Sears: The Cadillac Store Of The South

[urbanlibertarian]

Amen on the candy and nut counter.  I also remember going there in august each year to buy school clothes and being fascinated by the vacuum cleaner set up to blow and suspending a beach ball in mid air.

[Ocklawaha]

I remember that vaccuum cleaner display and standing in front of it trying to "see" the air currents that held that ball in the air. That might have been my earliest consideration that air has volume and weight and fairly constant motion.

As for the candy and nut counter, as I recall it was an island near one of the entries to the store. You'd walk in and ZAP that sweet scent would attack your senses and the visual's became irresistable.  The concept was brilliant because today's big box stores smell like a combination of stale popcorn, body odor and cheap floor cleaner. Makes me miss Colombia where the big box stores and even the metro platforms are buffed and shined to perfection.


OCKLAWAHA

[hansbronson]

I was born and raised here in Jacksonville and am now 54 years old. I have seen alot of changes to this city since I was a child, some good and some not so good. I remember going to Friendship Fountain back in the 60s at night and watching the lights change different colors every few minutes. I don't know how many of you remember the old tv tower that channel 4 use to have but every Christmas they would televise the lighting of the Christmas lights on the tower and they would stay lit until the first of the new year. You could see the lights from miles around. As a teenager I use to go to the downtown Sears building and go to the basement where the tools use to be. Recently I came across a website where people who use to live here and people who still live here talk about the old days and the places they use to go to that are no longer around. I'll post the website and hopefully you can log onto it and maybe you can give your thoughts about what it use to be like back in the good old days:http://www.city-data.com/forum/jacksonville/148758-gone-but-not-forgotten-jacksonville.html

[danno]

I forgot about the vaccum cleaner and beach ball.  Thats a hoot.

[duvaldude08]

I was just thinking. Sears has been at Regency for 30 years. That is insane!

[Ocklawaha]

I was just thinking. Sears has been at Regency for 30 years. That is insane!

Yeah but they no long have any NUTS!

I asked a manager what they did with Roebuck and he just looked at me like WTF? I told him not to worry that I had it on good information that the old boy was tied up in a basement of one of the stores in Chicago.

OCKLAWAHA

[duvaldude08]

I was just thinking. Sears has been at Regency for 30 years. That is insane!

Yeah but they no long have any NUTS!

I asked a manager what they did with Roebuck and he just looked at me like WTF? I told him not to worry that I had it on good information that the old boy was tied up in a basement of one of the stores in Chicago.

OCKLAWAHA

Ha!   

[MajorCordite]

In 1969 I was 16 years old and had a job with Colonial Stores at Regency Square. (brand new grocery store)  I had purchased a new 1969 Datsun station wagon from Obie's Datsun on Atlantic Blvd with $500.00 down.   All they required was a quick signature from my mom.  I rode my bicycle to the dealership and drove the car home.  The next day I drove downtown to Sears and applied for a credit card. The manager took me in his business office and interviewed me.  I told him I had a job and a car and I  did extra work on the weekends to earn additional money.   He asked me why I wanted a credit card.  I told him I wanted a 3hp outboard motor for my 10 foot john boat.  He asked me to make a downpayment and to make 3 additional payments while the motor was on hold and he would issue me a credit card in 3 months.   I went back in 3 months and the manager introduced me to a guy in accounting and they gave me my card.  Here I was barely 17 had a car, a boat, and job to boot.   I'll never forget the professionalism and the genuine interest the manager from Sears showed me back then.  I t was a great store but a different time than today. 

[akbTampa]

Great post!  I recently did some research on an old Sears store in Tampa (probably the most in-tact Sears building from the mid-century expansion era) http://tampaniatampa.blogspot.com/2010/06/sears-surprise.html .  Sears underwent a major building and expansion campaign throughout Florida in the late 50s and early 60s.  They hired the prominent architectural firm of Weed, Johnson Associates, begun by the father of Florida Modernism, Robert Law Weed.  Thanks for posting pictures of the old store.