Remembering Sears, the one-time retail giant

One-time retail leader Sears doesn’t look like it’s going to be in business much longer. The struggling company recently announced another round of store closings.
One of the stores set to close is an anchor at the Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills, Illinois. I worked at that store in the catalog department in 1979 and 1980. I still have my Sears name tag somewhere.
Sears built its brand as a catalog firm. What products it didn’t have available in its retail stores you could probably find in its thick-book catalog.
In the part of the store I worked people would pick up the products they ordered by phone, mail or in person. I’d retrieve their packages and check them out at the register. I’d also call customers at home to let them know that their orders had arrived.
Sears missed a huge opportunity to dominate online when the commercial internet arrived. It had much of the physical infrastructure in place. Instead, Amazon and Walmart rose up to grab that business.
Chicago-based Sears ended its catalog business in 1993 because of sinking sales and profits, just before the consumer internet took off. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in July 1994.
Sears wasted away because it failed to adapt to changing consumer tastes and technology. No enterprise can rest on past accomplishments. It must be willing to embrace change.

Related articles:

Sears, Kmart parent company to close another 63 stores as sales crisis continues (USA Today; May 31, 2018)

It was once the biggest retailer in the US. 125 years later, Sears looks a lot different (CNBC; May 18, 2018)

Photo: Store-closing sale at the Sears in the Dover Mall in Dover, Delaware, in May 2018. (Photo on Creative Commons from Dough4872 on Wikipedia entry on Sears.)