Sears goes bankrupt, Eddie Lampert leaves his position as CEO

This company was once a giant. It all started with Richard Sears, who launched the Sears Watch Co. in 1886 to sell watches by mail. The company then evolved into Sears, Roebuck and Co., which sold everything from homes to hardware to catalogs. The convenience has brought its products to the most rural areas of America.

In 1925, Sears transformed a first mail order facility in the West Side of Chicago into a premier retail store. From here the end of the year. Sears has opened seven more stores. Finally, Sears has become the largest US retailer and its home brands such as Kenmore and Craftsman have gained prominence as commodities in homes across the country. Generations of children have marked the holidays by flipping through their holiday catalog, known as the "Wishbook", wondering if they would receive any of the toys it contains.

As Sears grew, his empire grew. The company sits in Chicago's iconic Sears Tower and, for a time, owned financial services companies such as Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group.

But Walmart dominated Sears as the largest US retailer in 1990. Its efforts to attract female buyers by showing them the "sweet side of Sears" and opening new business lines left it without identity.

These challenges did not stop Lampert, the hedge fund manager who had already impressed Wall Street when he had apparently changed direction, which he had bought in 2004. He acquired and combined Sears with Kmart in 2005, claiming stronger together than separated. The financial guru has seen valuable real estate, customers he could earn from one store to another and considerable costs to reduce his expenses.

The retail giant that he created had a market capitalization of $ 20 billion north of 2006. The media began to wonder if he was the "next Warren Buffett". By this time, Lampert could have sold his investments, but he remained true to his vision of combined retailers.

Meanwhile, Walmart and Target continued to open stores, as did Lowe's and Home Depot. Walmart touted its "low daily prices", while Target offered "cheap chic". Lowe's and Home Depot have provided a wider range of home improvement products for all kinds of projects, making competition difficult for Kenmore and Craftsman.

Then came a double blow.

Consumer spending slowed during the Great Recession, especially for expensive items such as washers and dryers. Cash-strapped buyers have begun to use the Internet to find the best deals. Gradually, they began to spend more online and avoid the mall, thus fueling the boom of Amazon. Sears 140,000 square foot stores began to look monstrous as pedestrian traffic declined.

Walmart and others have begun investing in their businesses to compete with Amazon, but Sears has never been so lucky. He just did not have the funds.

The last profitable year for Sears was in 2010. A thin cash flow left little money to return to the company itself, which made it less relevant. Over the past five years, Sears' capital expenditure / sales ratio has been less than 1%. Although his sales have more than halved during the same period.