Requiem for a Sears

Not With A Whimper, But A Decades-Long Postcapitalist Scream

When I read that the last Sears store in New York City would close forever in November 2021, I could not believe it. I could not believe that someone cared enough about Sears to write an entire article about it.

The author described the Brooklyn Sears building as “historic,” which to me implies some kind of artistic merit. Beautiful. Bold. At least iconic. I forgot that sometimes history is boring as hell. Sometimes, historic architecture looks exactly like every rat-trap shopping mall in Middle America. As I…