I recently read a magazine profile of some existing Sears & Roebuck Homes across the US.   You read that right - Sears used to sell houses - in kit form via mail order.   They offered over 300 styles between 1908 and 1940 and sold an estimated 70k-75k Sears houses, with many still in existence.   Sears and their mail order catalog business started over 100 years ago and became THE original long-tail leader.  Interestingly, their beginnings look similar to Amazon.

Sears & Roebuck originated as a mail-order company for watches in 1888 and quickly expanded to include sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods and automobiles.   By 1895, the catalog was over 500 pages and within a few years was so popular was dubbed the "The Consumer's Bible".   The catalog was targeted at rural America, where country folk were dependent on general stores in town and usually paying high prices.   Sears published a standard price, provided good quality, and sold at a cheaper rate due to the elimination of middlemen.

The Sears Catalog Homes was added in 1908 to originally offload a high level of unprofitable building supplies and eventually developed into its own strong business until the start of WWII.    They offered three tiers of quality and price to appeal to a broad set of customers.  The average kit had 25 tons of materials, over 30,000 parts and was shipped via railroad boxcar.  The pre-cut assemblies saved about 40% in construction time and cost.    

The first Sears retail stores were opened in 1925 and Sears became both the largest retailer and mail-order catalog in the US the mid-1900's.   Sears began to diversify in the 1930s, adding Allstate Insurance Company in 1931.   The company later became a conglomerate, adding Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker real estate in 1981, starting Prodigy as a joint venture with IBM in 1984, and introducing the Discover credit card in 1985.

In 1974, the Sears Tower opened in Chicago as the world's tallest building and is still the tallest in the US (though was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009... what a shame).   In 2004, Sears was purchased by K-Mart, but maintained the Sears brand name for the holding company.  

The Sears catalog was discontinued in 1993 due to falling demand, ending a 100+ year run.    A year later, Amazon was founded (woo woo), offering books and then quickly expanding to many other categories.   Amazon publishes a standard price, provides good service, and sells at a discount due to elimination of the middlemen.   Amazon is now the world's largest online retailer.  

The interesting part to me is the parallels between the two companies, and in the enduring customer need being satisfied by different means as technology enables new solutions.  There is no end to the desire for consumers to be able to find and purchase goods, driven by reliable delivery and services to instill trust, and at a good price.  Both support the long tail as best as the available technology supports.  This is why Amazon's stock is soaring and will very likely continue to soar for quite a while as online sales become a significant piece of all retails sales, unless they trip over themselves.

So will Amazon have a 100 year run?  Will it start to become a conglomerate to try to sustain growth as its markets saturate?   Will there be a giant Amazon Tower in Seattle?   Will I buy my next home or auto from Amazon?        

Imagine if Sears had had the foresight and imagination beyond Prodigy to convert their dying print catalog to an online business before Amazon began or even bought the young fledgeling Amazon.   Today, the market cap of Amazon is $87B - 10x the combined value of K-Mart/Sears at $8.7B - but the same spirit of innovation and value that drove the initial Sears catalog appears to be alive and well at Amazon.   Kudos.