https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/03/22/sears-holdin...
Basically the scumbag ceo has been pilfering the company of its assets by selling them at a discount to another company he controls.
Basically the scumbag ceo has been pilfering the company of its assets by selling them at a discount to another company he controls.
So could this have been preventable? I've heard Toys-R-Us wasn't that bad off; it's just that they had a leverage buyout in like the 90s or 2000s that put them in a lot of debt with the hope their growth rate would continue.
The Toys-R-Us failure didn't really make any sense since people still like to physically see and touch toys before purchasing them (although I guess retailers like Target, Wal-Market, independent toy shops, et. al. have large enough toy sections now to take care of that?)
There's a great 99% Invisible podcast about Sears houses. Before the cookie-cutter boom after WW2, a lot of Americans ordered kit houses from Sears which arrived in rail cars and could be assembled in a few months. Many of these houses still exist, and the people who owned them were completely unaware until amateur historians recognized them, contacted the owners and discovered the Sears seals or part numbers in their basement or attics.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...
That was an error in judgement.
What exactly is wrong here ? Banks took a chance. Banks lost.
Note that one might also point out that the government's QE policy is heavily stimulating exactly this.
Nothing's preventing someone else from making a new big toy emporium. Though, presumably banks will be a bit less forthcoming with huge loans.
It felt to me that ordering kit houses was such an American spirit! Building a house with your hands, there is something special about it... and ordering a kit from a store to build it is a bit mind blowing :)
There was no way they had any intention of even trying to keep it a competitive concern. This is one of those examples people trot out with "Amazon is killing competition". It might be in some cases, but the Sears situation was assisted suicide, and using Sears as an example of an Amazon victim is nonsense.