So, once upon a time (well, uh, 2003), before Sears and Kmart merged, Sears wanted to expand with a new off-mall concept, (even at that point it was already kind of obvious that malls were on their way out). So, in October
2003, the first Sears Grand opened its doors, located in West Jordan, Utah. By
2005, there were 8 more Sears Grands (and they were actually really nice, even in 2021 they look just as nice as a 2018-build Target store).
But by Spring 2005, SHC wanted to convert a bunch of Kmarts to freestanding
Sears stores. So they launched Sears Essentials, which turned out to be a
major flop (you can read about all that failure here). After they found out
that that had failed, someone had the bright idea (I'm clearly being sarcastic
here) to do the same thing again, but under the already-established "Sears
Grand" nameplate. You can probably assume how that went. All those stores were converted back to Kmart or closed by 2014, with the last being in Solon, Ohio.
So what about the actual Sears Grands? Here's what happened to them.
In April 2004, a second Sears Grand opened in Gurnee, Illinois, and was strangely located in a mall.
In July 2004, a third Sears Grand opened in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In October 2004, a fourth Sears Grand opened in Rancho Cucamonga, California.In July 2005, a fifth Sears Grand opened in Tarentum, Pennsylvania.
In September 2005, a sixth Sears Grand opened in Austin, Texas.
In October 2005, a seventh Sears Grand opened in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Also in October 2005, an eighth Sears Grand opened in Thornton, Colorado.
The first to fall was the Tarentum Sears Grand, it went dark in early 2015.
The West Jordan store was downsized into a regular Sears in 2017.
The Austin, TX store closed in April 2018.
The Gurnee store closed in September 2018.
The West Jordan store closed permanently in November 2018.
The Las Vegas Sears Grand closed in January 2019.
The Cape Girardeau location closed in October 2019.
The Thornton, CO store closed in May 2021
And the final Sears Grand, in Rancho Cucamonga, CA closed in June 2021.
I'd recommend you watch these videos to get a better idea of what Sears Grand is/was. Note that none of these videos are mine.
Thornton, CO:
Gurnee, IL:
Rancho Cucamonga, CA:
Cape Girardeau, MO:
Tarentum, PA:
Las Vegas, NV:
West Jordan, UT:
And here's a list of Sears Grand stores I created. If you notice any incorrect information or any missing stores, please leave a comment below.