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Sears has been crashing for the past decade. The retailer, which also owns Kmart, reported a loss of $454 million in the third quarter. The massive loss is the latest in 10 years of declining same-store sales.

Islamic supremacist Imraan Siddiqi complained to Sears about the hats, and it was apparently his complaint alone that was enough for them to remove the hats from sale. After he succeeded in strong-arming Sears into removing the hats, he screamed “Allahu akbar”:

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers including Wal-Mart, Sears and Amazon have agreed to halt the sales of realistic-looking toy guns in New York and pay over $300,000 in penalties, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Monday.</p> <p>Schneiderman's office found that five retailers and their third-party sellers sold over 6,400 toy guns from 2012 to 2014 that violated New York laws. Most of the toys were sold online.</p>

Mega-retailers have confirmed their loyal membership in the liberal Establishment and their willingness to join in an ideological war of annihilation against the very concept of the South by refusing to sell Confederate flag merchandise. This confirms that like Big Advertising, Big Retail is far more concerned with advancing the liberal agenda than with making money, because thanks to the authorities’ big push to suppress it, the rebel flag is selling better than ever:

24/7 Wall St. has created a new list of brands that will disappear, which includes Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD), Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE), American Apparel (NYSE:APP), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Saab, A&W All-American Foods Restaurants, Soap Opera Digest, Sony Ericsson, MySpace (NYSE:NWS.A), and Kellogg’s Corn Pops. (NYSE:K).Each year, 24/7 Wall St. regularly compiles a list of brands that are going to disappear in the near-term. Last year’s list proved to be prescient in many instances, predicting the demise of T-Mobile among others. In late May, AT&T (NYSE:T) and Deutsch Telekom announced that AT&T would buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. The deal would add 34...

Sears Holdings Corp. said Friday that its Kmart stores were hit with a data breach that compromised some shoppers' debit and credit card information. The company is working with federal authorities and security experts to investigate the matter. The Secret Service confirmed Friday evening that it is investigating the data breach. The investigation indicates that the breach occurred in early September and did not affect kmart.com customers, the statement said.

Sears shares fell Thursday, after the struggling department store announced an adjusted net loss of $296 million—in line with the updated guidance it gave in November. The retailer also said it's accelerating the number of stores it plans to close this year, boosting its list from the 130 underperforming stores it announced in its second-quarter earnings release, to a total of 235 stores. Analysts called the move a step in the right direction for the company, which has been tapping into its real estate in creative ways to compensate for downward-spiraling sales. Still, they said the haircut won't be enough...

Sears is shutting down hundreds of stores. The chain announced today that it is accelerating store closings to 235 this year, 100 more than previously planned. Sears' total net loss for the quarter was $296 million. Sears' and K-Mart's collapse is "inevitable" and could happen by the year 2016, retail analyst and author Robin Lewis writes on his blog. "These two retail brands are dead men walking," Lewis writes. "As a retailer they're at the point of no return," David Tawil, cofounder of Maglan Capital and an expert in distressed retail companies, told Business Insider earlier this year. "The real...

Sears Holding Corp. will lay off 55 employees at its parts and distribution center in north Fort Worth as troubles keep mounting for Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer. In a letter under the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act (WARN) to the Texas Workforce Commission, the company said the employees will be laid off from its facility at 5001 N. Beach St., and that the eliminations are expected to be permanent. The terminations are expected to occur on or around June 29, the letter said. Sears said it will keep the Fort Worth facility open while reducing its staff. "These decisions...

Hundreds of stores across the nation are closing as some of America’s most famous retailers struggle to stay in business. The country is facing what CNBC has labeled a tsunami of store closings and blogger Michael Snyder has called a retail apocalypse. JC Penney, which lost $586 million in three months in 2013, is planning to close 33 stores in 19 states and lay off 2,000 people. JC Penney’s stock has lost 84 percent of its value since February 2012. Sears has decided to shut down its flagship store in Downtown Chicago, and it has closed 300 stores in the...

Get ready for the next era in retail—one that will be characterized by far fewer shops and smaller stores. On Tuesday, Sears said that it will shutter its flagship store in downtown Chicago in April. It's the latest of about 300 store closures in the U.S. that Sears has made since 2010. The news follows announcements earlier this month of multiple store closings from major department stores J.C. Penney and Macy's. Further signs of cuts in the industry came Wednesday, when Target said that it will eliminate 475 jobs worldwide, including some at its Minnesota headquarters, and not fill 700...

