Date:         Tue, 6 Dec 2016 22:18:30 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
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From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: No particular Vanagon content: RIP Local Sears
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Sears Holdings is a "dead man walking." They have been losing money for years and are basically owned by a hedge fund at this point. Top execs are jumping ship as fast as they can find other jobs. (Two this week alone, during a season that should be a boon to retailers.)  The company, meanwhile, is desperately trying to sell off any valuable assets they have left, to pay just enough to nervous creditors to keep them stocking the shelves for Christmas, but at least around my area the shelves are pretty bare and no one is shopping . Now they are trying to sell the Die Hard, Craftsman, and Kenmore brands (their most valuable remaining assets), and are subleasing half of some of their remaining stores to other retailers in order to cash in on the real estate value without closing entirely.  It won't work. This is a gigantic game of Jenga.  They are selling off the foundation itself, out of desperation, and what's left (the retail business) can't possibly stand on its own. It will come crashing down any day now. My prediction is that they'll file bankruptcy around year-end, perhaps initially as a Chapter 11 reorganization, but eventually as a Chapter 7 liquidation.  Those valuable brand names will be sold, their remaining real estate sold, and the Sears and Kmart retail chains will be gone.  Any vendors stupid or desperate enough to have given them a line of credit for the last couple of years will lose their shirts as well.  It is a sad end to a once proud chain, but they didn't keep up with the times.  Just like people, every retailer has a life cycle. WalMart will see their day as well. It may happen in 50 years or 100 years, but they all get complacent or entrenched in their ways sooner or later and someone hungrier takes their place. 

As an aside, the town I live in (Hellertown, PA) has a ton of the Sears Roebuck kit houses that David Beierl mentioned.  Hellertown was, until the 60's, the suburb that low-level white-collar employees of Bethlehem Steel moved to, when they could afford to move out of the city's rowhouses that housed most of the company's blue collar employees. Land was cheap and the Sears Roebuck houses were cheap, so this was their ticket to the suburbs. There are hundreds of them still standing around here, generally in very good shape and well maintained. They actually held up very well. Better construction than many modern houses, and over the decades people have renovated and built onto them and made them their own. I have good friends who live in them.  Long after Sears is gone, our little town will still be better for what Sears gave it in their heyday.

Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com