Richard Warren Sears and Sears, Roebuck, & Company Richard Warren Sears was born on December 7, 1863, in Stewartville, Minnesota. He was the son of James Warren and Eliza A. Sears, both of English ancestory. His father led anything but a happy life. He had failed in his quest for gold during the California Gold Rush of 1849 and was a bitter soldier in the Civil War, which he blamed on politicians. He had earned a sizable sum of money working as a blacksmith and a wagonmaker, but he lost it all
Sears, a company spanning 131 years that began as R.W Sears Watch Company was once the largest retailer in the United States. Kmart, its runner up, began as a general retailing store just thirteen years after Sears as S.S Kresge Company in 1899. Sears had been the largest retailer in the United States until Wal-Mart rose and surpassed them, and Kmart bought out Sears and merged the two struggling companies in 2005 (Meyer, 2017; New York Times, 2002). From there, Sears and Kmart have been steadily