Within six months, the young Richard Sears had made $5,000.[3] He realized he was onto something, so he left his job at the railroad, moved to the big city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and hung out a shingle advertising his watch company. He was twenty-eight years old, and this moment in retail history was only possible because of trains. Railroads clipped across the continent with enough speed to make purchasing things via mail order practical for the first time, and along with the rail lines went many miles of telegraph cable, which facilitated sending orders far faster than waiting for mailed
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