Sears, One-Time Face of American Retail, Files for Bankruptcy
*By Carlo Versano*
In many ways, it was Amazon before Amazon.
Sears, the 125-year-old retailer that pioneered the use of the U.S. Postal Service to sell Americans everything from jewelry to tires, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Sears Holdings ($SHLD) reached a deal with lenders over the weekend that will reportedly require it to shut 150 stores immediately as it reorganizes. The company operates about 700 Sears and K-Mart stores.
Sears CEO Ed Lampert, a hedge fund titan who acquired Sears in 2005, became known for successfully spinning off some of Sears' most well-known brands, like Orchard Supply and Lands' End, even as the iconic department store itself languished. More than 100,000 Sears retirees are believed to hold pensions, which bankruptcy may protect. Less clear are the fortunes of the 90,000 or so Sears employees nationwide. The Wall Street Journal [reported](https://www.wsj.com/articles/sears-will-it-shrink-or-close-1539514800?mod=e2tw) that Lampert believes he can restructure the company around 300 stores that are profitable.
Investors, however, seem to think liquidation is a more likely outcome. Sears shares have traded under $1 for the last several weeks ー a jarring price for a stock that hit an all-time high in April 2007, just before its fortunes began to turn.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
