I was once flown into a town in the middle of Alaska which existed I think due to mining, since abandoned, though when I was there there were about a dozen residents including a postmistress. There were several sizable houses there and I was told they'd been ordered as kits out of the Sears catalog. Some catalog!

When I was a lad, My big birthday present (combined with Bar Mitzvah from the family) was an electric typewriter, clearly made by Smith Corona like Mom's, only with a Sears logo on it. My father's best friend had told us of the "Sears rule" i.e. don't buy anything from Sears with moving parts. Accordingly, while still in the store, we opened the typewriter box and unpackaged the typewriter, which weighed a ton, unfolded the cord and plugged it in. The typewriter did not work!

Got it sorted and used it for years. I still have a Kenmore dishwasher which has worked flawlessly for many years despite having a lot of plastic in it.