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If you were in the market for a watch in the late 1800's, where would you buy one? You would go to a store, right?
Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches, you went to the train station!
Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found.
Why were the best watches found at the train station? The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all.
The telegraph operator was. Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station, because most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators, and that was the primary way they communicated with the railroad. And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact,the telegraph operators sold more watches than most stores, combined , for a period 9 years. This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself.
He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station when, one day, a load of watches arrived from the east. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them. so Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them.
So, Richard did..
He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days at a handsome profit. That started it all. He ordered more watches from the watch company, and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price. Travelers loved them.
It didn't take long for the word to spread and before long, many travellers came into the station to buy watches.
Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders. That was Alvah Roebuck. And they moved to Chicago and sold many watches and much more dry goods, using the railroads to ship their mail-order goods by RR freight.. Their company became Sears and Roebuck. It all started with a telegraph operator, Richard Sears, and his partner, Alvah Roebuck.
And now you know, the rest of the story.
Richard (not Sears)
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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