Sears abides

I must give a quick shout-out to the Sears on Colorado and 4th in Santa Monica. I’d given up hope of any practical and not outrageously expensive store remaining in Santa Monica, but my quick trip there today gave me renewed hope.

The last time I went in there was a couple of years ago, and at that point it looked like a store that was about to go under. Not that it was terrible. It just looked dated and out of place with the peppy hipness of contemporary Santa Monica. On that visit, I whisked through the depressing racks of polyester and rayon clothes on the first floor and went straight to the second floor, to the very picked-over children’s department. I bought a few Lands End infant garments and was on my way. With all of the changes in Santa Monica retail, most easily summed up as replacing any old and practical store with new, niche, and pricey ones, I was sure that any day I would drive by the old Sears and see it with papered up windows and a notice that a new day spa-cum-Tesla car dealership was in the works to replace it.

Today’s visit was a pleasant surprise. The store has been given a facelift. Parking could hardly be easier or more plentiful. Sears has been selling Lands End clothes for a number of years, but now it looks like all of their Lands End clothes are on the first floor. Attractive sofas adorn the women’s department near the dressing rooms, and the sales staff was helpful and efficient.

I hope that the store will remain a part of the city. It’s a rarity to have any good-sized, reasonable store that sells everyday items in Santa Monica. There are no end of ma and pa copy shops and a seemingly endless line of mattress stores on Wilshire, and Montana Avenue and Main Street serve the hip, healthy and yogic masses. But for those of us who want to simplify our lives and stay in the neighborhood for our household shopping, few stores exist.

Several years ago there was a plan being considered by the city to build a Target on 4th Street near the Promenade. The store would have been on bus lines, easily accessible by the elderly and lower-income families in the area. Ironically, one of the arguments against the Target was that we already had a Sears. It sounded a lot like saying that “we” didn’t want any more stores to attract and serve the lumpen proletariat. Yes, there would have been traffic as a result of the store, but there is currently an awful amount of traffic in the area. It’s doubtful that Target, with traffic flow and parking as a major component of the proposed site, would have made things any worse than they ended up with all of the little boutiques and high-end stores in the area. And ordinary families could have shopped within their own city for necessities like diapers, school supplies, inexpensive clothing, small electronics. Instead we now have to commit to driving down horrendous Lincoln Boulevard to Costco in Marina del Rey, on one of the freeways to more practical cities (Manhattan Beach, Culver City, Sherman Oaks, etc), or shop online.

Here’s to hoping that Sears withstands the recession!