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The Decline of Montgomery Ward...What Happened?
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2024
- Montgomery Ward was once one of the largest retailers in the United States. This video highlights some of their biggest mistakes over the years that ultimately lead to multiple bankruptcies and the closing of all their stores.
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Company Declines:
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Intro Made By - / @jombo1
In the late 1940s, I remember going to a Wards store in San Rafael, CA. There were no cash registers on the sales floor. You, my grandparents actually, gave the clerk the money, the clerk put the money and a sales slip into a tubular thing about 2” in diameter. Vacuum sucked the money holding thing upstairs where change was made and put back into the little holder, along with a receipt. Suddenly it dropped onto the counter, and you were given your change and receipt. It was so cool to see. I remember it vividly over 70 years ago.
I remember that system at a variety store in Ontario Cal. in the late 50s and early 60s. I think it was the F. W. Woolworth's store. In the same era the JC Pennys just half a block down the street still had a soda fountain where you could buy lunch. But Pennys had cash registers at the front of the store by that time.
I don't recall the store as I was around 4 years old, but I remember that system in place for a store in Portland, OR in the early 70's. Some older stores of local chains in the downtown area would still have those tubes visible throughout the 70's even though the tubes were no longer in use.
I remember that also.
@@MdlAgedHeadbanger Home Depot has that system today, but seldom use it.
There used to be a Montgomery Wards in Tampa at Dale Mabry Highway and I-275, but the store was demolished.
Wards was a key anchor store in smaller cities. They carried the weirdest selection of things and I remember getting my favorite ski jacket there and if you wanted to buy a new bedspread you had to pick one out of the catalog and wait for it to come in. Ours even had a pretty big hair salon in the back. Weird how fast it went from a big part of family life to just gone. Thanks for 200 episodes, my friend!
I think the one in our city even had a cafeteria or restaurant in there somewhere. They had a large electronics selection and my parents bought me my own little TV from there - Admiral brand, which I think may have only been sold by them. I remember going there several times as a kid, but they closed when I was about 10 or 11.
When I was really young I would go with my grandma to Montgomery Ward for her to get her hair done at their salon. All the old ladies in there getting perms and everything else. Now that is a memory I can still smell to this day!
@@JeffWatchesCZcams OMG, my mother would go to get those. It is a VERY memorable smell indeed.
Once upon a time.Department Stores had Hair salons and restaurants.
It's funny you mention that--They were in a lot of malls in the SF Bay Area, but I don't think they were ever in the BIG malls, just the smaller malls. I always took their reputation below Sears and not as good as Macy's. (Remember when Macy's was really nice? Not anymore...)
Talking about Wards beings back memories of another obscure retailer you should cover. I still remember getting my first boombox, a Sanyo, and watching it come down the conveyor belt at....Service Merchandise. Anyone else remember that place?
In 1984 I smoked some weed in their high end stereo room!!
Sure. Service Merchandise, GEX, Circuit City, FX, Best Products, Comp USA, Toys R Us, Builder's Square , Blockbuster, and the trifecta of mail order - Sears, Wards, and now Penny may fall. I remember them all. All gone now. :-(
@@craigjensen6853 A few years before they went out of business, they dropped the conveyor belt and the "catalog showroom" concept. I always hated waiting around for merchandise after waiting in the checkout line to pay for it.
I remember the name and can vaguely recall the store but I don't think we had too many of them in St Louis . Their store and something called Best were very similar.
In Settle we had Jafco Co. catalog store.. same idea..Best bought Jafco in 1982 by 1997 they were all gone...
I worked at MW in the 70's in Mpls when they were known for their great training in sales and management. They were also known for the quality of their merchandise, both hard and soft goods. Then Mobil came in, bought them out. They knew nothing about retail and MW, instead of getting a shot in the arm, got stripped, and dumped. Lots of managers and sales people saw the writing on the wall and left for greener pastures. Miss my old coworkers from the Blaine/Northtown store.
The 70s was truly the last hurrah decade for MW. As a kid during the 80s, I remember them advertising less and less and being mostly an alternative to Sears.
Two words that always equate to death on this channel: "leveraged buyout".
Always wondered if banks that lend money actually made or lost money on these leveraged buyouts. Maybe enough worked out at high interest rates that we don’t hear about that they did ok.
Yeah, I immediately thought of what killed Toys R Us, which I learned about from this channel.
"Vulture Capitalism" needs to become the official term for this kind of buyout. 'Vampire Capitalism' works too, but venture capitalist firms don't stop at sucking out the blood, they pick off every bit of meat and then smash the bones to get at the marrow.
I wouldn't wish one on my worst enemies. They're just that bad.
