Sears timeline
1886: Richard Sears founds Sears Watch Co.
1888: Sears starts printing mail order catalogs.
1893: Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck incorporate Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Chicago as a mail-order company.
1906: Sears starts selling stock. It’s the first major retailer in the United States to have an initial public offering.
1913: Sears launches the Kenmore appliance line, starting with a sewing machine.
1925: Sears opens its first store in Chicago
1927: Sears launches it Craftsman tool line.
1945: Sears hits $1 billion in sales.
1953: Sears enters the Canadian market.
1973: Sears builds and consolidates its Chicagoarea offices into Sears Tower, at the time the tallest skyscraper in the world.
1981: Sears enters the financial services industry through the acquisition of Coldwell, Banker & Co. and others.
1985: Sears introduces the Discover credit card.
1990: Walmart eclipses Sears as the largest U.S. retailer by revenue.
1992: Sears relocates its headquarters to Hoffman Estates, Ill.
1993: Sears stops publishing its general merchandise catalog.
1994: Sears sells its eponymous downtown Chicago tower.
1995: CEO Arthur Martinez takes the helm of Sears, focusing on female consumers and apparel sales.
2000: CEO Alan Lacy leads Sears through the dot-com bust and its merger with Kmart.
2002: Sears acquires Land’s End, and opens small apparel shops within its stores.
2003: Sears sells its credit portfolio to Citibank for $3 billion. Billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, the future CEO of Sears, acquires Kmart.
2004: Lampert acquires Sears. 2005: Kmart acquires Sears in an $11 billion deal. The combined company is called Sears Holdings, and Lampert becomes chairman. 2007: Sears Holding stock hits a record high of $145.67.
2013: Eddie Lampert becomes CEO of Sears.
2014: Sears spins off Land’s End.
2015: Sears spins off 235 stores into a real estate investment trust called Seritage Growth Properties. 2017: Sears issues a “going concern” warning, calling the retailer’s future into question. Sears sells its Craftsman tool line to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million. Sears Canada files for bankruptcy protection.
2018: Lampert’s hedge fund ESL investments offers to purchase Kenmore appliance and home improvement lines for $400 million.