Sears executive has rare meeting with Tribune

[deeman7]

Even the Sears store at Oak Brook Mall looks bad.


JC Penny is way ahead of Sears.


Sears' bread and butter also used to be the catalog. When they dropped that and the distribution (just shy of the internet shopping boom) is when Sears really seemed to take a dive.


Imagine if they became what amazon is?

[dtcbnd03]

I'm not even gonna listen to the interview. If you think that Lampert is seriously trying to save Sears then I've got a bridge to sell ya. He's been stripping assets since day 1 and is simply trying to outlast the bankruptcy insider transfer rule of 2 years...which basically means a CEO can transfer the assets of a company to himself for $1 and then simply wait 2 years and those assets can't be clawed back. I work on corporate bankruptcies and see similar transfers all the time. The interesting thing is state law for fraudulent transfers go back 6 years so we'll see how that shakes out...

Sears will file bankruptcy in July is my guess...that's when his last insider deal will reach 2 years...

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

I'm not even gonna listen to the interview. If you think that Lampert is seriously trying to save Sears then I've got a bridge to sell ya. He's been stripping assets since day 1 and is simply trying to outlast the bankruptcy insider transfer rule of 2 years...which basically means a CEO can transfer the assets of a company to himself for $1 and then simply wait 2 years and those assets can't be clawed back. I work on corporate bankruptcies and see similar transfers all the time. The interesting thing is state law for fraudulent transfers go back 6 years so we'll see how that shakes out...

Sears will file bankruptcy in July is my guess...that's when his last insider deal will reach 2 years...

While I am quite sure that Lampert does have a "long view" that will somehow EVENTUALLY separate him from the enormous liabilities of Sears, the immediate future, which includes not just July but really anything that would involve mergers that might need approval from the current administration, almost certainly will see a significant number of stores continuing to generate revenues so that the leases his REIT holds are in the black -- How Sears CEO Lampert cashes in as stores cash out Any BK filing that would screw up Lampert's real estate relationships would wipe out BILLIONS in value that he has built up. The potential for such a filing to have a "domino effect" on all kinds of GIANT operators of the top tier shopping malls is something that I believe would have not just repercussions from "Main Street to Wall Street" but the GLOBAL real estate market and ultimately could be the sort of thing that would collapse many kinds of formerly LOW RISK investments that were favored by everything from pension funds and trade unions to Chinese billionaires and diversification of sheiks from OPEC...

The longer term "solution" almost certainly will involve a slower but MAJOR shift in how one or more firms like Kohls, Wal~Mart, Target, or even Amazon are represented in the "destination" type shopping malls that likely will survive as well as total rethinking of K-Mart as it currently exists...
Department store operator Kohl's eliminates 3 senior positions | Reuters vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesday_Morning#Products

There are all kinds of weird things going on with "bricks and mortar" retail, from Amazon opening physical stores to increasingly "liquidation" minded efforts of even top tier retailers like Nordstroms to restructure how they cycle through merchandise. Their most recent "experiment" seems like a way to tap into the "Goodwill / thift store" market with a VERY bare bones location and maybe some well placed "blog driven" publicity -- Last Chance Chicago | The Fox & She

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

I think of power tools and refrigerators when I think of Sears. Things that only need replaced once a decade maybe.

Originally Posted by japster28

Sears' bread and butter comes from appliances right? Well if I needed an appliance I would go to Best Buy or ABT in Glenview. There's also hhgregg and Fry's. All of these places don't even need to rely on appliances to make money. Appliances are one of the last products where brick and mortar reign supreme but Sears has significant competition which questions the viability of its existence already.

Kmart might have a little more staying power, but every Kmart I've been in is disheveled and grimey and makes me think that they are already liquidating the store. I have no use for a Kmart when there is probably a Target a mile away with a much better shopping experience. Most of the things I would buy at Target and Kmart I get from Amazon anyway.
...

My dad worked for Sears for a few years when I was a young kid, young enough that I only vaguely remember visiting him. He liked it and was loyal to Kenmore and Craftsmen.

