A giant of its time

Sears is flailing. As it fights for its life, here’s a look at the company’s rise.

How Sears became the nation’s No. 1 retailer — and its fall from grace,

How Sears became the nation’s top retailer — and its fall from grace.

1886: Richard W. Sears, a railroad agent, starts selling watches as a side gig in Minnesota. Later that year, he founds the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis.

1887: A watchmaker named Alvah C. Roebuck answers Sears’ ad. Sears moves his company to Chicago.

1888: The medium the company would be known for, the catalog, debuts. The first one had only watches and jewelry in it.

1889: Sears sells his watch business for a profit of $72,000.

1893: The two men who joined forces again call their new venture Sears, Roebuck and Co.

1894: The catalog’s page count jumps to 322 and includes everything from sewing machines to sports equipment.

1895: Roebuck exits the company. 1906: Sears stock makes it first public offering. 1908: Co-founder Sears retires. 1925: Sears opens its first store. It was in Chicago. 1927: Sears creates Kenmore brand for appliances and Craftsman brand tools. 1931: Sears introduces Allstate Insurance. 1933: The Christmas catalog debuts. 1941: Sears stops offering groceries by mail order. 1945: Sears tops the $1 billion sales mark. 1946: Sears launches plan to build large stores in suburbia. 1953: The Sears credit card is introduced. 1967: Sears creates Die-Hard batteries.

1968: The Christmas catalog is rechristened the “Wish Book.”

1973: The Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, becomes Sears's new home in Chicago. 1975: Sears is the exclusive supplier of the video game Pong. 1981: Sears buys stock brokerage Dean Witter and real estate chain Coldwell Banker. 1985: Sears introduces the Discover Card.

1991: The company loses its “top-selling retailer” title to Walmart. 1992: Its corporate headquarters moves to Hoffman Estates, Ill. 1993: Sears stops producing the “Big Book” catalog. It sells Coldwell Banker and Sears Mortgage Banking Group. It spins off Dean Witter and sells 20% of Allstate. 1994: Sears sells the Sears Tower. 1995: Sears spins off Allstate into a separate company. 1998: The Christmas catalog website wishbook.com debuts, one year before sears.com. 2002: Sears buys Lands’ End. 2005: Kmart and Sears merge. 2013: Sears sells its $30 billion credit portfolio to Citibank. 2014: Lands’ End is spun off. 2015: Sears raises $2.7 billion by selling stores to Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust.

Jan. 4, 2017: Sears announces a $500 million loan from CEO Edward Lampert's hedge fund. The company had already gotten loans of hundreds of millions of dollars previously.

Jan. 5: Sears reveals its plan to sell Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker for about $900 million.

March 9: The company announces it lost $607 million during the fourth quarter.

Tuesday: In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sears discloses “substantial doubt exists related to the Company's ability to continue as a going concern.

AP FILE PHOTO STEVE GROER A huge crowd gathers in 1932 for the grand opening of a Sears department store on Chicago’s State Street. By the mid-20th century, Sears had bustling department stores and a busy catalog business.

BEBETO MATTHEWS, AP Traffic passes a Sears store in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood on March 22. The company announced March 9 that it lost $607 million in the fourth quarter.

FILE PHOTO BY JACK CORN, THE TENNESSEAN, VIA USA TODAY NETWORK In 1966, Kathy Diviney, 5, gets a lollipop from Santa at the Sears in downtown Nashville.

BURR LEWIS Sears was forced to slash prices as competition grew among department stores.

BILL BRESLER, USA TODAY NETWORK Hal Degraff, of Livonia, Mich., takes a photo of the Livonia Kmart, which is scheduled to close this spring. Degraff said he has shopped there for at least a dozen years and will miss it.