Sears closes its last department in Illinois, its home state

[stefanjones]

@brettvk

I didn’t learn until a few years ago that mail order retail was a big thing in segregated areas when Sears and Montgomery Ward got their starts, where Black people were forbidden to enter the better stores and were mercilessly gouged in the stores they were allowed to buy in.

Local stores “down south” would have Sears catalog burning parties, because of the resentment toward the company for service Blacks.