Is sears HoldIngs In a Turnaround or lIquIdaTIon Mode?

1—STRAIGHT TALK Summer 2015—

Volume 18, Issue 1 Summer, 2015

This issue of STRAIGHT TALK:Sears Holdings Future p. 1

Evansville, IN Club p. 5

Sears Annual Meeting p. 6

Laughter Best Medicine p. 8

Renew Now! p. 8

New N.A.R.S.E. President p. 9

SHC Speaks p. 10

Publicize Your Club! p. 12

How to Run a Club p. 12

Is sears HoldIngs In a Turnaround or lIquIdaTIon Mode?(Editor’s Note: The following com-ments were submitted by NARSE to Sears Holdings Corporation to be included as part of the Sears Annual Shareholders meeting held on May 6, 2015. It was sent to Kristin M. Coleman, Senior V.P., General Coun-sel and Corporate Secretary of SHC; and also to Edward S. Lampert, by certified mail, return receipt request-ed. The comments were accepted by Ms. Coleman, but based upon the note on the mailing envelope, see page 2, refused at Mr. Lampert’s ESL Investments Florida address. It was sent to Mr. Lampert’s Florida address as that is where he spends most of his time. These comments were also mailed to the seven mem-bers of SHC’s Board of Directors.)

narse CommentsMy name is Ron Olbrysh. I am a Sears’ retiree, Sears’ shareholder, and chairman of the National Asso-ciation of Retired Sears Employees, which has represented the interests of tens of thousands of Sears’ retir-ees for the past 18 years.

There appears to be a dichotomy be-tween what Chairman Lampert and others on his senior staff are reporting, and what the financial analysts are saying about the future of the company.

Every mention you see of Lampert and Sears in the media is nega-tive. The analysts accuse Lampert of running the company into the ground. They say he’s failing at turning Sears around; that he is not involved in a turnaround, but really a liquidation.

What sears Holdings saysMr. Lampert, in his February 26, 2015, letter to shareholders, wrote:

“T ime and again, people have proclaimed our company all but

dead. As I wrote in a blog post late last year, in 1988 our hometown business journal [Crain’s Chicago Business] wrote a devastating 14,297-word eulogy for Sears. Virtu-ally all of the companies that Sears was allegedly trailing back then are now gone and forgotten. Many oth-ers have merged or simply closed.

“These old stories got it partially right. Had we not embarked on a course change; had we not, espe-cially in recent years, started to creatively disrupt ourselves; Sears and Kmart would probably be no more than a treasured American memory.

“Without the aggressive steps we have already taken to transform Sears Holdings from the predomi-nantly brick-and-mortar retailer it once was to a best-in-class multi-channel in tegrated shopp ing

Will SHC take care of its retirees?

Continued on page 2


experience for our members, we would be stuck on the same path that has claimed retailers like Circuit City, Borders, Radio Shack and others.

“Instead, we’re innovating and moving forward … We are primarily focused on profitability instead of revenues, market share and other metrics which relate to but don’t necessarily drive profit … ”

In Mr. Lampert’s December 17, 2014, blog titled, “Is Something a ‘failure’ if other successes come from it?’ he said: “Retail is a vola-tile business and most retailers who have been successful have had all kinds of starts and stops—and all kinds of experiments. We learn from successes and failures.”

In another blog, responding to Sears’ decision to close hun-dreds of stores, he sa id, “Clos ing non-product ive stores results in reduced expens-es, improved cash flow and enhanced productivity of our space—which together end up strengthening our company.

“By closing money-losing stores, we reduce future losses as well as capital needs, providing us a path to restore profitability sooner for our company, and funding our transformation.”

And f inally, in a blog by Rob Schriesheim, Executive VP and CFO of SHC, captioned, “Funding Our Transformation & Lever-aging our Real Estate Assets,” Mr. Schriesheim said:

“As we leverage Shop Your Way and Integrated Retail, we will continue to right-size, redeploy and highlight the value of our assets, including our

substantial real estate portfolio, in our transition from an asset inten-sive, ‘store-only’ retailer to a more asset light, integrated membership-focused company … We remain highly focused on restor ing our company to profitability and believe we have a framework and path to do so. As we move forward with our transformation, we do so with a tremendous asset base allowing us great financial f lexibility … ”

What the Media are sayingIn contrast to what SHC is saying, Wall Street dismisses Sears as the “walking dead.” In the December 6, 2014, WallStreet.org blog, it was reported that Sears Holdings has always been in the news for the woes it has inf l icted upon itself:

“Sears will be getting rid of 235 stores,

and that won’t be enough to slow down its downfall. The decision was made to save itself from total demoli-tion. But the truth is that the company faces tough competition from rivals such as Wal-Mart, Target Corp and the mighty Amazon.com. All of these retailers live in the shadow of Ama-zon, except that Sears is amongst those hitting the rock bottom. It’s be-ing eclipsed by rivals in almost every area. Sears Holdings Corp. will look to move its locations to real estate investment trust fund to save some money for itself but doom is imminent.”

