Roebuck Buildings history

The first was Theodore Houser, who retired in 1958 and was succeeded by Fowler McConnell.

In 1963 the company posted sales of $5.1 billion, and an executive with the discount chain Korvette quipped that Sears was not only the No.

In 1967 Sears posted $1 billion in monthly sales for the first time.

Also in 1970, construction began in Chicago on the 110-story Sears Tower.

Recession caused by skyrocketing oil prices led to a $170 million drop in profits in 1974 on only a modest sales increase, and financial performance remained flat through the middle of the decade.

Sears had to be shaken up, and it fell to Edward Telling, a company veteran who succeeded Arthur Wood in 1978, to do it.

In 1981 Sears acquired the Los Angeles-based Coldwell Banker Company, the nation's largest real estate brokerage, and securities firm Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.

In late 1988 Sears announced plans to sell Coldwell Banker's commercial real estate unit, the Sears Tower, and a 10 percent buyback of its own stock.

In 1990 the financial services divisions contributed the bulk of earnings, with Dean Witter posting its best year ever.

In 1992 the company slashed 47,000 jobs and suffered a shocking year-end loss of almost $2.3 billion on sales of $53.1 billion.

By 1994 Sears's half-million-plus workforce had been whittled to less than 361,000, underperforming stores were closed, and others enlarged by a total of 3.4 million square feet to include national brand names other than its own eponymous label.