Sears bankruptcy and their retirees' pension plan - Enquête
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- Опубликовано: 25 июн 2018
- Sears retirees may soon lose a big part of their pensions. That's because company executives invested only minimal amounts in their employees' pension funds over much of the last decade. But those executives followed the rules, and even acted with government support, at the same time that they distributed billions of dollars to their company’s shareholders. The story of the Sears bankruptcy sheds light on the murky world of corporations and their pension funds revealing how pools of money that are thought to be fully protected, can quickly evaporate with workers potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Enquête is Radio-Canada's flagship weekly current affairs program. The show uncovers corruption, crime, and abuse of power in Quebec and Canada
Producer : Gil Shochat
Journalists : Sylvie Fournier, Madeleine Roy
Caméramen: Jean-Pierre Gandin,Richard Marion, Laurent Racine
Sound: Martin R.Thibault
Editors: Charles Bergeron, Sébastien Huot, Bernard Lapointe, Étienne St-Amour
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Eddie Lampert literally drove this company into the ground. Sears and Sears Canada were fairly profitable before he came along. The lack of investment in the stores and employees says a lot about the people (crooks) who run this company.
Fernando Avila Funny, the Sears stores in Mexico are actually pretty nice.
M C Sears Mexico stores are nicer because they're owned by Grupo Carso, which is owned by millionaire Carlos Slim. They bought the rights to use the Sears name and operate independently from Sears Holdings U.S..
Fernando Avila I think you meant to say: BILLIONAIRE.
Eddie Lampert did not believe in spending money on cap ex. He thought people would like lower prices instead.
What Lampert did is nothing short of criminal. He knew exactly what he was doing, how it would affect the company and who (him) would benefit in the end.
What a shame I worked for kmart for 20 years they walked in and told us all they were closing thank god our pension was frozen in 1996. The ceo couldn't touch it. Now 22 years later. I am getting mine
Always get your money up front. If a company tells you that they will increase your pension instead of giving you a raise, tell them that you can put the money in your own retirement account when they give you more of it.
Yes.
I worked at Sears for 4 years during high school in the 80's, I worked as a cashier and the cash register would ring non-stop from morning til closing with a constant line of people on Saturday. Now it is like a ghost town in a Sears, I was telling my wife that the other day.
CEO of sears admitted the board set it up to fail during the bankruptcy and had no intention of trying to save sears.
Have you ever worked at SEARS? There was NO 'saving' SEARS...It was a dinosaur company that couldn't compete with Amazon, unless they completely over-hauled their warehouses with robotics and (tried) to convince the public to use a SEARS website instead of Amazon...Never going to happen.
Gry Phyn vulture capitalism at its finest
Sears had problems back when Amazon used to just be a bookstore. At that time Amazon was not Sears' biggest competitor.
Owing sears stock has not been a windfall from $120 to $2.40. These Canadian crybabies are sad their pension got cut by 20%. The problem is government not Sears. The Government of Canada should give all the taxes back they stole from Sears and its employees over the years.
Do you know what a dividend is?
Ceo of Sears should be jailed
zero67439 Why?
why?
Blame Eddie Lampert not the latest CEO. He's the one that sucked them dry and left this latest CEO with very little chance to survive.
Eddie Lampert is the same guy that is CEO of Kmart & Sears (Sears Holdings) in the USA who is on the brink of bankruptcy.
zero67439
zero67439 board of directors decisions man😐
Once again a massive transfer of wealth from the working poor to the 1% ers.
Agreed. Lampert is reportedly worth 1.9billion.
Modern slaves are not in chains; they're in debt; and kept in debt for life.
If you aren't rich, you're not free.
Worse things happened in the US.. We were all duped years ago into thinking that a 401k could replace a standard pension, when in reality it was supposed to supplement it. The greedy companies saw this as a way to advertise "retirement" while not actually, or barely providing one. The only people who actually make money off of the 401k's are the companies that proctor them, and we are left with some money when we retire that isn't good enough to do anything with..
In 2008; over one third of all americans completely lost the ability to ever effectively retire.
