Sears is closing its last store in Illinois

If anyone old enough to recall the reign of Sears SHLDQ in the 80 s will feel a flicker of sadness as the company shutters its last store in Illinois, its home state. Sears confirmed in an interview with CNBC that the final day of Woodfield Mall will be 11 November. Just over two dozen of the chain's stores are open today since it filed for bankruptcy in 2018 with seven already scheduled to stop. While it s always a shame to see a historic brand be discontinued, the story of Sears remains a long and fascinating one. What are some things about Sears that you might have missed out on during its 128 year journey?

It changed the lives of those living in rural areas.

It is no problem finding basic household goods in a small town today thanks to Walmart. That was not the case in 1896, where coffee and baking powder were just a few examples of items rural shoppers couldn t find. Then Sears catalog came along, opening a whole new market for these customers. It educated millions of shoppers about mail-order procedures, such as shipping, cash payment, substitutions, and returns, wrote Vicki Howard, the author of Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store, in a 2017 Smithsonian magazine article.

Prodigy was a dial-up service that was founded in 1984 to offer everything from news and weather to email and message boards. It went on to become the prototype for the online content portals we use today. What many don t know is that Sears was a $600 million joint venture between IBM, CBS, and Sears that was once the second-largest online service provider in the world. It was eventually sold to AT&T in 2000 and rolled into the brand when SBC bought SBC.

In 1931 Sears added car insurance to its vast assortment of things for sale. It went by the name the company borrowed from one of its tire lines: Allstate. Sears went on to sell life insurance under this umbrella, as well. It held full ownership of the brand until 1993 when Allstate went public. Sears had divested its remaining 80% stake in the insurer by 1995. Today, it is one of the largest insurers in the U.S.

She sold houses for more than 32 years.

Sears Modern Homes catalogue ran from 1908 to 1940 for 32 years and offered customers the option to purchase premade homes or request custom ones. With pricing starting at $782, more than 100,000 homes were shuttered before the program was sold. Many still stand today and are shared in Facebook groups dedicated to both owners and fans of the houses.

It also sold products containing opium, arsenic, and heroin.

It is the policy of our house to give the consumer everything on which we can save him money, Sears Roebuck Co. catalog declared on the opening page of its 1897 edition '673 In many cases opium was legal ingredient, which was that such a problem in the medicines of the time included. In his new book Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders and Pills Shaped the Future of Medicine, author Thomas Hager says the famed catalog also had Bayer-branded Heroin for $1.50, which came with a syringe and two needles in a carrying case. The Dr. Rose Arsenic Complexion Wafers were also on sale which the catalog advised could clear up any skin problems with a Wizard s Touch.