[Digory]

They were caught flatfooted between being Wal-Mart and Amazon.

Sears had shifted so firmly into retail by the 80s. Then Wal-Mart ate their lunch on low price retail logistics.

Then Amazon came along, and solved last-mile delivery of catalog sales.

[musicale]

Perhaps Sears/Kmart could have filled the Target niche, and leveraged Sears' brand portfolio rather than selling them off to make crushing interest payments.