We're talking about Sears. Which means we're talking about predatory capitalist Fast Eddie Lampert, whose hiring is the worst mistake Kmart ever made.
One hundred percent of Sears' woes can be laid at the feet of the Ayn Rand-worshipping Lampert.
Here's the deal. Sometime before 2003 (it's hard to find the year this happened on the Internet, because the cone of silence around this asshole makes Scott Pruitt look loquacious) the then-in-bankruptcy Kmart hired Lampert, who had started his own hedge fund at the tender age of 25 and was known for revitalizing Honeywell, as their chairman. Lampert got Kmart out of bankruptcy. In 2003, Lampert decided to "revitalize" Kmart...not by cleaning up the stores and refreshing the selection of merchandise, but by purchasing Sears and naming the combined company "Sears Holdings." (He also decided the "dungeon look" Sears and Kmart stores had was fine with him, because they still look like dungeons.) Sears had one asset Lampert really liked - a ton of cash in the bank - and four cash cows named Lands End, Craftsman, Kenmore and DieHard.
He jammed the Sears and Kmart back office staffs into one building and set them against one another, largely for his personal amusement. (I've heard the resultant back office described as "the corporate edition of The Lord of the Flies."
He spent Sears' cash hoard buying back stock rather than revitalizing their merchandise selection or improving their stores.
When the financial crisis hit, he decided to invest the company's cash flow into derivatives rather than operations.
He spun off Lands End and "sold" Craftsman, Kenmore and DieHard to his hedge fund.
And he refused to get into e-commerce in a big way.
That, fine sir, is why Sears is about to collapse. It's hard to succeed when the boss is working overtime to make you fail.
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