"One More Sign that the Economic Archetype of 20th-Century America, Built on Manufacturing and Distributing Hard Goods to an Expanding Middle Class, Is Winding Down"

"In 1972, the year Sears began building the world’s tallest building in downtown Chicago, three out of every four Americans visited one of its locations every year—a larger proportion than have seen 'The Wizard of Oz.' Half of all households held a Sears credit card—more than go to church on Christmas. Sears’s sales accounted for 1 percent of the Gross National Product.
"In an internal merchandising plan written later that decade, a Sears executive identified the company’s audience, and its identity: 'Sears is a family store for middle-class, home-owning America. We are not a fashion store. We are not a store for the whimsical, nor the affluent. We are not a discounter, nor an avant-garde department store…We reflect the world of Middle America, and all of its desires and concerns and problems and faults.'
"Unfortunately, it’s been all downhill for middle-class, home-owning America since then, and it’s been all downhill for Sears, too."


Edward McClelland in Salon reports that "Sears is dying."