The financial press thinks Sears Holdings is a retail turnaround

debacle. A Morningstar money manager thinks SHC is in a slow-motion liquidation. When analysts ask, Mr. Lampert talks the retail game. Lampert explicitly insists that what he is doing is not a liq-uidation move but is actually a “transformation.” As one analyst said, “Is Lampert a retail idiot or is he a scheming liquidation wizard?”

In the January 16, 2015, invest-ment newsletter, Porter Stansberry, publisher of The Stansberry Digest, stated that whatever else he might be, Lampert is truly a genius at making money for himself and his shareholders. He said that Lam-per t is “fooling the mainstream

media, shielding bil-lions of dollars’ worth of valuable assets from creditors … and leveraging a dying industry to make himself and his in-vestors a fortune.”

Bruce Berkowitz, of Fairholme Funds,

and a major SHC shareholder, in 2012 summed up Lampert’s ap-proach to running Sears: “Eddie is going to try to make a go of it, and if he doesn’t … he’s going to slowly sell the real estate. So I just don’t see how we lose there.”

Stansberry said that Lampert is us-ing Sears like his own personal ATM. He isn’t just providing insurance to Sears (“trade put agreements” that are essentially insurance con-tracts for retailers), and loaning it money, but he is also getting rid of certain assets (like Sears Canada and Lands’ End) and paying large special dividends to shareholders.

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Turnaround? Continued on page 3


“No one who was truly interested in building a retail business would make these decisions. This is liqui-dation, not a turnaround.”

We can’t believe that Lampert wants bankruptcy. But he is probably not afraid of it. His nonguarantor entities ensure that his favorite assets would be legally secure from creditors. And his attempt to establish a REIT would fur-ther isolate Sears’ most valuable assets, according to Stansberry.

And finally, according to Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, he cited five disturbing signs two years ago that Sears is getting closer to death: (1) Spinning off properties; (2) Bomb-ing in Canada; (3) Falling domestic sales; (4) Not investing in the fu-ture; and (5) the Rewards program.

Sozzi said that the rewards pro-gram is “eating the company from the inside out. It’s driving lower quality sales today and opening the floodgate for even more margin-killing promotions in the future.”

sears and Martinez. The Promise Breakers.As background, N.A.R.S.E. was formed 18 years ago as the result of the actions of one individual, Arthur Martinez, a former chair-man of Sears, Roebuck. It was in mid 1997, without warning, that retirees received notice that their long-promised and earned paid-up Sears life insurance would take a m a j o r reduction. This announce-

ment broke a long-standing promise made

to more than 84,000 retired e m p l o y e e s , damaged them

and their fami-

lies, and adversely impacted their well-being and security for the re-maining years of their lives.

Paid-up life insurance after re-tirement was always presented by Sears’ management in positive terms, as a benefit secure in the fu-ture. The possibility that coverage after retirement might be changed or reduced, or that the cost of the coverage would be passed on to the retirees was never mentioned.

Concurrent with the beginning of N.A.R.S.E., a number of lawsuits were filed against Sears by retirees alleging they had been promised “paid-up” life insurance for the rest of their lives. All of these lawsuits were eventually consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Sears denied that it violated any statutory or common-law obligation to its retirees and asserted that it had full legal and contractual right at all times to modify or terminate the terms of the insurance plan.

The case was finally settled during the fall of 2001. Under the terms of the settlement, Sears could not re-duce the final insurance amount to less than $5,000. This was important since it was disclosed during settle-ment negotiations that the company believed it had the right to eliminate the life insurance benefit at any time.

The judge in this class-action law-suit made a memorable comment in court about this reduction in the life insurance benefits. He said that “What the company did may not be right, but it was within the law.”

