Today is the 88^th anniversary of the opening of the Sears store that I worked at for almost 50 years.

It is now a Target and apartments.

Sears #1380

4730 W. Irving Park Rd.

Chicago 41, Illinois

(312) 685-2121

10-20-1938 – 7-15-2018

Here is a tour of the back of the store https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAeGxrAYlW8

So I needed a new grill cover. I figured this would be great to finally order from Sears. I wanted a Kenmore grill cover. Yet - neither Sears or Kmart had them for sale on their websites from what I found. I can buy it from a lot of other retailers - Home Depot, Amazon, etc. They all sell it.

I ended up getting 99% of it paid through with rewards points i had at work through Amazon. I’d of saved my points and bought directly from Eddie if he had his own brand of grill cover for sale.

Sorry, Transformco. I can’t shop my way on your websites for something your own in-house brand makes.

These were filed away at my parents house and found them during the clean out.

*Black and white TV was our first to have UHF, enabled us to watch the cartoons on channels 32 and 44 (Chicagoland)

*First color TV, minds blown to find out Wizard of Oz was actually in color.

*In-dash 8 track player, dad bought and installed in the new 1978 Chevy pickup along with the speakers. He worked nights at River Oaks Sears automotive department from 1971 to 1980 as a second job.

California's now very last Sears location at the Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord has been here for 60 years now. This store has stood its ground through 12 presidencies of the United States since John Fitzgerald Kennedy / John F Kennedy / JFK was assassinated in 1963, marking the 4th political assassination of a President of the United States and 9 governorships of the state of California. In 1985, a plane crashed into the Macy's here in the Sun Valley Mall that opened on August 5 1967. The building survived. The Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center, however, did not on September 11 2001.

In the mid to late 1990s Sears launched a website and they have since been operating Sears.com. Most of what "comes from Sears" on .com is 3rd party sellers but there is also a "sold by Sears" filter. They have since been using the retail floors and backrooms of this store and the other 4 locations along with 3 functioning distribution centers to fulfill online orders.

On December 15 2024, California became the last state on the West Coast to have a Sears, and as of the end of last August, it has been home to this very last Sears location on the West Coast ever since.

Credits: Justin K (Voycall) and Steven Martinez (August 6 2022) on Flickr, Aidan M (April 15 2022), Gina S (June 30 2012), Richard W (July 20 2007) and Ryan J (March 13 2018) on Yelp, Julie Labesky (May 7 2018, the store staff has since replaced the monitors with flat screen), Kazeem Adebiyi (May 19 2018), WREAK HAVOC (May 30 2018) and Ivonne Ortiz (January 29 2018) on Google... and of course u/jikesar968 here on Reddit

The Sears logo on the main level entrance has since been really bright

https://www.flickr.com/photos/voycall/albums/72177720333220500/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/158376442@N07/albums/72177720301631042/with/52315434728

https://www.yelp.com/biz/sears-watch-repair-concord

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sears-watch-repair-concord

• Coral Gables in Miami Florida 10/27/1954 - present (3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145)
• Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord California 10/19/1966 - present (1001 Sunvalley Blvd, Concord, CA 94520)
• South Shore Plaza in Braintree Massachusetts 10/6/1980 - present (250 Granite St, Braintree, MA 02184)
• Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas 2/24/1982 - present (8401 Gateway Blvd W, El Paso, TX 79925)
• The Florida Mall in Orlando Florida 3/12/1986 - present (8001 S Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809)

Edit: and so has Sears itself the retailer been in operation for 140 years (from 1886 to 2026) and this location opened 80 years after Richard Warren Sears started the company as R.W. Sears Watch Company

1886-present

The Florida Mall store in Orlando opened with the rest of the mall in Florida on Sears' 100th anniversary in 1986

As of 2021, this Sears was the last in all of the DMV area and in the state of Maryland. In 2022 many of the overhead lights in some areas were turned off probably due to a huge electric bill, which is why they had to use some halogen work lights in the former outdoor equipment area. This store later closed on January 15th of 2023 due to struggling profitability and underperformance and the Sears logo was removed immediately the day after.

