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| Sears, Roebuck and Co. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation |
| Founded | 1886 (Chicago, Illinois, USA) |
| Headquarters | Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, appliances, housewares, tools, and electronics. |
| Revenue | $23.6 Billion |
| Slogan | Where It Begins, |
| Website | sears.com |
Sears, Roebuck and Co. (usually known only as Sears, or Sears and Roebuck among older Americans and Southerners) is an American mid-range chain of international department stores, founded by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. It operates in Canada under Sears Canada and Mexico under Sears Mexico. From its mail order beginnings, the company grew to become the largest retailer in the United States by the mid-20th century, and its catalogs became famous. Competition and changes in the demographics of its customer base challenged the company after World War II as its rural and inner city strongholds shrank and the suburban markets grew. Eventually its catalog program was largely discontinued. Sears merged with Kmart in early 2005, creating the Sears Holdings Corporation.
The largest Sears store in the world, operated by Sears Canada, is 817,850 square feet (75,981 m²), in the Toronto Eaton Centre. The largest American store is located near the Sears headquarters at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It has 416,000 square feet (38,600 m²) of retail space.
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Sears Merchandise Building Tower
In 1886, the United States contained only thirty-eight states. Many people lived in rural areas and relied on agriculture. For many Americans, a single general store was their source of supplies. Merchandise went through many wholesalers on the way to the retail outlet, not an inexpensive method of handling. Many general stores received their shipments of merchandise through the growing network of railroads.
Richard Sears was a railroad station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota when he received a shipment of watches from a Chicago jeweler which were unwanted by a local jeweler. Sears purchased them himself, sold the watches at a nice profit to other station agents up and down the line, and then ordered more for resale. Soon he started a business selling watches through mail order catalogs. The next year, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he met Alvah C. Roebuck, who joined him in the business. In 1893, the corporate business name became Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Richard Sears knew that farmers often brought their crops to town, where they could be sold and shipped. Before the Sears catalog, farmers typically bought supplies (often at very high prices) from local general stores. Sears took advantage of this by publishing his catalog with clearly stated prices, so that consumers could know what he was selling and at what price, and order and obtain them conveniently. The catalog business grew quickly. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, featuring sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods, automobiles (produced from 1905-1915 by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago)Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925. (New York: Bonanza, 1950), p.90. and a host of other new items.
Organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis, Chicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald became a part-owner in 1895. Alvah Roebuck had to resign soon after due to ill-health, but the company still retained his name. By the following year, dolls, refrigerators, stoves and groceries had been added to the catalog.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a reputation for both quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog with the largest variety of items that anybody back then could have thought of. “In 1893, the sales topped 400,000 dollars. Two years later they exceeded 750,000 dollars.”
In 1906 Sears opened its catalog plant which included the original Sears Tower pictured on this page. Book: Historic Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog Plant ISBN 0-7385-3977-5, opening date.
People had learned to trust Sears for other products bought mail-order, and thus, sight unseen. This laid important groundwork for supplying a home, possibly the largest single purchase a typical family would ever make. In 1908, the company began offering entire houses as kits, marketed as Sears Modern Homes, and by the time the program ended in 1940, over 100,000 had been soldhttp://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/10424.shtml.
The first Sears retail store opened in Chicago on February 2 1925 in the Merchandise building (in a portion of the company\'s headquarters at Homan Avenue and Arthington Street). This store included an optical shop and a soda fountain.Sears Archives. Sears. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. The first freestanding retail store opened October 5 1925 in Evansville, Indiana.Sears Archives. Sears. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. During the summer of 1928 three more Chicago department stores opened, one on the north side at Lawrence and Winchester, a second on the south side at 79th and Kenwood, and the third at 62nd and Western. In 1929 Sears took over the department store business of Becker-Ryan Company. In 1933 Sears tore down the old Becker-Ryan Company store in Englewood, and built the first windowless department store, inspired by the 1932 Chicago World\'s Fair.
The Sears, Roebuck catalog was sometimes referred to as "the Consumers\' Bible". The Christmas Catalog was known as the "Wish Book", perhaps because of the toys in it. The catalog also entered the language, particularly of rural dwellers, as a euphemism for toilet paper. In the days of outhouses and no readily available toilet paper, the pages of the mass-mailed catalog were used as toilet paper.[citation needed]
After World War II, the company built many department stores in suburban shopping malls. The company was the largest retailer in the United States until the early 1980s but had dropped significantly in rankings by the time it merged with Kmart.