@@Raskolnikov70 It’s not even really capitalism in the traditional sense. Sure, the government isn’t involved, but what good or service is being produced here? What capital is being leveraged? It’s more like somebody is taking a mortgage on a house, only they aren’t really putting up any collateral because the house is usually one that’s already falling apart. It kind of reminds me of some of the idiotic practices that led to the Great Depression. People would buy stock in companies on credit, betting on the belief that it would increase in value and that they could pay off the principal and the interest with the profits from the sale. When it didn’t, somebody else was left holding the bag and it all came crashing down. I’m not a fan of government intervention, but maybe something needs to be done about this. At the very least, any company stupid enough to do this should be barred from federal bailouts by default.
It's kinda funny how history goes in cycles. Ppl used to order off of catalogs amd now we order online- basically a hi-tech catalog.
No old companies would never be an Amazon or EBay. The old companies are old dinosaur loser, play it safe types. They were destined to lose. Think Tesla vs GM Ford, etc.
@@aaronbirook4367 Tesla will be gone within 5 years.
@leonticonderoga2 It was their sunk costs that killed them though. Amazon could compete because they weren't paying rent and taxes and wages for hundreds of obsolete retail stores. Even the well-run stores couldn't compete with that albatross around their necks.
@@andrewscasualmtb Gone up to $1.5 trillion in value* There I fixed it for you/
I would love to order from a catalog, as long as all items are high quality and work right
While every department store decline me a credit card, Montgomery Ward did not, this is when I was young with no credit history. I bought most of my clothes there.
I still own a dining room set I bought at Wards in the late 80s....
I've got a wards wood stove that still heats my house
“Montgomery ward send me a bathtub and a cross cut saw!”
i dont get it
Living in the east, we didn't have Wells Fargo banks here when I was younger. The first few times I went out west, every time we'd pass a Well Fargo Bank I'd sing the beginning of the song. My friends thought I was nuts, although they should have already known that.
It's a line from the song "The Wells Fargo Wagon" which is from the Broadway musical hit and subsequent movie "The Music Man" by Meredith Willson.
When I was a kid, I remember being taken to Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck for school clothes. Those olden days.
Oh, Toughskins. How I remember your plaid, scratchy horribleness on school picture day.....
Saaaaaame.
Same here
1974 kid
My mom bought almost everything from the Wards or Sears catalog. Our small town only had a Wards catalog store, where you could place orders and pick items up when your order came in. Lots of memories of that little store. Thanks for doing this video.
My dad worked there for a while back in the early 90's as an electronics salesman. He was great at selling product, but hated the companies stance on the warranties pushed on customers. By the time he quit, they were pushing all of their employees hard to sell extended warranties on everything. To the point where people were fired for not selling warranties no matter how much product they sold. I miss eyeing all of the cool gadgets and things back then when I got to go with him, I might've been around 11 or 12 at the time.
I worked there in the 90's. They were all over us to sell those useless warranties. The "Smart Plan". They cost as much ass the items we sold. They also were pocketing our commissions. There was a class action lawsuit. I was no longer workin there and got a check for $90 and some gift certificates. A guy I worked with refused to go along with it and tried to sue them himself. They declared bankruptcy so he got nothing and had to pay his lawyer. At least I got something
This sounds exactly like Sears. I loved working there and selling electronics and appliances. I absolutely hated the warranties, errrr “Maintenance Agreements”. I think the worst part was the way management would openly say it didn’t how much we sold (keep in mind no base pay only commission vs draw) as long as we sold the agreements. They were like brainwashed in this.
One correction, or clarification, it wasn't J.P. Morgan the person who got Montgomery Wards to hire Sewell Avery during the Great Depression, but J.P. Morgan & Company. Morgan himself had died in 1913.
Very good distinction.
@@companyman114 Great video! Please put together a video about Unity Buying Service, headquartered in Hicksville, NY. Many years ago I used to pick up merchandise from the company's warehouse in Camarillo, CA. TY
Ironically, Morgan had a 1st Class Ticket on the RMS Titanic. No Joke.
"that reindeer went down in history." oh company man.
Does anyone remember Hastings?
😂
General Kenobi
I lived right across the streets from a Hastings. Spent a lot of time there.
@@archer1949 I loved Hastings I really miss it they had chocolate flies from harry potter and that is were I got a lot of my games and movies from. I'm sad they closed.
@AIDSforBreakfast I don't know what you mean.
I have life changing memories of this stores. Was working at M Wards store in Redding, Ca in the mid 1970s and heard about a Wards store in Anchorage,AK. I always wanted to live in Alaska, so I asked the Redding store manager if he thought there would be any job openings in Anchorage. “Let’s find out” and he picked up the phone right then and called the Anchorage store! A few months later I was fixing boat motors at Wards Marina in Anchorage AK. Yes Montgomery Wards had a marine store that sold boats, snowmobiles and other boy toys! The only Wards store to do this.
