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I hear people carping about Amazon... Bezos seems only to have hit the 'refresh' button.
"Sears also demonstrated how to run a business. Cutting costs and tightly controlling distribution fueled its rise to power. The company built a massive Chicago distribution complex in 1906, which occupied three million square feet of floor space. A full-page illustration of the plant, in all its bright redbrick glory, graced the back of the Sears catalog. Any customer could see how his merchandise was received and held, how his orders were filled and shipped out, and where the catalog itself was published. The distribution center was its own best advertisement; among the largest in the world, it was a symbol of the mail-order company’s dominance." (Smithsonian Magazine)
I 'lived' SEARS; I lived in one of the houses they supplied in kits near the Wisconsin border before I went in the Army. I even had one of their scooters before that.
Later, when I learned how some things worked, I found they were just as carnivorous as private equity firms are today. One trick was to slowly raise the percentage of an item they purchased from a source to where the stability of the supplier was dependent - then lessen the price they were willing to pay.
I have neutral feelings about their current predicament.
Jim
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