The “good old days” are ChangingMost of our retirees worked at what was known as the “Big Store” when it was a brick-and-mortar entity. In fact, former Chairman Ed Telling said, “One in 30 living Americans has worked at Sears.” Sears had

a sprawling network of stores throughout the country to furnish whatever goods its customers wanted.

Fifty years ago Sears, Roebuck was a superpower. Articles about the company referred to Sears as the “colossus of American retailing” or the “monster of the Midway.” Often the media would express Sears’ sales as a percentage of the Gross National Product. And one in five Americans shopped the company with regularity.

We realize that technology has changed the way customers shop today. While many retirees are nostalgic about the “good old days,” we know that to be successful in today’s retail environment, change is inevitable. We are shopping dif-ferently today than we did during the last century.

On behalf of Sears thousands of retirees, NARSE wants to believe that Chairman Lampert has taken the appropriate steps to protect the assets of the company and the shareholders against any possibil-ity of a bankruptcy.

As Mr. Lampert emphasized in his February 26 shareholder let-ter, Sears Holdings “has been a trailblazer for testing out new ideas to both respond to and influence changes in the way customers are shopping in light of new digital, mo-bile and social technologies.”

We hope these new ideas will result in a successful long-term transfor-mation of Sears Holdings. We say this because the chairman’s recent blog posts have been very helpful, enlightening, and positive about the future of the company.

As former Sears employees, it is our sincerest wish that the actions that Chairman Lampert is taking

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Turnaround? Continued from page 4


are the proper course to transform Sears to meet the changing shop-ping habits of today’s consumers. In fact, we are counting on it.

Worse Case scenarioMaintaining life insurance cover-age has always been the number one concern for our retirees. They worked many years for Sears and were promised their paid-up life in-surance, even though Sears always maintained the right to modify or terminate such coverage. However retirees were never told that Sears always maintained the right to modify or terminate such coverage.

So where are we today? If all of the positive steps that Chairman Lam-pert is taking today to turn Sears around are not enough, and the company liquidates its assets, what happens to the company’s retirees? The only significant benefit retirees have is their life insurance.

The insurance premium to cover the cost of this paid-up retiree life insurance is paid by Sears on an annual basis. As long as Sears exists, the reduced life in-surance is secure. However, if Sears would liquidate its assets through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, the premium payments by Sears would stop, and the life insurance would be cancelled.

Under the bankruptcy code, life insur-ance is considered “welfare benefits” and not protected in bankruptcy.

However, if the retiree group term life policy is cancelled, retirees could st i l l cont inue coverage through the conversion provi-sion of this policy if they applied for continued coverage within 31 days after coverage ends. This was confirmed by the insurance car-rier, Prudential Life Insurance.

This conversion provision has no age restrictions but, according to Prudential, to maintain coverage, there is a “single payment con-version.” What does this mean? It means that this conversion is very expensive. In fact, there is a very small difference between the amount of coverage and the cost of the single payment conversion!

The average age of most SHC’s re-tirees is in their early eighties. For instance, an 84-year old retiree de-siring to maintain his/her $5,000 li fe insurance coverage would have to make a single payment of $4,092.95. If this same retiree had a $10,000 policy, his/her one-time payment would be about $8,740.00.

An 80-year old retiree having a $10,000 life insurance policy would have to make a one-time payment of $8,185.93 to maintain this coverage.

Most of our retirees would be hard-pressed to make such a single payment for continued life insur-ance coverage. If they did have the money for the premium, they would probably be better off investing it in the stock market.

What can sears Holdings do for Its retirees?If liquidation occurs, the com-pany’s shareholders will be taken care of as a result of the various legal actions of management in-cluding the nonguarantor entities and the REIT. As a result, it would only be fair, and a public rela-tions bonanza for the company, if the chairman and his Board would also look out for retirees if the company files for bankruptcy.

As we have said repeatedly, life in-surance is the most important Sears retiree benefit. Retirees trusted Sears, the company that they worked for most of their lives, that this in-

surance was a benefit that would never be taken away from them.

In fact, many retirees only have the life insurance promised to them from Sears. If the company does liquidate, Sears will stop paying the annual premium, and the retiree life insurance will be cancelled. For most retirees, the cost of the single payment conversion is prohibitive.

One possible solution for the company is to consider renego-tiating with Prudential a new contract that would allow retir-ees to continue to make regular periodic premium payments at the same level that Sears Hold-ings is currently paying. Of course, this takes away from re-tirees the promised paid-up life insurance they always thought they were entitled to.

