Sears retail stores, like this one in El Paso, Texas, were part of a large chain of stores Sears built throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
by Julius Rosenwald. Sears opened its first retail store in 1925 in the company’s headquarters complex on the west side of Chicago, and by the time Kittle died in 1928, the company had twenty-six more retail stores in the United States.
After Kittle’s death, Wood became president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and he wasted no time implementing a program for an even greater expansion into the retail sector. New stores went up every- where, and by most accounts, the company’s development of a large chain of retail stores throughout the 1920s and 1930s is what helped it survive and even thrive during the Great Depression, when so many other businesses were suffering badly or even going out of business altogether. By 1931, Sears’ retail sales had exceeded mail-order sales for the first time, and from this time on, the wisdom of Wood’s drive to expand the company’s retail presence went unchallenged. The com- pany published its first Christmas catalog in 1933, but mail-order sales never regained their position as the company’s top source of revenue. In 1939, Wood was appointed chairman of the board of directors, and that year, Sears’ annual sales reached an astounding $116 million (about $1.9 billion in today’s dollars). In the years that followed, company presidents came and went, but as chairman of the board, Robert Wood provided management continuity and influenced corporate policy as the company continued to grow. By 1948, Sears was doing $2.3 billion in annual sales (about $21.5 billion in today’s dollars) and had 150,000 employees, 532 retail stores, and eleven mail-order plants.
Wood’s drive for retail expansion, however, was far from the only change to occur at Sears during his years as president and chairman of the board. During his time with the company, Wood oversaw the creation of the Allstate Insurance Company, the Employees Group Hospitalization Plan, and the implementation of credit sales.
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E 73
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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