28 February 2013/17 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/10 Esfand 1391

The main stream media is trying to make Sears Holdings’ 2012 earnings sound good, by saying that it wasn’t as bad as expected.  It is still bad!

Sears claimed their comparable store sales were up in its 4th Quarter 2012, by a measly 0.8%.  However, sales for the whole year were down by 1.4%.

Kmart reported a drop in holiday sales, down 3.7%, which is also the same amount of declination for the whole year.

There was some good news, Sears Holdings claims internet sales were up 17% for the year (much better than the loss reported by J.C. Penney).

Company officials said overall they suffered a “Net loss from continuing operations attributable to Holdings’ shareholders of $489 million and $930 million…”

That’s a smaller loss than in fiscal year 2012, but it’s still big.  And here’s a reality check; the losses would have been bigger if not for the sale of Sears Canada stock (“We distributed nearly half of our ownership in Sears Canada in 2012”), and the drastic cut backs on buying inventory (“Domestic inventory declining $895 million from the prior year.”).

As far as continued closings of Sears and Kmart stores are concerned, here’s a old slogan that unAmerican Corporate America should officially use: The beatings will continue until moral improves.

What economic recovery?