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Old 01-13-2019 | 09:29 AM
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speedracerntrixie
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From: Happy Valley, Oregon
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Originally Posted by Hydro Junkie
When you throw Sears into the conversation, you have to look at what led Sears to the situation it's in now. Let me fill in the blanks:
1) K Mart went into bankruptcy protection due to mismanagement and overexpansion
2) K Mart was able to somehow aquire Sears as it came out of it's bankruptcy
3) Somehow, the K Mart CEO was able to keep his position in the merged corporation
4) Somehow, the K Mart CEO was able to keep his job, even though he oversaw the company again start to fail
5) Somehow, the K Mart CEO was able to keep his job while shutting down stores under both brand names while not keeping product on the store shelves or do any maintenance on the stores. Many of the stores are literally falling apart
6) When the two chains merged in 2005, the total chain was 3500 stores
7) Somehow the K Mart CEO was able to keep his job, even though he's put the corporation back under bankruptcy protection
8) Despite its struggles, Sears CEO gets raise. Sears CEO Eddie Lampert only gets a salary of $1 a year to run the troubled retailer. But he does get a stock bonus, and for 2017 that bonus increased by $850,000, giving him a 24% raise
9) Since 2005, the chain has gone from 3500 stores to 2000 in 2013 to 866 as of September 13, 2018
10) On October 15, 2018, Lampert stepped down as CEO of Sears Holdings, while remaining Chairman of the Board, as part of Sears Holdings bankruptcy actions. On December 6, 2018 Lampert, through his company ESL Investments, offered to buy all of Sears for $4.6 billion dollars in cash and stock.[18] The offer would be financed by $950 million in added debt,[18] but no additional cash.[19] Five hundred stores remain in operation; the remainder are in liquidation

Does this sound familiar at all?

I do agree that AMA needs to be run better. Do cuts need to be made? Yes. More importantly we ALL need to work on making this a popular hobby again. We need more members so we have a bigger voice with lawmakers.

I also know that when staffing you need to look at what the median pay median pay is for that particular position in that particular region and pay competitively regardless of the health of the organization. Would you accept a position that payed less then the median because the organization was struggling?

I have payed my dues being in the hobby industry. I have seen many businesses and shops fail. Most of these were being operated like a large cooperation. The standard business model just does not work well in the hobby industry. Use Tower Hobbies as an example. Fact is most successful hobby shops have been operated by guys with little to no business education. Examples: San Antonio Hobbies ( shop that I managed the R/C department ) Sheldon's Hobbies, Dons hobby shop, Tammies Hobbies, D&J Hobbies. Granted, most of these stores are now gone however at the height of the hobbys popularity were very profitable. When I worked at San Antonio during December the cash registers had to be emptied twice a day because the 20, 50, 100 dollar bills and charge slips under the cash trays would stack up to the point we couldn't close the registers. Two things have changed since then, mail order and the popularity.