Once upon a time, Sears was the Amazon.com and Walmart of U.S. merchandising. Customers could order just about anything for delivery—even a kit to build a 10-room colonial-style house—from the Sears catalog, a compendium of the American dream with a reach into the rural parts of the country that helped make Sears, Roebuck America's largest merchant. Sears helped create the shopping mall in the 1950s, working with developers to build the retail centers that grew with the exodus to the suburbs. And when customers needed financing, it created a massive credit arm that paved the way for the MasterCards and Visas of today.

"They stood like a colossus on top of the American retail market—bigger than the next four companies combined," says Craig Johnson, president of consultant Customer Growth Partners. That was as recently as the 1980s. "Now they're a 98-pound weakling."

It's been 11 years since hedge fund magnate Edward Lampert merged Sears with another ailing company, Kmart Holding, which he bought out of bankruptcy in 2003, to form Sears Holdings. Sales have plunged by almost half, the result of defecting customers and the sundering of assets such as the Lands' End clothing brand in 2014. Sears has lost more than $8 billion in the past five years. Its stock, once trading above $100, closed at $13.30 in late May. Some mall owners are eager to replace its stores with those of more vibrant tenants. And on May 26, the company said it would consider selling some of its crown jewels: the Kenmore appliance, DieHard battery, and Craftsman tool brands.

"They have been in a desperate state for a number of years," says Matt McGinley, an analyst at Evercore ISI, the lone Wall Street firm still covering the company. "I wouldn't say any of the asset sales have been from a position of strength in the past three or four years. They've been done to fund substantial operating losses." Sears declined a request for comment for this story.

The retailer has suffered from an industrywide decline as Americans spend differently and on different things. People are buying fewer clothes, spending more on dining and other experiences, and saving more. In the mid-'80s, 45 percent of consumer spending went to goods, the remainder to services. Today those figures are 31 percent and 69 percent, respectively, according to Customer Growth's Johnson. When Americans do buy goods, they're shifting where they shop—not just to online, but to off-mall retailers, such as Walmart, Costco Wholesale, and T.J. Maxx.