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Sears files for bankruptcy; Eddie Lampert steps down as CEO Login/Join 
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Lampert got his seed money for his hedge fund ESL from Richard Rainwater , who was the financial brains for the Bass family. Rainwater parted with Lampert shortly after ESL had begun its obsession with Sears and K Mart. The handwriting on the wall was apparent to a few years ago that this was not going to end well.
 
Posts: 2714 | Registered: March 22, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Take the balance sheet apart piece by piece.

There is stock, maybe several different issues. There is debt, long term, short term, maybe some debt is secured by specific pledge of specific assets.

Start valuing each item. What is cash worth? What are receivables worth? Inventory?

Debt holders are usually institutions which do not enjoy having bankrupt securities, and may even be under some legal obligation to get rid of them.

Eddie Lambert may have seen that Sears and Kmart were worth more dead than alive, and may have pulled a large part of that value out already. There is a lot of real estate left. What’s that worth?

Maybe buying debt for pennies on the dollar could give control, or at least influence, in repurposing that.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Knows too little
about too much
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Damn! Sear was a reliable retail asset when I was growing up and as a young adult. At one time Kenmore appliances were great products and Craftsman were THE tools to buy.

RIP Sears.

RMD




TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
 
Posts: 20321 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
wishing we
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I am an older guy.

Grew up with Sears as the "go to" Dept store. We got the 2" thick Sears catalog twice a year.

The Wish Book.
 
Posts: 19577 | Registered: July 21, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
When a local Sears closed about 2 years ago I was watching the "liquidation" discounts on the tools. I was in the market for a new socket set. I had my eye on a craftsman set that was originally $100. It was marked down to 30% off. I was about to pull the trigger and I went to the sears website to check one last thing and saw it on sale for $10 less than the liquidation price.

Pissed me off so much I went to Harbor Freight.


Went to our Sears looking for a torque wrench. They were marked down 10%. Guy told me to check Sears on line. $30 cheaper than the store.
 
Posts: 7019 | Registered: April 02, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by rduckwor:
Damn! Sear was a reliable retail asset when I was growing up and as a young adult. At one time Kenmore appliances were great products and Craftsman were THE tools to buy.

RIP Sears.

RMD


I stopped buying Craftsman hand tools when they were no longer made in the USA.


*********
"Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".
 
Posts: 8228 | Location: Arizona | Registered: August 17, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Bought a washer and dryer at Sears back in 2009. Seem to be well built. You could tell they were in trouble back then.

Still rocking a DieHard Ranger battery in my old Isuzu that I bought in 2000/2001.

Full Craftsman tool set and box from the 1990's

I enjoyed going into their stores back when things were good. Sad to see this happen to them.


___________________________________Sigforum - port in the fake news storm.____________Be kind to the Homeless. A lot of us are one bad decision away from there.
 
Posts: 1165 | Registered: July 20, 2018Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by PASig:
It's sad that Sears who was once the Amazon of its day couldn't or wouldn't adapt to the times and out-Amazon Amazon in this era!
They aren't the only one. From Border's Books, to Blockbuster movies, to Sport Authority, they were all lethargic and in denial about where their markets were moving. By the time they got around to trying to change, they'd been all but eliminated from the market. The name of the game today is to be acutely aware of trends in your market(s) and culture, aggressive in changing to meet those trends, and never letting tradition stand in the way of progress. Sears failed on all counts.


-----------------------------
Guns are awesome because they shoot solid lead freedom. Every man should have several guns. And several dogs, because a man with a cat is a woman. Kurt Schlichter
 
Posts: 33845 | Location: Orlando, FL | Registered: April 30, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by HRK:
The mall near us is 50% empty, the movies draw in the evening and weekend traffic, Macy's closed, went in through the Sears not long ago, nobody in the store, just employees.

I can't remember the last time I thought of going to Sears to buy something... Lowes and Home Depot are just across the street and boom every weekend, busy every day... Taking on appliances and quality tool lines at those box stores did Sears in. The only reason to go to a sears was Kenmore, Craftsman... now that's gone.
My bet is you're describing the Florida Mall. I no longer go there, but my understanding is, tourist activity is all that's keeping that mall alive. I no longer visit the Best Buy near that mall because its wall to wall with tourists.


-----------------------------
Guns are awesome because they shoot solid lead freedom. Every man should have several guns. And several dogs, because a man with a cat is a woman. Kurt Schlichter
 
Posts: 33845 | Location: Orlando, FL | Registered: April 30, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Leatherneck
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quote:
Originally posted by JALLEN:

Eddie Lambert may have seen that Sears and Kmart were worth more dead than alive, and may have pulled a large part of that value out already. There is a lot of real estate left. What’s that worth?

Maybe buying debt for pennies on the dollar could give control, or at least influence, in repurposing that.


He bought Kmart just for that reason. The real estate they owned was worth more than the asking price for the company.




“Everybody wants a Sig in the sheets but a Glock on the streets.” -bionic218 04-02-2014
 
Posts: 15255 | Location: Florida | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Pale Horse:
quote:
Originally posted by JALLEN:

Eddie Lambert may have seen that Sears and Kmart were worth more dead than alive, and may have pulled a large part of that value out already. There is a lot of real estate left. What’s that worth?

Maybe buying debt for pennies on the dollar could give control, or at least influence, in repurposing that.


He bought Kmart just for that reason. The real estate they owned was worth more than the asking price for the company.


Here’s one example to support that argument.

