Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward took root as catalog retailers—enabling people in rural America to buy things that historically had not been accessible. Their business model, entailing annual inventory turns of four times and gross margins of 30 percent, was disruptive relative to the model of full-service department stores, which required 40 percent gross margins because they turned inventories only three times annually. Sears and Montgomery Ward later moved up-market, building retail stores.
