“What he’s done brilliantly is manage these brands into oblivion while squeezing billions of dollars of cash into his elusive businesses.”-Robin Lewis, The Robin Report, talking about Eddie Lampert’s False Flag efforts to ‘save’ Sears and Kmart
Sears Holdings reports sales that are crashing & burning.
Sales at Kmart have crashed by 67% over the past 14 years (2000 to 2014)! Is it connected to the fact that Eddie Lampert has shutdown hundreds of Kmarts (and hundreds more were shutdown prior to the merger with Sears)? News reports say in the Gregorian year 2000 Kmart had 2,165 stores, now it has only 979.
Sales for Sears fell 54% over the past 14 years! Thousands of Sears stores have been shutdown during that time. Is there a correlation, less stores equal less sales? But hey, what do I know, I’m not an exalted corporate administrator like Eddie Lampert.
On top of the gloomy 14 years sales decline, Sears Holdings reported a 7% sales drop for Kmart, and a 14.5% drop for Sears, in their 1st Quarter of 2015!
However, and as usual, Eddie Lampert remains optimistic: “During the first quarter, we made significant progress in our transformation from a traditional, store-network based retail business model to a more asset-light, member-centric integrated retailer leveraging our Shop Your Way platform. As our improved EBITDA results over the last three consecutive quarters demonstrate, we are successfully enhancing our margin rates and EBITDA performance as we become more efficient with our promotional programs and the use of Shop You Way to replace more traditional forms of marketing with targeted and personalized digital interactions. With the completion of the joint venture transactions with three leading shopping mall owners and operators, and the advanced formation of the Seritage REIT, we will become more productive with our physical store space. This will position Sears Holdings for long-term success consistent with our focus on our best stores, rewarding our best members and pursuing our best categories to transform Sears Holdings into a leading integrated retail membership-focused company leveraging our Shop Your Way platform.”