Say Farewell To An American Icon

[Minimalist]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/busin...ss&emc=rss

Sears, the Original Everything Store, Nears a Bankruptcy Filing

The result has been a long painful decline. A decade ago, the company employed 302,000. Today, there are about 68,000 people still working at Sears and Kmart, which Mr. Lampert also runs.

Now, the retailer is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to cut its debts and keep operating at least through the holidays, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the company’s plans.

Can't even blame the WLB for this one, its just piss-poor management and an inability to change with the times.  Of course if you dig a bit deeper you find that these are exactly the type of scumbags that the WLB put in charge of the country so, maybe he can be blamed?

A hedge fund manager and former Goldman Sachs banker with no experience running a large retail chain, Mr. Lampert took control of Kmart after it came out of bankruptcy in 2003 and then acquired Sears a year later. The company’s board came to be dominated by other wealthy investors, including Steven Mnuchin, the current Treasury secretary who had been Mr. Lampert’s roommate at Yale.
Mr. Lampert says his strategy was to move the company away from its brick-and-mortar legacy into the digital era.
His plan was to use the money saved from closing stores and selling off assets to reinvest in the business. But the company never gained traction online.

Birds of a feather!