I worked at the Redding store in the mid 90's! Was an interesting place for sure
I'm a middle aged woman and I love all those things so they are not just boy toys!
Wow that’s an awesome story! I would’ve been thrilled if that was me too 🙂 that’s for sharing your story
I remember my dad got a job at Montgomery Ward when the oil industry crashed. Even though the job was only during the Christmas season, it was enough to get through some tough times.
Wow, the exact same things happened to me but it was Dillard's to the rescue for me.
My dad worked in the "Electric Avenue" section at Wards for years in the '90s. I remember going into there and sensing a sort of desperation, much like at Sears in recent years. The clothing section was pitiful, and I remember they just kept cutting back on what they offered. They used to have tools, yard equipment, a garden center... all that stuff was gone. It was sad.
I feel like, at best, they could have been Sears. Isn't saying much nowadays.
It would have been interesting if Sears would have done much better if they weren't bought out by Kmart
Sears was huge back in their day. They made mistakes for sure, but the headwinds of technological change were always against them. If they didn't have such a huge sunk-cost problem with their obsolete retail stores they could have become Amazon by putting the focus back on their mail-order business.
@@Raskolnikov70 hello, I had a SEARS card from 1963, I LIVED CATALOG, I recently saw the store in WATCHUNG NJ levelled, you name it , If I needed it I bought it , I wrote them a letter @headquarters way back,,told them SEARS WOULD DIE, as YOU SHOR YOURSELF IN YOUR CHEST, when you killed catalog , the NEVER even commented, so about 2 years ago they closed the LIVINGSTON MALL STORE ! What a shame , btw. They sold their credit to CITY CORP, they cancelled my card for LACK OF USE few years ago , cheers 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@flybyairplane3528 That brings back some memories. When I was a little kid we used to go to the malls up in Patterson or Wayne. That's how I always remembered that area, for it's shopping malls. But yeah, they could have focused on improving their catalog departments, updating them to the 21st century when the internet became a thing, but they were too focused on holding onto what they had instead of looking forward. I miss shopping in person too, but that's "progress" I guess.....
Sometime in the mid-90s, Wards and Sears were considering a merger where Sears would have been the surviving company if said merger took place. Look it up.
My mom was a manager at one of Ward's catalog stores in the 70s. All of my school clothes and most of the appliances in our home came from Wards. Thanks for the history of the company. and the look at their decline. I had no idea that they were the originators of the catalog business model fifteen years before Sears did it. Now Sears is gone too. It won't be long, and the last of the "big 3" from my childhood will be gone too: JC. Penney.
There used to be a Montgomery Ward near my parent's chinese restaurant. I would do my daily walk over there and around the store to check out what they have on sale. Got a couple of Packard Bell computers from them. Lots of bad management mistakes which killed the business. And those same managers then went on to other companies and those companies are now gone.
That intro music never fails to get me lit
The outro does it for me
It's a copyright free song anyone can use. I've heard it on several other youtube channels.
I prefer the background music used in most of the videos
Montgomery Ward: A Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Story
Very sad but I learned something new.
Montgomery Wards, Mervyn's, Crown Books, Toys R Us, Cal Stores, and Mann Theaters. These were the stores that made up a strip mall in Oceanside, Ca that I used to frequent in the 90s. Unfortunately, they're all gone now, but I remember spending quite a bit of time in each of those stores back in the day. The first apartment I ever lived in when I moved to the US was outfitted with furniture from Montgomery Wards and The first VHS player I ever bought also came from that store.
Oh mannn mervyns!! I remember that store too! And last time I heard it being mentioned was in that old movie from South Park
I loved Montgomery Wards and they were my 1st credit card. When I was 18 and becoming an adult living on my own, I looked forward to the Wards ad every Sunday so I could see what furniture and electronics I could get for my 1st apartment. Bought my 1st T.v., coffee table, bed frame and some giant 15" floor speakers for my living room from Wards. I still have a VCR I bought there in the late 90's. Ohhh the memories.
As a lark I applied for a part-time job at Montgomery Wards in his closing days. Work there part-time for almost 2 years. It was a good store to work at I learned a lot. I but it was apparent that it was on the way down. I remember the Furby craze and how I had to work the electronics department during that Christmas season.
I worked the Wii craze at a Gamestop in a mall. It was a nightmare.
I work in small electronics it was my first job ever ..out of high school while going to college..and yes i have alot of crazy customer stories and yes the furby craze was one story...yes my friend that I met that is 10 yrs my senior worked there part time at the same time while doing sub teaching and yes he saw how it was all down hill..I remember the day that I found out we were closing for good I was off and saw it on the news and called up and my hr lady manager who is always cheery didn't believe me and I talked to our store manager and he said yes and he had a phone meeting with the other g ms ..etc
I worked for them when i was fresh out of high school
That must have been the most annoying job ever. I'll bet you still have flashbacks from all the noise.
