Dive Brief:
-
Steven Dennis, a vice president at Sears who left in 2003, said the once-iconic retailer should embrace the inevitability of liquidation.
-
Writing in his blog, Dennis said Sears Holding Corp. CEO Eddie Lempert doesn’t know what he is doing and called the retailer’s struggles “the world’s slowest liquidation sale.”
-
Specifically, among other issues, Dennis said the retailer has neglected its physical stores for too long to turn them around, but without them it has no chance to become an omnichannel retail force.
Dive Insight:
Coming just after the retailer’s annual shareholders meeting, these are fighting words from former Sears executive Steven Dennis, who in his blog says CEO Eddie Lempert is “either a liar or delusional.”
Dennis, who has founded retail consulting firm SageBerry Consulting LLC but says none of his clients competes directly with Sears, makes the case that Sears’ moves under Lempert have simply left it unable to appeal to consumers and have robbed it of any advantages it once had.
For his part, Lempert says that Sears is not just in the midst of a turnaround, but of a “transformation,” which takes time and major change. According to Dennis — ain’t gonna happen.
