[MRM]

When I graduated from college Kmart was still doing well. They recruited our business school grads for their management trainee program and they were considered good jobs. I don't think Target was big enough to recruit in our area at that time. A guy I went to high school and college with went through the program and always acted like he was pretty hot stuff. At about our 10th or 15th class reunion he was a regional manager and later he was something higher, so he did well there, even as they declined. I haven't seen him for a few years and I've always wondered whether he jumped over to Target or what happened to him.

Some years ago my wife was a consumer brand manager for a product that had distribution in Kmart. She started working with them to increase her sales and started with a basic question - how much inventory of her product did they have and how much more were they going to need. They had no idea. They didn't have a central inventory system for their stores so they didn't even know what they had in stock of anything and never predicted how many widgets they needed. She asked the exec how they knew what they had. The answer was something like when the stores run out of something their manager orders more. We realized then that Kmart wasn't long for the world.

My understanding is that the guy who owns the hedge fund that bought Kmart bought it for its real estate and never wanted the retail business. That's why they never invested anything in the stores and let them wither on the vine. Last I heard the real estate play didn't work out and he lost a lot of money on the investment. Serves him right.