The demise of Kmart

[Communicore1991]

Do you watch Company Man on YouTube?

This is a good one about Kmart:

I LOVE The Company Man's videos! They're not too long but give lots of interesting details about companies I've patronized for years.

 

[Dead2009]

Yeah I havent heard of Kmart in years, it's definitely went the way of Ames in that it was totally nonexistent before shutting down.

 

[mrodgers]

K-mart is simply the very last holdout of a dead 70's retail icon, the "five and dime" stores. We had Murphy's Mart (later changed to Ames), Hills, Zayres, and K-mart. All the same. All gone.

 

[mrodgers]

I LOVE The Company Man's videos! They're not too long but give lots of interesting details about companies I've patronized for years.

Neat, I can't wait to check this out now. Youtube is my main television viewing source. I'll check out the channel tonight.

 

[_19disnA]

Kmart somewhat reminded me of Target, but seems Target has kept up with the times and sells merchandise people actually want to buy. Kmart just seemed like they had no idea what they wanted to be. The whole fiasco with Kmart/Sears shows how a good brand can be run into the ground when top management has no idea what they are doing.

 

[mousefan73]

One of my early childhood memories was us going there as a kid. My dad seemed to have disappeared in the home improvement sections while my mom and I sat in the cafeteria style restaurant they had in the BACK of the store. I can kinda smell that place in my mind.. had a unique smell. wierd.. like fake cheese popcorn. I know later on a a preteen or teen it was embarassing being caught shopping in one.. Like if you ever wore Kmart clothes to school horrible. I remember our 6th grade spanish teacher was some hot, blondie that always dressed to the nines. she was wearing teal suede heals, one day she took her shoe off for a second while teaching and shock!! those in the front, myself included, saw Jacqueline Smith label on the inside ! we were like OMG she shops at Kmart.

 

[mousefan73]

I think part of the issue with Kmart, it was branded at the start as a "cheap" place to shop. Malls were still a big thing back then. So if you were cool and had money you got your clothes at the mall NOT Kmart. Poor peole shopped at Kmart. Also back in the 70s/80s the super home improvement stores like Loews didnt really exist nearby. You had your little ACE Hardware or local hardware store.


Then Target came in and their branding somehow made buying clothes there socially excepatable and then add in the decline of the malls and then the super Hardware/Garden stores that took much of Kmarts stuff out.. Kmart back then didnt have the grocery section.. One reason Target /Walmart exist, is lack of specilty stores, malls and the added grocery section

 

[fla4fun]

When we moved into our current house, there was a KMart up in town, but it was such a dirty, unkempt store that we seldom shopped there. We were not surprised when it closed. I think it closed about 20 years ago. We didn’t get any replacement retail in town for about ten years after it closed. Now we have Target, Walmart, and other stores, all built within the past 10-12 years.

 

[Mysterian]

I'm surprised K-Mart has lasted this long. The last one nearest me closed a few years ago. And in true K-Mart fashion, the place was dingy. To their credit, it would make for a great breeding ground for racoons and squirrels.

Back in the 80's, K-Mart was great, but you also had Bradlees, Montgomery Wards, and other options. And the BX, for those fellow military brats and servicemembers.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

The two closest K-Marts to me were crappy even in the late 80's when I moved to the area. Then they went downhill from there. One closed about 2002 and the other about 2006.

 

[bcla]

I'm surprised K-Mart has lasted this long. The last one nearest me closed a few years ago. And in true K-Mart fashion, the place was dingy. To their credit, it would make for a great breeding ground for racoons and squirrels.

Back in the 80's, K-Mart was great, but you also had Bradlees, Montgomery Wards, and other options. And the BX, for those fellow military brats and servicemembers.

I didn't think Kmart was too bad in the 90s. The stores I went to typically had lots of business. It wasn't fancy, but I remember a few of the Super Kmart stores opening with lots of customers. They had a lot of exclusive house brands with names like Jacklyn Smith (still a thing incredibly), Martha Stewart, and Kathy Ireland. But then stuff happened to Kmart with a severe decline to the point where these deals were nixed. Martha Stewart got convicted but they still stuck with her. Jacklyn Smith items are still sold by Kmart, but with so few stores left (especially Kmart) that's got to be e-commerce for the most part now.

