Built America's first mail-order everything store, then brilliantly pivoted to retail before the automobile killed catalogs. Dominated suburbanization with trusted house brands like Craftsman and Kenmore. By the 1960s, controlled 1% of U.S. GDP — unmatched retail dominance.
Discounters like Walmart and category killers like Toys R Us squeezed from both ends. Instead of competing, Sears became a conglomerate buying brokerages and insurance arms. Hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert took over in 2005, ran it from Florida via spreadsheet, spent $5.8B on buybacks instead of stores, and stripped $2B+ in assets for his fund.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. Over $11B in liabilities. Creditors sued Lampert's fund for asset stripping, settled for $175M. A 132-year icon liquidated while Amazon became what Sears could have been.
