<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I found this </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">very interesting. </span> <div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read to the end to get the whole point. </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><img src="cid:part1.07040508.04070302@earthlink.net" alt="image1.jpeg" id="7CE92F0C-BF7D-4F6D-A291-F93754A3ABA7"></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Buying a watch in 1880. </b></span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You would go to a store, right?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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!</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sound a bit funny?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States , that's where the best watches were found.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Why were the best watches found at the train station?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The telegraph operator was.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and that was the primary way that they communicated with the railroad.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So Richard did.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That started it all.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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 to all the travelers.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It worked!</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people other than travelers came to the train station to buy watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That was Alvah.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And the rest is history as they say.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alvah Roebuck!</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bet You Didn't Know That! </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">OK, Maybe you did; I didn't! </span></div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> </div> </body> </html>