@@Raskolnikov70 Razumikhin says hello.
One of my few memories about Wards is my mom buying me a Nintendo 64 for Christmas and on a separate occasion, finding $100 on the floor.
That's how you knowit was an affluent store 😁
In my small home town back in 60s, I remember the catalog store where they had some merchandise on display but we purchased mostly from the catalog. There was also a Sears store in a town of 4 thousand in the area. Fond memories of looking through the Christmas catalog.
The store at 1:11 was in Oakland. It was built in 1923, and was on the National Register of Historic Places. That didn't prevent the demolition of the building.
My parents loved Montgomery Ward, the 2 we always went to were stand alone stores, and I’ve never seen one inside of a shopping mall 😱 I got a nice mountain bike, Betty Boop shirt,, knock off converse shoes,and the movie Mrs.Doubtfire on VHS there in the mid 90’s...oh the memories 💜
Weird. They were only in malls where I lived. Never saw a stand alone MW.
@@bassage13 yeah and they were giant sized stores, I remember the older one was multi levels...this was the Detroit MI area
I worked there in high school. Talking to high school kids 20 years later, I mentioned Montgomery Ward, they said “Is that a bank or something?”
My grandmother worked at Montgomery Ward long enough to retire from there. She was offered a lump sum or continuous payment. She was paid right up until they went bankrupt.
@@caliperspective
And then what did she do?
@@HwoarangtheBoomerang By then both of my grandparents were long retired with house and cars paid off. They had plenty of income from my grandfather’s retirement and the hobby farm (avocados and macadamia nuts) they were fine without her retirement income.
Basically they were complacent and didnt feel they need to adapt to the ever changing market or its competitors.
A DOA for any company. Also they should of capitalized on creating Rudolph and made more rememberable Christmas characters and more cartoons. They could of ruled the Christmas marketing game.
I grew up in the seventies and remember Wards well. I think the grandest store I remember was the one they opened in Sacramento across from the Sunrise mall. They seemed to have missed getting into the mall, where Sears had opened an equally grand store. But lucky for Wards, a new center opened across the street. For a Wards, it was a spectacular store, more like a Bloomingdale's or Macy's than what you think of with Sears, Penny's or other Wards stores. In my memory, that seemed the hight for both Wards and Sears. It was the late 70's/ early 80's and if either one of them were in trouble, it sure didn't show, they had stores everywhere, and their catalogs were ridiculously huge. I miss them actually. The stores were a lot classier than the likes of Kmart, Walmart, or Target.
I remember my aunt shopping here as a kid, it didn't strike me as something different back then honestly.
And happy 200th video!
It's so interesting as a '97 baby to hear about the promising successful days of old companies that have struggled to remain relevant in my lifetime. Kmart, Sears, Radio Shack, Toys R Us... When I think of these companies I don't think of glory days, just inevitable downfalls and huge clearance sales.
Kmart and Sears were still relevant into the 2000's, especially in NY. After 2010 it really did go down hill. Also toys r us was doing pretty good too.
Those businesses didn't really start dying off until after the 2008-9 economic crisis. Competing with internet-based businesses while still having to pay for hundreds of retail stores, combined with an economic downturn and the rise of smartphone comparison shopping, there was no way they were ever going to survive.
Now there's Amazon, Walmart, and Target. I can't wait for those companies to die, nothing to be nostalgic about with them. They've helped gut the middle class.
I was born in 83. I remember going to wards a lot as a kid. They had a pretty decent electronics section pre 90s.
My father worked at Montgomery headquarters in Chicago on the river for almost 50 years. I worked my first summer job there in 1964 filling office supply orders for stores around the country. My Dad saw the end coming before he retired. The stores were great in the 60,70, and 80's. Lot's of childhood memories for me.
What did your dad say about the decline coming? What things did he notice, or what did he tell you? Rather curious. It's wild that he worked there for nearly 50 years. Doesn't really happen any more.
@@cadowyn735 Dad never talked all that much about work, but he did see the end was coming for the company. Never said anything specific.
He never went to college and started at Wards shoveling coal into the boilers in Kansas City Store. Met my Mother there who was working as a clerk in the same store. They married and remained so until their deaths in 2013 at ages 97 and 95. Were married for 76 years.
He returned to Wards after serving in the Army in WWII. He continued to be promoted and became the building maintenance manager for the Chicago Complex on the river. All 7 buildings. He continued up the ladder but I forget his various job titles. People just are not loyal to a company as his was to Wards, afraid those days are gone forever. Still hard to believe he did so well with only a high school diploma. That would never happen today. Miss them both every day......
