SEARS.CA is a website of
SEARS CANADA
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 Sears
Canada Inc. (TSX: SCC) (more commonly referred to as "Sears") is a
retailer.
Sears.ca is headquartered in Toronto,
Ontario, that operates in all provinces and territories across Canada with a
network of 188 corporate stores, 180 dealer stores, 67
home improvement showrooms, 112 Sears
Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and
installation network.
Sears also has a general merchandise
catalogue with over 2,200 catalogue merchandise pickup locations. There is a
Sears location within a 10-minute drive of 93% of Canadians. About 50,000
associates are employed throughout the company.
As of 2007, Sears Holdings Corporation of the
United States owns 70% of Sears Canada common shares; the remainder of the
shares are publicly traded. As of March 31, 2005, the majority ownership
stake was officially transferred to Sears Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: SHLD).
Sears Holdings is attempting to buy back the outstanding shares of Sears
Canada.
On September 26, 2007, Sears Canada announced the sale of its Jarvis
Street headquarters to the Province of Ontario. The company will relocate
its offices to surplus space at its flagship store in the Toronto Eaton
Centre.
Sears Whole Home and Sears.ca
In 1995, Sears Canada opened Sears Whole Home furniture stores located in
power centres, and renamed them Sears Furniture and Appliances stores in
1999, to reflect the addition of major appliances. In 2003, Sears Canada
again renamed their Furniture and Appliances
store to Sears Home stores.
This change was intended to reflect their
broader appeal for customers seeking a one stop experience for re-making
their home decor. The stores' product line was expanded to include Home
Installed Products and Services such as floor
coverings, customer drapery,
and other installed home related products in many locations.
In 1998, Sears Canada's website, sears.ca
became an active channel, allowing customers to order from a selection
of over 500 products. By 2001, the website became Canada's most popular
retail internet destination with over a million orders placed that year.
In 1999, Sears Canada acquired The T. Eaton Company Limited. With this
acquisition, Sears Canada acquired some of the assets and the trademark name
of the bankrupt chain. For the first time in its history, Sears Canada held
the leases to a number of prime downtown locations in Toronto (Eaton Centre
and Yorkdale Mall), Vancouver (Pacific Centre), Victoria, Winnipeg, Ottawa,
Calgary(all former Eaton's stores). Sears had intended to obtain the former
downtown Montreal store, although it lost out to the incumbent Les Ailes de
la Mode.
Sears relaunched eatons (with the lowercase "e" logo) in November 2000 as a
seven-store upscale mini-brand, with locations in Vancouver, Victoria,
Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa. This operation was unsuccessful,
however, and Sears converted the eatons stores to the Sears brand in 2002.
Many said that the eatons stores were too
upscale and/or too thinly scattered across the country for the mini-chain to
have ever been profitable and worthwhile. The retail environment has changed
with more of the population shopping at big box outlets and/or speciality
stores squeezing out the middle market which is the base of the traditional
department store.
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