Wonder what it will be like when (not if) it comes around next time.
#AmericaIsBankrupt
Gmtail. It sounds like you may want to switch funds in your 401k if you have the option. 401k can work well if you make the needed contributions. Best of all it's not tied to the company (accept for what ever stock holdings are in the fund) If all of the money from Sears pension plans had been invested in good mutual funds in a 401k when the company went bankrupt they employees would not have been effected (accept for said company holdings). They would each have exactly the amount of money they contributed, the funds that were "matched" by the company, plus every cent of the interest accrued.
I'm not saying all 401ks are equal, but most of them have more than one option as to where you can put your money. However if you never put any money in them you will never get any back out. My wife has one at work. The fund she is in averages a 10.4% gain per year. Even if you only put a measly $100 per month in after 40 years that's $597,519.34 at retirement. If the company matches that $100 you've got $1,195,038.68.
AdventureSportFlashlights Thanks for the tips. I currently do 12% of my pay with the employer doing 3%, and I have it on an aggressive model. That’s about the best I know how to do. It was gaining incredibly well last year at 16% but then it tanked the beginning of this year. I’m not sure what else to do,, except maybe find someone who does know what they are doing.
You have an aggressive portfolio like you said, most of your investment account is tied in stocks and securities and not in bonds. This will cause you to have really big swings. One year or two you'll be up 15% then the next -20% but the good thing is the overall returns are much greater than a portfolio that's "safe." What's most important here is the time you have to recover from those loses so the returns are worth it. This is why for younger people an aggressive portfolio is good; you have so many years/decades to make great returns so the overall return rate is higher. But as you age and get closer to retirement the portfolio should be switched (progressively) to less securities and stocks to more savings/bonds investments because with only 10> years until retirement losing 15% will hurt a lot more than if you're 30< years from retirement.
They are good but only if the company is matching the 401k. Pensions are usually very small and you need like a million dollars to have a decent retirement.
Lampert is an hedge fund manager. He didn't become a billionaire by being nice and human. A retail business he is toying with is just a hobby. A very profitable hobby for him only.
This is a story that has been repeated many times in Canada. Whether the companies go bankrupt or whether they're packing up and moving to the US or mexico, they are never held to the pension obligations they've agreed to. Someone pays though, it's the taxpayer
Its not just Canada. Companies "packing up" and leaving the US has happened for decades. US companies relocated to China, Mexico, India etc.
Sears is the taxpayer. All the taxes the government workers and school teachers pay is zero. If a school teacher makes $15000 a year and pays $5000 a year in taxes, his true cost to taxpayers is $10,000 per year. The biggest cheaters of paying taxes are from the government workers.
pirucreek ya I was referring to the rest of us paying for the welfare and subsidies they will need from govt social programs because they've had the rug pulled out from under them by an irresponsible company. And your point about govt jobs is flawed. It implies the job isn't necessary in society and therefore the position provides zero value. I don't think teachers provide zero value. I think it is far less than what they get paid, but we don't know the real value of a teacher because they aren't subject to regular market forces. Which is the fundamental problem with any socialist apparatus.
A minor correction. In the US, they are never held to the pension obligations for EMPLOYEES. However, executive pensions are protected.
Just curious, but which private schools did you attend? You obviously never sucked on the government teat by attending any public school or university.
The Aliens in Slaughterhouse Five got their furniture from the Sears catalog
This is why you can't depend on a corporate pension plan.
You need to put savings in the bank if you don't want to be a Wal Mart greeter at 75 yrs old.
F Huber need to invest those savings 😉
Moral of story......if you are a business, never offer a pension plan. Pay the workers a little more and tell them to go invest it for retirement. Then, it's on the workers.
Self funded retirement is the only way for the future. Not that it helps these people obviously.
When operations scale down you need to adjust the pension plan. Either more money gets out in or you scale down payments and eliminate COlA, for example. Investments need to be made wisely within the pension. There are also ways to generate money as a pension, such as offering other services through third parties which generate revenues for the pension. Sears pension plan fiduciaries did not take the right steps to protect.
