O/T Mish, I beg to differ with you about Wards. Wards has been dead meat since Mobil bought them eons ago. What made you believe they could compete with heavyweights like The Gap, Walmart, BestBuy, Target, Limited, etc in 2001?
They were living on borrowed time. They had no identity, lousy real estate, lousy logistics and buying, and no future.
I was approached by buyers at Wards in 1986 to do business. I said thanks, but no thanks. They were bad then.
I feel bad for you and your wife, but the fact that she was there over 20-years means she must have started just after Mobil bought them, I believe in 1978 or so. When an oil company buys a department store, watch out.
As for GE, GE Capital is the lender of last resort in many cases. I know that from many of my customers who use them.
Without GE Capital, it is likely your wife would have been out of a job half a decade ago or more.
I love you story about the Chase deal, though. That illustrates some of the irrationality middle and upper management exhibit in a large corporate environment. Mistakes like you illustrated show up as "savings" instead of the waste that they are (spending 90% of the money on a project that is never completed). |
