Community Chat

[happilyretiredgirl]

I bought a navy blue leather sofa from Montgomery Wards, it was the best sofa and was so comfortable. The sofa served us for over 25 years and when I finally decided to replace, the structure of the sofa was still good, we wore the leather down and just did not look good but no holes or rips anywhere on the leather. I even checked on having it reupholstered but the cost was as much as replacing it. My husband still talks about that sofa and wish we still had it.

[happilyretiredgirl]

---

@Kachina624 wrote:

@LTT1.  Any idea what the date is on that ad?  It's always fun to see the prices we used to pay.

---

        @Kachina624  If you look at the top right of the ad it looks like August 27, 1908....but I'm not sure of the year but that's what it looks like to my old eyes, maybe you can see better.  I am interested in dates as well.😊

[OKPrincess]

I remember cutting out paper dolls from the Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs 😘 

[AuntG]

Wish I had kept their Christmas catalogs. I had hours of fun paging through all three (Wards, Sears, Penneys).

[gardenman]

The Christmas catalogs would always come out right around the start of the new school year. I hated going to school, but loved coming home to find the Christmas catalog had arrived.

I suspect there are old Sears executives who still wake up in a cold sweat at night knowing they could have been what Amazon is now. Sears sold everything imaginable through their catalogs, much as Amazon sells everything now. They had distribution centers all over the country. Then they decided they needed to be more like K-Mart, with limited items at good prices. So convinced were they that this was the right model, they eventually ended up buying K-Mart. 

Sears closed and sold off their distribution centers. They got out of the catalog business just as the Internet was starting to grow to replace catalogs. They became "just another store" instead of "the store." And now Amazon is what they could have been. They had it all already in place, they just failed to recognize the future of the Internet. They thought the future of retail was in brick-and-mortar stores with a limited range of products like a K-Mart. They were wrong. In a big way, that likely still gives some of their former executives nightmares. "We had it all. The distribution centers. The delivery trucks. The computer systems. The customers. And we threw it all away. What the heck were we thinking?" For over a hundred years they were "the store" selling everything through their catalogs. Then they became just another store and are all but gone now. 

[seaBreeze]

My Montgomery Wards crockpot is still going strong~since 1981~!

[Kalli]

Funny to see this discussion. Until last Saturday I hadn't thought of Montgomery Ward in years. Then I stumbled upon my sons' pics with Santa taken through the 1980s and early 90s. 

My older son's First Christmas pic with Santa was taken when he was 7 months old and his cute little 2 piece velour outfit was purchased through the Montgomery Wards Christmas catalog. Seeing this sent dh and me down memory lane remembering all the stuff we purchased from MW back then. 😊

[Carmie]

I bought a lot of Christmas gifts for my children and stuff all year around for my home from Sears Catalog.  It was impossible for me to lug three small children to the store, especially at Christmas time.  I remember waiting in line to pick up tons of packages.

I never did shop much at Montgomery Wards.  We didn't have one in my area until the 90's. I saw an ad in the paper for a computer and went to get one. It was an IBM and it was huge.  I got the computer, a printer and a computer desk in a package deal.

I bought it on my daughter's 18th birthday and she at first thought it was for her.. It took me a while, but I got it set up and running...DOS back then...no windows and no wireless connections.  Brings back great memories.

[ID2]

It's funny that I see a post about Montgomery Wards. I just received their catalog in the mail about 2 weeks ago! I didn't know they were still in business.

[happilyretiredgirl]

---

@seaBreeze wrote:

My Montgomery Wards crockpot is still going strong~since 1981~!

---

         @seaBreeze  I still have a set of the Revere Copper pots and pans I bought in the early 80s and they still look good. I remember saving my money to buy that set I wanted them so bad. I just can't and will not part with them. I have them stored in the back of a cabinet and I have told my husband not to touch them 😅