During the early 1960’s when I was a teenager living on the south west side of Chicago, (Marquette Park), one of my big treats was to visit my local Sears Roebuck department store. It’s hard to believe it now some fifty plus years later, that I could live a normal teenage life without a cell phone or a computer. I think the combine income of my parents was just a little over three hundred dollars a week, my dad was a shipping clerk, and my mom was a shoe salesman. I was lucky to get an allowance of ten dollars a week. I did not date much, and what money I had went to my photography hobby.
Where I lived there was the Marquette Bank, the Hi-way Theatre, the Gossage Grill(great cheese burgers), Jack O’Day Shoes where my mom worked, and two blocks away a Sears Roebuck, a great department store that had practically every thing, bicycles, fishing equipment, a camera department, and a clothing department where I would buy that special long sleeve yellow shirt for one of my few dates. I think I paid $3.99 for that shirts. Sears was in essence my Amazon.com, all I had to do is to walk over, usually Friday nights were my favorite.
Recently I went to a Sears, and there were hardly anyone there, the selections were terrible, I was shopping for an electric tooth brush with a built in waterpik. The sales person quoted me a price, and said that they did not have it in stock, but they could UPS it to me. Ok I thought, I needed one for me, and one for my wife, wrong, the smile on my face changed when I saw the twenty dollar shipping charge. Out my cell phone, and I showed the sales person that I could save a lot more money if I make the purchase on amazon.com, she asked her manager about the shipping charge, and there was nothing they could do about it. Looking at my wife, I said I guess I will be making our first purchase on amazon.com.
So on Monday, I went on my computer and ordered my two WaterPik water flosser, with the Sonic Care electric tooth brush. Not only was the shipping was half that of Sears, there was a promotion that if I open up an Amazon credit card account, there would be a discount of close to sixty dollars, I figured it’s worth waiting a week to save that much money.
Close to a week later my Amazon order came, and I was a happy trouper until my electric tooth brush would not retain a charge any more. My wife reminded me that when something is too good of a deal, most of the time it sometimes back fire. Perhaps she was right, and should of just find a store that had it and if something did go wrong, I could take it back, get an exchange or a refund. I was very fortunate, I called WaterPik’s customer service, they very generously told me to keep my defective unit with the accessories, and within five days I would be receiving a brand new unit. My new unit came and I am a happy trouper. This experience saved me a lot of money, I suddenly wish I could have the best of the two worlds.
With the rumors that my childhood store, Sears might be resting on its last set of legs, Craftsman, and Kenmore, might not be able to keep it going. Most of my appliances are Kenmore, and you cannot not beat Sears warranty service. I know I am asking the “Impossible”, could Amazon.com buy Sears, and many other companies that we use to see at our local Malls? “The Amazon Mall”, the cheapest prices, quickest delivery, and a place we can relive our teenage years?