Here is a sentence that should not make sense.
A company filed for bankruptcy, kept operating, and its customers barely noticed.
No liquidation sale. No empty shelves. No sign on the door. People kept buying milk there on a Tuesday while lawyers argued in a courtroom somewhere.
That is what happened to a grocery chain in upstate New York, and then it happened again years later.
Most people hear "bankruptcy" and picture the end. Going out of business. Everything must go.
That is one kind. It is not the kind most large retailers use.
The other kind is closer to a reset button on debt, and understanding the difference explains an enormous amount about how American retail actually works.
Including why the store you shop at might be perfectly healthy in one sense and deeply troubled in another.