I gave up on Sears the second time they screwed up an online order. Both times, I ordered something and arranged to pick it up at a local store. Both times, instead of walking out with the item I had paid for, I ended up sitting around waiting for 45 minutes, only to be told that they didn't have what I had purchased. Too bad, because they do have very good appliances. I hope they can survive somehow.
While it was before online ordering took off, I remember another now defunct chain called Service Merchandise. They had a precursor to online ordering where you could just use an in-store computer (they called it Silent Sam I think) to purchase from a printed catalog.
The stuff on the floor was just a subset of what they had in storage. Then you’d spend a little more time browsing until they had picked your item and placed it on a conveyor at the checkout location.
I miss that store because they usually had good prices on scientific calculators, especially the HP 48 series. I still use my HP 48GX from time to time. It’s amazing it’s been more than 10 years since I bought it.
If I recall correctly, Bill Cosby did some television/print ads for Service Merchandise.