Sears, officially named Sears Roebuck and Co. , is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century. Formerly a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Sears merged with Kmart in early 2005, creating the Sears Holdings Corporation. 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 hurt Sears following World War II, as the country's... suburban areas thrived, hurting the company's inner-city strongholds. Eventually, Sears' catalogs were discontinued in lieu of more web-based alternatives. Recently, Sears has fallen through due to competition from other department stores which have more advertising than they do. Sears has not made a yearly profit in almost 10 years and is slowly struggling to compete. One of the main problems with the company is that many of the Sears locations in the US are out of date, and that the company does not try to remodel them.
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