Sears Closing Its Store In WoodField Mall (Schaumburg

It is the last store in Illinois. Now the once proud Chicago icon no longer is in Illinois.

That was somewhat of a flagship store for them being that Woodfield for a time was the largest mall in America and it was on Sears’ home turf.

Sad. They should have been like Amazon, but they didn’t imagine themselves into the future.

Why don’t they just close ALL remaining stores in the US now and get the inevitable over with now?

I’m wiping tears from my eyes as we speak.

Sears was the nation's "Amazon" back in the 1800s, and through much of the 1900s.

The utter mismanagement required to have the company fall so far, so fast like this is unbelievable.

It's kind of sad, Sears & Montgomery Ward were both BIG Chicago companies. Both were huge innovators in their time, but just couldn't manage to stay modern and relevant.

I never liked it even in the 80’s or 90’s. The store in my town was always ugly and plain inside.

The thing is Kmart BOUGHT Sears. Then Kmart changed its corporate name to Sears because of the bad name association Kmart had.

[quote] As part of the merger, the Kmart Holding Corporation (the company that owns Kmart) would be transferred to a new Sears Holdings Corporation and Sears would be purchased by the new Sears Holdings Corporation.

[quote]It's kind of sad, Sears & Montgomery Ward were both BIG Chicago companies.

I preferred Montgomery Ward way more than shitty Sears.

You can thank Eddie Lampert, the hedge funder who bought Sears and Kmart, for draining them of value and letting them die. Eddie Lampert is a vampire.. I'm sure he has a very nice life.

How the mighty have fallen.

All these years later I still miss Jordan Marsh and Filene's.

It’s capitalism, and evolution, in real time. You adapt or you die. I’m always amazed when people are sad over childhood stores closing. Why did you stop going there?

My sister-in-law is exactly like this. She laments when stores close but spends most of her nights just shopping online so she can get packages every day at her house. “It’s like Christmas every day!” She buys rubbish anyway so it’s not like the lowering of merchandise quality had anything to do with it. American consumerism, the constant purchasing of inane items is to blame.

I remember thumbing through the Sears Wishbook to make my Christmas list.

I didn't even know there were any Sears stores left

[quote] Sears was the nation's "Amazon" back in the 1800s, and through much of the 1900s. The utter mismanagement required to have the company fall so far, so fast like this is unbelievable.

Two words - Private Equity

This was not “mismanagement” or a failure to adapt. This was piracy.

And the reason it continues is because everybody is so stupid.

fleecing the consumer is the new baseline.

[quote]You can thank Eddie Lampert, the hedge funder who bought Sears and Kmart, for draining them of value

You're not wrong but part of this was due to the fact both Sears and Kmart were older stores and owned or leased property in highly desirable prime locations of cities. So it was more profitable to sell the land or lease the stores were on.

[quote]I remember thumbing through the Sears Wishbook to make my Christmas list.

Bullshit, you was just looking at the Men's underwear section.

The Sears in Brooklyn is closing too.

List of new closures:

Sears Downey, CA Sears Pasadena, CA Sears Maui, HI Sears Schaumburg, IL Sears Raleigh, NC Sears Brooklyn, NY Kmart White Plains, NY Sears Harrisburg, PA

R16 Yup. I worked for Culligan several years ago. My hiring manager told me the company got sold every three years to a private equity firm. He was right. I left after three years. Their problem is that they can't sell their water systems to millennials. The problem stems from the fact older boomers are in upper management. Hell, they even had plenty of silent gens still working there.

Sears stores started getting shitty in the late 80s. A slow, miserable death. Just get it over with.

After these closures, there will only be around 35 Sears and Kmart stores left.

r23, half of them will be on the chopping block next year.

r24

Sears, Sears, Sears...Where America CHOPS

I was there the day it opened. It was built in a former corn field where two brand new interstates crossed. We walked around in a line and looked at the new space-age cash registers.

We didn't need Wi-Fi. We had façades then.

Sears shot itself in the foot in medium-sized towns (pop. 100-250k) by insisting upon charging "fuck you expensive" shipping charges for items sent for in-store pickup that mostly just made them completely uncompetitive with new big-box competitors.

In 1970, Sears was the big man in town... they had the biggest anchor store at the newest mall in every town, and no real competition to speak of. They might have pretended that all of their appliances were "Kenmore" brand, but everyone KNEW they were REALLY Whirlpool/Frigidaire or GE, and Sears was the place you went to compare them side-by-side, and buy them from a salesperson who didn't CARE whether you bought one made by Whirlpool/Frigidaire, or bought one made by GE, as long as you bought it from SEARS (vs traditional appliance stores, that were all the fiefdoms of one, and only one, brand).

By 1990, they were has-beens. Stores like Circuit City, Home Depot, and Rooms to Go were expanding into the towns that previously had only a Sears. And although the Sears stores were still pretty large, their individual departments were still smaller than dedicated big-box stores. But... Sears kept BEHAVING as if they were the "only game in town". In some parts of "fly over America" they got away with it for another 5-10 years... but eventually, 80% of Americans ended up with a Circuit City (and/or Best Buy), Home Depot (and/or Menards, and/or Lowes), and a big furniture store or two, within 25-35 miles, even IF they lived in a "big small town".

