[drop 50 and fire for effect]

They screwed up in 1993, when they eliminated the catalog business instead of embracing the internet and moving it online. Amazon.com was founded about one year later.

Sears chose to become a brick and mortar retailer at the worst possible moment.

Sears was built on providing Americans whatever they needed, and shipping it directly to them where they lived. Abandoning that started the slow, painful death of the company. The ashes of the Sears catalog were the fertilizer for Amazon.

[tomkat]

The ashes of the Sears catalog were the fertilizer for Amazon

Well said.

[Covenantor]

Exactly....they had all the pieces since their beginnings and then missed the opportunity when it presented itself. How could they have not recognized that window?

[xkaydet65]

I always remember the scene from Shane. Van Heflin in Grafton’s store paging through the Sears catalog. Men’s hats women’s corsets. I guess their business decisions merit this, but still sad.