Sears, Roebuck and Company 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 company competes on an average price level on par with J.C. Penney and Kohl's. Sears has also recently rivaled with Belk, Dillard's, and Macy's.

The largest Sears store in the world, operated by Sears Canada, is 817,850 square feet, in the Toronto Eaton Centre. The largest American store is located at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It has 416,000 square feet of retail space.
History
 
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 and a shipment of watches
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 Company.

Competing with general stores through mail order catalog
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 soon grew quickly. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, featuring sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods, 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 Company 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.

Selling, advertising, merchandising - these were Richard Sears' talents, not organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis. That was left to Chicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald, who bought into the company in 1895.

Sears catalog homes
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 investment 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 sold.

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