Shopping at Montgomery Ward - Life in America

A look back at Montgomery Ward through the years.

The world's first great mail-order retail company, Montgomery Ward was founded in Chicago in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward.

The slogan adopted in 1875, “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back,” proved to be appealing to consumers, who used the catalogs to order all sorts of goods, including clothing, barbed wire, saddles, windmills, and even steam engines.

Montgomery Ward’s headquarters was located on Michigan Avenue, in Chicago Illinois.

During the 1920s, Ward began opening up retail stores to exhibit catalog merchandise.

During the 1950s, the company was very slow to respond to the migration of the American middle class to suburbia. While its competitors Sears, JCPenney, and Macy's established new anchor stores in suburban shopping malls.

In 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years.

In 1997, Montgomery Ward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after more competition from Walmart and Target.

Montgomery Ward was liquidated by the end of May 2001, ending a 129-year enterprise.

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