The ‘wish book’

It promised weekly delivery of 5,000 garments. At the time, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the largest U.S. retailer and a cultural icon. Started as a watch mail-order company, Sears, Roebuck delivered an amazing array of products across the country. Customers relied on its catalog—coined the “wish book”—for goods ranging from clothing to sporting goods, encyclopedias to sewing machines, dolls to bicycles, and even whole houses—plans, materials, even heating and plumbing materials. Sears, Roebuck also sold an airplane—the ERCO Ercoupe—in 1945 and ’46, before the “airplane anyone could fly” went out of production. Sears, after dropping Roebuck, went into bankruptcy in 2018, and in 2025, only five brick-and-mortar stores remained. The catalog was discontinued in 1993.

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