Sears CEO blames retiree pensions for their crappy stores
E-commerce is often blamed for the woes of brick-and-mortar retailers. But on Thursday, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert cast blame on the company’s retirees—specifically, pension plan payouts—for draining company coffers.
The statements came in a blog post by Lampert in which he outlined that since 2005, Sears has contributed over $4.5 billion to its pension fund. That amount would be significantly lower—and crucially, could go toward funding the company’s operations—if federal interest rates had been higher since the 2008 financial crisis.
“Had the Company been able to employ those billions of dollars in its operations, we would have been in a better position to compete with other large retail companies, many of which don’t have large pension plans, and thus have not been required to allocate billions of dollars to these liabilities,” he wrote. Filings show that Sears pays roughly $300 million annually in retiree pensions, according to CNN.
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2018/09/14/sears-ceo-retiree-pensions-hurting-business
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Last edited Sat Sep 15, 2018, 06:40 PM - Edit history (1)
...with each other to "improve efficiency" (which, of course, it didn't)?
Sure, blame everybody but you. It has to be the fault of lowly retirees, not the mismanaging billionaire investor guy, right? 
The billionaire criminal class are the only ones to blame for the retail tsunami that's happening right now. 