The highest grossing Sears store in the World is located in Puerto Rico.[citation needed]
Sears diversified and became a conglomerate during the mid-20th century. It established several major brands of products such as Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard, Silvertone (electronics) and Toughskins. The company started the Allstate Insurance Company back in 1931, and had representatives operating in its stores as early as 1934. It purchased Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker real estate in 1981, and started what became Prodigy as a joint venture with IBM in 1984. It also introduced the Discover credit card in 1985. As late as 1993, the Discover card was the only accepted credit card at many Sears retail locations.
Alvah Roebuck returned to the organization during the Great Depression, and worked as a spokesperson until his death in 1948. Part of the reason Roebuck left Sears in 1895 was due to the stress the business placed upon him, and he later took some delight in pointing out his longevity versus the much shorter life of Richard Sears. In the 1970s, the name "Roebuck" was dropped from the trade name of the stores, though not from the official corporate name.
Sears made history in 1974 when it completed the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago. The tower became the world\'s tallest building upon its completion, a title it held until the completion of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. By 1993, however, Sears left and subsequently sold the tower, moving to Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Sears still owns the naming rights to the building.
The Sears logo currently used on most store signage was created in 1984. Previously, the Sears logo consisted of the name "Sears" in a rectangle. Now it consists of the blue text, Sears, with a white line separating each letter down along the length of its strokes. In late 2004, the logo was switched from all upper case to mixed case for catalogs and other marketing methods.
Sears (legal name: Sears, Roebuck and Co. -- not Sears, Roebuck and Company as is often mistakenly written) formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker of "S", which is now used by the Sprint Nextel Corporation. Sears, Roebuck and Co. is also a former Dow Jones Industrial Average component, listed from January 22 1924 to October 29 1999.
Adam Walsh, the young son of reporter John Walsh (America\'s Most Wanted), was abducted from a Sears department store in Hollywood, Florida (old Hollywood Mall store, now closed) in 1981 and subsequently murdered. As a consequence of the incident, Wal-Mart responded by creating Code Adam, a set of procedures to locate children that are reported missing while in the store. Similar procedures have been implemented by other retailers.Mikkelson, Barbara (2007-12-31). Code Adam. Snopes. Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the company divested itself of many non-retail entities, which were creating a burden on the company\'s bottom line.
In 1993, Sears stopped production of its general merchandise catalog because of sinking sales and profits. However, Sears Holdings does continue to produce specialty catalogs and the Holiday Wish Book.
In 2003, Sears sold its retail credit card operation to Citibank. The remaining card operations were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in August, 2005. This launched the new Sears Gold MasterCard.
In the early 1980s, Sears ceased selling shotguns, which had previously been sold primarily under their internal J C Higgins sporting brand from 1908 until 1961, and this alienated them from some of their historical core of rural, working-class consumers.[citation needed]
In the late 1990s, the company\'s market share in many areas deteriorated as Wal-Mart drew away working-class consumers, and Federated Department Stores attracted wealthier consumers.
In 2005, Sears began adopting certain tactics used by competitors. In October 2005, they imposed a restocking fee of 15% on many of the stores items over $150 and on home-delivered merchandise.
In 2003, Sears opened a new concept store branded Sears Grand. Sears Grand stores carry everything that a regular Sears carries, plus health and beauty, toys, baby care, cleaning supplies, home decor, pet food, cards and party supplies, books, magazines, electronics, music, movies, and an edited assortment of groceries. Sears Grand stores are about 175,000 to 225,000 square feet (16,300 to 19,500 m²). The first Sears Grand store (and still the largest at 225,000 square ft) opened at Jordan Landing in West Jordan, Utah in 2003. In 2005, the company began renovating some Kmart stores and converting them to the Sears EssentialsSears ditches Sears Essentials name format, only to change them later to Sears Grand format. Sears Essentials signs still have not been changed on many stores that were changed prior to this decision, though some Sears Essentials stores are still in operation.
