.
The whole chain was more locally merchandised at one point in time, though I'm not sure what the deal in Hawaii was (the store closed in the early 2010s but was one of the nicer Sears stores, even featuring a Starbucks inside).

Between the gourmet food shops and other stuff mentioned on newspapers and other sources, I'm sure there's a whole lot more I'm missing, even if they aren't big names.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BillyGr »

pseudo3d wrote: 20 Dec 2023 02:50
jleyerle wrote: 03 Dec 2022 17:30 I remember poking through the Ala Moana store in the early 2010s during a trip, and being impressed that they sold ukeleles (a rack or two of them--well past the time I'd have thought Chicago had any buyers dealing with stringed instruments). Wonder if the local instrument vendor was one of those concessionaires.
The whole chain was more locally merchandised at one point in time, though I'm not sure what the deal in Hawaii was (the store closed in the early 2010s but was one of the nicer Sears stores, even featuring a Starbucks inside).

Between the gourmet food shops and other stuff mentioned on newspapers and other sources, I'm sure there's a whole lot more I'm missing, even if they aren't big names.
Definitely was the case at one point, in that much of the decision of what to carry, pricing and such was done well beyond any central authority.
Some by the groups and territories, but quite a bit by the individual managers themselves.
Even to the point of being overdone (like reading of where stores were running ads to actually compete against another Sears store in a nearby area).
Would have expected that was less likely by the time mentioned here, but perhaps things reverted to that as the chain started to get smaller, particularly with a store like this being in a quite isolated area far from any oversight in the mainland.
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by pseudo3d »

I don't know what the deal with this Sears having a "steak & seafood spectacular" thanks a group I'm in. I was intrigued and looked up to see if they had a leased meats department. No dice, but they did have a health food department run by Vitality Unlimited, with over 120 leased department in Sears (and five in Montgomery Ward).
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Re: Sears store-within-a-stores over the years

Post by BillyGr »

pseudo3d wrote: 18 Jan 2024 20:41 I don't know what the deal with this Sears having a "steak & seafood spectacular" thanks a group I'm in. I was intrigued and looked up to see if they had a leased meats department. No dice, but they did have a health food department run by Vitality Unlimited, with over 120 leased department in Sears (and five in Montgomery Ward).
That sounds like an outside group that set something up with them to be there for those days. Not necessarily Schwan's, but some type of company similar to that that sold items in bulk - maybe even through one of the major companies that usually distribute to restaurants.

That time falls at the end of the period where things still had some more control on a local basis, possibly even something an individual store manager arranged to try and boost sales at his store, by getting people to come for the food deals and hopefully buy other items while they were there (and then maybe see that it was a good place to shop and return).
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