I'm sure every Sears and Kmart employee knows to varying degrees how the company is struggling. I do wonder though if any of them out there are completely unaware about what is about to happen? Management would be doing themselves a disservice by losing people if they told the truth.
If some employees never watch the news and they never hear anything from anybody these people are going to be caught by total surprise. They are used to seeing Sears and Kmart drag on for so long that I think they get complacent. They think that the dangerously low foot traffic, butchered pay roll, dwindling inventory, lack of investment in the stores, stores constantly closing around them, etc. is completely normal because it is what they are used to.
At best, Sears reaches a $500 million emergency financing deal, closes 150 stores immediately and makes it through the holidays. After that, who knows?
At worst, the deal falls through, Chapter 7 is filed and the doors are locked at all 700 stores. They open their doors again but this time to be liquidated.