Montgomery Ward

Also known as Wards, Montgomery Ward & Co.

Lasted

about 128 years

August 1872 → 2001

Cause of death: Killed by cost; with killed by a successor as a contributing factor
Made by: Montgomery Ward & Co.

A weak Christmas ended a Chapter 11 turnaround and the company chose liquidation over another year of trading.

Montgomery Ward invented the mail-order catalogue in 1872 as a single sheet of paper with prices on it, and spent a century as the shop rural America ordered from. It killed the catalogue in 1985 to concentrate on stores it was steadily losing to Walmart and Target, filed Chapter 11, and gave up after one bad Christmas. It announced liquidation on 28 December 2000, closed 250 stores, cut 37,315 jobs, and returned in 2004 as a website.

Standing in the archive

Rank 6 of 127 by lifespan. Montgomery Ward outlasted 96% of everything else on file.

Compare it with something

Cite this entry

"Montgomery Ward." How Long It Lasted, https://www.howlongitlasted.com/thing/montgomery-ward.

Died nearby

AstroWorld37y 4m · killed by cost
Braniff International Airwaysabout 54 years · killed by cost
Choco Tacoabout 39 years · killed by cost
Circuit Cityabout 60 years · killed by cost
Concorde27y 9m · killed by cost

Sources

Montgomery Wards closing stores — United Press International (archived)
Montgomery Ward & Co. — Britannica (archived)

Last checked by a human on 24 July 2026