I remember buying the first couch we owned from (As mom called them) "Monkey" Wards. It lasted well considering the decades it was used daily. I'm using my Wards rotary saw (Skill Saw) I bought in the early 70's. It runs perfectly still, I changed brushes on the motor one time. I actually preferred products over Sears for many of their products.
Wow nice! How we’re their other tools? I mostly have old Sears tools that were made to last! Decades old but still good including a saw like your but from wards I only have one of those old freezer chests still going strong 💪🏽 they knew how to make quality stuff unlike now most stores
Jay Leno on The Tonight Show the last time Wards filed for Bankruptcy: "Well Montgomery Ward filed for bankruptcy today. Raise your hands, who here didn't even know Montgomery Ward was still in business." LOL.
they were in every mall when i was growing up in sac cali. wild times.🤪🤪🤪
@That Geeky Maker . . . Say! You have a better recall memory than I do about Leno's monologue about that. Funny thing is I was visiting Las Vegas in 2000 when I was surprised to see a MW store, as I thought they had been out of business for years.
When Montgomery Ward went bankruptcy, it was the largest department store bankruptcy in American history
My parents had a Montgomery-Ward branded washer and dryer set when I was a kid. Much like the Sears/Kenmore appliances, they were made by another company like maytag or whirlpool, and branded with MW... the washer stopped working sometime in the early 1990's, and the dryer was repaired, rebuilt, and repaired again until the mid 2000's.
In my little town, when I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s, we had both Sears and Wards catalog stores, and they competed on a more-or-less even basis. I'll never forget when I shopped for my first "serious" computer in 1982. The new Atari (!) model that I wanted was in short supply, and I ended up getting the computer from Sears and the matching disk drive from Wards.
I remember Montgomery Ward (where Rudolph originated from) made their own animated adaptation of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" titled "Rudolph's Lessons For Life" that was only sold at their stores during the Christmas Season of 1996 and the later part of the 90s. Since it's closure, the VHS tapes are very difficult to find.
Montgomery Ward ACTUALLY CREATED Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
@@sgerto I know, that's why I brought up the 1996 adaptation by them.
is it lost media? or just rare :0c?
@@sickleds Not lost, but very rare.
Wow, my younger brother got that VHS from my grandma. I didn't know it had anything to do with MW, though, since they didn't have any stores near where we lived. My grandma must've ordered it through their catalog.
When i was a kid, i used to spend hours dreaming while looking through the wards and sears catalogues.
More than once, my mother caught me studying the womens underwear pages a little too deeply.
Didn't we all do that? hehehe...
Life before the internet was hell.
The lingerie section of the Penney's catalogue got me through puberty, 😂
creep
Under my bed was the accepted storage location of the Wards, Sears & J.C. Penney catalogs.. It was a running joke in our household
I was a Group Merchandiser Manager for Electric Avenue at a MW location from 94 to 97...I had trained at a NEW store in 94 so I felt they were becoming a major company. But between company polices with really good management and bad focus on small stores, I left in 97 to eventually become an IT Director for a small business but I am so thankful for my experience there...I am thankful they gave a 24 year old to handle a huge department (Electric Avenue)...Montgomery Ward still influences me to this day...I wish, beyond a web sate, they were still around.
The couches I took off my mom when she bought new ones are sitting in my living room right now from Montgomery Wards. It was only the 2 of us growing up so they still felt new.
I played the Zelda CDI games on display at Montgomery Ward, so thats like a compound level of failure right there
LMFAO! that's so fitting 😝
Nice of Montgomery Ward to invite us over to play CDI games, eh Luigi?
Excuse Me Princesses
"Get in the car, we're going to Monkey Wards kid!" - Every dad in the 1980's
OMG! I can still hear my Dad saying that!
@@TheMahtek SAME HERE!!
😂😂 I thought my dad was the only one.
Not my Father..... That was my Mother !!! 😂
I read in my reproduction Sears catalog that some of those names were started in spite from mom and pop stores in the local town that they hurt the business of. They would hold contests of who could bring in the most Sears and Montgomery ward Catalogs, and then once collected would hold a bonfire of them. They would call those offending companies "Shears & Sawbucks" and "Monkey Wards" as derogatory terms. Because they were the threat to them similar to how Amazon is to brick and mortar stores are today.
I grew up going to Montgomery Ward. It was like Sears.
My family shopped Wards for years. That was in the 60's and 70'S
If I had a dollar for every time I heard “leverage buyout” on this channel...
...you'd have enough cash to leverage your own buyout, at the very least 🤷♂️
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
You’ve immortalized this company”
I just want to say Thank you Company man! Your videos are always a welcome break from all the toxicity in the world today.
