If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right? 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!
For about 500 towns across the northern United States, that is where the best watches were found.
Why were the best watches found at the train station? The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all. The telegraph operator was. 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. It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-way had already been secured for the rail line.
Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and it was the primary way they communicated with the railroad. They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station. It was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.
This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty at the North Redwood, Minnesota train station. One day a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a large crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them. Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them.
He sent a wire to every agent on the system asking them if they wanted a cheap but good pocket watch? He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit. That started it all.
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 cheaper price to all the travelers. It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people other than travelers came to the train station to purchase watches. Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watchmaker to help him with the orders.
The rest is history as they say. The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods. Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there..
In the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was located at the train station. It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and partner Alvah Roebuck!
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