Sear’s was always in a better position than K mart.. K Mart was basically just wal mart in places that didn’t have wal marts... now that wal mart is national, it has no place to live... Its urban locations gave it some relevance, but that’s declined with time as well.
Sear’s however, lost its identity, even before this guy took it over, and hasn’t had one since... its been over a generation now. Sear’s used to be where everyone under a certain income level got nearly everything... why? Because they were the one place nearly everyone could get a credit card from... so, when you needed something, and you didn’t have a lot of cash, you went to Sear’s and used your Sear’s card... so nearly everyone in the upper lower, and lower middle class shopped at Sear’s... You couldn’t go into a blue collar neighborhood and find anyone who didn’t have a huge amount of everything they owned from Sear’s...
Now.... not so much.... It’s lost its identity, and the guy running it since the takeover is just unwilling to recognize he doesn’t know retail.. 20 years or whatever it is on now, and he still can’t recognize reality... he needs to let someone who knows what they are doing in this space take over.
Rising tides lift up all boats. Maybe the existing management may get a clue; maybe others in the organization may become inspired and give him a clue or successfully bump the clueless management out by appealing at the right level.