By Matt Underwood Sears will soon be down to one California store, and it’s hard not to feel a pang of nostalgia thinking about it. The simple fact is, Sears, once a retail behemoth, is shrinking, and the landscape of American shopping is changing before our very eyes. It’s like watching a piece of history slowly fade away.
It’s a sad story of missed opportunities, of a company that could have been so much more. Back when the internet was still a nascent idea, Sears had all the infrastructure in place for mail order. Think of the Sears catalogs, practically a staple in most homes, and imagine them seamlessly transitioned online. They could have easily dominated the e-commerce scene, becoming the Amazon of their day. But they didn’t. They bet on brick-and-mortar, dismissing the internet as a fleeting trend. What a misstep!
Then came the era of Eddie Lampert, whose management style seems to have been inspired by the principles of Ayn Rand. He pitted departments within Sears against each other, fostering competition instead of collaboration. The internal struggles, the lack of cohesive vision, this contributed directly to the company’s decline. It’s like a business version of a Hunger Games, but nobody wins.
The stories of those who remember Sears are often tinged with sadness. The customer service in the last locations is bad, with employees that seem to have given up. Memories of childhoods spent wandering the aisles, of finding everything from clothes to tools to appliances, now give way to the reality of empty shelves and a palpable sense of decline. It’s like visiting a ghost town, a reminder of what was, now reduced to a fraction of its former glory.
The failures went beyond simply missing the e-commerce boom. The company also struggled to adapt to the changing retail landscape. Competitors like Walmart and, of course, Amazon, were nimbler, more agile, and better equipped to meet the evolving needs of consumers. The merger with Kmart in 2005, rather than being a rescue, was an ill-fated move that further weakened the company.
The history is a cautionary tale about corporate greed and shortsightedness. Lampert’s actions, including moving Craftsman tool production out of the US, severely damaged the brand’s reputation, one of the company’s main draws. It is a reminder that even iconic brands can fall. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018, a stark illustration of how quickly fortunes can change in the business world.
Sears’ problems could be described as the “perfect storm” of bad decisions. They underestimated the internet, they failed to innovate, and they were saddled with aging stores and a sprawling catalog operation. They lost sight of what made them great. While Amazon expanded and adapted, Sears remained stuck in the past, unable or unwilling to embrace the future.
There’s a thread of irony in the story, too. Sears was one of the first companies to target Black consumers with catalog sales, offering an alternative to discriminatory practices in traditional retail. Now, the company is struggling, a shadow of its former self.
The downfall is not just about bad management; it’s also about a failure to understand the changing consumer. Sears’ rivals were able to understand customer’s needs, while Sears was slow to adapt, leading to its inevitable decline.
As we look ahead, it’s difficult not to wonder about the future of other giants. Will Amazon, with its own set of challenges, face a similar fate in the decades to come? Only time will tell. However, the story of Sears serves as a reminder that even the most successful companies are vulnerable to change and that the ability to adapt is key to survival.