It's unthinkable because the company has dominated retail for so long, and it survived the pivot from pure brick-and-mortar operations to an omnichannel retailer. The once-dominant retailer, founded in 1886, even survived the pivot from its catalog business to a store-based model. Now, while Sears has not shut down, the chain has five locations left and appears to have abandoned any realistic hopes of a comeback. Sears Chapter 11 was the beginning of the endSears actually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, according to court documents filed on PacerMonitor. "Over the longer term it is still unclear what Sears hopes to accomplish.