Sears an ‘enormous loser’ this holiday
Former top Sears executive Mark Cohen is at it again with harsh words recently about Sears holiday performance and long term viability.
Cohen, former chairman and CEO of Sears Canada turned teacher at Columbia’s business school, appeared on CNBC to share his views on a holiday season with top line growth that appears to have exceeded earlier forecasts.
“Sears again is going to be an enormous loser,” Cohen said.
Overall, the holidays could be a catastrophe from a profitability standpoint from many retailers due to extensive discounting and expense pressures associated with expanded hours.
Cohen said, “you are looking at a train wreck,” when promotions start after Halloween and by Thanksgiving discounts are already at 50 percent to 60 percent.
“The sales don’t tell the tale. There is going to be some tremendous difficulty on the bottom line,” Cohen said. “At the end of the day, it is all about margin. It’s not about sales.”
Cohen's sharpest criticism was for his Sears and it’s not the first time his former employee was subject to stinging criticism. In a June 2014 interview with Bloomberg, Cohen said Sears had descended into irrelevance, was in a death spiral and was fatally damaged.