45 Facts About Sears

Sears was based in the Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995, and is currently headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Sears announced in 2021 that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex.

Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Stewartville, Minnesota to a wealthy family which moved to nearby Spring Valley.

Sears moved across the state to work as a railroad station agent in North Redwood, then Minneapolis.

Sears purchased them and sold them at a low price to the station agents, making a profit.

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In 1889, Sears sold his business for $100, 000 and relocated to Iowa, planning to be a rural banker.

Sears built an opposite business model by offering in their catalogs a larger selection of products at published prices.

Sears offered Roebuck's half of the company to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum, who in turn brought in his brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald, whom Sears owed money.

Sears traded under the ticker symbol S and was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1924 to 1999.

In 1906, Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower in Chicago's West Side.

The complex served as corporate headquarters until 1973 when the Sears Tower was completed and served as the base of the mail-order catalog business until 1995.

Sears resigned from the presidency in 1908 due to declining health, with Rosenwald named president and chairman of the board and taking on full control.

Sears was a pioneer in creating department stores that catered to men and women.

In 1933, Sears issued the first of its Christmas catalogs known as the "Sears Wishbook", a catalog featuring toys and gifts, separate from the annual Christmas Catalog.

Sears opened its first store in Mexico City in 1947; the Mexican stores would later spin off into Sears Mexico, which in 2020 operated more than 75 stores across Mexico.

In July 2021, it was announced that Sears Mexico is considering renaming their stores to distance itself from its failing former parent in the United States.

Sears began to diversify in the 1930s, creating Allstate Insurance Company in 1931 and placing Allstate representatives in its stores in 1934.

Sears purchased David Bradley to manufacture farm and lawn equipment.

In 1974, Sears completed the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, which became the world's tallest building, a title it took from the former Twin Towers in New York.

Sears moved to the new Prairie Stone Business Park in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, between 1993 and 1995.

The Sears Centre is a 10, 001-seat multi-purpose arena located in Hoffman Estates adjacent to the Prairie Stone campus.

Sears catalog became known in the industry as "the Consumers' Bible".

Sears sold to foreign customers, such as after the American occupation of Greenland in World War II, Philippines, among others, when locals ordered from catalogs left by soldiers.

Sears spun off its financial services arm, which included brokerage business Dean Witter Reynolds and Discover Card.

Sears later acquired hardware chain Orchard Supply Hardware in 1996 and started home improvement store The Great Indoors in 1997.

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In 1998, Sears announced it had sold the remnants of Western Auto to Roanoke-based Advance Auto Parts.

Sears Holdings continued to produce specialty catalogs and reintroduced a smaller version of the Holiday Wish Book in 2007.

In 2003, Sears sold its U S retail credit card operation to Citibank.

The new company started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange as SHLD; Sears sold its single-letter ticker symbol 'S' in the New York Stock Exchange that it had held since 1910 to Sprint Corporation.

Sears declined from more than 3, 500 physical stores to 695 US stores from 2010 to 2017.

Sears spent much of 2014 and 2015 selling off portions of its balance sheet; namely, Lands' End and its stake in Sears Canada, one of the biggest e-commerce players in Canada, with Can$505 million in sales in 2015—more than Walmart and others who had begun pushing aggressively into online sales, such as Canadian Tire.

Sears stated that the company was looking to focus on becoming a more tech-driven retailer.

Sears Holdings had lost a total of US$7 billion in the four years to 2015.

Sears believed the membership scheme would enhance repeat business and customer loyalty in the long term.

In May 2018, Sears announced it had formed a "special committee" to explore the sale of Kenmore.

Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018, ahead of a $134 million debt payment due that day.

On November 23, 2018, Sears Holdings released a list of 505 stores, including 266 Sears stores, that were for sale in the bankruptcy process, while all others would hold liquidation sales.

On January 16, 2019, Sears Holdings announced it would remain open after Lampert won a bankruptcy auction for the company with an offer to keep about 400 stores open.

Also that month, Sears closed its store at Windward Mall in Kaneohe, Hawaii, and its store at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois, making it the first post-bankruptcy closure for the brand since being bought by ESL.

In September 2021, Sears announced that it would close more stores, including the last Sears store in New York City.

The New York City Sears closed by November 24, 2021, and will potentially be redeveloped.

On January 19, 2022, Sears shuttered the remaining 15 Sears Auto Centers in the United States.

Sears claimed the new base wage, often constituting a substantial cut in pay, was done "to be successful in this highly competitive environment".

In early October 2007, Sears cut commission rates for employees in some departments to between 0.

In March 2019, Sears claimed that it was ending life insurance benefits for an undisclosed number of its 90, 000 retirees.

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