TUKWILA, Wash. — Once a mainstay of American retail, Sears has closed its last remaining store in Washington.
It had been an anchor store at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila for 30 years.
"It's pretty much cleared out," said Marisa Medina, who bought supplies for her classroom.
Medina and her boyfriend, Armanda Torres, said they were not surprised to see the store close. The couple said Sears used an outdated business model for too long.
"They stuck to catalogs and never really went towards the younger market," Medina said.
"They stuck with the traditional way of shopping, thinking that might stick around," Torres said.
Once a household name, Sears' decades-long grip on American consumers began to slip in the 1990s, squeezed by fierce competition from retailers like Walmart and, eventually, Amazon. The company struggled to adapt to the rapid changes in consumer habits, particularly as online shopping increased.
In the early 2000s, Sears merged with Kmart in a bid to stabilize, but the union failed to reinvigorate either brand. In 2018, the retailer filed for bankruptcy, and since then, stores across the country have shuttered, leaving only a handful of locations still standing.
"It's a little bit sad, but I feel like it's now normal," Medina said.
With the closure of the Southcenter Mall store, just eight Sears locations remain nationwide. At its peak, Sears boasted more than 3,000 stores across the country.