Yep. Absolutely no one was as well set up to conquer online sales as was the already existing operation at Sears. Amazon was a cyber bookshop when Sears was selling entire houses and everything within them: appliances, clothing, furniture. What is truly amazing is that they watched the entire thing happen and couldn't seem to do anything to keep up.
Maybe it was too much of an investment in brick-and-mortar stores. Borders, Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, Crown, all appear to have taken that false trail, but for Sears to do so and not be able to recover is astonishing. If anyone does know of a study on this rise-and-fall I'd love to read it.
Another thing to think of. Sears has been around a long time and they had many employees who got benefits and pensions.
How do they compete against newer retail stores who only pay peanuts?