What Really Happened to Sears

You might think you know the story of the downfall of Sears, but you really don’t.

A former Sears store in Maplewood, MN. Photo by Dennis Sanders.

Updated January 5, 2022

For over a century, Sears was one of this nation’s leading retailers. In the 1920s, you could literally buy a house from Sears. The postwar years saw Sears moving into malls across the land. KMart started in 1962, the same year…