On 12/28/2011 11:11 AM, Steve B wrote:
wrote in message
...
I'm reading bad news about Sears/KMart. If Sears goes tits up, I hope
they hand off the Craftsman line. I always had good luck with their
hand tools.

Ace currently sells Craftsman.

As mentioned upthread, the CEO of the company that acquired Kmart,
then got Sears in a hostile takeover and created Sears Holdings from
merging the two chains created another subsidiary company and put the
Kenmore, Craftsman, and Diehard brands into that company. In other
words, those brands aren't owned by Sears anymore, so if/when Sears
goes tits up, those assets won't end up on the auction block. Plus, it
allows him to cut deals with other retailers to carry those brands in
their stores, thus generating more income for his company.

This guy isn't a retailer, he's a financier. He's been putting the
income from the chains into hedge fund investments instead of plowing
it back into the stores. That's why the stores look old and rundown.
He's just gradually stripping them of their assets.