That is true, do not have a pension. BTW, a company pension is extremely inefficient. People would be better off if they invested themselves or had a private pension.
Yes part of all the decrying by employees which is woefully absent from this video is that all these retirees didn't understand the risks of a company-held pension. Basically, they weren't controlling their own money or retirements... so that's their own fault. Not saying Sears is right for anything they did---but it's their money and if there's any actual lawbreaking that went on then a lawsuit needs to occur. Other than that, self-responsibility and local community is really the key to surviving retirement when things like this occur.... really in almost every situation.
droptozro You have to remember that until the global market troubles hit in 2008, companies had been marketing their retirement programs as stable for employees, and would even post earnings of their plans and how it was building wealth, for everyone to see (such as in the break room or via a company wide email). Since the employees in low wage positions such as retail typically couldn't afford an individual financial advisor, folks in both in Canada and the US would often trust their employer with such matters. Heck, I remember when I did retail back when I was in university in the late 90s/early 2000s, employers would brag about their retirement plans, trying to get me to sign up for their plans on my first day on the job.
But yeah, as my dad taught me at a young age, no one is going to care more about your money and wealth growing, than you are.
They offered me a buyout about 10 years ago. Thank god I took it!!
You are one smart cookie...Beauty AND brains!
Who would have known.... banksters rules the world.
Pirates! Pillaging for their own financial gain at the expense of the loyal employees of Sears! Shame on you!
That's why they went out of business. As Jim Sinegal ( founder of Costco ) once said, "treat your employees like family and customers like guests, it's good business" And IT WORKS. Costco pays VERY WELL and they're making BILLIONS and it's a well oiled machine, because the front liner is happy with his job and the turn over is low.
great video thanks for this !
Employees should have priority, since it's their money to start with, and was put aside in trust for their retirement. But corporations always have the laws on their side, because they think it's THEIR money!
As for the banks: we've known for decades they are the BIGGEST THIEVES of all.
it makes you sick
Sears, like every other corporation, existed for the benefit of shareholders and not employees or customers. So long as we never set up an alternative there will be these abuses.
Corporations are very efficient. They will continue to exist. But we need a new type of player in the market at the same time. Worker co-ops. Co-ops and corporations need to exist at the same time to prevent inefficiencies and abuses.
Worker co-ops are corporations with heavy involvement of workers on the board of directors. Co-op philosophy will include consideration for employees. Workers will be empowered to have a say in the corporation's direction including their own hours and pay.
But the economy can't switch to 100% co-ops. With no alternatives an economy of only co-ops would quickly descend into inefficiency, keeping under-productive workers on payroll. An economy of 100% corporations is also terrible that pits investors against worker interest. Tensions in corporations do keep them efficient but do lead to abuses of the workers.
Some mix of corporation and co-ops forces corps to treat workers well when workers have an alternative they could switch to. Corps with a terrible worker abuse record will quickly find themselves with no workers. Co-ops will need to compete with corps forcing them to maintain a certain level of efficiency. Co-ops that are too generous to their workers may have all the workers they need but their products will be easily undercut by others leaving them with no revenue.
Governments should set out a legal framework for co-ops. A finger needs to be on the scale in favor of co-ops for a while but eventually leading to zero bail-outs of co-ops and corps. The only role for government after that will be environmental regulation.
this is just sickening to watch
In the US we have the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation) which is supposed to be a backstop for pensions. However the undermining of pensions has been allowed to go on to such a degree that people only get cents on the dollar from that agency. You have the greedy corporatists and the legislators (some of whom have certainly been paid off) colluding in the theft of pension funds.
The downfall of Sears was that it did not reach the youth of today - the Millennials. We don't say to each other, "Hey, let's go shopping at Sears." Sears was seen as a place that older people go shopping, and when these older people shopped online, well, then no more money flowed to Sears. Plus, stepping into a closed out Sears, I felt it was way too big. Not much home feeling space because it was trying to sell everything. I want a space for things that are important to me, not a place that has everything. I think younger people like little shops better than big retail stores. Please try to diversify your management board - especially in age and gender. When your board consists of the same people who's been around for 40 years, constructing a company in the old ways with the same old looks that they are comfortable with and used to, your company can only last for their generation, not the next. Sears was built for an older generation because it was only ran by the older generation.
