Historian Louis Hyman wrote this company’s sales method undid the power of the “consumerism of Jim Crow”

On Friday, February 27, 2026, Jeopardy! presented a Final Jeopardy clue in the Companies category that challenged contestants to link a historian’s analysis to a specific business. The clue read: “Historian Louis Hyman wrote this company’s sales method undid the power of the ‘consumerism of Jim Crow.’” The correct response, in the show’s answer-format style, was: What is Sears?

This question asks for insight into both American business history and social history. Establishing the relationship between a major retail company and racial dynamics in the Jim Crow era adds complexity beyond typical corporate trivia. The selection of Sears points to a notable moment when a company’s sales practices intersected with broader societal structures.

What Is Sears?

The answer to this Final Jeopardy clue was What is Sears? This response identifies a specific American retailer that played a significant role in the nation’s commercial landscape for much of the 20th century.

Founded in the late nineteenth century, Sears grew into one of the most recognizable retail brands in the United States. Its mail-order catalog extended the reach of consumer goods to customers who lived far from urban centers, ultimately reshaping American consumption. Sears’ innovative distribution strategy was instrumental in building a national market well before the era of big-box stores and online sales.

Sears’ Sales Method and Its Historical Significance

The historian Louis Hyman highlighted the significance of Sears’ catalog in altering existing patterns of consumption under Jim Crow. The Jim Crow era involved legally enforced racial segregation in the American South, including restrictions and informal practices that shaped everyday life and economic interactions for people of color. Traditional retail environments often reflected the racial hierarchy of the time, with African Americans subject to discriminatory practices when shopping in general stores or department stores.

Hyman’s observations underscore how Sears’ mail-order system bypassed local retail gatekeepers. By providing direct access to goods through catalogs delivered by mail, Sears enabled consumers — including Black customers in segregated communities — to purchase merchandise without entering physically segregated stores or negotiating with individual storekeepers who might impose discriminatory conditions. It meant that customers could order products with a degree of autonomy and privacy not always available in local retail settings.

The Sears Catalog and Consumer Autonomy

The Sears catalog was more than a shopping tool. It became a mechanism for accessing goods on terms that were more uniform across different regions of the United States. For many rural Americans, this represented a departure from the “general store” model in which a shopkeeper’s control over inventory, prices, and credit shaped consumer experiences. In the Jim Crow South, this control took on explicitly racialized dimensions, reinforcing social hierarchies and limiting the economic autonomy of Black customers.

Through this lens, the catalog can be seen as disrupting established power dynamics by reducing reliance on local intermediaries. Catalog buyers could choose from a vast range of items at standardized prices and could avoid face-to-face interactions that might be hostile or discriminatory. This development did not eliminate systemic racism or end Jim Crow policies. Instead, it provided a commercial workaround that diminished some of the economic leverage held by local establishments within racially segregated societies.

Broader Context of Sears’ Commercial Innovation

Understanding why Sears was the correct response requires situating the company within broader trends in American retail and consumer culture. Sears began as a mail-order business in the late 1800s and expanded into brick-and-mortar department stores across the country in the twentieth century. Its catalogs offered an unprecedented range of products, from clothing and household goods to tools and farm equipment, and became a fixture in many American homes.

By the mid-1900s, Sears was a dominant presence in both rural and urban markets. Its approach to merchandising and credit anticipated later developments in mass retailing. While the use of consumer credit and standardized pricing would come to define modern retail practices, the historical footprint of the catalog — especially as interpreted by historians like Louis Hyman — provides insight into how changes in sales methods could have cascading effects on social relations.

Conclusion: Linking Business Practice and Social Impact

The February 27, 2026 Final Jeopardy clue brought together business history and social history by referencing Louis Hyman’s interpretation of Sears’ sales methods in relation to racial discrimination. The correct answer, What is Sears?, reflects how a company’s strategy for reaching consumers had unintended consequences for the social fabric of the United States in the Jim Crow era.

This example illustrates the way commercial innovations can reshape markets and, at times, challenge entrenched social barriers. In the case of Sears, the mail-order catalog opened up access to consumer goods for many who had previously faced significant limitations, demonstrating that retail methods can have implications that go beyond mere economics into the realm of cultural and social change.