See what it did for Sears’ future. A but like the PAA Building

Wow, 50 years....I remember watching it go up bit by bit. And saw the finishing touches go on while I attended University of Illinois Chicago campus starting in the fall of 1973. A close friend had a job there in one of the retail shops shortly after opening and we would take trips up to the observation deck on whatever floor it was, I want to say 106 but could be wrong. I know it wasn't all the way to the 110th. As the OP mentioned, it had the title of World's Tallest Building for many years. I think it was the Petronas Towers that took the crown away from the Sears Tower. They didn't hold it for nearly as long before they were surpassed.

I went to the observation deck in 2009 and 2016. I really liked the glass floor so you could look straight down to the street from 100+ floors above, but definitely not recommended for those with a fear of heights.

luckyone wrote:

af773atmsp wrote:

I went to the observation deck in 2009 and 2016. I really liked the glass floor so you could look straight down to the street from 100+ floors above, but definitely not recommended for those with a fear of heights.

An indelible memory for me was watching a guy try to coax his girlfriend out onto that ledge, and she was about to lose her mind in panic. Then he gets down on one knee, pulls out the ring and says something to the effect of “will you come out now?” It took her a solid 15-20 seconds to process what was going on, meanwhile the rest of us watching had been suspecting. Once the hamster got back on the wheel and she figured out what was going on, her answer was “yes if we can get the f*** out of here!”

LMAO, sounds like a keeper. Important in a relationship to be able to declare needs openly.

Sears who?

forever the Sears Tower.

admittedly though, more of a fan of the view from the Hancock.

stlgph wrote:

forever the Sears Tower.

admittedly though, more of a fan of the view from the Hancock.

Same here on both counts

But was the Sears Tower a good idea for Sears? There's hardly anything left of the company.

flyingclrs727 wrote:

But was the Sears Tower a good idea for Sears? There's hardly anything left of the company.

50 years ago they were huge. The face of retail has of course changed dramatically over the years but at the time it made sense to them. I am sure they could not have foreseen the way things developed in that sector decades later.

Sears is an interesting study, they were ahead of the game in many many ways, they did a great job of marketing with the catalog, study the buying habits of people who bought from that catalog, then they killed it. They (with IBM) started a private computer network (Prodigy) but failed to see the internet coming. Built a network of stores second to none, they refused to reinvest in them. They couldn't figure out if they were going to be low cost or higher end, so ended up getting beaten in both areas. It was really just badly run from the mid 80's until Lambert took over and really showed the world how not to run a business.

luckyone wrote:

ER757 wrote:

flyingclrs727 wrote:

But was the Sears Tower a good idea for Sears? There's hardly anything left of the company.

50 years ago they were huge. The face of retail has of course changed dramatically over the years but at the time it made sense to them. I am sure they could not have foreseen the way things developed in that sector decades later.

That is mostly due to Sears' inability to adjust to said market and doing what a lot of corporations did in the 60s and 70s, expanding into areas that weren't their bread and butter. Like a lot of brick and mortar retailers, they didn't foresee online retailing. I don't think that had much to do with the Sears Tower. They were out of that building by 1995 (a year after Amazon's precursor was established). If they had adapted better to online retailing, they wouldn't have had a problem filling the Sears Tower, should they have chosen to do so.

Their "house brands" were very recognizable and of good quality. Craftsman tools had lifetime guarantees, if they ever failed, Sears replaced them no questions asked. The Kenmore appliance line lives on to this day as does Die Hard car batteries. Allstate insurance is still a major player, not sure about Coldwell Banker realty, I don't follow the real estate game at all. There is no way they'd have seen online retailing coming back when Sears Tower was conceived and built, almost no one could have. Although, one could argue that the Sears catalog was an early, non-tech version and as noted, they steered away from it for whatever reason.

ER757 wrote:

flyingclrs727 wrote:

But was the Sears Tower a good idea for Sears? There's hardly anything left of the company.

50 years ago they were huge. The face of retail has of course changed dramatically over the years but at the time it made sense to them. I am sure they could not have foreseen the way things developed in that sector decades later.

When you think about it, Sears was the Amazon of it's day. You could order just about anything from the Sears catalog. Heck, you could order a house from it. I remember as a kid picking toys out of it so my grandparents could order it for Xmas.

LMP737 wrote:

ER757 wrote:

flyingclrs727 wrote:

But was the Sears Tower a good idea for Sears? There's hardly anything left of the company.

50 years ago they were huge. The face of retail has of course changed dramatically over the years but at the time it made sense to them. I am sure they could not have foreseen the way things developed in that sector decades later.

When you think about it, Sears was the Amazon of it's day. You could order just about anything from the Sears catalog. Heck, you could order a house from it. I remember as a kid picking toys out of it so my grandparents could order it for Xmas.

Sears got rid of its catalog division in 1993. Amazon started as an online book seller in 1994. Sears could have been what Amazon became sooner.

Did an architecture tour in Chicago yesterday. Our tourguide pointed towards that dark tall building and said: it is spelled as W.I.L.L.I.S., it is prononced as SEARS Tower!