What's killing Sears? Its own retirees, the CEO says

[The Conductor]

29. Transition Points...

I've long been fascinated by the transition points of truly disruptive technologies and how rarely large companies survive the shifts. None of the big typewriter companies made it as computer printer makers, not even Teletype, which had all of the early computer interaction to itself. With the possible exception of Studebaker, none of the big wagon makers became successful automobile companies - and Studebaker was always far down in the pack. Kodak invented the digital camera and still lost it. And the two big makers of US steam locomotives were never all that successful at making diesel locomotives. Famously, one vice president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works said in 1940 that the diesels were pretty toys, but there'd be a market for steam engines, "until at least 1960." By 1960, all the railroads had converted and there wasn't even a Baldwin Company anymore...

In that same way, Sears had everything needed to be Amazon, and had it all in place by 1970. They even had the stores to be showrooms and pickup locations, all convenient and all backed with the best distribution system around. They didn't even take the hint when their number one rival, Montgomery Ward, went belly up.

They blew it, just as GE did when they completely gave up manufacturing to become a half-assed banking operation, just in time for the Great Recession to kill that business. And while busting hell on their longtime employers with Jack Welch "rack-and-stack" crap that insisted 1/3rd of workers get tossed every year. Look at their stock and fleeing their longtime headquarters on how wonderfully productive that was.