How One of America’s Oldest Retailers Unraveled

Sears Holdings Corp. has seen a lot in its 125 years – the question now is whether it will live to see its 126th birthday. For much of the 20th century, value shopping in America was synonymous with Sears, which had its roots in mail-order. Each new edition of its catalog was like an update of the consumer bible -- essentially a pre-internet version of Amazon. Sears became the biggest U.S. retailer by revenue and was in the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 75 years, starting in 1924. But the consumer world has been overturned with the rise of the web, the decline of the shopping center and rapidly evolving buying habits. Now, the struggling U.S. chain has filed for protection from creditors with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Here’s a look back at how an American icon went from small-town retailer to leading department store to perhaps the next vacancy at a mall near you.

Source: Sears Archives, Bloomberg