General Discussion

ProfessorGAC

(75,979 posts)

41. You Ain't Kidding!

Sun Dec 28, 2025, 03:08 PM

Dec 28

• They had over a century of customers buying without touching.
• They offered practically anything through the catalog.
• The had one of the first digital financial platforms.
• They had their own bank & finance/credit structure.
• They had a mountain of name recognition.

What did they do?
Sold off the digital platform, dumped catalog sales, narrowed their selection, sold off the bank, and focused on brick & mortar.
They should have been Amazon before Amazon existed.
It should be a business school study on what upper management shouldn't do.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

hurl

43 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Sears on verge of fading away after closing more than 3,000 stores [View all] Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Dec 27 OP

I find it incredibly sad. hlthe2b Dec 27 #1

I loved the sears catalog UpInArms Dec 27 #2

one bathrm in house, yikes! msongs Dec 27 #11

Trust me you can survive 😄 zeusdogmom Dec 27 #23

We had 5 in the house with 1 bathroom, dad would be in there dem4decades Dec 28 #33

Most houses had only one bathroom until maybe the '60s. Ocelot II Dec 28 #34

Sears was a victim of bad management Keepthesoulalive Dec 27 #3

You Ain't Kidding! ProfessorGAC Dec 28 #41

I worked for Sears when I was moniss Dec 27 #4

When we were first married (dinosaurs still roamed the earth), Sears was where you went to get everything. Vinca Dec 27 #5

Same here. We bought appliances, tools and housewares there until the mid-80s. Ocelot II Dec 28 #35

Funny, I was thinking about this again and it occurred to me that when I was a teenager, I'm pretty sure Vinca Dec 28 #37

We bought a lot of Craftsman tools, which was Sears' store brand. Ocelot II Dec 28 #39

The acquisition by K Mart was not a very good idea MichMan Dec 27 #6

Was Kmart sandbagged with a goal in mind? bucolic_frolic Dec 27 #7

Lampert Lost A Few Hundred Million.... ProfessorGAC Dec 28 #42

General Motors UpInArms Dec 27 #17

Some of us may remember using a outhouse with a Sears catalog Kaleva Dec 27 #8

Sear grew into a marketing suburban powerhouse after WWII bucolic_frolic Dec 27 #9

Sears should have been looking Greg_In_SF Dec 27 #10

Yep, they had everything in place to give them a leg up on it misanthrope Dec 27 #15

Yup. Sears should have been Amazon. Captain Stern Dec 28 #25

I just read yesterday that they co owned Prodigy back in the day along with IBM fujiyamasan Dec 28 #26

Wasn't it Sears that had the Ayn Rand-worshipping dickhead CEO Aristus Dec 27 #12

That's makes no business sense to me JI7 Dec 27 #14

Or to anyone else with a functioning brain. Aristus Dec 27 #19

Eddie Lampert fujiyamasan Dec 28 #27

Also asking how they can be a CEO anywhere after blowing it. The Madcap Dec 28 #31

Didn't they go out of business a few years ago ? JI7 Dec 27 #13

I sure thought so. News to me. B.See Dec 27 #16

Sears did themselves in. I recalled when I worked for JCPenney's, that Sears, the opposite anchor store in our local SWBTATTReg Dec 27 #18

The Sears Christmas Catelog was the boomers Google Norbert Dec 27 #20

Loved that. maveric Dec 28 #43

Sears holiday portraits were a tradition Danmel Dec 27 #21

I thought they already went out of business. Jacson6 Dec 27 #22

Sears went down not to one bad decision... Xolodno Dec 27 #24

A series of bad decisions made over the span of decades fujiyamasan Dec 28 #28

Sears catalogs were... BH liberal Dec 28 #29

I had no idea they still existed. GoCubsGo Dec 28 #30

Successful thriving public companies don't sell out to vulture capitalists MichMan Dec 28 #32

Don't forget the Trump connection.... LPBBEAR Dec 28 #36

Fascinating! Sears Roebuck & Co. Changed How America Shopped MineralMan Dec 28 #38

It's really sad and it didn't have to be this way. They were intentionally gutted and destroyed themaguffin Dec 28 #40