> At the same time, if you look at Sears's peers, most of them are still alive and kicking, if not thriving. E.g. Target, Wal-Mart, Macy's, Kohl's, JC Penney, Best Buy etc.
That seems like confirmation bias to me. I could write a much longer list of national retail chains gone out of business over the last decade and a half. Circuit City, Mervyn's, A&P, Borders, CompUSA, Toys R Us, Marshall Fields, the list goes on.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on who Sears's peer companies are. I meant to compare Sears to other large department stores, though Best Buy is obviously more a peer to Sears's appliance/hard goods departments.
It's hard to find data from 2003 (when Lampert merged Sears and Kmart), but flip to page 3 of this PDF: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/7105653.pdf. All of those retailers except Sears are still healthy companies.
In regards to the examples you brought up, I think there are some questions about how comparable they are in terms of retail niche and scale. The Circuit City example I'll concede. They sold a lot of similar products as Sears.
-Mervyn's
From their wiki:
>Based on 2005 revenue, Mervyn's was the 83rd largest retailer in the United States.
It seems that Mervyn's is more of a regional chain? Not a national retailer.
-A&P
If this is the same east coast A&P that I know, this was a grocer. Doesn't really seem to be a peer of Sears.
-Marshall Fields
They were acquired by Macy's, not shuttered. Shareholders may have taken a haircut from the company's peak share price, but they weren't left with nothing. Sears trades at ~$1 as of today.
-Borders
If you mean Borders the specialty book seller, I don't really see how this is comparable to Sears.
-CompUSA
A specialty computer retailer, that to my memory did not even sell appliances? I don't see how they're a peer to Sears.
-Toys R Us
A specialty toy retailer vs a department store? I'd also note that there's been widespread debate about whether Toys R Us was done in by its debt-laden LBO (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/toys-r-us...). Also worth noting it has not been a public company since 2005.
There's also the question of whether some in this list have not been mismanaged themselves. You point to Toys R Us, but I've certainly heard similar questions about Borders and A&P, for instance.
That seems like confirmation bias to me. I could write a much longer list of national retail chains gone out of business over the last decade and a half. Circuit City, Mervyn's, A&P, Borders, CompUSA, Toys R Us, Marshall Fields, the list goes on.