We Have Met Retail’s Future, and it is Sears. (Yes, Sears.)

Remember when retailers lived from one individual success to another and, if something wasn’t working, they just made sure not to do it again the next year? If that were still the way things worked in retail, it would be easy to feel sorry for Sears. What with Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot gnawing at its once robust appliance business and it’s softer side getting scratched beyond recognition by nimble vertical players and brand-crazed mid-tiers—Sears hasn’t made a highly-publicized brand deal since it snatched up sensible Lands End . . . and then there are the depressing stores themselves, which seem to manage to be cavernous and crowded at the same time (but alas, not usually with shoppers).
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