RIP Sears

[The Big Ragu]

Exclusive: Sears to ask bankruptcy judge to liquidate - sources | Reuters

Sears has a hearing in bankruptcy court this morning, and Reuters is reporting they are going to tell the judge they are ready to liquidate and close their doors.

Eddie Lampert had made one last bid to keep it afloat, but the company deemed the financing package he put together too small.

It will be the end after 126 years. It is going to put close to 70,000 people out of work. I feel sad, but we were talking about it the other day, and I can't remember the last time I stepped foot in a Sears, so I guess it really had gone the way of the buggy whip.

Still.

It isn't lost on people that it coincides with Amazon becoming the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world yesterday, after it surpassed Microsoft.

 

[BTExpress]

Purchased my washer/dryer there in 2011. Had an alignment done around 2013. That was my last visit.

 

[Vombatus]

Die Hard.

 

[swingline]

The Sears mall anchor in my town has been closed for, well, I don’t know how many years. That whole big-ass part of the parking lot is always empty, even after thanksgiving.

 

[Azrael]

I don't know.

The Eddie Lambert thing is like Munchausen by proxy. The caregiver who keeps you sick then kills you.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I don't know.

The Eddie Lambert thing is like Munchausen by proxy. The caregiver who keeps you sick then kills you.

He is a numbnuts of the first order. One with a lot of money, but still a numbnuts. What blows me away, is that if you go back 15 years ago, or so, people were anointing him a young Warren Buffett.

Interesting piece of numbnuts trivia. Apparently they come in pairs. Lampert's college roommate was Steve Mnuchin. Mnuchin had a lot of money in ESL Investments. No idea if he divested himself when he became treasury secretary. He was on the board of directors of Sears, I believe.

 

[Vombatus]

Die Hard.

I’ve got a ****ing battery core to return for a refund. ****.

 

[Cosmo]

I don't know.

The Eddie Lambert thing is like Munchausen by proxy. The caregiver who keeps you sick then kills you.

I appreciate Sharper Objects because it brought Munchausen by proxy into the mainstream.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

When we added onto our house last year, we bought all of our appliances at Sears. I felt some kind of connection to it because I still felt that was where you go to get your appliances. And so far, we've been very happy with them and they were one of the best prices.

Not six months later, that store is closed. RIP.

 

[Vombatus]

Going through the annual Sears Christmas Catalog and making a wish list was a chunk of my childhood.

RIP

 

[MTM]

Does that mean I can stop making payments on the washer and dryer we bought with our Sears charge card last summer?

 

[YankeeFan]

Is Lampert a numbnuts for thinking he could save Sears, or for failing to save Sears?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Is Lampert a numbnuts for thinking he could save Sears, or for failing to save 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.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Does that mean I can stop making payments on the washer and dryer we bought with our Sears charge card last summer?

Not sure if you are being facetious. The loan isn't owned by Sears. It's owned by a bank. You still have to pay back the money to the bank that underwrote the line of credit.

 

[Vombatus]

Not sure if you are being facetious. The loan isn't owned by Sears. It's owned by a bank. You still have to pay back the money to the bank that underwrote the line of credit.

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

 

[CD Boogie]

Is Lampert a numbnuts for thinking he could save Sears, or for failing to save Sears?

For getting himself kidnapped.

 

[Webster]

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.

 

[Vombatus]

Is Lampert a numbnuts for thinking he could save Sears, or for failing to save Sears?

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 ****.

Just not from Sears.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

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

 

[poindexter]

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.