Sears (officially
Sears, Roebuck & Company) is an American chain of
department stores. The company was founded by
Richard Warren Sears and
Alvah Curtis Roebuck in 1886; it was previously based in the
Sears Tower in
Chicago, and is currently headquartered in
Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It began as a
mail order catalog company, and began opening retail locations in 1925. The company was bought by the American
discount store chain
Kmart in 2005, which was in bankruptcy at the time and renamed itself
Sears Holdings upon completion of the merger. In terms of domestic revenue, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States until October 1989, when it was surpassed by
Walmart. It is the fifth-largest American
department store company by sales as of October 2013 (behind Walmart,
Target,
Best Buy, and
Home Depot), and it is the twelfth-largest retailer in the country overall. It operates divisions in
Canada and
Mexico, among several subsidiaries within its brand.