Another solution, that would keep the promised paid-up life insurance for the company’s re-tirees intact, is if the company would set up an escrow account for these insurance premiums if Sears liquidates its assets.

Naturally, we hope Sears never goes into bankruptcy. It is in our best interests that Sears survives. We want our former employer to return to its glory days. But if the pundits are correct and Chairman Lam-pert’s transformation fails, then we sincerely hope that Mr. Lampert will take care of not only his inves-tors, but also his retirees.

Thank you.

Turnaround? Continued from page 4


“sears Best retiree Club”—evansville, IndianaDave Eager serves as president of the “Sears Best Retiree Club,” Store 1330, Evansvil le, Indi-ana. This is an active club that has been meeting every month since 1989.

The club has hosted three major dinners for retir-ees. Attendance at these dinners has been ex-cellent. The first dinner accounted for 1,741 years of service. The second dinner had the club’s best turnout with 2,771 years of service. And at their last dinner, 1,504 years of service were represented.

The “Sears Best” retir-ee club meets the first Thursday of every month at a rotating list of res-taurants. The usual attendance is 35 to 45 retirees at these month-ly lunches.

While Dave serves as president, he readily admits that most of the club’s work for the past 10 years has been done by “four ladies”: Shirley Chambers, 29 years of service, Carolyn Schapker, 22 years of service, Wanda Chapman, also 29 years of service, and not

pictured, Ann Linday, 24 years of service.

The club’s annual Christmas lunch is held at Red Lobster. At this holiday lunch, 55 to 60 retir-ees always attend.

Dave said that some “seniors” may remember some of the past store managers of 1330. There were Frank Star-key, Frank Titus, Cliff Hooks and many others who passed t h r o u g h this store.

T h e v e r y f irst Sears retail store outside of C h i c a g o opened in Evansville,

Indiana, on October 5, 1925. And Dave said that moving into the retail store business was “not an easy task for Sears, Roebuck and Co., the largest mail order catalog company in the United

States.” He added that for decades this store sold a dazzling array of products, many visible through lavishly deco-rated window displays.

C o m p e t i t i o n f r o m new suburban shop-ping centers prompted the downtown branch to close its doors in 1975; the building was entered in the Nation-al Register of Historic Places four years later.

N.A.R.S.E. congratulates Dave Eager and his four “in charge” ladies for maintaining a very active retiree club in Evansville, Indiana.

While many of the Sears retiree clubs have disbanded, in Evans-ville they are still going strong thanks to the efforts of some very dedicated retirees! Keep up the great work!!

“The Ladies”


2015 Sears Annual Meeting

lampert Is still running the CompanyChairman Edward Lampert, re-sponding to a question during the press conference following the May 6 Sears annual shareholders met-ing, said he is trying to bolster the company’s management ranks in prep-aration for his eventual succession.

“I’ve been trying to deepen our ex-ecutive talent, and this is not some-thing I’d say I’m going to be doing forever,” he said. “If there’s a time for a change, there’ll be a change. Right now, I’m running the company.”

With only about 80 shareholders in attendance, this 2015 annual meeting had one of the lowest attendances in recent history. In contrast, the Atlanta Sears Retiree Club, on April 28, had about 145 at their luncheon.

Although Sears continues to lose mon-ey and market share, Lampert has placated investors by selling assets and creating the REIT. “Most of the things we’re doing I’m very excited about,” he told the audience at the meeting.

Sears estimates that it will get $2.5 billion in proceeds from its REIT plan, which involves placing 254 stores in the trust. Lampert said Sears would use proceeds from the REIT to pay down debt and pension obligations, as well as reassure suppliers nervous about SHC’s abil-ity to pay its bills. This REIT should “put to rest a lot of the doubters and skeptics” who have been wary of

the company’s financial state after years of losses. Sears has lost $7.1 billion in the last four fiscal years, including $1.7 billion last year.

Lampert said that one of his regrets is that Sears hasn’t had the money to make desired changes fast enough.

“While operational performance has been the cause of some of that, pension expens-es, the recession and other factors have impacted us as well,” he said.

T u r n a r o u n d accelerationChairman Lam-pert assured the shareholders that the sell-off of key

assets in the last year has given the company the money it needs to speed up its transformation. SHC has raised billions in the last year by spinning off some of its best assets, leasing out space in stores in prime locations and selling many of its best stores into a new investment vehicle.

