wood's wisdom

Those stores who fail to study history are destined to repeat it. This was an interesting quote I found in the Sears Archives:

The (existing) department stores were essentially for women. Eighty percent of their business was in women’s wear, hosiery, and all other apparel. A man in a department store was lost.
Robert Wood, vice president of factories and retail stores, Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1925

How true this statement was and still is. Many stores followed Sears' lead and established in-store departments for the whole family during the mid-20th century, only to retreat from them by the 1980s. It's no wonder that department stores have struggled since then. There's nothing but clothes now. Wood continues:

We made it a store for the family; in other words, for the men, too. We added hardware, tires, service parts and other items of particular interest to men.
Wood, 1925

Considering that Wal-Mart took the same concept as Sears and become a bigger and stronger company while Sears began to wilt away, maybe Sears should have listened to its own guidance.