Eldergay here - I remember as a kid in the 60's paging through the Sears catalog looking at the men's underwear photos, yet didn't figure out I was gay until high school.

Probably because of the time Sears refused to put an album cover with a *greased naked woman* on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?

I guess that means The Abortion Hut in that mall is a goner too. Memories.

I think they should have switched over to appliances and auto parts, which were somewhat well regarded. There was no point to selling clothes jewelry etc

Most of their auto repair shops were very good!

I remember my mother making me and my brother put on our "nice" clothes to go shopping at Sears . It was an event. I remember walking through their store and oohing and aahing over all the stuff we could never afford. My favorite was the furniture dept where they had rooms set up .I would leisurely lounge around on the crushed velvet upholstery while pretending to be having a cocktail party .

“Why won’t you say you’re closing?” “Listen bitch, it ain’t over till it’s over!”

Gawd = memories. I used to work near Woodfield Mall. Had no idea it was world famous as the largest mall. This was in 1984. All malls are the same to me!

The Sears in Woodfield had one purpose- you could find mall parking by the store because nobody shopped there.

I loved Sears it really was great for my career

Sears had some dynamite, solid brands: Diehard batteries, Craftsman tools, Maytag large appliances. And a long, solid history. What idiot management could have let [italic] that [/italic] slip through their fingers?

Kenmore is still a top rated appliance brand

You could drag nephews/nieces into Sears with a promise of Rainforest cafe afterwards. The problem was Sears seldom had their sizes in stock.

Crazy how you used to be able to "order" a house in the Sears catalog back in the day. Ahhh, the days when Sears was considered notable and reliable.

^ Sears also sold cars as well

R45, can you imagine anyone wanting to buy a car or a house from Sears now? Crazy how times have changed.

[quote] Why don’t they just close ALL remaining stores in the US now and get the inevitable over with now?

Well, for a long time I was GLAD they didn't close all at once, because Sears the brand and stores has been shit value for some time, but the real estate holdings were valuable, and closing all of them or declaring bankruptcy on all would have had a large enough scope to possibly trigger a recession.

It's died a slow painful death over the last 20 years, but that was actually kinda sorta good for our economy. It's now small enough for all the stores to close; I'm sure it will try to survive online in some fashion.

But did it have a cruisy men's room?

^ Yes, but you really didn't want to go there. All these guys wearing Sears *Best* clothes... So, basic

The empty Sears store in my area was used a Pfizer vaccine center this past March/April. It was sad standing in line waiting for the jab remembering what a bustling place it was when I was a kid.

One thing about retail it's always evolving, before Sears it was Woolworth's and after Walmart and Amazon it will be something else

R41...

[quote]You can thank Eddie Lampert, the hedge funder who bought Sears and Kmart, for draining them of value and letting them die. Eddie Lampert is a vampire.. I'm sure he has a very nice life.

I’m actually surprised Sears, JC Penney, and Kmart have hung on this long. People still shop there? Why?

It'll always be Sears Tower to me

What'cha talkin 'bout, Willis?

In 2005 Kmart bought Sears and merged under the name "Sears Holdings." They combined number of stores was over 3.500.

Today there are only 21 full-line Sears stores left in the mainland United States, and two more in Puerto Rico. Another seven stores are limited to selling appliances, and in some cases, mattresses, rather than the full range of offerings that once was a hallmark of both chains.

There are only six Kmarts left in the mainland United States, along with six more in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands

What R10 said. Many of these heritage corporations don't die because they suck at business. They were plundered by the Mitt Romneys of capitalism. Wake up, folks. Pay fucking attention.

[quote] Their problem is that they can't sell their water systems to millennials. The problem stems from the fact older boomers are in upper management. No, the problem is that easily replaceable water and air filters are built into many/most refrigerators today. That and competing softeners are the fraction of the size and price.

[quote] ^^Their problem is that they can't sell their water systems to millennials. The problem stems from the fact older boomers are in upper management.

No, the problem is that easily replaceable water and air filters are built into many/most refrigerators today. That and competing softeners are the fraction of the size and price. (Damn DL quote system).

[quote] Sears had some dynamite, solid brands:

Like the tough-skins husky boys clothes that most DLers wore as kids?

R63 beat me to the husky comment. That's when I knew I was fat as a six year-old.

Fast forward to being 18 and I was working a seasonal Christmas job at the local Sears. I was stationed in customer service with the pretense of helping customers use what was then the very new technology of a self service kiosk (this was 1998). What I was actually hired to do was to make sure the employees weren't stealing merchandise/letting their friends/relatives load it up at the customer pick-up area. The lady who hired me went to the same church I grew up in, so she trusted me. The employees there knew why I was stationed there, so no theft occurred.

Side note to all of the above: Even in 1998, the whole store smelled like urine. I remember my mother being disgusted that I took the job there. She went on and on about how different things were when she and my father opened a Discover Card account at Sears when I was very young. (Yes, Discover Card began at Sears in 1985.)

I'm verklempt from reading r35's post (and all the posts).

I'm enough of a shallow bitch that, of all the extraordinary events I've been alive for, both national and personal, here's what I'm most glad for- that I was alive to experience the apex of department stores and malls in the 60s, 70s and 80s.