You’da thunk that stores like Sears and J.C. Penny, with their very strong catalog sales business model, would have been ideally poised to take advantage of the eCommerce boom of the ‘90s and 2000’s.
Basically digitize the Sears catalog and put it online, and accept online orders instead of mail or phone orders.
But no, they were both mismanaged right into the crapper.
JCP and Sears also enjoyed the very best locations as the towns grew around them. When they close a store it alters the landscape.
Yes, but they had offices in that really nice office tower in Chicago. Think about how much value that brought to shareholders.
Isn't that the case, though! Sears would be one of the most valuable companies on earth and Amazon would be selling only books.
My mother-in-law described how her family would look forward to their annual purchase from Sears arriving in the fall in preparation for a rough mid-west winter.