My dad managed the hardware department at the local Wards in the 1940s - 1950s. He met my mom when she went to work there. Certainly a special place to me 🙂
Of course, if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't be here 🙂
You were convinced in isle 5
My mom used to work at a Montgomery Ward in the 70's. I got vauge memories of shopping there a few times as a kid in the early 90's. Glad I got to see one.
Montgomery Ward. Most of these young kids won’t even know what this store was. I use to go here all the time with my dad. Loved wards.
Same
Idk what is is :(
Never heard f them
I only heard about it bc of my dad
My mom worked there. I would go all the time miss it
I basically grew up in this store. Remember the “Bike” brand? Lol. I loved Electronic Ave 😎
Yes! My cousin pronounced it Bike-ee, like Nike.
@@thillman85 lol
I remember electronic ave.
Ah, Electric Avenue named for the song of the same name. Different meaning, though.
I remember buying cassette singles at Electric Ave.
I remember Wards back in the 70' & 80's as the go-to store for good quality, name-brand tools. As a beginning instrument maker, I was required to buy a bunch of precision tools for my apprenticeship, and Wards had them all ar great prices (and easy to get credit)!
Wow interesting, I was too young then but so what kind of tools were in their repertoire? I’m a machinist and I would be pleasantly surprised if there were stores like that I could just walk into now ,most don’t the stuff we order online
I'm an 80's baby so I DEFINITELY remember Montgomery Wards, and have been several times. This video IS DEPRESSING! I still remember that jingle they used to play at the end of all their commericals
Not depressing now, just go to wards.com.
I grew up going to Monkey Wards and Sears interchangeably. Virginia Beach, VA must've been one of the holdouts all those years. Their furniture section was fun to laze about in with my GameBoy while my parents shopped. I remember an overwhelming amount of grey in that building and that smell old people have.
I grew up in VB too.. you went to the one at Lynnhave Mall or Janaf Shopping Center? I remember when the Super Nintendo came out and everyone was lined up at the display in Janaf to play it!.. those were the days
I remember shopping at Wars too, but the one in Hampton at the old Coliseum Mall. We could always find great stuff there. But in the final years, it was old and dank like you mentioned. It wasn’t getting renovated and then the selection of stuff started to taper off and we started going to Sears more in the early 90s.
Once they finally did get rid of the catalog it became the nail in the coffin. If they didn't have it in stock, they would order it for you from the catalog database. Plus they did appliance repair. I remember going with my grandparents there all the time.
I remember shopping there in the 60.s, 70's & early 80's. I was sad to see them close, but got an excellent deal in their final sale...gorgeous, solid wood china hutch (it's massive!!). Original price was $2100.00 us. My sale price was $325, including tax. Still have it and will bequeath it to my heirs, who have already said they will fight over it. I'll decide who gets it. Whichever one has been the nicest to me. lol
The Montgomery Ward I remember was at Wynnewood Village Shopping Center in Dallas, Texas back in the 1980s. My mother and father sometimes shopped there. It turned out that the retailer was already in decline and when I later tried to get a job there, it was actually nearing the end of its life. The building that once held Montgomery Ward has long since been demolished and new retail space has replaced it.
I went back in the 80's, the place smelled like a thrift store and was packed to the rafters with stuff nobody wanted.
:(
I’m 52 so the stores were around in my day. They always seemed like a low end Sears or JC Penney. They were my first store credit card but I didn’t use it much.
Same here on all accounts.
I grew up in the 90’s and have fond memories of Montgomery Ward, Charleroi, PA location. In our town it was the place to go still even at that time. I remember always being excited by their electronics section, stereos and stuff. Also remember my grandma buying jewelry and my Wrangler jeans there. Never knew that connection to Rudolph, which is interesting to me as I 100% got a free copy of that book from the store in probably 1994 or so. I enjoyed the episode, thanks.
Coming soon: "The rise, fall... and rise again of GameStop"
And instant fall again.
I’m not sure that counts as a “rise again”... the business itself never changed.
@Заработок от 3000 в день
...yes...?
Just because the stock price is up, doesn't mean the company sees any of that money.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
BACK IN THE 80S, MY MONTGOMERY WARDS HAD A DRIVING SCHOOL, AND THATS HOW I GOT MY DRIVERS LICENCE
Some Sears locations that are open still have driving schools too.
@matt fahringer it is. I find it weird also but Sears and Wards did that back in the day. Think that's weird? The Wards I went to growing up had a barber shop in it!
Now that they are out of business, that certificate is null and void. You must surrender your license now.
