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Sears to Close Last Store in Illinois: Only a Few Left

This bit of retail news might be more symbolic than impactful, but it's certainly worth noting: Sears is closing its last store in its home state of Illinois, specifically in its hometown of Chicago. This isn't just the Sears whose mail-order catalogs were fixtures -- especially around the holidays -- in the lives of many of us of a certain age. It's the remnants of that company known as Sears, Roebuck & Co. that began operating in the Windy City in 1893 and grew to become America's largest retailer, with some 350,000 employees headquartered in what was then the world's tallest building: the Sears Tower.