Your analysis is only partly right. You should have mentioned the responsibility, or lack thereof of the owners and managers of SHLD. Lampert ought to be called to account for the pathetic performance of SHLD. Too much hanky panky delving into irresponsible real estate and levgeraging ventures. Richard

Lampert has shown himself to be totally incomptent as a retailer and merchant. Continued loss of customer is not enough to wake this clown up! Knowledgeable management has been dumped and replaced by know nothing cheapies. The stores have been operated into a disaster. The stores are sloppier and more poorly staffed than dumpty walmarts.
You can't get waited on in big-tickets and if you do it is by someone with an attitude and a replacement who knows nothing. Merchandise is often not priced and the scanners to try and cover for that shortcoming are out of order.
The apparel departments looked like they were merchandised by Waste Management. The local Ace store has a bigger paint department as Sears management has all but destroyed that business.
Automotive remains a strength but they are working on killing that off also as they continue to merchandise to the bottom of the barrel.
At this point the stockholders need to put on a real push to dump this Management team although I am not sure there is enough cash reserves to turn it around. Meanwhile what is Lampert doing to correct the disaster ge has on his hands? Buying HD stock that will be at least two years off to regain it's position and a dying Restoration Company! Talk about CEO clueless. HE would be a good candidate for Enron.

Actually, he should be in jail along with the Enron and Tyco people as should Alan Lacy who colluded with him to sell out Sears in the Kmart "merger" and all the Board of Directors he hand picked who are nothing but hedge fund people. But there's always hope. Seems like there's trouble brewing in California or rather spewing. Talk about toxic waste. By the way Eddie, I don't work with you anymore. I'm a whistle blower and I know what you did. Instead of the toxic waste you dumped in California, how about dumping Eddie and his crew next.

As far as getting rid of Eddie, he owns 49% of the company and his buddies make up a good bit of the rest. I say call in the Feds. Dennis Kowalzyck
needs a bunk buddy.

I hate to sound like a breeder of gloom and doom, but this latest earnings dump by Sears Holdings is just the tip of the iceberg folks. If you thought the third quarter results were bad...you ain't seen NOTHING yet.

As a manufactuer's rep who calls on only Sears stores in the southeast USA, I have a unique perspective that could only be bettered if I were employed (God forbid) directly by the company.

If you are a stockholder of Sears Holdings, be afraid. Be very afraid. Sell your stock and get out now why you can. To coin a Glenn Beck phrase, 'Here's how I got there":

The Appliance Department is the division that carries Sears; along with the electronics department. Nobody, and I mean NO body shops for apparel at Sears unless they are over 50. The next time you take a trip to the local mall, stop into the Appliance Department at Sears and count the number of Sales Associates on the floor, and THEN count the number of customers You could detonate a dirty bomb in a Sears Appliance Department and not hurt a soul.

Another reason Sears is in even deeper trouble because the lack of sales in the Appliance Department has to do with their much-vaunted 'Ultimate Appliance Promise', wherein Sears touts that they have more brands at the best prices; 24/7 service, and next-day delivery. All of it lies. Experienced appliance watchers know that Sears is often the highest price in the market which is why and how they can run sales every day of the week; their next-day delivery is on CERTAIN items and not ALL items, and 24/7 service is a pipe dream: I have customers waiting two weeks to get something serviced by Sears.

But beyond the Appliance Department, anyone can notice the dream that was Sears crumbling. I call it the 'K-Marting of Sears'. Associates who earned commission have seen their commissions cut and their sales cut by Sears flooding the floor with Associates, ostensibly to provide better service, when in fact, it is expressly to drive down a person's ability to earn a good living. As a result, a retailer who used to have a sales organization that was a cut above in the industry now employs the very same caliber person as Kmart.

Further, Sears' customer base is aged and eroded, and they have done NOTHING to bring younger, more modern customers into the stores. Look around a Sears store and count how many people you see shopping there over the age of 50. It's astounding, and it's also a death knell for a retailer that has not yet found a way to get it's 'softer side' across to Generation X, Y, or Z.

Finally, employee morale couldn't be any lower. Sears management in Hoffman Estates trots out programs for the employees about trust, diligence, and dedication; and then turns around and slaps the very same employees they are supposed to be attributing these attributes to right in the kisser.
The employees are miserable, and it's because they work for a miserable company.

And now we come to Allwyn Lewis. I am going to be very interested to see what type of package he gets when Eddie Lampert makes him the sacrifical lamb and requires that he step down. I'm certain we will be reading articles about how many millions Lewis was paid from Lampert's already thin coffers to leave. Any time you have a CEO of a retailer that DOES do an excellent job merchandising their stores say as Lewis did that they "...need to become better merchants", it's time to let the dogs out from behind the fence.

Here are just a few more reasons why Sears is going to tank even further in the fourth quarter:
Appliance sales drop markedly from December to January. Sears has a ton of apparel in the stores for winter and the weather has been unseasonably warm until recently. None of the apparel at Sears moves much anyway, with huge markdowns available in most departments right now. Imagine how low they will go AFTER Christmas.

Finally, don't shed a tear for Eddie Lampert. He may be a lousy retail merchant, but the man is a economic genius. Lampert found a way to license the Craftsman, Die Hard, and Kenmore brands in an offshore trust that he was then able to extract $1.8 billion out of;and the kicker is, Sears can take a major dump and go out of business tomorrow, and Lampert can turn around and sell those tride and true licensed brands to the highest bidder. Just imagine Home Depot selling Craftsman tools.
No, Eddie Lampert is no fool. While the stock price is far over-valued even by Wall Street's rose-tinted standards, Lampert still has the land the stores are on; in many cases the facilities; the warehouses; the distribution centers; the shipping companies; and ultimately, the Kmart stores and land as well.
No, the only people who are going to get hurt here are the investors and the employees of Sears. It's a Great American Tragedy in the making, and the saddest thing of all is it didn't need to end this way.

Remember, you heard it here first: Sears profits for the fourth quarter are going to be as massacre-ugly as the recent pile of manure that Wall Street had to sift through.

Sell now.