Shears, Sawbuck & Co. (Sears, Roebuck and Company nickname)
The department store chain Sears, Roebuck and Company, founded in 1893, has had several nicknames.
“Rears, Sawbuck & Co.” was printed in the Jamestown (ND) Weekly Alert on May 11, 1899.
“Sears, Sawbuck & Co.” was printed in the Bartlesville (OK) Magnet on March 21, 1901.
“Shears, Sawbuck & Co.” was printed in the Yazoo City (MS) Herald on June 14, 1901.
“Rears & Sobuck” was printed in the Sedan (KS) Lance on April 16, 1903. “Rears Sobuck & Co.” was printed in The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ) on March 23, 1928.
“Scissors and Sawbuck catalogue house” was printed in The Oklahoma Hornet (Waukomis, OK) on October 20, 1905. “Sissors & Sawbucks” was printed in the Menlo (KS) Record on March 7, 1907.
Wikipedia: Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Company, colloquially known as Sears, is a chain of department stores founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in 1893, reincorporated (a formality for a history-making consumer sector initial public offering) by Richard Sears and new partner Julius Rosenwald in 1906. Formerly based at the Sears Tower in Chicago and currently headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, the operation began as a mail ordering catalog company and began opening retail locations in 1925. The first location was in Chicago, Illinois. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box chain Kmart, which formed Sears Holdings upon completion of the merger. (...) Sears was the 31st-largest retailer in the United States. After several years of declining sales, its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
sawbuck noun
1 slang: a 10-dollar bill
2: SAWHORSE
especially : one with X-shaped ends
Newspapers.com
11 May 1899, Jamestown (ND) Weekly Alert, “Clipped Colloquoy,” pg. 2, col. 4:
Tower City Topics: This is the time of year when the festive cyclist is confronted with the option of buying a reliable wheel of his home merchant or sending away to Rears, Sawbuck & Co. for something he doesn’t want.
Newspapers.com
21 March 1901, Bartlesville (OK) Magnet, pg. 2, col. 3:
Even then we couldn’t keep out Sears, Sawbuck & Co., and the other Chicago concerns that are continually seining this country for suckers.
Newspapers.com
14 June 1901, Yazoo City (MS) Herald, pg. 2, col. 6:
The next time you think of sending an order to Shears, Sawbuck & Co., or Montezuma’s Reward Co., just take time to compare prices with your home merchants and see if you can’t save money by buying at home. (...)—Forrest Register.
newspapers.com
27 June 1901, Eureka (KS) Herald, pg. 3, col. 4 ad:
Shears, Sawbuck & Co.
(A. Tucker.—ed.)
Newspapers.com
26 July 1901, Marengo (IL) Republican, pg. 4, col. 2:
Think of it.
The next time you think of sending an order to Shears, Sawbuck & Co. take time to compare prices with your home merchant and see if you cannot save money by buying at home.
23 August 1901, Le Roy (KS) Reporter, pg. 3, col. 3:
If the American people are consulted the letter postage will remain at 2 cents. Nobody wants a one-cent rate except such mail order concerns as Shears, Sawbuck & Co. in the big cities.
Newspapers.com
15 May 1902, Galena (IL) Republican, “Same Here,” pg. 1, col. 1:
Every dollar you send to Wontgomery, Mard & Co., or Rears, Sawbuck & Co. is a damage to yourself.
16 April 1903, Sedan (KS) Lance, pg. 8, col. 1:
Do you go to your home merchant and arrange with him to help you over, or do you sit down and write Montwardery Gum & Co., or Rears & Sobuck or Snugent?
6 January 1905, McCook (NE) Tribune, pg. 5, col. 3:
Smith & Cockran, general merchandise store, carry an immense stock and do a large business. They advertise to sell cheaper than catalogue houses like “Rears Sobuck” and “Monkey Ward & Co.”
Newspapers.com
20 October 1905, The Oklahoma Hornet (Waukomis, OK), pg. 1, col. 3:
A farmer was in the other day and he was kicking like blazes about the prices he was getting for his products. We noticed that he had a buggy load of goods from that famous Scissors and Sawbuck catalogue house.
16 March 1906, Severance (KS) News, pg. 3, col. 4 ad:
Do not send to Scissors and Sawbuck.
(Lyons’ Cash Store.—ed.)
28 February 1907, Waldron (KS) Argus, pg. 3, col. 4:
Think it over before you send Monkey-Ward & Co. your next dollar, or before you order a paper of pins from Scissors & Sawbuck.
7 March 1907, Menlo (KS) Record, pg. 1, col. 2:
Can’t Sell Groceries.
There is a rumor going the rounds of the press, that Sissors & Sawbucks are closing out their line of groceries because they do not comply with the requirements of the new Pure Food Law.
Newspapers.com
8 August 1907, Englewood (KS) Homebuilder, pg. 1, col. 3:
Maud Muggins.
Maud Muggins on a lonesome day concluded she would send away to Sears and Sawbuck for a hat because home stores sold higher than her cat—a logue.
22 May 1908, Cedar Vale (KS) Commercial, “Local Happenings,” pg. 10, col. 2:
What do you think of a set of business men who order their goods from Sears Sawbuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward and has his wife to cut his hair?
Newspapers.com
23 April 1914, Miltonvale (KS) Record, pg. 1, col. 2:
Please don’t forget that Monkey Ward or Sears & Sawbuck can’t beat our furniture store in quality and price of all household furnishings.
Newspapers.com
23 March 1928, The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), “Happy Days in Old Pueblo,” pg. 14, col. 3:
REARS SOBUCK & CO.
13 September 1936, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, sec. X (Books), pg. 7, col. 1:
With Mail Order Catalogues as Theme Song
Mr. Milburn Aided by ‘‘Sears-Sawbuck” and “Monkey-Ward,” Makes His Oklahoma Town Live
CATALOGUE
By George Milburn…279 pp…New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company…$2.
Reviewed by
CARL VAN DOREN
12 October 1983, Boston (MA) Globe, “Lives in the Arts: The Massachusetts Cowboy” by Steve Morse, pg. 1:
As the hour ticks by, (Sonny—ed.) May dips into his encyclopedic collection of twangy classics. There’s “Why Baby Why” by Webb Pierce, whom May calls “the old shoe salesman from Sears & Sawbucks.”
Newspapers.com
22 April 1985, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “They call him ‘the architect’: Telling redesigns Sears” by Janet Key, sec. 4, pg. 1, col. 1:
He’s called the architect of the “new” Sears, Roebuck & Co., the one whose aggressive foray into financial services may yet rekindle its old “Sears and Sawbuck” nickname.
Google Groups: rec.humor
Foodonyms
Bill Kinnersley
9/29/90
Two from the distant past:
Sears and Roebuck == Rears and Sawbuck
Montgomery Ward == Monkey Ward
and one from the present:
K-Mart == Came Apart
Google Groups: alt.callahans
Re: Joke pronunciations - was Re: ice cream parlour
Wes Struebing
2/14/08
(...)
Then there was always Shears and Sawbuck, and Monkey Wards (Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward)
Twitter
npetrikov
@npetrikov
So Sears and Sawbuck is going the way of Monkey Ward.
7:18 PM · Oct 10, 2018·Facebook