Lampert said that these moves are giving Sears the ammo it needs to move even farther away from what he described as a passé bricks-and-mortar approach to retail, to becoming a store that makes much more extensive use of technology and data to sell in a more targeted way to its customers. “By raising such substantial capital in 2014 and 2015, we’ll now be able to accelerate our company’s transformation,” he said.

In a blog posted before the annual shareholders meeting, Lampert

said, “Sears and Kmart have al-ready moved beyond the old and sorely outdated traditional store network models. Every day, we are building richer, deeper relationships with our members.” Specifically, he pointed to Sears’ e-commerce power and Shop Your Way loyalty program as key tools for the company.

slimmed down storesSome Sears and Kmart stores will shrink in half, from an average of 150,000 square feet to 75,000 square feet, which Lampert said would make them more productive and profitable on a square foot ba-sis. Consumer electronics, which have had sluggish sales, may disap-pear from some stores altogether.

At the end of SHC’s fiscal year Janu-ary 31, the company operated 1,725 stores, including Sears, Kmart and Sears Auto Centers, 684 of them in properties it owns. That’s down from 3,949 stores at the end of its 2010 fiscal year. In addition, Lam-pert said that in 2015 the company would likely close an undisclosed addit iona l number of stores.

The company’s workforce shrank to 196,00 associates as of January 31, compared with 280,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2010.

shop Your WayThe company plans to significantly grow its Shop Your Way member program that is the cornerstone of its transformation. This program consists of several components, including a rewards program, a personal shopper service, a sweep-stakes contest and a network of

Continued on page 7

Chairman Lampert


brand partners where shoppers can earn and redeem points.

Shop Your Way has about 150 brand part-ners, the idea being that it strengthens the rela-tionship with members when they can benefit from shopping not just at Sears and Kmart, and this year, according to Lampert, the company plans to “grow the plat-form significantly.”

Though the number of active members has de-clined as the company closes stores, Lampert said, a bigger focus is on getting existing members to shop more.

Lamper t added that “We’re not shor t on ideas, we’re not short on talent. But our execution needs to improve, and certainly our financial results need to improve.”

one Media reactionDouglas McIntyre, with 24/7 Wall St. reported that Sears’ turnaround continues to fail. He wrote: “Eddie Lampert made one more set of comments about why the retailer … has en-tered a recovery phase. Investors have waited for years for this to happen. That wait will continue, and despair about the lack of a turnaround will grow.”

McIntyre said that Lam-pert neglected to mention that all of the company’s tactics, including the Shop Your Way program, Buy Online Pickup In

Store, In-Vehicle Pickup & Returns, Digital Kiosks and more, have been part of ongoing transforma-

tion of America’s largest retailers. Sears Holdings’ plans are nothing more than a game of catch-up.

Lampert’s assumption has to be based on his ability to take market share in the general retail industry

already dominated by Amazon.com, Wal-Mart and Target. In addition, Sears has to battle com-panies that already have a modest position they can defend based on size, or ones that are des-perate like J.C. Penney.

And f inally, McIntyre concluded, some mea-sure of investor scorn and skepticism about Lam-pert’s plans is already in the share price of Sears Hold ings. Lamper t ’s comments triggered no rally. Sears’ stockhold-ers must have wanted a sign that Lampert’s plans have even a tiny chance of succeeding.

Over the past five years, the share price of the company has fallen 59 percent, against a 109 percent improvement in the S&P 500. “It would seem that not a single th ing Lamper t wrote ch anged any minds about the future of Sears Holdings,” McIntyre said.

Editor ’s Note: Among others, this article was as-sembled from news reports by BloombergBusiness May 6 Leslie PattonLauren Coleman-Lochner; For-tune May 6 Phil Wahba; Chicago Tribune May 6 Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz; and 24/7Wall St. May 7 Douglas A. McIntyre.

Mall of America store

Still Open

Store Closing

Running Continued from page 7


laughter Is always the Best Medicine!I am sure you remember those interesting church bulle-tin announcements with the typos and non-sequiturs. The following sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced at church services:

“Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.”

“The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’ ”

“Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.”

“Don’t let worry kill you off—let the Church help.”

“At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What Is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.”

“The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gra-cious hostility.”

“This evening at 7 p.m. there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.”

“Weight Watchers will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presby-

terian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.”

