Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) has an enormous asset with its real-estate portfolio, but as the Fool's Austin Smith sees it, simply having those properties may not be enough to help right this ship.
With more people moving out of suburban areas and into urban locations, Sears will be left trying to sell to a dwindling population base. And as we see other large retailers chase populations toward urban centers, which major big-box retailers would be interested in picking up Sears' properties? Macy's (NYSE: M) is one candidate, but it already has a presence in many malls as the other anchor besides Sears, and it isn't very expansion-focused right now.
At the end of the day, Sears is swimming against a strengthening tide. See more in the following video.
