Re: this bad-debt story (let's call it what it is.)
Sometimes you don't know.  And sometimes you do. 

The Sears liquidation and potential non-payment of debts didn't come out of the blue. It wasn't an unexpected event sending shock waves through Canadian retailing. Or, at least, it shouldn't have been.  Were there "whispers" of Sears' possible demise?  No.  Headlines, people. 

So, it's not so easy having a lot of sympathy for those left holding the bag. Or, in the case of employees, losing job & pension. I suspect some had a "what if" contingency.  Nobody likes this stuff (believe me, my company had bad debts, too,) and sometimes you just can't see what's around the corner. Not this time.  Like Target, this was "In plain sight", and "A long time coming."  

As a Sears employee, I'd have been gone--and cashed out the pension if I could--months ago.

I call it the "Jews in Germany" syndrome. (As in, Why didn't more Jews leave Nazi Germany in 1933, or '35, or '37?)