Just this afternoon a friend and I were trying to figure out where some of the old standard department stores still have open locations. JC Penneys is at one mall, but closed at a couple of others; Sears is completely gone in our area. Dillard's is still both a department store and at a mall a few miles away is their regional outlet, and Macy's closest location to us has both the regular store and the "Backstage" outlet. (Macy's popped up where Foley's used to be. I loved Foley's.) You asked about a Sears in Pharr—that small city is in the very south of Texas at the US-Mexico border, adjacent to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The more populous city is south of the border and is probably what keeps that Sears open. Though after COVID shut down the borders, they probably had to pulls some strings to keep sales moving. This is probably why the El Paso store is also open. The two in Washington State are divided east and west; one over in the center (east of the Cascades) in Yakima, and one south of Seattle in Tukwila. That one is probably a pretty good hub for the region.

The only Montgomery Ward locations are the historic buildings (there is one in Fort Worth) - nothing to do with the store any more, just the shell of the original building with other businesses tucked in.

We don't have a shortage of stores selling furniture, tools, housewares, etc., the storefronts have changed. And a lot is online. Things change. I suspect here we're looking at the one-two punch delivered by Amazon and COVID-19.