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Does anyone know if any of the blueprints/schematics for old Sears kit homes are available online anywhere?
EDIT: OK lots of people have responded with the catalogs themselves, which are awesome. But I am still looking for BLUEPRINTS. It seems like they were probably mostly destroyed by the company itself at some point in the 80's but this is a long shot, right?
Does anyone know any like history professors in Chicago or anything who would have some weird architectural archives or whatever
All I'm saying is America had fewer problems with housing when you could order an entire house from the Sears catalog for a reasonable price and assemble it yourself
Like obviously that was not the only thing, but it didn't hurt either
Holy dicks these things were cheap when they were new.
Like adjusted for inflation, we're talking like $6K for an entire 1 bedroom house. An extra $300 got you all the kitchen cabinets you needed.
Shed kits smaller than this cost more than that now...
"There is more pleasure and satisfaction in owning a small home than living in a large rented one." I'm noticing none of these ads talk about the future value of the home. This wasn't about speculation, this was just about getting away from landlords.
They were basically using increased automation from then-new sawmill tech and economies of scale, plus a lack of distributor/dealer/contractor incentives to pass the savings along to the consumers. This was actually pretty awesome.
$8,700 in 2024 dollars for a four bedroom house. This is emotionally difficult for me to read
"You pay for no waste lumber" because they owned the sawmills and just pulped all the waste to make wallpaper and then sold that too omfg this is so much smarter than how our economy works today
Also thinking about how the fact that they had one clear price for all customers with no commissions or discounts meant they were probably more accessible to racially marginalized people
Holy crap they had a return policy lmao. "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back"
How do you even return a kit home after you've built it? Amazing.
"Every merchant who sells on credit must add extra profit to all prices to make up for his credit losses" Who wrote this ad copy, Lenin himself? They're literally calling out their competitors for [checks notes] engaging in capitalism 
Wish these were a little higher res but I like the floorplans a lot. Cozy but functional. Not too many people even make houses this size in America anymore (also, check out the "sewing room" on the 2nd floor!). This is a bit of an exaggeration but it feels like all new construction is giant, sprawling McMansions, terrible townhouses/condos/"efficiency microapartments," and tiny homes on utility trailers.
omg. $362,809.90 today. Nowadays a new elementary school could cost 10x that. Sadly I can't find any evidence any of these were ever actually built but it's an awesome idea.
Apparently Sears, despite going bankrupt in the USA, is doing great in Mexico under separate ownership, selling mostly products made in Mexico.
I guess a big part of why Sears was successful historically, too, was they printed their order forms in a bunch of different languages so that immigrants would feel more comfortable buying stuff from them. People today would probably call this DEI and lose their minds
Holy shit back in the day Sears was known for straight up [firing] their retail staff for lying to customers or upselling them something they didn't need.
Can you imagine? This company existed in like, a completely different country.
Companies don't fire people for ripping off customers anymore. Because of unwoke
Wow by the 1950's rank-and-file employees owned 25% of Sears. No wonder the ruling class had to tank it
These profit-sharing schemes and pension benefits are WILD. For retail workers and low-level office bureaucrats? Modern America would never.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears,_Roebuck_and_Company_Complex#/media/File:Photographic_copy_of_photograph_(circa_1950,_original_print_in_Archives,_Public_Affairs_Department,_Sears_Merchandise_Group,_Hoffman_Estates,_Illinois),_Photographer_unknown._HABS_ILL,16-CHIG,110-14.tif okay maybe this is like, no big deal to people from Chicago but I was kinda floored by this. This was Sears’ complex at its height in the 1950’s. 40 acres, 25,000+ employees. It had its own power plant, 200,000 gal water tower, railroad spur, fire station, hospital, gym, cafeterias, they even had their own armed Sears police force. SEARS PIGS.
The scale of this company was wild
I have now ordered not one, but two books about the history of Sears, one by a manager discussing what went right, and one by a rank & file worker discussing what went wrong. Pretty hyped
Shitposting about Sears & Roebuck Co.: apparently guaranteed to raise your follower count
Mexico also has original recipe 4Loko (nevar 4get)
Truly, it is the actual land of the free
The thing is too is $8,700 for a four bedroom house was price competitive to other houses, but really you were only saving like 1/4th of the cost. Which means back then a regular, newly-built four bedroom house was like $10,000-20,000 in 2024 dollars.
@sidereal reminds me of this thing I saw last year
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/i-bought-a-sears-kit-home-37094787#google_vignette
It reminds me of how economized my parents-in-law house is way out on the coast in Bay Center - house built in the late 1800s, with kitchen, 2 bedrooms, living room and upstairs sewing room to boot.
Living in a 700 sqft apartment for over a decade now it feels like the right size for a house - not too big but plenty of room for hobbying and loafing.
@sidereal that looks very much like the elementary school I attended which was built in the same time period. Unfortunately, it no longer stands as it was demolished and a new school built across the street
@sidereal it's not exactly the same, and who knows how much it cost to build at the time, but this old school looks a little like it and is still standing in Kirksville, MO.
Oh interesting! It almost seemed like it just disappeared off the planet, at the time.
@sidereal this thread gave me so many different emotions but I love this ending for you so much
@sidereal
Really appreciating this tangent you seem to be on.