American Freight

### Founded

1968; 52 years ago (Sears Surplus) in Kansas City, Missouri;1994; 26 years ago (American Freight) in Lima, Ohio

### Parent

Sears Alliance

**American Freight**, also previously known as **Sears Outlet & Sears Neighborhood**, is a US retail company that sells furniture, mattresses, home appliances, clothing, and food. The company's history dates to 1968, when Sears established a surplus store in Kansas City, Missouri.

## History

### Sears Surplus, Sears Outlet & Sears Neighborhood

In 1968, Sears opened a Sears Surplus store in Kansas City. This was the first of its kind operated by the Sears brand. The purpose of the store was to liquidate returned items. Sears continued to open Surplus stores throughout the USA until 1993, and the network included many converted Kmart stores.

In 1994, the Surplus stores were renamed to Sears Outlet.

Apparel was introduced to in 2008 stores and served as a liquidation outlet for Lands' End.

In 2009, SearsOutlet.com was launched as an e-commerce platform allowing customers to purchase items online and in 2011, nationwide delivery was offered.

The company partnered with the National Volunteer Fire Council in November 2013 to raise money for local fire departments. The objective of the campaign was to provide firehouses with funds to improve resources for training, equipment, and financial support.

### American Freight

The first American Freight store was founded by Steve Belford in Lima, Ohio in 1994, to provide working families with affordable furniture options. The store's strategy was to use modest warehouses to store the company’s furniture, and therefore eliminate markups associated with high-end showrooms.

The company was successful and by 2014 was operating 95 stores in 18 states, and October that year was acquired by an affiliate of private equity firm The Jordan Company of New York.

The company was acquired by Franchise Group (Sears Alliance) for US$450M on February 14, 2020, and combined with the former Sears Neighborhood stores under the brand American Freight Furniture, Mattress, Appliance.

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