A timely post actually. I'm just today considering whether to purchase an Australian retailer (The Reject Shop) as a bit of a turn-around. It doesn't have the debt-load of JC Penney or Sears, and its business model still seems relevant unlike Radioshack. It suffers from exactly the same problems as you described for Zales and Cost Plus (poor merchandising choices and poorly managed store rollouts), but the new management seem to have their eyes firmly on the problem. All this being said, it is exactly as you say - few retailers ever manage to turn themselves around.