Today the following Sears stores are still open (and they even still operate Sears.com and 3 distribution centers) as of 2026:

• Coral Gables in Miami Florida 10/27/1954 - present (3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145)
• Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord California 10/19/1966 - present (1001 Sunvalley Blvd, Concord, CA 94520)
• South Shore Plaza in Braintree Massachusetts 10/6/1980 - present (250 Granite St, Braintree, MA 02184)
• Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas 2/24/1982 - present (8401 Gateway Blvd W, El Paso, TX 79925)
• The Florida Mall in Orlando Florida 3/12/1986 - present (8001 S Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809)

The Kmart distribution in Fairless Hills Pennsylvania closed down last month so we are now down to 3 functioning distribution centers / DCs

Credits:
Mike Kalasnik (Flickr) [July 3rd of 2012] (https://flickr.com/photos/10542402@N06/albums/72157630878359436/) and [April 19th of 2022] (https://flickr.com/photos/10542402@N06/albums/72177720311885134/)
Keith Creager (Flickr) December 29 2018
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146847719@N04/49746688511/in/photostream/
Manny Quacioua aka / also known as Chris Fitzwater Promotions (Google) November 13 2021 and April 9 2022
Nick Coccagna (Google) March 30 2017
Amos Togoch (Google) May 19 2017
Alligator (Google) December 15 2018
Mike Reed (Google) sometime in 2018 or 2019
Thomas Sweeney (Google) December 24 2020
Alex Miller (Google) November 20th of 2021
Svetlana Postnikova (Foursquare) May 15 2012
https://app.foursquare.com/v/sears/4b6ef994f964a52027d42ce3
https://app.foursquare.com/v/sears/4b6ef994f964a52027d42ce3/photos

https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/maryland/sears-about-to-close-final-maryland-store/

Final days of operation: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEARS/comments/106alot/inside_the_sears_at_the_francis_scott_key_mall_in_frederick_md/

The former Sears building at the West Town Mall is now a Dick’s House of Sport.

Here's some more pictures of the renovation work, the Kenmore small appliances I saw and the new Christmas section. There's a bunch of appliances around the escalators now, although I'm not sure if that's permanent now of if they will be moved back once the new showroom opens. They've also got new winter coats.

They actually let me keep a piece of the old carpet. Now I've got that Sears smell at home. 😂

Things are happening 🤩

Edit: I’m still in the store, they’re hanging up the Christmas decorations right now and have just put up a small Christmas tree and there’s a bunch of Christmas items for sale.

There’s also a new shelf full of Kenmore small appliances next to the renovation workers.

They’ve also told me they repainted the walls on that entire side of the store a few days. The paint is now dark gray instead of light gray.

Edit: u/Beast_Unicorn_Jones7 told me I had to tell you that she saw it first. 😂

This one has now been turned into a Spirit Halloween. It was one of the last four Sears stores in California until it closed in August 2024, leaving Concord as the sole remaining location in NorCal. (which is now the sole remaining location in all of California)

I thought the tiny library they've added next to the former mall entrance was quite nice.

Check out the comments underneath the closed forever signs...

Back when they had online ordering, store locators and online contests etc. Today they still operate Sears.com. Most items that "come from Sears" on .com these days is drop-shipped by 3rd party sellers but there are also "Sold by Sears" and "Ships from Sears Authorized Supplier" filters. We would also schedule home service calls, also meaning do business with Sears Home Services / SHS as well at the time. Despite the 1993 Catalog shutdown over struggling profitability, and the mid to late 1990s divestitures, Sears still managed to keep going with the internet and home repair along with the store formats in hopes of a recovery from structural issues.

Even after they were bought by a just escaped from bankruptcy competitor Kmart in 2004 and the creation of Sears Holdings Corporation / SHC in 2005 as orchestrated by Eddie Lampert, the online store was still worth using, as was SHS. The Sears website was later redesigned under SHC in 2007, and in 2009-2010. SHS and .com were still worth using up until Lampert took over as CEO in 2013 [and the year the online store began languishing] (https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/10/19/how-sears-failed-in-the-e-commerce-era-even-as-it-innovated-online/), followed by [SHS] (https://www.businessinsider.com/sears-service-department-is-in-shambles-customers-claim-2016-11) a couple years later along with Sears products, especially major appliances like washers and dryers, fridges etc., becoming increasingly defective. If only the company had gotten the right leadership and funding in the 2000s and early 2010s at the latest...

