Sears kit homes weathered decades, now quite valuable Mail-order homes historic, altered, but still standing .
Can you still buy a sears kit home?
Sears even sold houses (or house kits, more accurately) for years in the catalog — up to 75,000 of them, according to Sears itself. So Amazon is not the first mail-order retailer where you can have a whole home shipped to you.
Can sears be saved?
Management has been struggling to find a solution to stem the losses and save the chain before it inevitably sinks into bankruptcy. Can Sears be saved ? Yes, it can.
How many kit homes did Sears sell?
Sears, in the kit house business for just over 30 years, sold 70-75,000 according to the Sears Archives. The total number of kit homes sold will likely never be known as so many of these houses, originally built in close-in “suburban” neighborhoods in their day, have been torn down and replaced as cities and towns expanded.
One of the next things we wanted the answer to was: when did sears stop selling kit homes?
Sears sold building products before 1900, and sold kit homes from 1908 to 1940 . From 1940 to 1950 or 1951 Sears sold Homart pre-fabricated home kits in a more limited distribution.
Yet another query we ran across in our research was “How many Sears Catalog Homes did Sears sell?”.
Sears Catalog Homes: Details are at SEARS KIT HOUSES. Sears Roebuck is estimated to have sold 100,000 catalog homes in the U. Between 1908 and 1940, with probably the heaviest individual sales years before 1929.
A highly modified Sunbeam model Sears Modern (we think) this house also had a tasteful, adult hip renovation that looks like a Southern Home spread brought to life. Over in Sears & Roebuck’s home state of Illinois, we found this gorgeous Crescent model Sears catalog home up for sale at a tantalizing price .
Do you know what a Sears kit home is?
If you think houses built from kits are shoddy, cheap and obvious — think again. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears sold about 70,000 kit homes in 48 states through their mail-order Modern Homes program, with 370 designs that you might not readily recognize as a kit . Sears kit homes were shipped via boxcar and came with a 75-page instruction book.
Instead of hiring an architect and an army of carpenters, prospective homeowners could now simply place an order and get plans and building materials delivered right to their property. And with this stroke of genius, the Sears & Roebuck Kit Homes were born .
While we were reading we ran into the inquiry “Is there such a thing as a kit house?”.
It should be noted that many of the kit home manufacturers sold plans and materials, so while not a “kit house” per se, you could still have a Sears or Wards plan built with their materials, or their plan built with local materials. Or you might have a unique kit home .
Do they still make homes at Sears?
In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes . Some builders and companies purchased homes directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes or homes for customers or employees. Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940.
Both sub-brands have a reputation for durability and dependability. Other than Home Depot (which has suffered through foolish management of its own), Sears is the unique among its competitors in projecting a strongly male image.
This of course begs the inquiry “How can Sears become relevant again?”
Well, focus on Men – This is the best option for Sears to become relevant. Stop selling women’s clothing and expand the sections of the store that might get men to make impulse purchases (like small tools & electronics). Remember Garanimals – This 1972 match-the-animal children’s brand was intended to help kids figure out how to put together outfits.
What’s happened to Sears’sales?
As Miguel Bustillo and Ann Zimmerman report for The Wall Street Journal, investor and Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert has a dismal track record with the venerable brand: Sales at stores open at least 12 months have slid every year since the company was created by the well-known hedge-fund investor in 2005.
Sears is still a department store , a one-stop shop for everything from clothing (it owns Lands End) to tools. It appeals most strongly to men. As Lowe’s and Best Buy have illustrated, customer service counts when selling home improvement or big-box items.