Sears and Roebuck.
Montgomery Wards.
become
Sears.
Wards.
Okay, I know Monkey Wards is out of business, but still… where are Montgomery and Roebuck these days?
This seems to be a case with the retailers changing their ways to more closely associate with their customers. They start calling themselves what their customers call them in order to provide more familiarity with the public. Also, since they are now publicly-held companies, Toebuck and Montgomery are no longer around (at least their heirs, anyway) in a controlling position to fight the name change.
There are lots of examples of companies changing their operating names to more closely identify themselves with how the public recognizes them. McDonalds now regularly refer to themselves as “Mickie-Dee’s” in ads. Taco Bueno (common here in OK, I don’t know about the rest of the country) changed all their signs last year to say “Bueno”.
Just for reference, Montgomery Ward was one person, in full Aaron Montgomery Ward, not two like Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck.
And just to name another Chicago department store, apropos of nothing, Marshall Field was also one person, although with a series of descendants of the same name. I know there was a Marshall Field III, and I think the present generation (though no longer owner of the store; Target owns it) is IV.