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Discover was the outshoot of Sears store credit card. Sears for a select time had an ISP, a credit card company, a customer facing real time brokerage, a real estate company, a appliance repair fleet and 2400 stores across the nation. That all disappeared in 25 years of listening to outside consultants. Started as rightsizing out of smaller malls just 25 units a year. If sears retained ownership of the bank and the credit card they would be in business today instead of receivership.

Discover at it’s high water mark flowed cash, it was the best credit card to keep a balance on because it offered rates about 6 to 12 percent higher than prime, so during the 1990s a 16.5% rate on credit card balances was only available to discover card. 2006 the discover card customers took a massive hit, they did not get rescued in their investments the way AIG and JPMC did.

Discover was the first to also offered to transfer you balance from other cards. Sears was so successful at being a bank they were forced to spin the company off, because the real estate holdings and the stores just were not as profitable. They sold the tower in Chicago, they sold out to corprate value artists who striped the company for parts and left a shell of retail operation in the market share where Walmart then had 15 year younger IT systems to support lean retailing. THat sears stuck with some horrible long term service contracts for minor discounts in their IT plant was the thing of much gosip here in Chicago.

At its height, Sears stagnated because the US retail landscape was changing due to competition from discount retailers and the decline of downtown retail and then of shopping malls as the US population shifted. They were like a dinosaur stuck in a mud hole.

That is why Sears boards and management kept looking for a way out through closing under performing stores and selling off attractive bits to raise capital. Over the years, I saw local Sears stores try to innovate by refreshing their product lineup several times, but they never gained any momentum.

If sears retained ownership of the bank and the credit card they would be in business today instead of receivership.

If Sears' mgmt had been forward-looking, they could have morphed their catalog operation into an online service and become, to some degree, an Amazon sort of online leader.

Walmart finally got the message and greatly upped their online selection of goods to choose from. Their early online goods list was paltry compared to Amazon.

I first go to Walmart online, then I try Amazon if I don't find what I'm looking for. For generic items, Walmart online has what I need, it's only with the more obscure items where I have to look farther.