Speaking of contests, on February 14th through 16th of 2025, in other words, on the 3rd weekend of last February, the Sears at The Florida Mall in Orlando, one of 2 left in the state of Florida, hosted the Orlando Home and Garden Show at the Orange County Convention Center, also in Orlando, where we could win a Kenmore grill.

The following Sears stores are still open as of 2026:

• Coral Gables in Miami Florida 10/27/1954 - present (3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145)
• Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord California 10/19/1966 - present (1001 Sunvalley Blvd, Concord, CA 94520)
• South Shore Plaza in Braintree Massachusetts 10/6/1980 - present (250 Granite St, Braintree, MA 02184)
• Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas 2/24/1982 - present (8401 Gateway Blvd W, El Paso, TX 79925)
• The Florida Mall in Orlando Florida 3/12/1986 - present (8001 S Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809)

They even still operate 3 distribution centers as well: https://transformwo.com/

Sears.com commercial (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0xX-NfPiCk

Vhs Vcr (Youtube)

July 4 2016

Edit: 10 years after this commercial was made back in 2000, the Marketplace had since been introduced in 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmaLRJHK2-o

sponsored by Sears appliances & electronics

I scored one of these vintage car carriers, but I don’t know how it works. There is a latch on front and back and on each side there is a rail with a little lock. Of course I have no keys, but how does this thing work?
The clips to attach to roof rails will need to be replaced I think, but thought I’d post here while I go hunt for a manual online.

Usually I wouldn’t post something like this but I thought why not. This was during its final days, and the cool part is they show him the backrooms. I thought that was really cool

From the North Seattle/Shoreline area. This is the last Sears I ever set foot in.

I am part of the Virtual Boy community, we recently found this video of an important piece of history for the Virtual Boy time frame though I wanna to share this because Sears is in the background at 24:34, I assume this sears has long closed but it is nice to see sears in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-a-zj434k

What was the last full line Sears store to open brand new? (this excludes Sears Grand, Sears Home, etc)

Today marks exactly 8 years since Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15th of 2018 and had since added 142 stores, including this one, to the list of locations that was slated to close on January 6th of 2019, [along with 8 others across the state of Texas] (https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/9-sears-locations-closing-texas-bankruptcy/). This store opened on July 15 2000. As of this year it has since been slated to be turned into a Dick's House of Sport. There is still one Sears left in the state of Texas, at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, the last one in the state and one of 5 left and they even have [3 functioning distribution centers] (https://transformwo.com/) and a website Sears.com since the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s and they still operate it to this day if you don’t have a physical store nearby anymore. Most listings these days are 3rd party but there is a “sold by Sears” filter.

The following Sears stores are still open as of 2026:

- Coral Gables in Miami Florida 10/27/1954 - present (3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145)
- Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord California 10/19/1966 - present (1001 Sunvalley Blvd, Concord, CA 94520)
- South Shore Plaza in Braintree Massachusetts 10/6/1980 - present (250 Granite St, Braintree, MA 02184)
- Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas 2/24/1982 - present (8401 Gateway Blvd W, El Paso, TX 79925)
- The Florida Mall in Orlando Florida 3/12/1986 - present (8001 S Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809)

Sources of photos: Yelp and Foursquare
https://www.yelp.com/biz/sears-frisco
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sears-frisco
https://app.foursquare.com/v/sears/4babab46f964a5209dbe3ae3
https://app.foursquare.com/v/sears/4babab46f964a5209dbe3ae3/photos

Credits
Buddy Clark on January 19-21 2013
Jake Tucker on June 28 2013
Mike Walters on January 26 2014
Joey M on March 29 2014
Jennifer Compton on June 29 2014
Chris Colosimo on November 19 2014
Nicole H on January 3 2016
Juan Q on June 11 2017 and October 21, November 11 and December 24 2018
Rob Brodner on September 3 2017
Tony Dang on November 25 2017, November 24 and December 1 2018
Daniela N on December 29 2018

