Sears CEO Comes For Vendors In Blog Post

Eddie Lampert, Sears chairman and CEO, is at it again.

Just a few days after Lampert called out the media for “unfairly singling out” the company over the past decade, blaming “irresponsible” coverage for many of Sears’ issues today, he took to the company’s blog to write harsh words against some vendors.

“There have been examples of parties we do business with trying to take advantage of negative rumors about Sears to make themselves a better deal — a deal that is unilaterally in their interest,” Lampert wrote. “In such a case, we will not simply roll over and be taken advantage of — we will do what’s right to protect the interests of our company and the millions of stakeholders we serve.”

Sears’ shares ended Monday down more over 12 percent after Lampert’s post, which called out one vendor in particular—One World—for trying to take advantage of his company.

“One World has informed us of their intention to take the very aggressive step of filing a lawsuit against us as they seek to embarrass us in the media to force us to let them out of their contract,” Lampert wrote. “But Sears has nothing to be embarrassed about — we have lived up to our word under our contract, and we will take the appropriate legal action to protect our rights and ensure that One World honors their contract.”

At Sears’ annual meeting for its shareholders last week, Lampert presented a slideshow of headlines about the end being near for Sears—beginnig with stories written nearly a decade ago.

“You’d think it was from a month ago, but it’s literally been going on for a decade,” Lampert told about 70 people in attendance. Sears has not turned a profit for a decade — though Lampert pointed out that neither did Amazon for many of its early growth-focused years.