RIP Sears

Some of both, but much more of the latter. It might've been a lost cause, but the way he went about it made sure it was.

 

It’s worth a try though. Just claim stupidity for a few months. Then say it was from internet advice.

 

For getting himself kidnapped.

 

There is a Sears by us which closed about a year ago. We went there only to return items which we bought on-line at Lands' End and there was hardly anyone ever in the store. When we looked to buy a new washer/dryer, their prices were competitive, but there was no customer service at the store, so we just went to Home Depot.

 

Sears, like other big stores and railroads, owns a hell of a lot of real estate.

I think one major problem is there are no longer any major takers willing to buy those properties and set up similar sized stores. So, even the real estate holdings have tanked in value.

Not true for railroads. While big box stores are being cut out of the supply chain, someone’s got to move those products around the country, and railroad intermodal freight has been rising steadily for a few decades. To warehouses, semis and delivery trucks.

Goodbye big box.

Railroad stocks are fairly steady gold. Some dips caused by things like 2008, but Americans keep buying more and more shit.

Just not from Sears.

 

All the big boxes are struggling. Academy Sports probably doesn't have five years left. Dick's Sporting Goods about the same. I'd guess Bass Pro/Cabela's won't last much longer either.

 

You guys do understand that Eddie lampert's goal was not to save Sears, but to enrich himself, correct?

He has so many tentacles on every side of the Sears transactions that even The Big Ragu doesn't have enough time to list them all.

An entity of ours was invested in ESL and we got out probably close to 10 years ago. When the getting was still good. His involvement with Sears was about the loans back to ESL, the real estate, the bankruptcies. Oh, and when you went to get out of the fund, he could also saddle you with some stock from the ESL portfolio. We were given some AutoNation stock that mysteriously happened to tank in the weeks after it was distributed.

 

Although, hmm, you could house a lot of people in those stores across the country. Hmm.

 

Nah. Not in those cases. Not worth it.