So when I bought my first home 13 years ago and needed a new washer and dryer it was only natural that I go to Sears. They'd just (re)opened a store on State Street (which has now closed again), and I went in and picked out a washer/dryer set and was giving the salesman the delivery information and when he realized I lived on the fourth floor of a walkup, he said, "I'm sorry, we can't deliver to you, you'll have to arrange someone else to get it into your unit. So I cancelled the order, took the Red Line up to the Best Buy by North and Clybourn and bought a set of LG washer and dryer that had gotten good reviews. Best Buy had no problem at all delivering to my unit and I just tipped the delivery guys a little extra for the extra effort my place requires for delivery.

Five years later I needed a new dishwasher. I'd forgotten about Sears' third-floor limit and made my order online so there wasn't a human to catch that I was onthe fourth floor (and their site forms didn't mention it unless it was in the small print somewhere). A few days later I stay home receive the dishwasher and they asks if I have an elevator, which I don't. He's there alone, a one-man crew, and says he can't help get it to the fourth floor even if I help, even if I offered him an extra $50 as a tip just to avoid returning it. He wouldn't do it. So back on the truck it went, back to the store it went. I called Abt to confirm they could deliver to me. They could. So I bought a good dishwasher at a great price, with excellent delivery service. It even ended up being less than the Sears prices.

I always liked KMart as a kid. My grandmother would take me to lunch at the one near her home. I liked the Blue Light Specials, and the candy aisle. In my memories it was always clean and pleasant. These days they never seem clean, and there was a period of time there where they didn't even have blue light specials, something they were widely known for.

[LeotheOrangeCat]

Sears has survived much longer than I expected.

[LeotheOrangeCat]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

I'm not even gonna listen to the interview. If you think that Lampert is seriously trying to save Sears then I've got a bridge to sell ya. He's been stripping assets since day 1 and is simply trying to outlast the bankruptcy insider transfer rule of 2 years...which basically means a CEO can transfer the assets of a company to himself for $1 and then simply wait 2 years and those assets can't be clawed back. I work on corporate bankruptcies and see similar transfers all the time. The interesting thing is state law for fraudulent transfers go back 6 years so we'll see how that shakes out...

Sears will file bankruptcy in July is my guess...that's when his last insider deal will reach 2 years...

The statute of limitations for fraudulent transfers in most states is four years. I believe New York is six though. Location of the real estate would most likely be the determining factor in choice of law.

[dtcbnd03]

Originally Posted by LeotheOrangeCat

The statute of limitations for fraudulent transfers in most states is four years. I believe New York is six though. Location of the real estate would most likely be the determining factor in choice of law.

Sears is quietly closing 30 more stores...on top of the 150 announced store closures.

When Sears files for bankruptcy the creditor and shareholder lawsuits will be plentiful when they realize the assets have been stripped or securitized by Lampert's hedge fund for less than market value. He has to say anything that pretends he's trying to turn Sears around. It will be interesting the fraudulent transfer laws that are applied and the discovery that is uncovered.

[glass_of_merlot]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

Yeah, that Sears was...interesting.

it only closed less than a year ago. It was one if the oldest in the country. They remodeling and I think new retail space is going in there.

[JBtwinz]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

I'm not even gonna listen to the interview. If you think that Lampert is seriously trying to save Sears then I've got a bridge to sell ya. He's been stripping assets since day 1 and is simply trying to outlast the bankruptcy insider transfer rule of 2 years...which basically means a CEO can transfer the assets of a company to himself for $1 and then simply wait 2 years and those assets can't be clawed back. I work on corporate bankruptcies and see similar transfers all the time. The interesting thing is state law for fraudulent transfers go back 6 years so we'll see how that shakes out...

Sears will file bankruptcy in July is my guess...that's when his last insider deal will reach 2 years...

I am not a business major nor have the skills needed to run a retail corporate giant but I do know that Lambert has indeed set Sears up for failure and his reward in the process.

I believe Sears could have been saved.............but that road needed to be taken years ago.

Technology and innovation are what needs to lead every company from A to Z. Everyday constantly searching within to formulate the best practices to move ahead to the future.

You can not tell me that Blockbuster had no one in that company that had the insight in the future to see that Netflix was their grim reaper?

Whatever they are teaching future grads at Harvard and the likes need to be thrown out and they need to be teaching these students the art of innovation and the ability to forecast the future not the emphasis on day to day profits.