Sears Hometown Store of Lake Geneva, at 351 Peller Road, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this month.
To commemorate the occasion owner Chuck Platts will offer a “throwback” promotional weekend celebration Friday and Saturday.
This year marks two decades since Sears, Roebuck and Co. did a final run of its “Big Book” catalog, closing its catalog stores and shifting to a new retail model of locally owned and operated dealer stores. Sears Hometown Store of Lake Geneva, which opened in 1993, is one of 900 stores nationwide that came about as a result of that move.
Platts remembers when his parents opened their first catalog store in 1964 in Elkhorn. They opened their second store in Lake Geneva in 1971, and Platts joined them in the family business after graduating college a few years later. The Lake Geneva catalog store would later become one of the first Sears Hometown Stores to open.
“I’ve been here for 40 years. I now deliver appliances to grandkids of customers we had at the catalogue stores. This truly is a hometown store atmosphere.” Platts said. “The company stands behind me when I take care of my customers, with good value, and it is fun to be an owner when you can do that.”
Friday and Saturday, the store will feature current versions of some popular items advertised in 1993, with the same or lower pricing than 1993 pricing.
