New day dawning: emergence or emergency? - Kmart Corp. works to emerge from bankruptcy

DSN Retailing Today, March 10, 2003 by Debbie Howell

Flickinger said Kmart's success may depend in part on its ability to recruit experienced executives, since Day's expertise has been as cfo at Sears and Safeway.

"Day's a great executive. He's one of the best financial officers in recent retail history, and he's a very strong strategist, but he's not a merchant, and he's not an operator. The company still has an uncertain future," said Flickinger.

With Kmart's monthly same-store sales negative for more than a year now, it's clear the retailer is still losing customers. For Kmart to survive, that trend must reverse, and soon. Even though the retailer isn't forecasting profits this year, a solid Christmas may be a critical for Kmart's future, and could determine whether the retailer ends up bankrupt again. Much of Kmart's survival depends on Day and the moves he makes this year.

"The ceo of Kmart is probably one of the toughest jobs in retailing now. There's not really a huge window to make this work. If [Day] makes it work, he'll be a hero, but it's going to be a tough job," said retail analyst Eric Beder.