If you grew up shopping at Sears, this will sting a little harder than you expected. Sears, the now-defunct department store chain that was effectively a part of American family life, continues to whither before our eyes. And in California, the last curtain call is almost here. Two more of its remaining stores are shuttering, leaving just one open — in Concord, in the Bay Area.
That’s correct — after decades of peddling everything from washing machines to school uniforms, tools to kitchenware, Sears is closing quietly and fading away from the Golden State.
Let’s go through it so it’s really easy to get — and yeah, it’s a bit sad too.
California is saying goodbye to sears, almost completely
Currently, there are only three Sears locations left in the entire state of California. Two are in Los Angeles County (down south in SoCal), and one is up north in Concord, in the Bay Area.
But here’s the kicker: the two in SoCal — the two in Whittier and Burbank — are poised to shut their doors permanently. The Whittier store will close its doors later this month. The Burbank store is not far behind.
Which means that the Concord store at Sunvalley Shopping Center will be the last Sears store in all of California.
Let that sink in: The state of California, with a population more than any other in the U.S., is poised to have but one Sears.
From empire to empty
Now, this is where the story gets both fascinating and somewhat melancholic. Sears is not merely another chain retailer. It was the place to shop in America. It’s like the Amazon of bygone eras, only in hard-copy form.
Back in the 1880s (yes, we’re talking 139 years ago!), Sears started as a mail-order catalog. It was revolutionary. People could sit at home and order everything from socks to furniture—even full-blown houses—straight from the Sears catalog. It gave families in rural towns access to the same items people had in big cities. Pretty epic for the time.
And then, in 1925, Sears opened its first physical retail store. That was only the beginning of an enormous growth. By the 1980s, Sears was the largest retail chain in the United States. Let that soak in: it surpassed everyone.
Its peak, the firm had approximately 3,500 stores across the country. You couldn’t walk through a mall without being reminded of that red-and-blue logo. It was everywhere — part of the retail culture of generations.
So, what went wrong?
Like many of the defunct retail giants, Sears hit a wall in the past two decades. The world evolved — and Sears wasn’t changing fast enough.
The internet changed that. Internet shopping came to rule the day. Amazon, Walmart, and Target started doing it cheaper, faster, and more conveniently. The customer altered its behavior. And Sears did not change quickly enough to keep pace with that trend.
Then there was the mall problem. Sears typically was the “anchor” store at big malls—you know, the huge store at one end that attracted shoppers. But when malls began to empty out and lose popularity, Sears stores suffered. And in retailing, once you start closing stores, it’s hard to quit.
Management issues and financial struggles, such as bankruptcy filings, also beset the company. A few experts believe Sears did not reshape its business model when it could. Instead of refreshing, it quietly started phasing out—even while loyal customers remained, hoping for a revival.
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The final countdown: only six stores left in the whole country
This is not a California anomaly. Everywhere in the country, Sears is fighting to stay alive. Once those two California locations close, there will be just six Sears department stores left in the entire United States.
Six.
From 3,500 to six.
It’s an almost unthinkable decline for a brand that was as omnipresent as Coca-Cola or Ford. It’s like witnessing an old acquaintance taking slow steps out of frame.
What’s left for the last California store?
When Concord’s Sunvalley Shopping Center store becomes the last Sears standing in California, it will probably be some kind of landmark — or, who knows, even a museum attraction. It could attract shoppers who want to make one last visit down memory lane.
But come on — it’s bound to be only a matter of time before that final store jumps the same as the others did. The signs are all here. The brand is quietly shrinking into oblivion, and it’s not going to be a turnaround by any grand means.
For now, if you are in the Bay Area, you can still stroll down those familiar aisles. You can still smell the tools in the hardware department, hear the whir of the fluorescent lights, and remember what shopping used to be like.
Why this matters more than you think
Losing a single Sears store might not be a significant loss on paper, especially in a time when everybody is just one click away. But it reminds us that things move fast—and that even the biggest of names can get cold if they do not shift with the times.
Sears was not a store. It was an American retail institution. It set the tone for how we shopped. For some families, it was where they bought their first fridge. Their first school clothes. Their first lawn mower.
And now it’s all but gone.
What you can do
If you’re feeling nostalgic or just want to experience what Sears was like before it vanishes completely, take a trip to the Concord location while it’s still open. Who knows how much longer it will last?
Whether it’s store closures, food recalls, bizarre tax tips, or the hottest breaking news story, it’s all there in plain language that makes sense.
In the end.
The Sears tale is a powerful reminder that even the greatest among us can stumble if they won’t adapt. It’s also a story of memory, change, and moving on.
So the next time you pass by an older mall or come across a vintage Sears catalog stuck in your grandmother’s garage, stop for a moment and glance again. Because before long, it could be nothing more than the past.