“The Associate Minister unveiled the church’s new Capital Campaign slogan last Sunday: ‘I Upped My Pledge—Up Yours.’”

And if you like puns, what about these?

“He was only a whiskey maker, but she loved him still.”

“A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.”

“A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.”

“Atheism is a non-prophet organization.”

“A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’ ”

“The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.”

“When cannibals ate a mission-ary, they got a taste of religion.”

“There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.”

It’s Not too Late to Renew for 2015!If you have not done so yet, you can still renew your N.A.R.S.E. membership for 2015. Enclosed is a membership/renewal application form and mailing envelope. There is certainly strength in numbers. We need your support!

If you have already renewed, then please pass the application form to someone who could benefit from membership in our organization. If you have any comments, sugges-tions or questions about N.A.R.S.E., you can contact either Ron Olbrysh,

chairman, at [email protected]; or Tom Douglas, president, at [email protected].

N.A.R.S.E. is an all-volunteer as-sociation with no paid employees. We are funded solely by retiree membership dues and voluntary contributions. We receive no finan-cial support from Sears Holdings. The dues we collect are used to support our communication efforts with the thousands of Sears’s retir-ees across the country.

Since so many of our local Sears’ retiree clubs have or are folding, our primary purpose for existence is to keep you informed on issues impor-tant to retirees, and to represent you and be your voice to Sears Holdings.

Your continuing financial sup-por t let ’s us l ive up to the slogan f i rst heard outside of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998: We Are Not Going Away!


Tom Douglas

Tom douglas elected President of n.a.r.s.e.

Tom Doug las, a member o f N.A.R.S.E. for the past 15 years, was elected last month as president of N.A.R.S.E. He replaces Art Levin who has been with N.A.R.S.E. from almost the very beginning.

“We thank Ar t for his service, dedication and leadership with our national retiree organization for so many years. He served us well dur-ing his tenure as our president.

“We welcome Tom Douglas as our new president, and we are looking forward to working with him to fur-ther the interests of N.A.R.S.E. our retirees and the remaining retiree clubs in the country,” said Ron Ol-brysh, chairman of N.A.R.SE.

n.a.r.s.e. Board of directorsOlbrysh added that Tom will also replace Art Levin has a member of N.A.R.S.E.’s Board of Directors. Tom resides in San Diego, Calif. The other Board members include: Ernie Arms, Hindsdale, Ill.; Bill Barker, Wilmette, Ill.; Dick Bruce, Elmhurst, Il l.; John Freeman,

Liverpool, NY; Ken Johnson, Lake Forest, Ill.; Leo McCormack, Naper-ville, Ill.; Ronald Olbrysh, Lombard, Ill.; Mel Schultz, Northbrook, Ill.; Dave Silgers, Sycamore, Ill.; and Lloyd Van Schoyck, Chandler, Ariz.

Who is He?Tom Douglas was born in Artesia, Calif., and raised in Long Beach. He attended Long Beach College (now named the University of Cali-fornia, Long Beach) and graduated in 1957 with a B.S. degree in busi-ness management. In 1957 he took classes towards a master’s degree during which time he got interested in retailing.

He was hired in 1957 by Burroughs Corporation in a sales position. He resigned after one year and went to work for Sears, Roebuck. His first assignment was commission sales in Department 634.

During his 37 years with Sears, he held many different management positions, in many locations, in-cluding Torrance, Buena Park, and San Diego, Calif.; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Houston Tex.

Tom’s military service includes six year in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1958–64, six months of ac-tive duty, and five and one-half years active reserve. He had an E-4 rank as a light helicopter/aircraft repairman.

retirement YearsUpon retirement from Sears in 1994, he was an active participant in the Sears Southern California Retiree Club and served as its president in 2001. That same year he was appointed to the Sears Ad-visory Council and still is a member of the Council today.

Tom has also been a docent volun-teer at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park for the past 20 years and has served on his neighborhood HOA Board of Directors for 10 years.

One of his favorite retirement pas-times is playing golf at least once a week with friends. He loves to travel, especially to Hawaii, cruis-ing as frequently as possible and “just trying to stay active!”

reflectionsUpon his election as N.A.R.S.E. president, Tom said: “All of us who were fortunate enough to spend our working years with Sears should feel very lucky to have had that experience, and I know I do!

“As a people-focused business, we not only had wonderful co-workers, but also the day by day challenge of filling our customers needs and beating the competition to close the sale!

