[a fool in paradise]

Sears got out of catalog sales in themid-90s

Biggest mistake ever.

It was right as people started to turn to mail order on the internet.

Sears could’ve been Amazon if they hadn’t based their thinking on shopping malls.

[rjsimmon]

Sears got out of catalog sales in themid-90s

Biggest mistake ever.

Disagree. Arthur Martinez saved Sears by getting rid of the catalog. He found that less than 5% of sales were coming from the catalog and that it took considerable resources to produce and distribute. People liked looking at the catalog, but not buying from it. He focused on Craftsman, Kenmore, and the Sears credit card business.

[grania]

In SE MA back in the 90s, the bad decisions were having an irreversible effect. They rented instead of owned most of their stores there. They lost a few leases, and didn't have the foresight to open another store to serve those markets. It's seemed from then on they did almost everything wrong.

And now they have a CEO who seems to be deliberately destroying any chance of coming back in some viable form.