What's killing Sears? Its own retirees, the CEO says

[INdemo]

17. What hurt Sears was the purchase of failing Kmart/S. S. Kresge

The merger of the Sears merchandise and Kmart never worked after spending millions to merge the two into "Sears Essentials"
If Sears holdings would have kept Kmart separate both would have been successful.

There were Kmart stores in Indiana namely South Bend store and a northern Indy store that were successful until they merged to become Sears Essentials... (just two examples) They closed shortly after the re-branding.
Then CEO and other Execs got those golden parachutes and that was their downfall.
Sears is History. When a top Store in Indiana (Sears Glenbrook) is set to close in November its over

Has nothing to do with the pensions and Sears readily admits they were robbing from the pension plan when they make a statement like this

Sears might be able to go back to the Catalog Stores which is basically what they have now with the Sears Hometown stores only they carry a limited amount of merchandise. It is more or less Appliance displays and they order in the purchases.