“While the game cont inues to change, Sears still has the same goals: Beat the competition, close the sale, and take care of the Cus-tomers! This process certainly built great relationships with our co-workers, and one of the best things we’ve all enjoying in our retirement are those friendships.

“N.A.R.S.E. continues to be com-mitted to helping Sears succeed in today’s changing retail world by using the experiences of our past to build on the future, and we should all be proud to be part of this process as we move forward together!”

Tom and his wife Kay have a daugh-ter Kellye, son-in-law Doug and four grandchildren.


SHC’s vision is to improve the lives of our members and custom-ers by providing quality services, products and solutions that earn their trust and build lifetime relationships. Our hiring, train-ing and development programs create leaders and associates that deliver on this vision. One of our cultural beliefs is Show Pride. This means we are engaged members of our company and demonstrate passion and pride by leading by example.

We recently asked associates across the company to share why they are proud to be a part of the SHC team. It is always moving to see the member focus, teamwork and integrity of the over 200,000 associates who work for SHC. Every day we are getting better for our members, and we have the great honor to have wonder-ful, dedicated people on our team doing it!

A sample of SHC associates re-sponses is below:

Kristen elderHome Appliances, Divisional Vice Presi-dent and General Manager—Hoffman Estates, Illinois

I am proud to be a part of such a strong organization of dynamic and talented individuals. Who knew when I joined how much I would fall in love with this busi-ness and industry? I am lucky to

lead a great group of people who are making a positive impact on our business every day they come to work and engage with our cli-ents and business partners.

nancy everettF inance, D irec tor Procurement—Hoff-man Estates, Illinois

I ’m proud to be part of an organiza-

tion that is committed to being member-centric and embraces feedback. It enables me to contin-ually learn and collaborate with others to drive positive change and results.

don MunnHome Services, Di-rector, Compliance, Regulatory Affairs—Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Sears was our family’s shopping destination when I was growing up. It has always been an icon of American retail and is very special to me. I was proud to join Sears 16 years ago, and I remain proud to be a part of Sears. I have been privileged to work with many dedicated associates committed to serving our members and mak-ing the changes needed for Sears to succeed. And Sears strongly supports the military, our com-munities and many charitable groups like Heroes at Home and March of Dimes.

Michael BedardSears, Store Man-a g e r, F u l l L i n e Store—Nanuet, New York

I am proud to work at Sears Holdings. Every day I am helping shape what the future of retail is going to look like, and that is a huge deal. Our company has invested a lot in some amaz-ing technology to make taking care of members easier. Our lead-ers are always open to listening to feedback and trying new ideas. I tell my friends and family to shop with us and to become Shop Your Way members so they can expe-rience the great benefits of our membership.

Milena ThompsonS e n i o r D i r e c t o r, Member Service Or-ganization, Human Resources—Round Rock, Texas

The resilience and determination of our dedicated and engaged associates who are focused on improving our member’s experi-ences make me very proud to be a part of SHC’s team. There is a great desire to win evidenced by those who champion innovative solutions, the development of others, the “power of possible,” boldly facing the tough questions and learning from setbacks and celebrating successes.

Point-Counterpoint

Why I’m Proud to Be a Part of sears Holdings by sHC speaks

Continued on page 11


Counterpoint

As a result of the above comments being posted on the Internet by SHC, a discussion followed. A sample of these responses is below:

Michael C.Of course the employees photo-graphed with their full names are going to say they love Sears Hold-ings … If they don’t, they will get the axe a lot sooner then when the com-pany implodes in two years or less.

Joe d.I worked for this company for 11 years; all of these employees above must be upper management. I was in store management, and let me tell you, none of the above is true, we were never member-centric … I moved on to greater things, but I will tell you no one within this or-ganization has seen a raise in pay for 5+ years except Fast Eddie, They will intentionally lower your review score to make sure you do not get a raise and say that even though your rating should be a 4 that you are not allowed to have one because the company stated that 3 is the high-est anyone can get and your average will be a 2.75 just under the cut. They will be done soon due to their lack of leadership and integrity.

John C.I am a consultative sales associate for Sears … we are paid on a com-mission-only basis. Our company discounts items online, so we are forced to match the price on a re-duced commission rate. Basically, they do not care how much we sell, so long as we capture an email.

auralayWhen “show pride” was rolled out it was literally shoved down associate throats with purple Kool-Aid. You had to change the way you talked and were forced to use a script if you wanted to say anything nice about fellow associates. It was also rolled out about two years ago … how many stores have closed since then?

