A past form of merchandising is reviving

It comes as no surprise that "big box" stores like Sears and others in the Bloomingdale area are calling it quits. High operational costs passed on to the consumer are driving customers away. More and more empty stores are becoming relics of a past economy and the lost taxation is passed on to their former customers while "big box" owners can keep them empty for eons to come as a tax write-off.

Sears' fortunes were created on its original mail-order business concept of getting goods to anywhere a train would go. Popular priced build-it-yourself home kits put many an American in their own home. These came numbered and easy to assemble. We have several in Bloomingdale still in use. Such homes that are now unaltered are worth lots of money.

Sears eventually went retail and created many job openings. My late dad got an early one that lasted a lifetime … even through the Great Depression. Those early fortunes in time became the cornerstone of a present home in Bloomingdale.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale