Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as
Sears, is an American chain of
department stores founded in 1892 by
Richard Warren Sears and
Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and
Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a
mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in
Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American
big box discount chain
Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed
Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
Sears was based in the
Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995, and was later headquartered in
Hoffman Estates, Illinois from 1993 until 2021, the year when it announced that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex. On December 12, 2022, Sears Authorized Hometown Stores, LLC, and affiliated debtor Sears Hometown, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and on December 26 announced the liquidation of the 115 largely owner-operated Hometown stores.
As of August 2024, there are 10 Sears stores remaining, with 9 in the mainland US and one location in the US territory of Puerto Rico.
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