You nail it. Sears never tried to change there ways of doing business. If Sears would have put there catalogs on the net in the early 90's , they would never be a Amazon.com, they would have been bigger than Amazon. The only thing that Sears has,that still makes a profit is there Home Service's.
I worked at sears from 1983 till 2018. When i retired. I had just signed my pension papers and was expecting a check for $58,000 lump sump. Not much for 35 years but still alot of money. 2 days after sears filed for bankruptcy. The government came in and took over. I now get $283 a month. Not what i expected. Who can retire with this? I wasted 35 years. My life pretty much
Sears - jettisoning their online component catalog division in order to compete in the brick and mortar arena - Inspired! LMAO!
This was unavoidable. It's truly a tra... what's that? This was 100% avoidable if the multimillionaire CEO took a pay cut to pay their employees? Oh, nvm then.
Jay Ray The ceo doesnt have to. He did his job and he should be paid for it.
Bill You're 100% correct. He doesn't have to pay his workers decent wages and prevent the company from going bankrupt. Sometimes us commoners forget how difficult it is to golf most of the year and how much they should be paid to do so.
In fact... the peasants should've been paid less, and the CEO should've made millions more; let the business go under even faster.
Jay Ray you are not angry at the CEO, you are just bitter you are not the CEO. If you really wanted change, you wouldn't vote Trudeau in.
E'raan Lue .. I didn't.. I don't vote for right wing politicians
Sears did the normal thing, cut the wages of the front line workers while giving everything to the people at the top.
People from my store would go off to Chicago for training and come back with stories of how wonderful the headquarters campus was. Day care, cafeteria, fitness center. Wonderful. We didn't even have a working TV in the break room.
The company was cutting store personnel left and right but it wasn't until about 2015 that they started laying off people at HQ.
I was a salesman and worked on commission. To bolster profitability, Sears kept screwing with commission rates. My monthly sales didn't diminish but in my last two years there I saw my pay go down by 40%. As much as I liked working there, I had bills to pay so I left a year ago.
Sears could have really saved themselves a decade ago by boosting advertising in print and on TV. However, they had this belief that email ads were the way to go.
In the end, the workers get screwed and the suits walk away with their pockets stuffed with cash.
Lampert amd Cohen . Just their names says it all. Greedy little weasels. 🙄
Donna Green Mark Cohen was the president before Lampert took over and discussed in the documentary how Lampert destroyed the company. Why are you placing them both in the same category? Did you watch the material before commenting....or are you furthering your own agenda by grouping these two together?
JohnstonPettigrew indeed I watched before commenting. Did you read my comment? 🙄
Donna Green yes, you identify their names and then say they are weasels, by their name. Lampert is a weasel....by action. Cohen is not a weasel;. fortune.com/2017/06/12/sears-mark-cohen-ship/
Cohen was neither greedy nor a weasel and Lampert is skull and bones
My local Sears just hung banners last week that the store is closing. It was the anchor of the mall.
I retired from Ma Bell. I asked my human resource department if my pension would be guaranteed for life. They said no so I was fortunate to be able to take a cash buy out.
A friend of mine was working for a large company making top dollar as a computer programmer. He was doing very well until one day they said the company was going to fold the next day.
I've always wondered if cashing in my Kmart and EDS pensions back in 2001 was a sound decision. I now know that it was.
Honestly I'm surprised companies even offer pensions aside from blue collar or government jobs
They shouldn't. Less and less are doing so. Let the worker invest on his own.
What about the sears hometown store "owners"? These were employees in every respect but called owners so sears could avoid giving basic worker rights or minimum wages. They were required to work an extra month for sears liquidations. Then they were left on the hook for all their store's bills while Sears Canada withheld thousands in commission they needed to pay those bills before kicking them out with nothing.
