There was a time when Sears was as big as it gets in the retail game in the United States, and having the store’s catalog in hand … well, 30 years ago that was about like hoping on Amazon or any of today’s modern online mega retailers.
But times have been changing fast for Sears.
Earlier this year, the one-time giant was down to just eight locations, and now eight is down to five, according to a new report from The Street.
To put that in perspective: Sears once had 3,500 stores, making it the largest retailer in the country.
“The company has been on a death spiral for well over a decade,” former Sears executive Mark Cohen told CBS. “It lost sight of the fact that change is a constant.”
Still, considering the retailer’s footprint at one time, the idea that just five remain is likely a shock to many Americans of a certain age.
Kmart actually purchased Sears in an $11 billion merger back in 2005, but the stores were not able to keep up with the retail competition that came from the likes of Walmart and Amazon. Sears filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and then bought out of that in 2019. The struggles have continued since, though, and the retailer is just hanging on by a thread.
For folks looking for a bit of nostalgia and a trip to the store before it is no more, the final five Sears locations are in Coral Gables, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Braintree, Massachusetts; Concord, California and El Paso, Texas.