 

[Mysterian]

I didn't think Kmart was too bad in the 90s. The stores I went to typically had lots of business. It wasn't fancy, but I remember a few of the Super Kmart stores opening with lots of customers. They had a lot of exclusive house brands with names like Jacklyn Smith (still a thing incredibly), Martha Stewart, and Kathy Ireland. But then stuff happened to Kmart with a severe decline to the point where these deals were nixed. Martha Stewart got convicted but they still stuck with her. Jacklyn Smith items are still sold by Kmart, but with so few stores left (especially Kmart) that's got to be e-commerce for the most part now.

Yeah I remember the Martha Stewart association. Having the face of an ex-con represent K-Mart wasn't actually counterintuitive to the store's image, I must say.

 

[bcla]

Yeah I remember the Martha Stewart association. Having the face of an ex-con represent K-Mart wasn't actually counterintuitive to the store's image, I must say.

She was in prison in 2004, but I don't believe the Kmart deal was nixed until about 2007 or 2008. Then she went with other retailers like Macy's. We actually bought some towels once with her name on them. That apparently didn't stop a more upscale retailer than Kmart from associating with her.

But I'm really surprised that Kmart and Jacklyn Smith are still working together. I mean - they must have maybe 20 stores left. It was probably a good deal when they had hundreds of stores around the country.

They weren't even doing all that bad in the 90s. They had those ads for with Penny Marshall and Rosie O'Donnell. I think at one point they started calling their stores either "Big K" for regular ones, or "Super K" for the ones with a full supermarket section.

There are a bunch of photos of the now closed stores with the Big K and Super K signs.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Although the two closest K-Marts to my house were dumps even in the late 80s/early 90s, I liked shopping at other ones. There was one near where I own a summer rental home, which I understand was the very last new K-Mart to open, something like 2004. That store was nice. (It replaced an old defunct Jamesway).

We had a Martha Stewart fake Xmas tree for many years until it the pre-strung lights finally failed. It wasn't worth the effort to fix them. We still have her K-Mart enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven.

The nice store lasted until very early 2020, just after the holiday season. It's been converted to a Target, which should be opening any day now.

I missed getting a photo of the building with the Target bullseye logo with a K-Mart sign still at the side road entrance to the parking lot.

 

[bcla]

The last Kmart in California finally closed. This is from the local paper and was published before the final day.

https://www.theunion.com/news/grass-valley-kmart-to-close-sunday/

 

[bcla]

They'll be down to three after this Saturday.

https://apnews.com/article/business...ey-lifestyle-9e06f958526665df9f7c9422f67516ef​

Many of the shelves are bare, though, at the Kmart in Avenel, New Jersey, picked over by bargain hunters as the store prepares to close its doors for good April 16.​

​

Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the U.S. — once well over 2,000 — will be down to three in the continental U.S. and a handful of stores elsewhere, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.​

​

The demise of the the store in the middle-class suburb, 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of New York City, is the tale of the death of the discount department store writ small.​

 

[NotUrsula]

A weird corollary to this is that the website still has a store finder, and it still makes you state your location and how far you are willing to travel in order to reach the store. You have to pick a state from a drop-down menu.

The website itself still has a fair amount of merchandise; they appear to be acting as a distributor for a lot of the import brands that can also be found on Amazon.

 

[RedAngie]

A friend who is a retail historian often comments about the demise of K-Mart. He’s the first speaker in this video, which was also linked in bcla’s post above.

 

[DisneYE]

Haven't read the whole thread but I was wondering what the connection is between Kmart USA and Kmart Australia.
When I went to Australia 3 years ago I saw a lot of Kmarts and they reminded of the 80s-90s vibe I remember the store had growing up. - I bought a lot of stuff there out of nostalgia. Not exactly the same as Kmarts in America but gave a very similar feel.

A lot of towns in Australia seem to be stuck in the 80's and that's a reason why I'm so in love with it. I saw a lot of old school stores like ice cream parlors, record stores, video rental, electronics repair etc.
Some towns in Australia are almost literally time machines to the 80's. Port McQuarie and Newcastle are 2 that spring to mind, if you've ever been you'll agree.

Sad to see the Kmart stores in America almost gone entirely. I absolutely loved going.., stuff wasn't top quality, but it didn't feel any worse than Walmart and the vibe was definitely nicer.

 

[bcla]

A weird corollary to this is that the website still has a store finder, and it still makes you state your location and how far you are willing to travel in order to reach the store. You have to pick a state from a drop-down menu.

The website itself still has a fair amount of merchandise; they appear to be acting as a distributor for a lot of the import brands that can also be found on Amazon.

Looks like nearly every listing is for sellers using it as a "marketplace". Walmart.com has a lot of that going on in addition to their own direct sales. But then there are a lot of items sold by Sears, which is of course owned by the same parent company.