Why Did Sears Die While Amazon Took Over?

Sears sold houses by mail and had shoppers ordering on a computer before Amazon existed. They basically invented the future and helped build America. So what happened to Sears? Ray, a retired TV repairman from the Bronx, tells the whole story of what happened to Sears: a refused crate of watches in 1886, the catalog that reached every farm, kit houses by mail, the move into stores, the Sears Tower, and the online service Sears helped build in the 1980s. Then the twist: in 1993 Sears ended the big catalog, and in 1996 it sold its share of that online service, right as Amazon started selling books online. Chapters: 0:00 Sears sold everything 0:18 A crate of watches at a Minnesota rail stop 1:36 The catalog that came to the farm 2:40 Rural Free Delivery and parcel post 3:37 Houses by mail 4:22 The farmers bought cars 5:59 Julius Rosenwald's schools 7:00 The Wish Book and the Sears Tower 8:03 Socks and stocks 8:45 Sears was online before Amazon 9:24 Walmart and the worst year 9:55 1993: the big book ends 11:47 Well, there's your problem 12:03 Kmart, Craftsman and bankruptcy 12:57 What's left of Sears 13:25 Recap and next time Sources: [S1] HISTORY.com, History of Sears: https://www.history.com/articles/hist... [S2] Sears, Wikipedia (leads only, each checked against its cited source): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears [S3] "Sears to close over 100 stores," Deseret News, Jan. 25, 1993: https://www.deseret.com/1993/1/25/190... [S4] North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Rosenwald schools: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/index%2Ephp/b... [S5] Mail Order, Smithsonian National Postal Museum: https://postalmuseum.si.edu/mail-order [S6] Rural America Shops by Mail, The Henry Ford: https://www.thehenryford.org/collecti... [S7] Sears Is Fading, but Memories of Its Mail-Order Homes Endure, NPR via WHYY: https://whyy.org/npr-story/sears-is-f... [S8] Before Folding 30 Years Ago, the Sears Catalog Sold Some Surprising Products, Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova... [S9] Sears, Roebuck Opens Its First Retail Outlet, EBSCO Research Starters: https://ebsco.com/research-starters/h... [S10] Dean Witter, Discover & Co., Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/po... [S11] Prodigy Services Corp., Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/economic... [S12] Amazon.com, HistoryLink: https://historylink.org/File/23230 [S13] Fortune, Jan. 5, 2017: https://fortune.com/2017/01/05/sears-... [S14] Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy, CNN via WTVR, Oct. 15, 2018: https://www.wtvr.com/2018/10/15/sears... [S15] Atlas Obscura, Sears and the Postal Service: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles... [S16] How 2,700 closures reduced a retail giant to five stores, TheStreet, July 2026: https://www.thestreet.com/retail/afte... [S17] Morgan Stanley Dean Witter company history, Company Histories: https://company-histories.com/Morgan-... [S18] Exploring the lost world of Prodigy, PCWorld: https://www.pcworld.com/article/30345... [S19] Prodigy Communications Corporation, Reference for Business: https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/... [S20] Computer and Internet Use in the United States, U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Ce... Image credits: [PD-002] Rural Free Delivery mail wagon, Harris & Ewing collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. No known restrictions on publication. All other images are original animation made for this channel. Music: "Dusty Lo-Fi Jazz," Framesail audio library. Animated with AI-assisted tools. Ray is an animated character inspired by the creator's grandfather. All history is sourced above. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Sears, Transformco, Amazon, IBM or Walmart. #RayExplainsAmerica #AmericanHistory #Nostalgia