Sears began digging its own grave at least 20 years ago by their penchant for offering credit to everybody to be able to afford their grossly overpriced products. Sears then became known as the place NOT to shop by right thinking consumers leaving them with the dregs and deadbeats as their primary customers. It sounds like this CEO at least found a way to wring out some last bits of profit before it completely collapsed.
Not so much, in my experience.
In 1973, my late husband, a university grad w/an MS and a job who was starting his PhD program, was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. We had excellent credit, some savings and a starter home. We were in our late 20s/early 30s.
After a year of rehab, we went to Sears to get hubby a pair of shoes. They took one look at this young man in a wheelchair and not only refused our Sears card, they confiscated it and terminated our Sears credit. It was obvious they did this because he was disabled. We were more than capable of paying cash, but they refused to take our check, as well.
We purchased the shoes elsewhere and never ever again set foot in a Sears store. We had both come from families that relied on Sears for most purchases.
Sears mistakenly thought its profits would be determined by offering consumer credit. To be sure, the Discover Card was profitable for Sears. However, Sears didn't understand that Wal-Mart was going to eat their lunch on pricing. Sears couldn't go high end (tried and failed) and couldn't beat Wal-Mart on pricing (tried and failed). To even survive, the company had to sell off Discover Card.
Which leaves Sears without a competitive advantage.
If Sears was going to sell cr@p and depend on financing for its profits, the company should have transformed itself into one of the rent-to-own outfits and dominated that niche back in the 1980s.