@@kenmore01 THATS FUNNY THAT YOU SAID THAT CAUSE AT THE MOMENT I AM UNDER A STATE SUSPENDION FOR HAVING TO MANY POINTS ON MY LICENCE. STILL DRIVE THOUGH. LOL
@@ronscurti1269 I was joking of course bro! I hope things work out for you! Not funny under the circumstances, but I do wish you well!
I was just talking about MW a few days ago my grandmother still has a whole
Living room set form there still
Good one. I inherited my grandmother's MW bedroom set
I absolutely love your channel. The detail is awesome and told in a story format. As well, your voice is warm and welcoming.
I was a youngin' when I visited Montgomery Ward and always looked forward to walking through...never purchased much though.
Keep up the great vids.
Wow, thank you!
I still have my old Montgomery Ward department store card. You’re assuming all of us are too young to know. Granted I was very young adults when they went bankrupt but I remember that from my childhood and I did buy some good stuff there. They, along with JCPenney and Sears, were one of the biggest department stores ever.
The all-capital Sears logo still looks weird.
Honestly a favorite logo of mine 😂
Buy Sears. Sears 🚀🚀
"...blah blah leveraged buyout...."
The kiss of death.
Congrats on 200th video, you’re still doing a great job and loving the videos each week! Be proud 😀
My mom worked in the office of our local Montgomery Ward for a few years. I don't remember much of her time working there other than once a year they made all the employees basically work an overnight shift to inventory the store and my mom hated that. After I got my first computer, my first computer desk came from Montgomery Ward in '94 which I'm pretty sure my best friend still has and used as his work desk through the pandemic.
This was one I suggested - Thanks! The closest one to use was about 45 min away, it felt like a big trip as a kid. I thought it was awesome that you could buy clothes, guns, lawn mowers, appliances, etc under one roof
Hey I'm young and this is still interesting to me
My Mother worked at one during the mid 60's. She used to get great deals on scratch and dent items. In the late 70's they would give out credit cards to people with very little credit history, like me. I bought a Cannon AE1 (which I still own), a TV, VCR, and a lawn mower. The TV was made by Sharp, the VCR was a Panasonic. The mower had a Briggs engine on it. All the stuff lasted a long time, until it became obsolete. They had quality products at great prices.
Happy 200, Company Man! Thanks for all the fun and knowledge!
You bet!
Compromising on quality is how we ended up a nation of braindead consumer addicts, gobbling up cheaply made crap at high end prices.
Sad but oh so true! I try to buck that trend and my neighbor is ALWAYS borrowing my DeWalt tools cause his Harbor Freight crap breaks or just won't do the job
@@GregTheRushFan buy cheap, buy twice...some people learn the hard way. Some never learn at all.
@@kuuryotwo5153 oooh. I like that!
...I believe the saying is, "Buy once, cry once." 👍
Amazes me how far quality has gone down within the last 20 years. What's sad are appliances-even the top end ones cause problems after 5 years, and then their 'planned obsolescence' scam kicks in with software updates that they, and only they can provide. So people trash it for a new one. Amazingly they want to punish us consumers for this junk polluting the environment.
It's like how I told my wife about the viking who was great at predicting inclement weather:
"Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"
When I was growing up My mother only carried two credit accounts . Montgomery Ward and Sears . Sears was used mainly for appliances and my dad would buy tools there. Anything else was Wards. From school clothes to car batteries and tires and electronics. I remember our first VCR was from Wards and then my first VCR when I moved out the house. She even took me there to buy an engagement ring for my bride-to-be. She felt Wards had a better selection and better prices and better customer service. She always felt Sears customer service was kind of stuffy. Your video brought back some great memories of my childhood. Do miss going to Montgomery Ward.
nice job on 200. you made a great choice of topics as you could go on forever.
Their stores were good. However their auto service center was a ripoff. I only went to the auto service center if they had a great sale on tires or if my car broke down on a Friday night and I needed it for Monday.
they sold a lifetime alignment, On your subsequent visits, they would perform a "air alignment". Run your car up in the air on the alignment rack, do nothing for 30mins, back it out and tell you it was all set!
In the 1970's I managed the parts department at a Wards auto center. We did rip people off.
@@randylee1542 that was the only complaint I ever had about Wards
When I worked at wards, and they had there buy 3, get 1 free tire sales all they did was up the price of the 3 tires you were buying to cover the cost of the free 1,I remember 1 week a tire was $60.00 and during the sale week it was $80.00.
I remember going to Ward's as a kid in the early 90's.
My dad managed the Plumbing-and-Heating Department at the local Wards store most of his life. I spent thousands of hours in the store as a kid. Our house was full of Wards' stuff ... we were a Wards family. When he had to retire, because of health reasons, he mourned the fact that he wanted to be back in that dusty basement, meeting people and selling the brand he loved so much. Montgomery Ward was an important part of my life. I am sure others feel that way. The paint, the tires, the furnaces, the air conditioners, the lawn mowers the clothing, the shoes .... wow. What great memories. Sad today's generation never had the chance to shop there. Dennis
There was a Montgomery Ward at my local mall until the early 2000s, around the time I graduated from high school.