On November 17 2004, Kmart announced its intentions to purchase Sears. As a part of the merger, the Kmart Holdings Corporation would change its name to Sears Holdings Corporation. The new corporation announced that it would continue to operate stores under both the Sears and Kmart brands.
It has been speculated that Sears management is interested in more purchases beyond the Kmart takeover of Sears, and the idea that investor Edward Lampert is interested in becoming an investment company more than a retailer. Some of many possible targets are other companies that have low stock prices relative to company value. Some mentioned are Safeway, Home Depot, and Anheuser-Busch. The source linked here speculates that Sears Grand could be expanded in combination with Safeway\'s grocery stores.[1] Chicago Sun-Times story possible Sears Holding Company targets. Another potential purchase is Radio Shack since a former Kmart CEO took over as CEO and chairman.[2] Sun-Times speculation of possible Sears/Radio Shack deal. The Washington Post, in an article dated March 11, 2007, described the current Sears as a hedge fund with money being diverted from the maintenance and improvement of stores to non-retail financial investments. A former executive is quoted as saying the company faces an "uncertain future". Surprisingly, a third of pre-tax income in the third quarter of 2006, according to The Washington Post, was due to financial trades, not the retail business. However, these investments performed poorly in the fourth quarter.The Washington Post, Risky Side of Sears: Retailer Is Recast As a Hedge Fund, As Sales and Stores Decline, Chairman Focuses on Investment, March 11 2007.
The original Sears Tower was built in Lawndale on the west side in 1905-1906.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. built the famed Sears Tower, which was completed in 1974. This building, located in Chicago, is the tallest building in the United States. The company, however, no longer owns the building.
Sears building in Mexico City located across from the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Sears has struggled with employee relations. One notable example being the shift in 1992 from an hourly wage based on longevity, to a base wage (usually anywhere from $3.50 to $6 per hour) and commissions ranging from 1% to 9%. This new base wage, often constituting a substantial cut in pay, up to 40%, was done in the interest of "to be successful in this highly competitive environment." 600-plus Sears jobs to be cut Chicago Tribune February 13, 1992
Sears is one of the few retailers to still pay commission though. They believe that this will create more knowledgeable employees and provide better customer service. However, in early October 2007 Sears cut commission rates for employees in select departments to anywhere from 1% to 4% but equalized the base wage across all Home Improvement and Electronics departments at $6 per hour. Appliances remains the only department where wages are based entirely on commissioned sales with percentages ranging anywhere from 1% up to 15% depending on quality of the items sold.
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In January 2008, it was revealed that the Sears "community" website surreptitiously installed spyware on user\'s computers, which collects information from bank account numbers to where and how customers visit sites. In addition, it was found that managemyhome.com provides information on any purchase from Sears, a move that can aid thieves in scoping out targets. http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9839403-7.html
Sears saw a modern suburban office campus as a more efficient location than the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago, so they began the move to the new Prairie Stone Business Park in Hoffman Estates, Illinois between 1993 and 1995. The office park has a focus on technology and sustainability, featuring an extensive landscaping plan that uses native prairie plants wherever possible, and a system of several express bus routes coordinated with Pace to encourage public transportation use.[3] Prairie Stone Transportation site.
Recently opened is the 25% Sears owned Sears Centre Arena continuing the common practice of naming a sports arena/expo center for an extended period of time. Ryan Companies owns the remaining 75%, and other offices and hotels are being developed on the Prairie Stone campus.[4] Prairie Stone Business Park, Current Sears headquarters location and Sears Centre Arena.
| Sears Holdings Corporation | |
|---|---|
| People: | Floyd Hall · Alan J. Lacy · Sebastian S. Kresge · Alvah C. Roebuck · Richard Sears |
| Retailers: | Kmart · Big Kmart · Super Kmart · Lands\' End · Sears · Sears Grand · Sears Hardware · Sears Appliance Dealer · Sears Outlet · Sears Parts & Repair · The Great Indoors · Orchard Supply Hardware · Sears Canada · Sears Mexico |
| Brands: | Craftsman · DieHard · Kenmore · Joe Boxer · Martha Stewart Everyday |
| Annual Revenue: ▲$49.124 billion USD (2006) · Employees: 355,000 (2006) · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ SHLD · Website: searsholdings.com | |
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