As their name suggests, Firestone Complete Auto Care offers tires, batteries, oil changes, tune-ups, and other car-related services. And unless you're planning to put a set of Firestone radials under the tree, these establishments wouldn't seem to be the first choice for holiday shoppers. That's what malls and merchants (and the internet) are for.
But things were much different years and years ago. Why, just look at the holiday displays at Firestone stores in the 1940s. I don't know the exact location in Memphis of this one, but it was typical of their stores across the city — and country.
The window display entices customers with "Gifts For All" and sure enough, you can take your pick of toys and bicycles and scooters (described as "juvenile vehicles") and clocks and radios and all sorts of appliances. Since the window banner mentions robes, I presume Firestone also sold sleepwear and other clothing.
Once inside (below), customers could use the convenient "Lay-Away plan" and bring home even more bicycles, tricycles, radios of all shapes and sizes (including massive floor models), along with toasters, waffle irons, blenders, and other kitchen gadgets. Barely visible at the far right of the photo is what seems to be a Lionel train set.
But Firestone didn't forget its "core" customers, either. Stacked above the windows are neatly wrapped "Air Chief" tires, with hundreds more visible in the background. Not an iPhone in sight, but maybe they were displayed in a separate room.
PHOTOS COURTESY MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY ROOM, BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY.
