I've seen some really really stooopid businessmen; but come on Hutch!

As pointed out by the above post, that might be divisive. And no businessman I know of (that is still in business, anyhow) would want to "in-your-face" piss-off half his/her customers. Nor would they want to piss-off the other half either. So long as the money is green!

T'ain't gonna happen!


But seriously, unless an acquisition has very real customer appeal and loyalty to the acquired brand name, which well exceeds that of the new parent company; there is little advantage anymore, to maintaining a separate identity.

What is immediately doomed, is the old OSH way of taking care of their customers. Oh, never mind! Sears already pretty much ruined that anyway; while it sucked OSH dry of assets. But at least there was only a little overlap between the two businesses, which made it smart for Sears to keep the OSH name.

But with Lowes, their whole businesses are totally redundant - 100% overlap. OSH will now just turn into mini-lowes, on the inside. Or worse - just close up shop altogether in most locations where there is already a Lowes nearby. The long term viability of the OSH name, and especially their practices, is doubtful. Sad to say.