The Incredible Shrinking Sears<br />In a statement, Sears said that the execution of Mr. Lampert’s strategy has had its challenges, but<br />that the company was making progress “in a very difficult retail environment where many retailers, including Victoria’s Secret, have also been challenged.”<br />Regarding pay and commissions, Sears said that rather than increase compensation in some<br />outlets, it chose to keep people employed, and stores open, as long as possible.<br />The company also said Mr. Lampert had not ignored Mr. Martinez’s advice.<br />Sears disputed Mr. Martinez’s recollections, saying it was Mr. Martinez who requested the meeting, and denied<br />that Mr. Lampert had made the comment about buying Sears.<br />The company also said Mr. Lampert began responding to the e-commerce shift more than a decade ago, well before many retailers did.<br />“The Sears brand has become largely irrelevant,” he said, “and it breaks my heart to say that.”<br />Today, Sears Holdings, the publicly traded entity that is the result of the 2005 merger of Sears<br />and Kmart, coordinated by Mr. Lampert, is on analysts’ short list of most-likely-to-go-bankrupt retailers.<br />Over a 90-minute meeting in Greenwich, Conn., where they both had offices, Mr. Martinez advised<br />Mr. Lampert to focus on high-value businesses like appliance sales, Sears’s crown jewel.
