I heard on the news just the other day that Macy's is in the same boat, will be closing numerous stores with a loss of about 3600 jobs. I think two things are at play, the shift to online shopping and the emergence of Super Stores like Walmart and Target where you can purchase both hard goods and groceries. Add to that Home Depot and Lowes and even Best Buy selling large appliances and it doesn't leave much reason to go to Sears. It's a shame, Sears was my Go To store through the 80s and early 90s but I began to notice the quality in the power tools dropping which eventually trickled down to the hand tools. I can't remember the last time I've been to a Sears store now.