A business once deemed the 'second Amazon' went from a billion dollar business to bankrupt thanks to a few poor mistakes.
When it comes to the largest retailers in the world, the big three of Walmart, Amazon, and Costco dominate the market. With Jeff Bezos being the second richest man in the world, you might think Amazon is the biggest, but this isn't the case. Walmart is currently the biggest retailer in the world, with a reported 2024 revenue of $648 billion. Amazon is closing the gap with a September report boasting an impressive $620 billion revenue and an 11.93% increase year-over-year.
It could've been a very different landscape once upon a time, with one company dubbed the Amazon of yesteryear but now largely having vanished from existence.
The story of Sears is a tragic one, remembering the U.S. department store chain that went from being the largest retailer in the country to having just nine outlets left in 2024.
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You might've heard of the Sears catalog, once offering jewelry and watches before diversifying its product line to include everything from mail-order home kits to heroin (yes, it was once legal to buy), guns to tombstones.
At its peak, Sears had 3,500 stores, and in 1972, it was valued at $18 billion. In today's money, that's a whopping $135 billion.
Despite partnering with IBM to launch the email, database, and internet service Prodigy in 1984, Sears failed to get in on the internet boom. It also delivered the Discover Card in 1985, but critics think this distracted management away from the 'core' of Sears while ignoring the potential of the World Wide Web.
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With Prodigy arriving a decade before Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, the potential was there.
Sadly, as the industry moved away from brick-and-mortar stores to online, Sears started to crumble. After 100 years of releasing its catalog which became known as the 'Big Book', Sears stopped printing it in 1993 due to a lack of profitability.
Instead of keeping customer lists updated in the aftermath, Sears had to build a lot of its databases from scratch when it launched its e-commerce site in 1997.
Considering Sears.com gave the option of in-store pickup long before the likes of Target, and even had virtual models to help you shop for clothes online, it should’ve been an easy win.
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For whatever reason, Sears put most of its efforts into financial services instead of online shopping, while Amazon becoming the market leader in 2005 didn't seem to spark much change.
The same year saw a merger with Kmart as Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert promised he would prioritize e-commerce over physical stores. It led to a vicious cycle where department stores grew shabbier and traffic still wasn't being driven to Sears.com.
This was the beginning of the end of Sears, and by 2010, it was no longer profitable. By the time Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018, it had a $134 million debt payment due that day.
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Sears.com is still active for online purchases, but in a final tragedy, the Sears store in Tukwila, Washington, will close its doors forever on December 15, 2024. This leaves the grand total of Sears stores as seven in the mainland USA and one in Puerto Rico. Considering Sears sales once accounted for 1% of the entire U.S. economy in 1969, it's a tragic fall from grace. Alas, Sears' loss has been Amazon's gain.