As I've said a few places of late, there's no such thing as investors anymore. These people don't invest in companies, they're shareholders and traders... and if they can throw the future of an entire company, its products, and its employees under the bus to make one extra shiny penny TODAY, you can bet your sweet bippy that's EXACTLY what they'll do.
... as we're seeing at company after company.
being on both side of the employment spectrum and being an employer pension plans scare me as it becomes a compounding cost.
If you ever wondered if you were really on your OWN...now you know.
We all knew this was coming, Sears has been losing for years. I saw this along time ago.
There is a sears in the mall in my city as well as a sears auto center infront of the mall.....
there should be a documentry about sears history and how the biggest market chain died ... hope someday sears will start again
If banks want priority over pension funds to get re-paid if a business goes bankrupt, they should be insisting that any bank loan is dependant that the Company's pension fund is fully funded. If it's not, the company is already bankrupt, it took money from the pension to fund to keep going, so the bank would be lending money to a company that will fail anyway. But the bank doesn't care if the business fails as long as it makes a profit on it's loan, which is guaranteed to be paid back to them.
Share holders profit, bankers profit = business succeeded. Workers? F-You!
John Doe Yea so what?
Bill ah bless, you don't don't understand. Never mind, you're just really thick but it's not your fault.
John Doe You think im "thick"....that doesnt mean what you think it means by the way. And if you think im so " thick" then explain.
Your utter stupidity isn't my problem.
That's what corporation is for. It is not a charity. It is strictly created for profit which goes to the shareholders. Don't blame the players for the rules.
I've never seen anyone over 25 working in a Sears in these past 20 years.
It's what happens when the success of a company isn't measured by how well they ply their trade, but by how much money they bring to their shareholders.
When ROI is all that matters anymore, things like this are all but inevitable.
HBC did the same thing with the credit arm and now it's managed by Capital One, with HORRIBLE customer service.
runforit420 hbc is the next “Sears”. Ie Sold off zellers to target to buy saks fifth avenue........
I completely agree gmcnewlook. I wish HBC had reimaged Zellers to be something better than Walmart. I refuse to buy anything from Walmart.
Liquidation has its own conclusion of the company. RIP loyal employees..😢
Sears will be history people😯
I don't know how labor laws in Canada work but in my country labor law mandates all employers (government or private companies) to pay a certain percent of employees salaries every month to a publicly owned pension fund that is controlled by the government.
Oh I almost forgot. Say goodbye to K-Mart too.
Failing companies never provide for their employees. Why is there no backstop to prevent that?
Lampert is a pirate
Sad because I see HBC heading this way as their cash registers are so old, slow and unreliable. They need to invest in this area and fast because customers don't like to sit in lines for 10 minutes and more.
Yep , well told story , I saw this happen in Wilmington NC also , the store, Sears - like K Mart in Wilmington , was so out dated and under funded in keeping up appearances , sounds like Sears was fleeced from the top
The real question is why would anyone trust the company with their pension when they have recourse when the company steals it.
“Who thought sears would fall?” Shows outdated technology from the 1970s lol
the company's owner pulled a gordon Gekko He bought the company then raided it to get rich
The company is owned by thousands of shareholders, not just one individual.
This whole sequence of events seems pretty criminal.
There are many defined benefit plans that are likely unfunded.
This is why people should invest their own money in either 401k's, IRA's, or Roth IRAs. Don't expect corporations or government because both will eventually go bankrupt and people who expect pensions from either won't get at all. An example is Detroit. Public employees either didn't get their pensions or they got half or less than half of what they're promised.
Kenneth Leigh in theory, I agree. I would rather have control myself. However, 401 k’s are generally administered by financial institutions that may or may not have the best interests of their clients as there priority. Most people don’t have the wherewithal to invest on their own. Look at what happened in 2008. 401ks became 201ks. It is impossible to regulate greed and immortality.i just assume whatever I have on paper will be worth half in reality. Oh well
Kenneth Leigh problem is the government, companies , and brokers take tons of money out of the 401ks too. It's taken out by the wealthy and government every where.
Gary bigie I didn't notice government, corporations and wealthy take any money out of my 401k ever. My 401k depends on well the stock market does on a daily basis and how well corporations do when corporations make a profit. So, I have make more money the past two years than the previous eight years.
