Sears

This article is about the American chain of department stores. For the defunct Canadian chain of department stores, see Sears Canada. For the Mexican chain of department stores, see Sears Mexico. For other uses, see Sears (disambiguation).

Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1886 (138 years ago) (1886) (as R.W. Sears Watch Company)[1]
1892 (132 years ago) (1892)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Founders
Headquarters
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
,
U.S.
Number of locations
9 (September 2024)[2]
Area served
United States
Products
  • Clothing
  • footwear
  • bedding
  • bath
  • furniture
  • jewelry
  • beauty products
  • electronics
  • appliances
  • housewares
  • tools
  • toys
  • auto repair
RevenueDecrease US$13.8 billion (2016)[3]
Decrease −US$1.448 billion (2016)[3]
Parent
Websitesears.com

Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears (/sɪərz/ SEERZ),[5] is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago.[6] In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States.[7] In 2018, it was the 31st-largest.[8] After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018.[9] It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.[10]

Sears was based in the Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995,[11] and was later headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois from 1993 until 2021, the year when it announced that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex.[12] On December 12, 2022, Sears Authorized Hometown Stores, LLC, and affiliated debtor Sears Hometown, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and on December 26 announced the liquidation of the 115 largely owner-operated Hometown stores.[13][14]

As of September 2024, there are nine Sears stores remaining, with eight in the mainland U.S. and one location in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.[2]

  1. ^ "Sears – History & Facts". Britannica. December 14, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "How Many Sears Stores Are Left?". September 26, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Sears Holdings Corporation (2016). 2016 Form 10-K, Sears Holding Corporation (PDF) (Report). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. p. 41. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  4. ^ "ESL Investments Completes Acquisition of Sears Holdings' Assets" (Press release). ESL Investments. February 11, 2019. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2019 – via Business Wire.
  5. ^ "What Is the Official Name of Sears?". December 9, 2020. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  6. ^ Emmet, Boris; Jeuck, John (1950). Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-2262-0710-0.
  7. ^ "1990 Sales Lift Wal-mart Into Top Spot". Sun-Sentinel. Delray Beach, Florida. February 15, 1991. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  8. ^ "2017 Top 100 Retailers". Stores. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  9. ^ Corkery, Michael (October 14, 2018). "Sears, the Original Everything Store, Files for Bankruptcy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
  10. ^ Kapner, Suzanne; Rizzo, Lillian; Biswas, Soma (January 16, 2019). "Sears to Stay Open, after Edward Lampert Prevails in Bankruptcy Auction". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  11. ^ "History of Sears, Roebuck, and Company and the Willis (Sears) Tower". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  12. ^ Channick, Robert. "Sears plans to sell Hoffman Estates headquarters". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Valinsky was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Last Sears in Michigan preparing to close". Tri-County Times. January 3, 2023. Retrieved October 25, 2024.