K-Mart & Sears

Tony Iovino of A Red Mind in a Blue State writes today,

What is formed today with the merger of K-Mart & Sears is the biggest bankruptcy filing of 2007.

Is he right? Who knows? I don't know much about the merger outside of what I've read in the paper the past couple of days.

Overall it seems to me that much of the merger's potential seems to rest on the management instincts of Edward Lampert, the very successful 42-year-old hedge fund investor driving the deal. Not knowing much about Lambert, I for one am not rushing to buy the stock.

My enduring image of Sears from decades past is the catalogue. When Sears dropped the catalogue in the early 1990s, what then was the store's image? Kenmore appliances, I suppose.

The enduring image of K-Mart from decades past is the blue light special, and for the past decade, Martha Stewart. With her fall from grace, what is the image? Chapter 11 and store closings, I suppose.