The Decline of Sears...What Happened?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qws713t3HBY

By Company Man

October 19 2018

https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/comments/1o7rdxc/the_decline_of_searswhat_happened/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SEARS/comments/1o7reai/the_decline_of_searswhat_happened/

https://www.reddit.com/r/kmart/comments/1o7rffq/the_decline_of_searswhat_happened/

I even posted a picture of this store's tool department here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEARS/comments/1w5strv/tool_department_at_sears_in_the_2000s_2010s_and_today_craftsman_tools/

Way back when Sears was still in a salvageable state even after Sears closed down the Catalog and over 100 legacy stores in the early 90s over struggling profitability and the debt reaffirmation scandal in the late 90s. They were building, running and operating the online presence Sears.com despite still being "expensive to buy from Sears." Kenmore appliances didn't actually sell at Kmart site wide at Kmart.com or even in store until [KMart acquired Sears in 2004 (Alan Lacy sold the company out to Eddie Lampert) and Sears Holdings was formed in 2005] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aabWOlx-MA). Today Kenmore vacuums still sell on the Sears website, at KenmoreFloorCare.com and at 5 open Sears stores that are left:

Sunvalley Mall, Concord, CA (near San Francisco) 10/19/1966-present

Cielo Vista Mall, El Paso, TX 2/24/1982-present

The Florida Mall, Orlando, FL 3/12/1986-present

Standalone store, Coral Gables, FL (near Miami) 10/27/1954-present

South Shore Plaza, Braintree, MA (near Boston) 10/6/1980-present

They even ship from the remaining 3 functioning distribution centers / DCs as well.....

Credits to:

Sears Roebuck and Company (1998)

Vacuum Archive (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOdbcKng8AY

With All Of That Being Said, Did Anyone Buy This Kenmore Cyclonic Vacuum From Sears? If So, When And Where? And How Was It?

Edit: many / most of these were made by Panasonic, Eureka, Sebo and Hoover back then.....

The Great Indoors was a chain of home decor and furniture stores operated by Sears, Roebuck and Co. (later Sears Holdings) from 1997 to 2012 one of the concepts Sears could have expanded and kept going with, along with Sears Hardware, Grand, Hometown and Outlet. Launched to capitalize on Sears' strength in hard goods and compete with upscale home retailers like Home Depot’s Expo Design Center, the concept targeted higher-income shoppers with stores averaging 100,000–150,000 square feet. Each store was organized into five sections—kitchen, bath, bedroom, great room, and flooring/walls, even laundry—featuring brands like Bosch, Kenmore, KitchenAid, and Kohler, with around 50,000–80,000 products and up to 350,000 special-order items. Stores often included cafes, some branded as Starbucks or Dazbog Coffee, and accepted Sears credit cards but avoided Sears branding inside. In other words, they had everything home related like appliances, furniture, mattresses, lighting, sinks, toilets, bathtubs and shower heads etc. In addition to the Sears Shop At Home webpages that Sears had way back in the day when they went online, approximately all of the inventory that sold at the [Sears Home Center] (https://web.archive.org/web/20011007170911/http://www.searshomecenter.com/homecenter/default.asp?check=1), [Sears ShowPlace] (https://web.archive.org/web/20021001110605/http://www.searsshowplace.com/showplace/default.asp?check=1) and [Sears Room for Kids] (https://web.archive.org/web/20021201150456/http://www.searsroomforkids.com/roomforkids/default.asp?check=1) and so on and so forth, sold at The Great Indoors, a home center format.
The chain's main competitors in the home market were Macy's, Bed Bath and Beyond and J.C. Penney, along with At Home and likely even The Container Store. Just before Alan Lacy took over as CEO in 2000 and later the sale to Eddie Lampert in 2004, this concept was launched in 1997 when Arthur Martinez was CEO from 1995 to 2000.

