Sears a success story that went downhill

 In 2026, There is only under 10 Sears stores in the United States. From thousands of stores all over the country to nothing as the company had a massive loss closing locations. Sears and Roebuck started in 1893 in the Chicago area and built itself up as one of the dominant players with standalone stores and mall stores as the suburban landscape was booming in the 1950's moving forward. Sears also relied on in house store brands to help boost sales such as Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools, Toughskins child clothing, Die Hard Batteries for cars which came out their auto center which had solo locations or attached to the actual Sears store off the highway or a mall. And of course Sears had its annual catalog for years. You had a chance to look at the holiday toys or looked in the lingerie section which was a few pages long. Also brands like Discover Card, Allstate, Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker were part of Sears expanding network. As the new century was coming, Sears continued but the downward spiral came without warning. In the mid 2000's Sears brought on Eddie Lampert came on as the companies CEO and things weren't right in his tenure. Sears had a merger with another chain which also dominated the 20th Century which was Kmart both stores had a rapid decline in sales which caused both to shutter stores as Online shopping was getting more popular and Amazon getting off the ground with cheaper deals on items. Sears and Kmart were in big trouble as the 2010's started. every year Sears closed tons of stores all over the country including ones in my state of NJ.

Currently in Nj, there is no Sears locations. The last one to close was Jersey City's at Newport center in 2024 in which Dick's and Primark replaced which other malls had Primark, round 1 or Dick's, Dave and Busters and Stew Leonard's replacing Sears locations at a few malls I visited and five are abandoned which is Woodbridge Center, Hamilton Mall, Quakerbridge Mall, Nanuet,NY and the now closed Livingston Mall. Memories of Sears for me was getting my school clothes as a kid there while my grandmother bought her Kenmore appliances that lasted for decades and myself buying my first computer there a Compaq presario even bought my ps2 system there. There was more for your life at Sears but today not so much as both them and Kmart are so close to being gone forever. Brands like Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard live on as they were sold off to Advanced Auto Parts for DieHard

                                                        Abandoned Store in Nanuet, NY