Two Drowning Retailers to Sink Together

[BobH42]

From what I heard on NPR's Marketplace last night, they're most likely not going to be staying in business as they are now. They're talking a good game, but the guy at the helm of K-Mart is a shrewd liquidator and is looking simply to give great returns to his stockholders in the short term.

The commentator said that K-Mart doesn't expect to be able to compete and simply saw the Sears aquisition as a positive return investment in their liquidation process.

[junkmail3]

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you tanked the economy...of course they're struggling.

RB

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I love this opinion.

[BadBoyBenny]

Kmart turned the corner by unlocking the real estate value of its failing stores and either renting or selling the property. This transformation was done by Julian Day, and he is no longer CEO. Becaues of these moves and bankruptcy, Kmart is now left with a cleaner blanace sheet, a better portfolio of stores, and steady rental income from other more successful retailers. They will most likely take the same approach with Sears.

The new CEO seems to have extensive marketing skills from his prior experience, so maybe they are trying to turn around the retail business and not unlock property value, but my guess is that they bought Sears for the real estate first, the brand name second, and the retail operations third.

[Utah]

I hope Kmart and all their executives rot in hell. I owned Kmart stock when they cancelled it and issued new stock to the creditors.

[andyfox]

K-Mart owed me $70,000 and I got $38,000 for the stock they issued.