alt Hacker NewsOnly 5 Sears stores remain in the U.S.
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The fact that Amazon exists is a testament to the stunning mismanagement of Sears’ corporate leadership in the 90s and early 2000s. They had all the ingredients and instead simply set the company on fire.
At one point Sears owned an ISP, a bank, and a nationwide stock tracking and distribution system.
They were Amazon before Amazon, but just didn’t realize it.
Intentionally destroyed to get access to its real estate. I dunno how the CEO is not behind bars for what he did.
Since we're reminiscing, I remember Sears sold a "Sears-version" of the Atari 2600. I forget what it was called, but it was identical to the 2600.
My 9 year old brain was convinced that it was somehow inferior to the Atari-branded version of the 2600 and I was sad when my parents got me the Sears version for Christmas (it was probably cheaper than the Atari, I can't remember).
It didn't take me long, however, to realize it was the same thing with a different logo.
I always love to remember the description of Sears in "The people's republic of Walmart".
Mildly related, but I think this is a good time for our yearly moment of silence for Radioshack.
The OLD Radioshack, obviously.
Meanwhile Sears is still thriving in Mexico under different ownership.
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The Internet Archive has scans of Sears catalogs from when it was a major mail-order retailer. For example:
1911: https://archive.org/details/sears-roebuck-catalog-122-spring...
1922: https://archive.org/details/SearsRoebuckAndCoCatalog1922_201...
When I was young, they were especially known for their tools:
1974/1975: https://archive.org/details/SearsCraftsmanPowerAndHandTools1...
More here:
https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28sears+catalog%29...