The phone rang just before the switch was pulled, and the executioner looked down upon his potential victim. "Uh-huh," the executioner said, before hanging up the phone. Then, he motioned for some guards nearby, and as they stepped forward, the man in the black hood said, "You get to live another day, Sears."
The retailer that was once on top of the business world with a catalog that millions read every year has fallen on hard times. Digital shopping and declining revenue for brick-and-mortar stores will do that to any great company. See Sears.
Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Little Rock all lost their Sears a little while back, but a few towns like Russellville, Arkadelphia and Ash Flat have managed to hang onto theirs. Shoppers at these stores might have wondered what would happen to their hometown stores after Sears declared bankruptcy in October, but it seems the business has been granted a last-second reprieve.
The papers say Sears' chairman and largest shareholder saved the company after revising his bid for it. This means 425 stores might be able to stay open, and tens of thousands of Sears employees might just get to keep their jobs. Not only that, but in many towns across America, there's another option for shopping.
In other good news for workers, CBS News reports many folks laid off last year by Toys R Us are finally getting some severance pay. Checks range from $200 to more than $12,000, and that's a pretty nice little nest egg for a group of people who thought they'd be both jobless and unpaid.
Whether Sears will revamp itself and emerge like a phoenix from the ashes remains to be seen. But it seems like the company might get a chance to do that. Either way, the free market will decide. And sometimes its decisions are brutal.
Editorial on 01/10/2019