I grew up in a small, rural village. The Sears (and Eaton’s — Canadians know what I mean) catalogues were the closest I ever got to window-shopping in a mall. They offered a much wider range of products than we could get locally, at reasonable prices. My siblings and I would spend hours pouring over the Christmas “wish books”, circling the toys we wanted Santa to bring. In elementary school, we were even taught how to write a letter to Sears, to order some items we wanted.
Then the Internet happened, and these venerable old catalogue stores were among the last to get on board. I recall when Amazon was starting out — I kept wondering: “when’s Sears going to make its move?”; surely, they’ll use their century’s worth of experience to demolish that upstart. When it finally arrived late to the party, and still couldn’t compete with Amazon, I knew it was toast. It was just a matter of time.