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But he is a roaring bull on Latin America, where he has spent $24 million exporting Sears' own methods of production and distribution, to the benefit of the masses. In Mexico, where Sears opened its first store in 1947, the company has freely lent money and technical advice to encourage manufacturing, and now buys 80% of its merchandise locally. In Venezuela, where it found few manufacturers geared to its high volume and rigid specifications when it opened its first store two years ago, Sears now buys 30% of its goods. In Brazil, Sears lost money in 1950 but last year Wood said it made a "nice profit." In the whole Latin American operation Sears expects to make $5,000,000 this year.
Throughout Latin America, Sears' policy is to hire and train local workers; in Mexico only 14 of its 2,000 employees are North Americans. "All we want is loyalty, honesty and hard work," says Sears' Venezuelan boss. "We'll teach them the rest." One thing that Sears has already taught its competitors in Latin America is the basic tenet of all U.S. retailers—big volume, not high markups, is the key to profits. And Sears stores have already caused general price reductions in their localities.
Next week Wood will take off for Latin America to open two new stores in Venezuela, and check up on plans for Sears' first store in Colombia. Next month, in Chicago, Sears will open its biggest postwar store, a $4,000,000 air-conditioned building with a supermarket and an 1,100-car parking lot.
When Sears finishes its expansion program in Latin America and the U.S., Wood will probably be ready with new plans. A business, he likes to say, is like a man; when it stops moving it dies. No one thinks that General Wood or Sears will stop moving—not while the diaper market is growing the way it is.
* Wood has his own way of encouraging national expansion. He promised each of his four daughters a mink coat when she had her third child. To date, three of the daughters have collected. Wood has 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
* The top five: General Motors, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Standard Oil (N.J.), U.S. Steel.
* Roebuck went on to develop the Woodstock typewriter, and later started his own movie projector company, sold out for $150,000 but lost his money in Florida real estate. He returned to Sears in 1933, at $5,000 a year, and toured the nation as a glorified publicity man until 1940, when he retired to California. He died, eight years later, at the age of 84.
* The Rosenwald family holdings in Sears have dwindled to 4%.