NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Sears is the perennial fixer-upper.

Thursday the retailer announced a "strategic refinement" aimed at enhancing "the profitability, productivity" of its The Great Indoors chain of home decorating and remodeling centers.

Cut through the managementese, and what it came down to was the company is shutting down three of its Great Indoors stores, converting another into an outlet, and taking an after-tax charge of $75 to $100 million.

It ain't the company's first attempt at rejiggering its operations. Its $1.9 billion cash purchase of Land's End last year was aimed at giving it a higher-end profile. It's in the process of overhauling its appliance operations in response to incursions from Home Depot and Lowe's. In the second quarter it took a 6 cents per share charge "for severance costs associated with a productivity improvement program to further streamline the company's home office and field operations."

The company is also in the process of selling its credit card business -- a profit center that ran into some, um, problems in the fall -- to Citibank.

For all this moving about of the deck chairs, Sears' business has yet to show much measurable improvement. Yes, Wednesday the company said that August sales were tracking better than expected. But all it expected was for sales to be flat. In July, sales fell by 0.8 percent. Wal-Mart, in contrast, saw sales gain 4.6 percent. Sears has seen same-store sales decline every month this year.

Investors appear to believe in the turn-around story, however -- Sears shares are up 79 percent this year, versus a 17 percent gain for Wal-Mart.

The problem is that retail turnarounds are very hard to pull off, particularly for outfits as large as Sears. When it comes down to it, retailing is a zero-sum game -- you can only sell so much -- with winners and losers. So far, Sears still seems to be on the losing side of the equation.