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https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/10/04/sears-canada-bid-buys-it-another-few-weeks.html

Gah. That article is behind a paywall.

Yup. https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/09/30/what-if-no-one-wants-to-buy-sears-canada.html There's nothing left for anyone to buy at this point. I knew it was over when they started selling off leases for their most prominent locations a few years ago. I seem to recall one exec saying words...

Between this and the giant inflatable duck, I almost have hope for this city. For decades it seems we have been ruled by types who insist on scrubbing all traces of vibrancy, whimsy, and colour from view, as if "tackiness" -- a highly subjective factor -- were the worst crime against humanity...

Oh, and Lampert's belief that a major retail chain would be well-served by using Objectivist principles as a management guide was another factor.

Ultimately everything cascaded from them starting off nationally instead of regionally, which meant that every little teething problem they encountered became a huge problem. But the specifics was a colossal logistics failure traced back to using new-to-Target systems which weren't configured or...

Sears US turns a profit, although really they don't. https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/05/25/sears-posts-its-first-profit-since-2015.html

Plenty of windows missing on the north side of the building even after three years.

...or if they're just not going to bother at all, since the store will still be packed regardless.

Not to mention an unprecedented logistics failure which left them completely unable to manage inventory.

From the above article: Even his critics concede that Mr. Lampert has been stubbornly consistent, refusing to throw in the towel on Sears even after years of deteriorating results. In a news release last week, he showed no signs of backing down, pledging yet another a “fundamental restructuring”...

Sounds quite plausible to me.

The first article you posted mentioned the reason why: a 2014 update in accounting regulations requires them to mention in their financial statements if they have doubts that the business can continue to be operated as a going concern. Presumably this regulation was put in place to prevent...

At this point, I don't think the company does either.

That's definitely a factor, but it doesn't tell the full story. Urbancorp is now the poster child for what happens to developers who don't give a rat's ass about quality or delivering on promises. The way the market's been for the past few years, you'd think it would be impossible to build...

All that's been written aside, there are still several missing windows on the north side of L Tower, some 3 years after the curtain wall first went up.

One bit that did come out of that article is that same store sales are down 10% in the fourth quarter. Can't really disguise those catastrophic numbers.

New update, which isn't much of an update at all: https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/02/10/sears-ceo-offers-hope-to-investors-assuring-he-can-fix-struggling-retailer.html

I thought HMV gave up selling video games several years ago.

Yeah, a couple of pages back, there's a link to an article in which they claim to be going for a low-cost model (good luck beating Walmart at that), making the stores flexible by having nothing permanent. Which conveniently makes it easier to sublet space to... well, anyone they can. I wonder if...