According to reports, Sears officially plans to liquidate. After several failed attempts to stay afloat, the Hoffman Estates-based company is the latest victim of American’s changing shopping habits.
Sears Holdings’ independent directors have rejected a $4.4 billion bailout bid from chairman and former CEO Edward Lampert, meaning the retail icon has likely reached the end of its 126-year road, according to reports from CNBC and Reuters.
A few weeks ago, Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert submitted a last-minute, $4.4 billion bid in an effort to buy the retailer and keep it alive. But according to published reports, the bid fell short and did not meet broader creditor approval.
On Tuesday, the retailer’s parent company, Sears Holding Corp, asked a federal bankruptcy judge in New York to move to its last option: liquidation.
Sears and Kmart currently are poised to become the latest victims of nation’s changing shopping habits, pending any more last-minute saves.
The retail giant filed for bankruptcy protection last October. An auction for the company’s assets is not due until next week.
The department giant originally began as a jewellery company. In 1886, Richard W. Sears purchased unwanted watches from a Minneapolis jewellery and sold them to co-workers. He eventually partnered with watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck to form jewellery and watch company that would target underserved rural areas via a mail-order catalogue. The retailer eventually expanded to a brick-and-mortar retailer that stocked a wide variety of items, leading some to dub it “the original everything store.”
