Sear’s Shoe Store: 50 Years in Fort Oglethorpe
Early in the 1920s, before the Great Depression descended on the world, Solomon Sir emigrated from Poland to America with his wife and baby boy. He came to Chattanooga and opened a shoe repair shop.
Sir and his young family weathered the Depression when it hit. By the time his son, Harry, became an adult and had married and opened a shop of his own, a dry goods store, a new disaster hit – the second World War.
Harry Sir was drafted. It didn’t take long for him to realize that being a private named Sir complicated things in the army. Sir legally changed his name to Sear. He served in the Philippines and made it back home to his baby boy, Jerry, and his wife Ray, who had been running the store in his absence.
Once home, Harry and Ray threw themselves into their business. They moved their store within Chattanooga several times, locating on Market Street then Jack’s Alley and finally on Glass Street.
During this time, little Jerry Sear was growing up. “When I was a baby, my mother took me to the store in a baby buggy,” says Sear. “As I got older, I had jobs to do – I swept floors, cleaned windows, took out the garbage.”
As Sear learned the business, he progressed to waiting on customers and running the register. When he graduated from high school, his parents sent him to college at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he earned a degree in business management. He graduated in 1964 and got married the same year. By that time, his parents had closed their Chattanooga store and opened a shoe store in LaFayette, followed a couple of years later by another dry goods store not far from the shoe store.
Sear settled into the family business. “LaFayette was a booming town at that time,” he says. “The carpet mills and other places provided a lot of employment. Our shoe store was on the Square. All the stores on the Square were occupied.”
In 1967, the family closed their dry goods store in LaFayette and moved their shoe store to its present location in Fort Oglethorpe. “We started out with just the main part of the store,” says Sear, “then we kept expanding.”
Fort Oglethorpe was only 18 years old as a city when Sear’s Shoe Store opened its doors on Lafayette Road. “There was a lot of traffic then,” says Sear. “And a lot of stores up and down the road – three grocery stores, including Shop Rite and Goodlets, Western Auto, Redford Dime, Hank’s Furniture, My Place, Roy’s Grill, Taco Bell. There was a men’s clothing store and a ladies’ dress shop, a drug store, a florist. The electric company had an office on the street and the post office was just a block or so down the street.”
Sear has made a name for his shoe store by carrying the latest styles but also by catering to customers who need hard-to-find sizes – shoes in very large or very small sizes and widths. He also carries over 250 brands of shoes for almost every imaginable occasion.
“Our work shoes and hunting boots are big sellers, our athletic shoes, of course,” says Sear. “We carry all sorts of dress shoes, casual shoes, sandals, cleats for sports. We special order shoes for people.” The store even carries ballet shoes, slippers and rain boots, designer pocketbooks, socks, shoe care supplies, belts, cowboy hats and all manner of other odds and ends.
Sear contracts with many industrial work places that give their employees vouchers for shoes. He offers his shoes at discount prices and runs regular sales in addition to that. Sear’s Shoe Store billboards dot the landscape around North Georgia and Chattanooga and the store boasts a customer base that extends over three states.
Sear attends numerous trade shows each year, including ones in Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas and New York, to keep up on the latest styles and trends for his customers, but he’s the first to admit that one thing hasn’t changed about his store – it still looks like something out of the sixties, inside and out. But what goes around comes around – today, with the popular retro movement, he can call his store funky.
“I want my money to go into more shoes for my customers,” says Sear, “not fancy fixtures and decorations.”
Over the years, Sear has expanded his store into spaces attached to his original shop, and ten years ago, he opened a clearance store several doors down from his main store.
What’s changed over the years? “The bypass killed traffic on Lafayette Road,” says Sear. “And the internet has put a dent in the sales of a lot of small businesses. Shoes are more comfortable now, but they don’t last as long because they’re made out of softer materials.”
But, says Sear, “We can still offer people a lot they can’t find most other places – personal service, a much wider variety of shoes than you can find in most chain stores. People can come here, try their shoes on, walk around in them, make sure they’re the right ones for them. We have employees who have been with us for a long time – they know shoes and can help people find what works for them.” Sear’s Shoe Store celebrates 50 years in Fort Oglethorpe this year. “We’re one of the oldest businesses in town,” says Sear. “We’re happy to still be serving the community with good customer service and the latest in shoes, boots and other footwear. We’re proud that we work to have something for everyone, including folks who have a hard time finding shoes in their size other places.”