Sears reboots
It's the end of an era – Sears Canada announced recently that it will be closing some of its famous locations after Christmas. Those locations include the Toronto flagship store at the Eaton Centre. Sears, like many other large retailers is facing the ever changing retail landscape being affected by the growing trend of on-line shopping.
Sears has been an institution in Canada since its incorporation in 1952. This was when a partnership agreement was signed between Simpsons Ltd. of Toronto and Sears, Roebuck and Co of Chicago to form a catalogue and retail company that operated under the name Simpsons-Sears. This arrangement continued until 1984, when Sears Roebuck, bought controlling interest of the company, which was renamed Sears Canada.
For a detailed history of the company, log into FP Advisor, through the TPL website. There are historical reports for many companies, including Sears. The records include overviews of the company, as well as historic financials, including balance sheets, earnings and dividends.
Want to explore more about Sears? Why not try some of these titles, that are available at TPL.
Sears has been known throughout the history of the company, both in the United States and Canada, for its catalogue, from which almost anything could be purchased. The Christmas Wish Book became a hotly anticipated delivery for most children of a certain age, which allowed for leisurely browsing of possible presents to ask of Santa.
Original historic copies of the Simpsons- Sears catalogues are available at the Toronto Reference Library. Want to see images of products from years ago? The library has some titles that show products that were for sale in past catalgues.
DVDs:
Sears – This DVD examines the role that Sears has played throughout U.S history – its merchandise, catalogue service and its founders.
And of course, there are the books:
4 thoughts on “Sears reboots”
If anything, Sears is getting back to it’s roots. Recent press releases indicate that the emphasis in the near future is to be on their dealer network. That arm of the company services small town Canada in a way that no other retailer does. Giving up Sherway, the Eaton’s Center and Yorkdale is the best news possible for the company’s survival, evidenced but a dramatic increase in the share value of Sears Canada. Had they continued on the path chosen by Calvin MacDonald they would have spent 100’s of millions of dollars only to be another Bay. Sadly though, many will lose their jobs.
What planet do you live on? Read the Financial Post to see what is actually happenning. This smells like making Sears into a real estate play and winding the company up.
If the main challenge to bricks and mortar retail is the growing trend of online shopping, then Sears is probably one of the best companies to effectively participate in that landscape, if they would leverage the assets and infrastructure that’s been in place for many years supporting the catalogue business.
Thank you all for the spirited discussion over the future of Sears. I think we can all agree that the face of retailing in Canada is rapidly changing. I am interested in seeing what comes next in this story.