Despite Martinez's poor decisions as the CEO and Lacy having no idea where to take the company and rapidly running out of money, resulting in the sale out to Lampert, this concept was IMHO one of Sears' winning strategies in reinventing there brick and mortar / B&M footprint.
The first store opened in Lone Tree, Colorado, on February 1st of 1998, followed by a second in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1999. At its peak in 2003, The Great Indoors had 21 stores across ten states, generating $550 million in sales with average transactions of $260 and $400 per square foot. Expansion was rapid, with 15 stores opened by 2001, including locations in Chicago, Houston, and Columbus, Ohio. However, the chain struggled with profitability. Sears closed three stores in 2003 (Arlington and Willowbrook, TX; Cincinnati, OH) and converted one in Shelby, MI, to a Sears Outlet, incurring a $75–100 million charge. The 2005 Sears-Kmart merger (orchestrated by Lampert, who was behind KMart buying Sears) and the 2008 housing market crash further hurt sales, as fewer homes were remodeled. By 2011, three more stores closed, including both California locations. In February 2012, Sears announced the closure of the remaining nine stores (in Scottsdale and Chandler, AZ; Lone Tree, CO; Lombard, IL; Gaithersburg, MD; Novi, MI; Columbus, OH; Farmers Branch and Houston, TX), with the final store in Lone Tree closing on July 8, 2012. This concept barely had a good run as a result. The Home Depot's Expo Design also went out of business as well. A couple of Home Depot founders opened Dekor which was a very similar store to this, as did Homebase converted their stores to House2home. None of these lasted and they to closed up shop. Had Sears been run properly and under better management (not Lampert) they would have capitalized on and invested in the general construction/hardware supply and interior design/decorating destination stores to compete with Lowe's and Home Depot.....

Sources and locations:
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Indoors_(department_store))
Novi Michigan on December 4 2011, later a Sears Outlet (Dwight Burdette / Wikimedia Commons)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_Indoors_Store_Novi_Michigan.JPG
Broomfield Colorado
https://www.denverpost.com/2011/10/14/the-great-indoors-closing-broomfield-store/
Columbus Ohio
https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2012/02/24/great-indoors-stores-will-close/24173918007/
https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2012/02/24/great-indoors-at-polaris-to-close-as.html
Lone Tree Colorado circa 1998
https://www.denverpost.com/2012/02/23/parker-sears-closing-doors-of-the-great-indoors/
Orange County California
https://www.ocregister.com/2011/07/01/the-great-indoors-closing-its-oc-store-2/
Chandler Arizona on March 16th of 2007 (Georgina R on Yelp)
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-great-indoors-chandler?select=8Ty4IVyy-gKmE6RT7pGDxw
Irvine California on June 3rd of 2011 (Francine L / Yelp)
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-great-indoors-irvine
Lone Tree Colorado on December 17th of 2010 (Michael C on Yelp)
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-great-indoors-lone-tree
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-great-indoors-lone-tree?select=u0RPjBWZLSVo_sd3atDPAg
Lombard Illinois on August 11th of 2010 (Adit P / Yelp)
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-great-indoors-lombard?select=qpx-FO8C5tAc66gXQTIH1A
And finally Houston Texas sometime in early to mid 2012 (The Louisiana and Texas Retail Blogspot)
https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2012/08/goodbye-sears-great-indoors-last.html

https://www.homeaccentstoday.com/industry-news/sears-shutting-the-last-great-indoors/

Full list: https://web.archive.org/web/20090318005650/http://www.thegreatindoors.com/getinspired/visitastore/visitastore.aspx

Previous post
https://www.reddit.com/r/SEARS/comments/1mpo0xg/the_great_indoors_started_by_sears_roebuck_and_co/

Unfortunately Debbie passed away unexpectedly in her sleep. :( She's been working here for 36 years. I've been told everyone was crying when they found out about it. 😔

Also, the general manager Marie won't be returning until December due to something with her ankle.

Yes, the bottom floor entrance has been reopened again. Apparently the new security guy they've hired told them to. There've got lots of new clothes. Even the backrooms are starting to reach capacity.