RETAIL TRADE: Sears Tries the Air

“Do you have it in stock?”

“No, ma’am, not here in Denver. But we can get it from Kansas City and deliver it to you tomorrow morning.”

This offer of prompt delivery was a pleasant surprise to Denver customers of Sears, Roebuck & Co. this week. Most of them were used to waiting anywhere from five to 14 days for their orders to come by parcel post from Sears’ Kansas City warehouse (Sears’ Denver retail store carries only 20,000 items). When they wanted things in a hurry, they went to Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. whose Denver warehouse stocks 100,000 items.

To meet this competition, Sears teamed up with Continental Air Lines to start its “airborne telethrift service.” Now all orders received in Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo in the morning are flown from Kansas City, delivered to customers the next morning.

The new service to Denver costs Sears’ customers from 3¢ per lb. to as little as .9¢ per lb. (they paid more for parcel post delivery). But it costs Sears more. The air-freight charge alone ranges from 7 to 8½¢ a lb. Sears also has to pay for trucking, teletypes, etc. But Sears thinks the air system will still be cheaper than building a Denver warehouse, only other way it could compete on equal terms with Montgomery Ward. If the new service catches on, Continental Air Lines will begin to use an all-cargo plane to carry Sears merchandise, and costs will come down. Sears may have opened up a big new field for air cargo.