Sears used to be a conglomerate that included Allstate, Coldwell Banker, Dean Witter, and a few more smaller companies.
Corporate raiders made the companies split up, or as they called it, spin-off, into separate companies.
This was done in the name of "unlocking shareholder value".
When the companies were together, there were many fiscal quarters, when the stores did not post a profit, but the corporation as a whole did well.
After the stores were on their own, they never did too well, even before Eddie.
But that did not matter too much back then - they were flush with cash from the sales of the other parts of the conglomerate. Walmart was just starting to pass up Sears. Amazon was just starting up.
If the conglomerate was still together, the Monday loan payment would probably be just a drop in the bucket. Now it's a difference between BK and survival.
Nice to have Eddie Lampert as a scapegoat - but this cycle started long before him.