Tbone productions I agree with you about financial institutions managing anybody's 401k and the fees anyone has to pay on a quarterly basis. But, what happened to 401k's in 2008 is some thing that happened to the stock market when it crashed. So, 401ks are based on how well the stock market does on a daily and yearly basis.
Kenneth Leigh look at statistics. Anywhere from 50% to 62% worth, of all retirement plans like 401k, goes to fees, charges, and taxes over the length of time of the account.
I currently work at a sears store, things not going well for our daily sells atm. Am leaving this company soon!
P.S: rollover your pension into individual retirement account such as Roth IRA or traditional IRA.
SEARS went downhill because of greedy CEOs who wanted to fill their pockets instead of the retirees. Unfortunately the latter paid the price.
Sears went all downhill in the early 90’s when they killed their once iconic catalog and Wish Book. After this, I couldn’t of cared less about sears. Visiting their stores in the 90’s and 2000’s gave me a feeling of a once great company who’s days were numbered.
That's mess up. These CEO should get locked up.
Worked there for 5yrs before the fall out they didn’t take care of there customer like they use to I really miss taking care of the customer I was a road tech I truly did my best but thank god something better came along I am about to retire from another place thank god
Moral of the story, lookout for yourself.
The # 1 Rule in Company Business is To Never Ever Give Company Earned Funding Away To Share Holders And Bank Employee's
This is Standard stuff when Private Equity Firms purchase a business. Financialization.
Sears had a chance in 2003. Lampert decided to line shareholder pockets instead.
They mismanaged Sears completely. The worse thing they did was when they sold the credit part of it.
Eddie needs to go to jail.
This sad story reminds me of the Peanuts strip, and Charlie Brown, the employees, trying to kick the football for the CEO Violet.
maybe you can make all board members and officers of Sears personally liable for deificit in pension fund?
These big corporations are always doing stuff like this, i dont know why you would put your whole life into working for them.
This is extremely sad, but where is the personal responsibility? My employer and myself contribute into a pension but but I have other retirement accounts as well. If this same thing happens to my pension at least I won't be left penny less.
Here are all the remaining non closing Kmart and Sears locations as of 12-1-2021: Kmarts: 1 Key West, Florida; 2 Miami, Florida; 3 Hamilton, Montana; 4 Avenel, New Jersey; 5 Westwood, New Jersey; 6 Bridgehampton, New York; 7 Tauming, Guam; 8 Hato Rey, Puerto Rico; 9 Sunshine Mall in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; 10 Sunny Isle Shopping Center in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; 11 Tutu Park Mall in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; 12 Lockhart Gardens Shopping Center in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Sears: 1 Burbank, California; 2 Concord, California; 3 Stockton, California; 4 Whittier, California; 5 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; 6 Miami, Florida; 7 Orlando, Florida; 8 Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; 9 Braintree, Massachusetts; 10 Frederick, Maryland; 11 Jersey City, New Jersey; 12 Newburgh, New York; 13 Greensboro, North Carolina; 14 Willow Grove, Pennsylvania; 15 San Juan, Puerto Rico; 16 El Paso, Texas; 17 Tukwila, Washington; 18 Union Gap, Washington. A total of 12 non closing Kmarts (6 in the continental USA) and 18 non closing Sears (17 in the continental USA). Totally separate and thriving companies are Sears Mexico and Kmart Australia
don't work for other people..trust yourself
well-- must suck to have the same pension plan I do.
I don't understand? Is it not a legal requirement for pension funds to be separate from the operation of the business?
Well Canadians need to put political pressure on their representatives to support changes in the legislation. As long as the public doesn't pay attention to this issue and only has sympathy for these workers in passing rather than proactively dressing it with their representatives the politicians will not be compelled to make any changes and will continue to be beholden to their bankers.
You can't touch pension and tax money. Period
If someone is an expert in the retail business and they're a teacher and not a business owner, how much of a expert are they?
Is Sears pension plan separate from K-Mart pension plan?
sears is stepping over my holographic charizard card level...
