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tdp2664 InvestorPlace It's been 125 years since former railroad employee and innovator Richard Warren Sears launched a mail-order catalog that would propel the Sears retail operation into the "World's Largest Store." Its later diversification into financial services included the Dean Witter Reynolds investment firm and Discover Card brands. But when the 1990s dealt the conglomerate a bad hand, Sears changed — first divesting many nonretail businesses and finally agreeing to be acquired by Kmart . Seven years after the merger that created Sears Holdings Corp. ( NASDAQ : SHLD ), the retailer is still changing. Sears' sales have been shrinking every year since the Kmart merger in 2005. In the second quarter of 2011, Kmart sales were flat, and Sears' sales fell 1.2%. At $35.3 billion, SHLD is now ranked 10th in annual retail sales — not necessarily catastrophic in a down economy, but far less than head-to-head competitors Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) at more than $307 billion and Target (NYSE: TGT ) at nearly $66 billion. Now Sears may be banking on a management shift to help reverse its slide. On Thursday, Sears Holdings announced the departure of its president of marketing, Dave Friedman, who’ll be replaced by Imran Jooma, e-commerce president. Sears is also trying to capitalize on some of its most well known names. It has already has licensed the Die Hard battery brand to Meijer Corp.’s 194 stores, and it hopes to make similar deals for the Kenmore appliance and Craftsman tool brands.
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