Sears is another company that failed to embrace opportunity. It was positioned to change an already large mail order business and trusted name into an Amazon type model, but instead, they fixated on being America’s mall anchor store. Young people today have no idea what a Sears catalogue even was.
back in the 80s when they stopped selling guns, Sears started the long downhill spiral.
their tools are the only thing that kept them afloat this long, IMHO.
Otoh, I think L.L. Bean has actually benefited from online sales. I remember shopping at L.L. Bean when its brick and mortar incarnation was a collection of dimly lit barns off Route 1 in Freeport, ME. Now they have transformed downtown Freeport into a shopping mall and tourist Mecca, with parking "tastefully" off Main Street (Route 1), and a large and pleasant L.L. Bean downtown campus, surrounded by retail epigones and Starbucks up and down Main Street. I miss the "Down East" flavor of the old L.L. Bean, but if you are near Freeport, it's worth a visit. I've never seen anything like it. Some malls built from in green field sites try to imitate it, but really cannot capture the appeal of real downtown with real traffic. I'm talking to you, North Conway.