The Scene at Sears

Conde Nast Portfolio has an interesting article in its current issue about the decline of Sears and Kmart, run by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert. I’ll leave you to read the magazine’s interesting and detailed analysis of Lampert’s merger possibly-gone-wrong, but I found it interesting that, among his many “experiments” for Sears, he has re-arranged home furnishings in Cincinnati by room—I’m picturing an IKEA-esque atmosphere. It’s marketed as “dwell,” apparently. Though I’ve never been a big Sears shopper, I’ve been lost in IKEA before—I think it’s a bad idea to copy that concept. But anyway, as you’ll read, he has dozens of other concepts he’s trying out. The question that Portfolio poses is whether he’ll end up acting on a successful re-do, if that’s the key to the department store’s success … before it’s too late.