7: The Shelby Shopping Guide

🏠 Sears Archive Home  |   ◀️ Previous Chapter  |   ▶️ Next Chapter

The Shelby Shopping Guide was born in 1960, with a logo suggesting a look to the future and car culture. The type used in this 8-page newsprint publication glances back to early typewriter fonts, with a comfortable “made at home” appearance.

Ralph Sears fashioned this new publication after a similar shopping guide his father created in Lincoln, Nebraska. That earlier guide offered depression-era homes with prices of everyday supplies. Ralph and Marcia brought the idea with them to Shelby County, Alabama in 1948, where the idea lay dormant for a decade.

The businesses supporting WBYE were open to the idea of advertising in this new publication.

Printed at the Times Printing Company in Montevallo, the half-sized paper was mailed at the post office in Montevallo and distributed by bulk mail across the county. These early editions are a glimpse into what Shelby Countians bought and what stores offered to sell:
• A rebuilt chainsaw at Seaman Timber Company
• A ten-year-old Ford
• Lard in a four pound package; oleomargarine in two pounds.
• Clip art on page 4 of the Feb. 10, 1960 edition promotes a 'slenderizing home salon' with a massage belt.
• The half page ad with a WBYE microphone on page 3 encourages readers to listen to "The Best in Radio in Central Alabama".