Feedback

Many of you reading this have been retired from Sears long before Eddie Lampert became chairman of Sears Holdings. Thus, you can’t offer an opinion about being a part of the SHC Team. But maybe others can.

After hearing the positive and nega-tive about SHC’s “Show Pride,” we would like to hear from both Sears associates and recent retirees about their experiences being a member of Eddie’s Team.

Send your comments to Ron Ol-brysh at [email protected].

SHC Continued from page 11

excellent if they can provide a good meal at a reasonable price.

• On the day of the luncheon recruit as many members as possible to arrive early to set up the room and tables, take money and greet. Greeting is very im-portant. Make the members and guests feel welcome. You may also want to consider selling raffle tickets for door prizes (a good way to raise money to pay for the entertainment).

• Members always like promo-tional efforts.

• We charge $15 per year dues to help with entertainment and mass mailings.

At our Atlanta Sears Family Board Meeting in March 2014, we came up with the idea of calling our July luncheon a “Mini Reunion.” It was an-nounced at our April luncheon that at our July meeting the club would sponsor a free lunch for all Sears Re-tirees and associates, and we would have a guest speaker who was very interested in the history of Sears.

We also encouraged members to bring any Sears memorabilia. We had 210 reservations, a record for us. Since then we have been running 136 to 145. We are hoping to have another “Mini Reunion” this July.

Consider N.A.R.S.E., our national Sears retiree organization, help-ing you. Maybe N.A.R.S.E. can do a mailing to retirees in your area informing them of your club with contact names and phone numbers.

These are some of the ideas that have worked for the Atlanta Sears Family Retiree Club. Maybe they will work for you. Good luck and keep your clubs going.

Club Continued from page 11

What It Takes to run a successful (retiree) ClubBy Bob Strickland, president, At-lanta Sears Family Club

What does it take to run a success-ful Sears retiree club? Some would say a lot of “blood, sweat and tears.” However, there is no quick and easy answer to this question. Basically it takes a lot of time, a lot of people doing a lot of work.

A few years ago we saw our atten-dance and membership declining at our quarterly Atlanta Sears Family luncheon meetings, and we knew we had to get to work or in time our club would cease to exist.

We tried mass mailings from an old Sears Reunion list, which gained a small increase in attendance, but through the years we have found the best way to keep our club “alive and well” is word of mouth.

We also changed our name and bylaws to “Atlanta Sears Family” to open up our membership to former Sears associates with 10 years ser-vice but who may not have retired

In addition, we continue to receive e-mail addresses from our active Sears members and keep in touch, making calls, and sending letters to those without e-mail.

We have found that about a week before each meeting we e-mail a list of everyone who has made res-ervations and encourage others to do so. We also make phone calls to members who usually attend but have not made reservations. We usually double our reservation list in the last seven to 10 days just by personal contact.

Other things that could spell suc-cess for your retiree club include:

• A strong leadership to co-ordi-nate the activities of people.

• Continue to recruit new mem-bers. Here again word of mouth is best. Almost everyone knows a retiree or former associate who does not come. Invite them. Offer to pick them up. The club might provide first-time attendees a

free lunch. Offer a member who brings two f irst-time retiree guests a free lunch and recog-nize first timers.

• Provide good entertainment and/or informative programs.

• Keep your membership informed by either e-mails, or quarterly letters to those who do not have an e-mail address, about up-coming luncheons with a return reservation postcard.

• Send cards to sick members and prospects. Provide your member-ship with information regarding deaths of members and immedi-ate family members.

• Try not to have too many meet i ngs . Once a mont h may be too many. We have found one per quarter works best for us and select a good place to hold your meetings. Churches with a kitchen are

Continued on page 11

Publicize Your Club!On page 5 of this issue, the Evansville, Indiana, retiree club is highlighted. This is a very active club with excellent attendance at their monthly meetings.

There is no charge for publicizing your club, and such publicity could certainly help increase your member-ship by letting non-member retirees in your area know about your existence.

If you would like your club featured in a future issue of straight Talk, all you have to do is send club in-formation, including club officers, activities, meeting schedule, spe-cial events, etc., and photos to Ron Olbrysh at [email protected].

Documents

Is sears HoldIngs In a Turnaround or lIquIdaTIon Mode?