One of the most amazing "secret" benefits at Sears is their "Shop Your Way" loyalty program with Uber. Basically since last fall, every Uber Ride or Uber Eats purchase gives you $2-$4 cash back to use at Sears/Kmart online no matter the cost if you linked your accounts. Given my average Uber Pool is around $5, I've basically been getting 40% off all my Uber Pools for almost a year.
"Shop Your Way" has been pretty cool at K-Mart too. Before I moved basically next to one I did I didn't even know K-Marts were still around. Now I get random "Freecash in points" email coupons to spend like $8-$18 without actually buying anything else (sometimes with strange arbitrary limitations on what the free money is good for, sometimes not).
> most famously when he persuaded four men who kidnapped him in January 2003 to let him go after holding him for 30 hours, blindfolded and handcuffed, in a motel bathroom.
Wow, that's pretty badass. It is sad as lot's of people on HN have no idea the monster Sears once was. I still remember as a kid ordering a remote control fire truck from a Sears catalog. It had lights, sirens, full latter control, and even air brak sound effects as it stopped.
I worked at my local hometown Sears after high school
selling computers and the original iMac (should have loaded up on Apple stock) as fast as iMac's were selling (Oops).
Let's not forgot Sears employees a great number of people still, and unfortunately they are soon going to be out of a job.
RIP Sears, Roebuck and Company the retail empire of yesterday!
Theodore Houser, a former CEO of Sears wrote a book, "Big Business and Human Values".
The book is really worth reading because the contrast between Houser and Lambert (and most all CEOs now) is striking. I think just the title of his book demonstrates how different capitalism is now in comparison to Houser's day.
"Human Values" is not something we hear CEOs or financial talking heads speak of much anymore. (Has Jim Cramer ever used that phrase?)
I will point out that Arthur Martinez did help bring Sears back to a customer centric business model in the mid-90s but he missed the boat when the internet came into the mix. Sears was perfectly positioned to become what Amazon is now and they did almost nothing to move on it.
Hard to imagine anyone rising up the corporate ranks like Houser did these days. I can't think of a single example that compares to it.
I think it would be interesting to review Sears fall from the top from that perspective because I suspect we'd probably see their decline began when they stopped promoting CEOs from within their own ranks. That changed the focus from their customers to their investors, and that's why they're where they are today.
Jim Cramer was self-admittedly very left-leaning while he was editor of the Crimson in college. His current philosophy is that whatever increases commercial activity is good - so he does comment on company values in terms of how it affects the company's brand and success.
Opportunity cost is a thing. Eddie Lambert may be a genius hedge fund manager, but is a terrible CEO of a retail company. Sears/Sears Canada accounted for 53% of his hedge fund's portfolio holdings in 2016 [1], and now they have to pick . The S&P 500 was rallying like crazy at the time, so he definitely could have gotten a lot more if he were a regular hedge fund manager.
>When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
Maybe he intended it to be a heist, but it surely ended up being a costly fiasco. His fund is in the tank, and his personal fortune most certainly took a huge hit.
If a company can't make money from it's valuable real estate, then maybe it doesn't deserve to be a company, and should stop wasting everyone's time and money pursue goals that will fail.
Eventually you have to learn not to throw good money after bad. If anything, the people who are trying to keep zombie corporations around are the thieves.
There are many out there who praise Ayn Rand, but I often find it illustrative to consider their actions over their words. My reading of Objectivism as described in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, would value the contributions of an entrepreneur building something of value to society over financial engineering that destroys value. Rand is also often carried as a banner by those with whom I'm not convinced she would agree.
Rand's legacy fits how she died: penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. What a misguided wreak. Too bad she was influential, because much of the idiots stinking up the planet are her ideological children.
He saw about $240 million worth of stock that he personally purchased evaporate as the shares tumbled. Another $287 million that he received in compensation has all but disappeared.
[+] [-] dawhizkid|7 years ago|reply
It will be missed!
[+] [-] kposehn|7 years ago|reply
I just got a new craftsman table-saw yesterday basically for free. I need to pick it up before they go bankrupt!
[+] [-] sjg007|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nightfly|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulie_a|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nodesocket|7 years ago|reply
Wow, that's pretty badass. It is sad as lot's of people on HN have no idea the monster Sears once was. I still remember as a kid ordering a remote control fire truck from a Sears catalog. It had lights, sirens, full latter control, and even air brak sound effects as it stopped.
I worked at my local hometown Sears after high school selling computers and the original iMac (should have loaded up on Apple stock) as fast as iMac's were selling (Oops).
Let's not forgot Sears employees a great number of people still, and unfortunately they are soon going to be out of a job.
RIP Sears, Roebuck and Company the retail empire of yesterday!
[+] [-] oblib|7 years ago|reply
The book is really worth reading because the contrast between Houser and Lambert (and most all CEOs now) is striking. I think just the title of his book demonstrates how different capitalism is now in comparison to Houser's day.
"Human Values" is not something we hear CEOs or financial talking heads speak of much anymore. (Has Jim Cramer ever used that phrase?)
I will point out that Arthur Martinez did help bring Sears back to a customer centric business model in the mid-90s but he missed the boat when the internet came into the mix. Sears was perfectly positioned to become what Amazon is now and they did almost nothing to move on it.
Hard to imagine anyone rising up the corporate ranks like Houser did these days. I can't think of a single example that compares to it.
I think it would be interesting to review Sears fall from the top from that perspective because I suspect we'd probably see their decline began when they stopped promoting CEOs from within their own ranks. That changed the focus from their customers to their investors, and that's why they're where they are today.
[+] [-] drak0n1c|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianbreslin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] village-idiot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cultus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aunche|7 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/030716/top-5...
[+] [-] sjg007|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tim333|7 years ago|reply
>When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
It's been quite a saga.
[+] [-] weliketocode|7 years ago|reply
What are we expecting returns to be here after all the financial engineering and various fees from investors?
[+] [-] ocschwar|7 years ago|reply
He gutted the place and got the real estate.
It's a heist, not a fiasco
[+] [-] nostromo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dopamean|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stale2002|7 years ago|reply
If a company can't make money from it's valuable real estate, then maybe it doesn't deserve to be a company, and should stop wasting everyone's time and money pursue goals that will fail.
Eventually you have to learn not to throw good money after bad. If anything, the people who are trying to keep zombie corporations around are the thieves.
[+] [-] olefoo|7 years ago|reply
http://evonomics.com/the-ceo-of-sears-jon-haidt/
[+] [-] conanbatt|7 years ago|reply
A company thinking thats a better strategy and failing and going bust is a great one though.
[+] [-] poulsbohemian|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsenftner|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] conscion|7 years ago|reply
... so he made $40 million?
[+] [-] mulmen|7 years ago|reply