Can Sears Be Saved? Four Strategies For Success

Can Sears Be Saved? Four Strategies For Success: You may have missed it, but during the week between Christmas and New Year's, Sears Holdings announced that it would close up to 120 stores amid bad holiday shopping results.  As Miguel Bustillo and Ann Zimmerman report for The Wall Street Journal, investor and Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert has a dismal track record with the venerable brand:

Sales at stores open at least 12 months have slid every year since the company was created by the well-known hedge-fund investor in 2005. But its deteriorating condition has accelerated this year—it posted a $421 million loss last quarter—and it said Tuesday that same-store sales for the eight weeks ending Christmas Day dropped 5.2% compared to the year before.

An easy lesson to learn from Lampert's struggles is that investing and operating companies are different skills.  Or that retail chains, like restaurants don't suffer fools gladly.  With one of the nation's oldest retailers poised to close 120 stores, it's fair to ask the bigger question - is there a place for Sears as a brand?   As a department store specializing in hard goods, Sears is battered from one end by Lowe's, Home Depot and Best Buy, from another by Target and Wal-Mart and ultimately must fight Amazon for Internet sales.  All of those companies have clearer brand missions - and some of them have questionable futures as well.  So where does Sears fit?