If You Believe You’re Making Money, Maybe It’ll Come True

By Alicia Dorr in News on Apr 14, 2006 6:17PM

A couple of days ago Sears CEO Aylwin Lewis said to shareholders—Hooray! The flagship store on State Street actually turned a profit, and we’re not gonna close it!

Well, today he revealed that the store is, um, actually sort of a money pit. We guess that all the stores on State are sort of money pits in a way (poor old M. Field’s), but we just assumed that those companies were chalking it up for the cred. We were at least somewhat validated in that assumption today when we read Lewis’ faltering response to whether the store was actually making money in a press conference today: “I believe so.”

Yeah, well, we believed in the Tooth Fairy until we put our wisdom tooth under a pillow and we woke up with change missing off our dresser and our roommate knocked up. You’ve got to hand it to him, though, for trying to make the case for the flagship because it turned a profit on merchandise … but when you add in silly things like rent and taxes and advertising, it’s still losing. But who’s counting that crap anyway?

Well, Lew, we’re on your side. We like it when people keep stores open on State Street instead of changing their names or shutting all of them down for a decade. We don’t really go shopping there often, but, then, that’s kind of the problem, isn’t it? It’s sort of like the people who bitch about politics and then don’t vote. Eh, if Sears Roebuck was in "Little House on the Prairie" books we figure it’s not going anywhere soon; they can afford a little space on one of the largest retail blocks in the city. Or not.

Image via steveandamysly.tannerworld.com. Thanks, Steve!