I would describe it as a smaller Sears. It’s floor space was 50/50 “soft” goods (clothes, bedding, etc.) and “hard” goods (tools, major appliances, etc.)
It was a working class store, for sure.
I don't recall ever stepping foot inside a Montgomery Ward. If I ever was in one, it was so long ago and I was so young that I don't remember it. Honestly, other than a vague awareness of it having existed, I'd long forgotten about Wards. In fact, when I did a video tour of a now-demolished shopping mall many years ago, when I got to the anchor wing where the Wards used to be, I literally could not remember what used to be there. That's how little of an impact Wards had on my life.
Your probably very young lol 🙂
You should do a video for The Decline of Circuit City.
Someone else already did one. czcams.com/video/pHKaWM8S1XE/video.html
@@pete5668 Well I want to hear The Company Man’s version.
What about Tower Records, or Lord & Taylor, the latter is soon going out of business.
I figured out Circuit City was badly run when I went to apply for a job. They demanded that you sign an agreement not to sue them for violations of labor laws. This was up-front, before they'd even take your application.
We had a Montgomery Ward in the Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville FL back in the 90’s. Bought some old school electronics there from their electronics department called “Electronic Avenue”, fitting for the time. I remember them using Eddy Grant’s pop tune”Electronic Avenue” as part of their marketing campaign. Great memories! Thanks for posting this!
Being that Wards was a non-core asset to GE, they pretty much just milked it for all it was worth and used the stores as cash cows. They overinvested in the chain only for the stores to fail after putting all that money into it. Mobil and GE really weren't the best owners of the company since neither company was never involved in retail.
Fun fact:
The Montgomery Ward in my local mall was replaced.... By Kmart in the 80s... Which also failed spectacularly a few decades later.
When I was a kid, we'd look through the catalogs of Sears, JC Penney and Montgomery Ward. They all seemed very similar to me.
Thanks for the Rudolph history lesson. That is great trivia. I can't remember seeing or being in one of their stores after the 80's.
It is not a store I can remember shopping in much.
Just watched this-as always, excellent analysis & informative! I worked in MWs paint department in high school (1978) in Bloomington, IL. Being in Illinois, business was strong then at the location. Their paint was a Standard T Chemical product then-went to work for Glidden Paint after that & Wards was superior in their residential market. You described the store well-especially their mistakes! Again, great job!👍👍
One of my favorite Christmas decorations that I still own was a par of Christmas Stockings featuring Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. I lost two of them, but I only own both. Apparently these dated back to the late 80s and early 90s and didn't use the Rankin/Bass design.
I used to work at Montgomery Ward in the electronics dept in high school. Legit one of the best jobs I ever had in high school 💯. Shout out to Rudolph as well 🤣😂
I’m 27. And I’ve been to a Montgomery Ward. As a kid, I used to shop there with my mom in Southgate, Michigan (right next to a Service Merchandise, too!). It’s torn down now, but I remember it being run down and it was definitely not my favorite place to shop. They sold the uniform brand that I needed for school at the time. I’ve always been a fan of nostalgic brands, but Ward’s is one I never really missed. Now Hudson’s... I miss Hudson’s.
Yeah I remember them... Wards was also famous for advertising their 'Electric Avenue'. There was a time when if you were buying electronics, like an NES, the choice of store was Wards or Circuit City.. RIP both
Yep I've been there in Long Beach California in the '90s even when they were going out of business sale.
I would have thought that Montgomery Ward would been a business based out of Montgomery Alabama, not Chicago.
I see what you are doing there, but virtually all of the catalog and chain retailers were based out of Chicago in the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. The way the transpiration system (the railroads) in the US were set up, Chicago was to all intents and purposes the exact center of the country.
Our family shopped at "Monkey Wards" in Austin, Texas from the day it opened in the early '60s until it closed in the late '90s. Around Christmas time in the late '60s I remember my father buying a Texas Instruments Scientific Calculator at Wards, which he used regularly for at least another 20 years. I also recall a beach ball floating on a gust of air generated by the exhaust of one of their canister vacuum cleaners in their appliance department. Neat trick. By sheer happenstance, as an adult, my business was only a short walk from that same Wards for over 17 years and oddly enough, shut down the same year I relocated. Good old Wards. After many years of shopping I was always a satisfied customer. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Fascinating and informative video!
Thank you for this one. I used to love MW's Electric Avenue. Their electronics department was always fun. It was up there with Service Merchandise. Oh how I miss those days.