Walking through a mall these days feels… different. You see the ghosts of old stores, the big empty boxes where anchor tenants used to be. And one of the biggest ghosts, the one that probably everyone over a certain age remembers, is Sears. It was a giant. The place for everything. You might be wondering, with all these empty storefronts, when did Sears go out of business?
It’s a simple question but the answer is a little messy, you know? It’s not like they just flipped a switch and closed all the doors on one specific day. The whole thing was more of a long, slow crumble that’s technically still happening, even now in 2025. It’s a story that’s got a lot of moving parts.
The whole thing is a really interesting look at what happens when a company that was once on top of the world just stops paying attention to what’s going on around it. People have a lot of memories tied up in that place.
The Short Answer Isn’t the Whole Story
If you need a specific date for a trivia night, here it is. Sears Holdings, the parent company for both Sears and Kmart, officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018.
That’s the big day.
But bankruptcy for a giant company isn’t like when a person goes bankrupt. It’s a reorganization. A way to try and fix the ship before it sinks completely. So, they didn’t go “out of business” then.
A new company, called Transformco, bought the best parts of Sears out of bankruptcy. This was headed by the same guy who was in charge before, Eddie Lampert. The idea was to keep a smaller number of stores running.
So the 2018 date is a main event but not the end of the show. It was more like the end of the first act, and the second act has been a lot sadder and a lot smaller.
How a Retail Giant Lost Its Way
You can’t really get why the end was so messy without looking back at how huge Sears once was. For most of the 20th century, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was basically the Amazon of its day.
It started with a catalog.
This thing was a monster. You could order anything from it, from socks to entire houses. Yes, people built houses from kits they ordered from the Sears catalog. It was a massive part of American life for a long time.
Then they moved into malls. They became the big, reliable store at the end of every mall in America. It was considered to be the main attraction that pulled people in.
From Mail-Order King to Mall Anchor
Sears built its kingdom on brands that people trusted completely. These were the names that meant quality for generations of families. They were just part of the furniture of American homes.
Kenmore Appliances: Your grandma’s washing machine was probably a Kenmore. And it probably still works.
Craftsman Tools: Known for their lifetime warranty. If you broke a wrench, you just took it back and got a new one. No questions asked.
DieHard Batteries: The car battery that was supposed to be the toughest one you could buy.
These weren’t just products; they were institutions. They were things people depended on. Sears wasn’t just a store it was a part of your life.
The Cracks Begin to Show
So what went wrong? A lot of things, really. The world changed around Sears and the company just sort of stood still, almost like it couldn’t believe things were changing.
Big-box stores like Walmart and Home Depot started popping up. They offered lower prices and a different kind of shopping experience. Sears was suddenly looking kind of expensive and old-fashioned.
Then came the internet.
This was the big one. Sears, the original mail-order company, should have owned online shopping. But they didn’t. They were slow, their website was clunky, and they just couldn’t compete with the speed and selection of Amazon.
It is this failure that many people point to as the real beginning of the end. The company that invented selling things to people at home couldn’t figure out how to do it with computers. Which is pretty wild when you think about it.
The Eddie Lampert Era: A Slow Motion Crash
The final chapters of the old Sears were largely written by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert. He merged Sears with another struggling chain, Kmart, back in 2005. The idea was to combine their strengths.
That didn’t really work out.
Instead of investing money back into the stores to make them nicer places to shop, a lot of the money went to buying back company stock. The stores themselves started to look shabby. Ceilings had water stains, the carpet was old.
He also had this management idea that forced different parts of the company to compete against each other. So the appliance department was fighting the clothing department for money and resources. It created a strange, unfriendly environment inside the company.
People who worked there said it was a mess. And customers could feel it. The stores just weren’t happy places to be anymore, and the service wasn’t what it used to be.
So, Is Sears Still Around in 2025?
This is the weird part. Yes, technically. As we sit here in 2025, a tiny handful of Sears stores are still open. We’re talking about a dozen or so stores left in the entire United States.
It’s a very small number.
These remaining stores are often described as being like museums. They’re called “ghost stores” by some people online. They are often empty, with sparse merchandise spread out to try and fill the huge space.
The website, Sears.com, is also still a thing. But it’s mostly a marketplace now. That means lots of the stuff on there isn’t even sold by Sears, but by other companies using the Sears name.
So while the name exists, the grand, powerful Sears that everyone remembers is gone. It’s just a shadow of what it was before.
What Can We Learn From the Sears Saga?
The story of Sears is kind of a warning. It shows what can happen to any business, no matter how big, if it gets too comfortable. You always have to be watching what’s next.
Sears forgot about its customers. They stopped thinking about what it was like to shop in their stores. They got lost in financial stuff instead of just selling people good products at a fair price.
They also let their biggest strengths get old. The Kenmore and Craftsman brands were sold off to other companies. The things that made Sears special were sold to pay the bills.
It’s a reminder that no company is too big to fail. If you don’t change with the times, the times will eventually leave you behind. And that’s exactly what happened to the once-mighty Sears.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. So, when did Sears officially go out of business?
The company, Sears Holdings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It didn’t go completely out of business then, but this was the start of the end for the company as we knew it. A new company bought its assets and kept a few stores open.
2. How many Sears stores are left in 2025?
The exact number changes, but as of early 2025, there are generally only around 10-12 full-line Sears stores left operating in the mainland United States. This is down from thousands in its best years.
3. Who owns Sears now?
Sears is now owned by a company called Transformco. This company is controlled by Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund, ESL Investments. He was the same CEO who was in charge during the bankruptcy.
4. Did Kmart and Sears merge?
Yes, they did. Kmart, which was also struggling, bought Sears in 2005. The new combined company was called Sears Holdings. Many people believe the merger just combined two sinking ships instead of fixing either one.
5. Why did Sears fail when Amazon succeeded?
It’s a complicated question. But a simple way to look at it is that Sears was built for the 20th century and failed to change for the 21st. Amazon was built from the ground up for the internet age, focusing on logistics and user data, while Sears was stuck with old stores and old ways of thinking.
Key Takeaways
The key date for the downfall of Sears is the October 15, 2018, bankruptcy filing, but this was not a complete shutdown.
Sears does technically still exist in 2025, but only as a very small number of physical stores and an online marketplace, owned by Transformco.
The company’s failure was caused by many things: strong competition from stores like Walmart, a slow and poor response to online shopping, and management choices that many say hurt the company’s health.
Famous Sears brands like Craftsman and Kenmore were sold off, weakening the company’s identity.
The story serves as a big lesson for other retailers about the need to adapt to new technology and always focus on the customer experience.