Sears, once America's golden retailer, is a company in crisis. The company has shuttered hundreds of stores in recent years. The embattled company has been selling some its most profitable stores to raise money. And now, shares are tumbling after Sears lowered guidance for the quarter and announced that comparable sales in the fourth quarter have slid more than 7%. Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, took poignant photos inside of New Jersey and New York Sears locations in October. "To understand why Sears is in a 'sell stores mode' one must look no further than the...

Dressed in a military uniform with a gas mask covering his face, the figure, known as 'Le Loyon', is said to have been haunting the woods for the past decade. He apparently walks the same route every day. However, there was no evidence of his existence until local news website Le Matin published the first known photograph of the mystery man last month, and now police are trying to track him down. But is it for real? "He had a military cape, boots and an army gas mark - an antique type, I think. He measured more than 1.9m. He...

Sears’ second-quarter loss widened as the number of stores in operation declined and it dealt with lingering effects from its spinoff of the Hometown and Outlet brand. A series of retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy’s Inc. have reported disappointing quarterly results this month and have issued bleaker outlooks as shoppers grapple with an uncertain economy. Americans absorbed a 2 percentage-point increase in the Social Security payroll tax this year as well. That means take-home pay for a household earning $50,000 a year has been sliced by $1,000. Hedge fund billionaire Edward Lampert, who controls the company and took...

TORONTO — Sears Canada (TSX:SCC) is cutting 245 jobs, mostly at its head office in Toronto, and moving some of the work overseas. The reductions will affect 138 of the jobs in the retailer’s information technology department, 99 in finance and eight in payroll. About 200 of the cuts are in the Toronto area, 38 are in Montreal and six in Belleville, Ont. Sears said the workload will be transferred to “external third-party providers whose business expertise includes updated systems and processes that can more efficiently perform the work involved.” While the company didn’t provide a specific breakdown on how...

How the me-first corporate structure installed by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert helped ruin the retail giant Eddie Lampert, the legendary hedge fund manager, was once hailed as the “Steve Jobs of the investment world” and the second coming of Warren Buffett. These days, he claims the number 2 spot on Forbes’ list of America’s worst CEOs. He has destroyed Sears, the iconic retail giant founded in 1886, which used to be known as the place “Where America Shops.” America now avoids Sears at all costs, thanks largely to Mr. Lampert and his love of twisted economic logic. A bit...

Sears Holdings Corp. reported a steeper-than-expected loss for its first quarter with the beleaguered retailer, blaming a cooler spring for falling sales.The operator of Sears and Kmart stores also said it’s considering strategic options for its service-agreement business, such as selling it off, to raise cash. Service agreements are when customers pay an extra fee when buying an appliance and the company agrees to fix or replace it if it breaks within a certain time. The steep loss drove Sears’ shares down more than 11 percent in after-hours trading. …

The digital age might have another victim: Sears has shut down its portrait studio, at least for now, after the photography company that has been snapping family portraits for the chain since 1959 abruptly closed up shop, reports the Wall Street Journal. CPI Corp. also ran studios at Walmart and Babies "R" Us, and all three retailers are scrambling to figure out next steps. Sears is "exploring all options" to resume portrait services, says the company. It was just a matter of time, writes Chris Gampat at the Phoblographer blog. People are taking their own photos with their own digital...

-Snip- And while successful retailers in 2012 may add stores this year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during 2013 to improve margins or reverse losses. For many retailers, the sales situation is so bad that it is not a question of whether they will cut stores, but when and how many. -Snip-

While 2013 will be a tough year for retailers due to the tepid economic recovery, a few in particular face a critical 12 months. Their experiences highlight the challenges facing store chains, from increasingly cautious consumers to fierce online competition. These unlucky retailers are going into the New Year with extra woes: slipping sales, questionable strategies and tight finances—which is why they are the ones to watch, and not in a good way. Best Buy Co. BBY -1.22% has been plagued by the retail phenomenon called "showrooming," where shoppers examine products in its stores but buy online through rivals. A...