What Happened to Sears?

Like Kmart, chain store Sears has seen a serious decline to the point where the brand is a fraction of what it once was. While some brick-and-mortar stores remain, it’s not looking particularly healthy. Just what happened to Sears and is it really over for the chain?

Here’s What Happened to Sears and Why It’s Struggling

Sears, Roebuck and Co, known typically as Sears, is mostly struggling because of competition from other retailers, such as Walmart and Best Buy — though some questionable business decisions didn’t help. It was also bought by the same parent as Kmart in 2004, which had itself only recently recovered from bankruptcy proceedings at that time.

Sears began life as a mail-order service. It was founded in 1892 by businessmen Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck. It started opening retail locations in the 1920s and at its peak had around 3,500 stores, ranging from smaller mall outlets to larger department stores (via Castus Global).

The chain was so successful that it ordered the construction of the massive Sears Tower, now Willis Tower, to serve as its Chicago HQ. And, for 25 years, it was the tallest building in the word, eclipsing even the Empire State Building.

By the time the building lost its crown to the Malaysia-based Petronas Towers in 1998, Sears was in serious trouble. As explained by Smithsonian Magazine, the chain was losing out to massive, big-box stores like Walmart and in an effort to recover, Sears “…took many different tacks under a series of problematic leaders, losing sight in the process of its traditional niche.” For example, it opened a financial arm, which it later ended up closing.

As for competing with big-box stores, the company opened a series of Sears Grand stores, designed to do just that. But that wasn’t enough to halt the decline, and Kmart bought it in 2004. By the time 2010 rolled around, the brand was operating at a significant loss and by 2017, the chain was down from 3,500 stores to just 695.

Sears/Kmart went on to sell several non-core operations, but declared bankrupcy in 2018. Sears CEO Eddie Lampert managed to bring Sears through, or at least part of it, (via the Wall Street Journal), keeping 400 stores open.

But that wasn’t enough, and Sears continued to decline, to the point where Sears axed its Sears Hometown sub-chain. There are now just nine Sears stores left in the US, and while the company is in a slightly better state than Kmart, it’s likely we’ll see those stores close sooner or later.

The story of Sears is one of a company that failed to keep up with a changing retail environment, and made some poor business decisions in its efforts to compete with big-box retailers and the online revolution.