Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
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I worked for Sears four different times--the first three while I was in college or about to enter college, in order to make some money for college.
My first foray was in 1978. Those were the glory days, but I didn't realize it. The next two times that I worked for Sears were pleasant.
The most recent time was in about 2003. It was a very different company, and not for the better.
The last that I heard, a hedge fund manager was over Sears. The scuttlebutt is that he wasn't interested in running a retail company (most hedge fund managers probably aren't. ha), he was interested in making money by selling the Sears store brands that had been very profitable--Craftsman, Kenmore, etc.
I'd say that the demise of B&N and Sears were for very different reasons--one because of making bad business decisions in the midst of challenging market conditions (e.g., the soaring sales of ebooks, in contrast to traditional books). The other company, Sears, because they intentionally fell on their sword.
ADDENDUM: One regional big-box bookstore chain, Books-A-Million (BAM), seems to have navigated well against the headwinds. Interestingly, they basically have stayed out of the ebook business, although they do sell a handful of ebooks on their website, in a very, very low key manner.