Colorado's largest industrial building(owned by Sears)sells for $40.75 million

https://www.bizjournals.com/de...-property-sells.html



 
Posts: 4756 | Registered: July 06, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I remember maybe 20 years ago when sears fired all the guy who worked there that knew anything about fixing their products or how they worked. They had guys working there that knew something about their products and how to help you get and use what you bought there.
They wanted retail sales people instead. That is the same thing that Radio Shack did at one point.
A big mistake in my book. A lot of times I need to buy something, I hate to go to Menards or Lowes because to get help in purchase and installation, sometimes there is none there.


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Posts: 2794 | Location: Ohio | Registered: December 18, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I just realized that the bankruptcy filing is Ch. 11, which is a reorganization, rather than the Chapter 7 liquidation.

The Ch. 11 stops creditors from enforcing their claims while a plan of reorgabization is drawn up, rather than selling off the assets, paying that to creditors and winding up.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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My dad worked for Sears in the 1970s and early 1980s, back when they sold guns. EVERYTHING in our house of that vintage was Kenmore, Craftsman, Die Hard and whatever other Sears line there was. The guns were all licensed by Sears from other companies like everything else they do and were of acceptable quality but aren't worth much. However, the sentimental value far exceeds their monetary worth. My dad worked for the credit department and always imparted the ideals of credit being a privilege and not a right, back when not many people had credit cards. This was the pre-internet, carbon rub machine receipt deal with the old IBM electronic cash registers, the same ones I think Sears still uses. I have great memories of those days, but quit buying Sears stuff in the last decade as it got more and more inferior Chinese-spec. It feels weird seeing Craftsman tools at Lowes.
 
Posts: 2516 | Location: Iowa by way of Missouri | Registered: July 18, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Aquabird:
I remember maybe 20 years ago when sears fired all the guy who worked there that knew anything about fixing their products or how they worked. They had guys working there that knew something about their products and how to help you get and use what you bought there.
They wanted retail sales people instead. That is the same thing that Radio Shack did at one point.
A big mistake in my book. A lot of times I need to buy something, I hate to go to Menards or Lowes because to get help in purchase and installation, sometimes there is none there.


A good friend of my parents is one of those guys. A Sears mobile appliance repairman. That guy can fix anything and we still call him to pick his brain when something shits the bed. At least he wasn’t there long enough to get a pension and then get hosed by this BK. 100,000 pensioners about the get screwed hard.

Thonknof all the REITs that own malls that are about to lose an anchor tenant that equals 10-15% of your entire building.
 
Posts: 4767 | Location: Florida Panhandle  | Registered: November 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
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quote:
Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
My dad worked for Sears in the 1970s and early 1980s, back when they sold guns. EVERYTHING in our house of that vintage was Kenmore, Craftsman, Die Hard and whatever other Sears line there was. The guns were all licensed by Sears from other companies like everything else they do and were of acceptable quality but aren't worth much. However, the sentimental value far exceeds their monetary worth. My dad worked for the credit department and always imparted the ideals of credit being a privilege and not a right, back when not many people had credit cards. This was the pre-internet, carbon rub machine receipt deal with the old IBM electronic cash registers, the same ones I think Sears still uses. I have great memories of those days, but quit buying Sears stuff in the last decade as it got more and more inferior Chinese-spec. It feels weird seeing Craftsman tools at Lowes.


In the days before credit cards, Sears used a credit policy whereby a certain percentage of credit sales were expected to go bad. If less than the target that meant the credit aproval was too tight. If more than the target, too loose. They were missing sales.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Eschew Obfuscation
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Originally posted by tanner:
The Wall Street Journal nailed it in one sentence.

“No amount of financial wizardry can make up for lost customers.”

Lost customers seems to be the one thing Sears excelled at toward the end.

A few years ago, I was shopping for tires. I knew the specific tire I wanted and the Sears website showed they carried it. I called and the guy at Sears said they had the tires in stock. I asked him what the out-the-door price was - installation, fees, taxes, etc. The price he quoted was the lowest I'd seen and so I told him I'd be by that evening.

I showed up as promised. Surprise, surprise, he *forgot* to include installation and fees in his quote. Oh, and by the way, he didn't actually have the tires in stock - but he had another brand of tires on hand that were "just as good".

I told him he was full of shit and walked out. That was the last time I went to Sears for anything.


_____________________________________________________________________
“Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again." - Will Durant
 
Posts: 6405 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: December 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Not shocked but it is still sad...Sears was a big part of my childhood...the various specialty catalogs, shopping for Craftsman tools with my Dad....lots of good memories

Now I just use it as the most convenient "cut thru"to go from parking lot to apple store
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I had the Fox business show on as back ground noise while doing something else so, I was not really paying attention UNTIL, I THOUGHT, I heard,That Sears pension funds are under funded and the TAX payers will have to make up pension shortages.
Is this possible?
 
Posts: 4628 | Location: Chicago, IL, USA: | Registered: November 17, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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^^^
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation would take over if the Sears pension plans were terminated. The PBGC is a federally chartered corporation owned by the federal government.

It was created by the ERISA of 1974 for which 87% of congress voted yes, 208 D 167 R, only 4 congressmen voted no. President Ford signed it into law.

I don't believe my kids have ever been in a Sears. I used to shop there out of habit. My mom did all of our back to school shopping there and my dad bought tools and appliances. I'm not sure when I stopped shopping at Sears.
 
Posts: 10949 | Location: SWFL | Registered: October 10, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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