This gift was as magical as many of the costly gifts that we received during the holidays. It came in the mail and everyone called it the “wish book.” It was published by Sears, Roebuck & Co. or Sears ...

The first Sears Christmas Book, in 1933, was a modest 87 pages. It offered fruitcakes and Mickey Mouse watches and live canaries. By 1968, the catalog had ballooned to 608 pages, and sold quilted r… ...

The Sears Wish Book Christmas catalog debuted in 1933. In its first few years, the catalogs were pretty short, usually with under 100 pages. ... In 1968, the book was over 600 pages.

For so many people who grew up before the internet, the Sears catalog WAS the internet. Ad Feedback. Business. Markets ... That was a lot of money for an 11-year-old in 1968.

It would be hard to imagine a company as much a part of the American scene as Sears Roebuck & Company. At age 100 it truly has been a part of the cultural history of the nation. To once isolat… ...

But sitting down with a several-pound Sears & Roebuck catalog was a special experience of surprises and wonder at every turn of the page. Tim Krohn can be contacted at tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com ...

Women's hats are pictured in a 1907 Sears Roebuck catalog from the shelves of the Chicago Public Library on Aug. 26, 1948. Hats of 1907, as seen here, were huge and low priced.

When my new shoes were ordered, I “helped” look at catalog pictures, and the shoes arrived in the mailbox. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. So, when my parents announced I ...

Sears wasn’t setting out to be the anti-racist catalog. It was setting out to replace Montgomery Ward [a mail-order retailer founded in 1872 that was Sears’s primary competitor].