Dillard's Woes Continue, Family Hunkers Down

Arkansas-Based Dillard's department stores are, like almost every retailer, having a rough time these days. Although it is incorporated, the Dillard family has kept a firm grip on the company. Now investors are making demands and want more input into how the company is run. It does not appear that the Dillard family is acceding to those demands so a show-down may be in the works.

My instinct is to cheer for an Arkansas-based business that is still family run. This is balanced by a sense of responsibility I would feel to someone who invested in my company. At the same time, capitalism unbridled by Christian morality is just as savage as the jungle- anything for a buck no matter what it does to my neighbor. In today's corporatist world, you'd better do it to your neighbor before the other company does and puts you at a competitive disadvantage.

On the other hand, it has long been rumored that the Dillard's family used their local pull to keep rivals like Macy's out of the state. In other words, they were doing on a state scale what the giant corporations do globally, use government rather to tilt the playing field their way rather than win business in the free market by serving people better. If THAT is true, then the real losers have been Dillard's customers in the state.

No answers on this one friends, just musings.