🠈  Sears, Roebuck and Co.  🠊

Sears, Roebuck and Company

Sears.com is an online catalog by Sears, Roebuck and Company that carries quality merchandise ranging from Craftsman Tools, and Kenmore appliance to jewelry and apparel.

The Sears Catalog traces its roots to 1893 when Richard Sears (a railroad station master) bought a shipment of watches that was rejected by a jeweler in North Redwood, Mn. Mr. Sears began selling the watches up and down the line. He realized in this operation that rural communities were underserved by existing stores, and that new forms of transportation allowed for a new model based on shipping. In 1894, Mr. Sears met a Chicago jeweler named Alvah C. Roebuck and established a catalog company.

The key to a catalog business (where consumers buy products sight unseen) is consistent quality. Sears concentrated on quality at a low price point and quickly built a solid reputation in rural communities, and the Sears Catalog became a fixture in Americana.

Sears opened their first department store in Chicago in 1925 and gradually expanded into largest US retailer toward the 1980s. Sears was eventually displaced by Walmart and several conglomerates.

Notable moments in Sears history include the 1974 completion of the 110 story Sears Tower in Chicago. The Sears Tower held the position of world's tallest building until the construction of the Petronas Towers were completed in 1996.

Sears ventures onto online world predates the modern Internet. In 1981, Sears started the Prodigy BBS service with IBM. Prodigy became one of the first ISPs in the 1990s, but later floundered. Sears also started the DiscoverCard which competes with Mastercard/Visa.

For the do-it-yourself crowd, Sears opened Sears Parts Direct which includes parts and instruction manuals for most major brands of appliances and yard equipment.

Sears formerly traded on the NYSE with the symbol S. In 2005, Sears merged with KMart to form a new company called Sears Holding Compay which trades on NASDAQ with the symbol SHLD.

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