[ghaff]

>(Another thing holding the company back was simply its base odds: Can you name a retailer of great significance that has lost its position in the world and come back?)

This seems significant. If you look at what's happened to most anchor department store retail at malls in the time since, it isn't pretty. You can look at the individual stores (Sears, Macy's, etc.) and find individual culprits to blame. But there's a reasonable point to be made that no one was in a position to turn JC Penney around even if they could have eeked out a bit more money for shareholders and debt holders.

[Der_Einzige]

Wasn't toys r us bankrupt but is now coming back?

[Vecr]

Apparently saved by military component work if you trust NCD.

[astrange]

Since you can sell a retailer brand to an entirely new company, it should be possible for anything to come back as long as you don’t count it actually being a different thing.

Target, Kmart, Woolworths are all totally different and healthy companies in Australia.

[BLKNSLVR]

Way off the original topic, but anyway: In the Australian context Dick Smith is an interesting case study:

https://foragerfunds.com/news/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-pri...

[redler]

If you squint, perhaps Apple fits the bill.

[cykros]

I definitely remember a time when you could refer to Apple computers as Fischer-Price machines and most people would find it an apt comparison.

That time seems behind us, except for the particularly salty FSF warriors.