Date:         Wed, 7 Dec 2016 00:10:12 -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
In-Reply-To:  <CAMOH8LJOtqpF0ZCyueYYhWFzazfKYU8hAB4SdM8imAYX0K606Q@mail.gmail.com>
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Sears Holdings is a "dead man walking." They have been bleeding money for years and are literally owned by a hedge fund at this point. Top execs are jumping ship as fast as they can. (Two this week alone, during a season that should be a boon to retailers.)  The company, meanwhile, is desperately trying to liquidate any assets they can, to pay vendors enough back debt to convince them to ship merchandise by Christmas, but at least in my area the shelves are getting bare and customers are few.  Management is telling employees to empty the stockrooms, and put everything on the shelves whether it's saleable or not just to fill shelves. They are trying to sell the Die Hard, Craftsman, and Kenmore brands (their most valuable remaining assets), and are even subletting half of some existing stores to other retailers in order to cash in on the real estate value without closing the stores entirely. These are desperate moves and they won't work. This is Jenga on a corporate scale. They are pulling out once piece at a time hoping the entire structure won't collapse, but it's way too late. My prediction is that they'll file bankruptcy by year-end, perhaps initially as a Chapter 11 reorganization, but eventually as a Chapter 7 liquidation.  Their trademarks and real estate will be sold to cover some of their massive debt. The Sears and Kmart retail stores will be gone. Any vendors stupid or desperate enough to have given them unsecured credit over the last few years will lose their shirts.  It is a sad end to a once proud chain (and to its many current employees), but they didn't keep up with the times.  Just like people, every retailer has a life cycle.  WalMart will see this day as well. It may happen in 50 years or 100 years, but sooner or later someone younger and hungrier comes around.  

On a side note, the town I live in (Hellertown, PA) is full of the Sears Roebuck kit houses that David Beierl mentioned.  Hellertown was once the suburb that entry-level white-collar employees of the long-defunct Bethlehem Steel aspired to move to. Small plots of land were cheap and Sears Roebuck houses were cheap, so this was their first step out of the city row houses.  The Sears houses are still here, almost every one of them lovingly maintained. They have 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 have raised their families in them.  Hellertown will owe a debt to Sears Roebuck long after it is gone.

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