By Scott A. Brinton
My latest #LIHerald.com column…
Long Island recently lost its last Sears, that once ubiquitous powerhouse retailer that sold a range of goods, from sturdy jeans to solidly built power tools and refrigerators. Started in 1893 as a mail-order catalog to peddle watches to farmers, Sears built a favorable reputation through much of the 20th century as a mainstay of America’s burgeoning middle class.
By the time I was born in 1967, Sears was the world’s largest retailer, serving as an anchor tenant at malls across the land. Construction on Sears Tower in Chicago — which became the world’s tallest skyscraper, at 1,450 feet — began in 1969 and was completed four years later. Called Willis Tower these days, it’s now the world’s 12th tallest building.
Sears once boasted locations throughout Long Island, including in Valley Stream, New Hyde Park, Garden City and Hicksville. The final holdout was at the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, where about a third of the storefronts are vacant, Newsday recently reported.
My childhood is inextricably linked to Sears. Every year in August, my parents, both teachers, brought my brother and me to Sears at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, in Suffolk County, to buy school clothes. I knew then that summer’s carefree days were fading, and classes would soon begin.
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