Personal responsibility, there is no other solution. Stop assuming that you will get a pension from the government or the company you work for. Nobody cares more about your well being than you. No company puts you before profit and no government will put the individual before the state.
Exactly. Defined benefit pension plans are a DISASTER waiting to happen. If the company fails...so does your pension. These people should have never relied on it.
How long will it take before people realize, pensions aren't guaranteed retirement.
Perhaps Eddie Lampert was following the rules of the company, but honestly, he should be tried for his dishonesty and the shakedown of company employees. Shame! The only shareholders should be its employees.
Rational self-interest. Don't ever be surprised when people act in their own self-interest. Eddie Lampert did what was in his rational self-interest. The only issue is: Was everything done legally according to the relevant laws? If yes, then forget it. If no, then the government should follow procedure and see if civil or criminal liability is there.
Sears here in Hutchinson Kansas deserved to fold. Their service was horrible. If you got an appointment to get new tires when you got off work they person who was supposed to put them on said 'No I have to many walk in's.' I went to the manager who should have fired him on the spot told him he had to do my car first. I told him and the mechanic I wouldn't allow that bastard to touch my car, and I'll never shop in Sears again. If that was happening in all of the stores it's no wonder they went out of business and they deserved it. As for the employees, I can't feel sorry for them as they created at least part of that problem.
Go after the shareholders, take everything they own before taking their life. Then take the life insurance.
I predicted sears bankruptcy 10 years before they went bankrupt.middle of the game they started change the rules. Government should be taken care the people before companies.they should size sears assets.
When employees care only about their rights and entitlement companies fail. The board saw this and just decided to locket money.
My first memories of Sears was that it was segregated in the southern United States. Then they had the brilliant plan to only take "Discover" credit cards, thereby abandoning customers who only had MC, Visa and AMEX or all three. Merging with the corpse of K-Mart was the final straw of their business plan. And of course, they steal everyone's retirement on their way out the door, a la Bain Cos.. That is how it is always done in the corporate world. Tragic.
Made me wonder . Isn't there a law against under funding pensions . What going on ??
I didn't realise it was so bad in good ole Canada, which is where I was born. I'm really sad.
Depends on the position, there's sales, management, operations and other corporate positions that are careers.
If a Sears employee bought the companies stock during the good ole days they would've made out like a bandit during the dividend payouts.
They lasted longer than any company big in the 80s. Money=Greed.
Employees should learn how to invest their own money the way these banks and companies do. You are never too safe because its a big brand. Thee are private financial companies that will teach you financial literacy and help you invest in safe products that pay above the level of inflation.
Unbelievable in a bad way!
Oh they lifted a a finger all right... the middle one to their employeees!
i agree sears was unsaveable...and tragic end for all. although i do understand that companies must answer to lenders, investors, and pensioners, it is definitely the most sad for those who already retired and need that money to live day to day. govts everywhere should enforce transition to more 401k type plans and not promises to infinity for future money they cannot possibly know they will have. it's kinda hubris no?
Lesson #1: never put your faith in others when it comes to money.
and they complain about how bad 401Ks are for employees
They didn't mention how much the pension deficit was compared to what was payed out in dividends. I would think they could have covered the pension funds and still been able to pay some dividends. As far as the former CEO saying " I always thought we would succeed", what BS . Every company that starts selling off it's assets only prolongs the inevitable. This has occurred so many times, it makes his statement ridiculous. Generally the CEO has a lot of influence on the board of directors. The problem with boards they seldom are in sync with the business, you can not sit at a big table in a leather chair and know what or why the customers are disappearing. Well was again the people end up holding the bag while the bankers and the executive level people get the golden parachute. Prime minister Trudeau is obviously influenced by were the money is.
I am American and I know we have some issues right now but the problems are much the same in both countries for the working class or should I say the forgotten class. By the way I have been to Canada many times and love it and the people, what a beautiful country.
It's time to recognize everyone 40 or over who is not able to retire now will not retire. I'm 60, working 65 hour weeks, and I will work until I drop.