Posted on 02/23/2022 3:16:59 PM PST by algore
Kmart, a once-popular discount chain with more than 2,000 stores throughout the United States, has become the latest victim of the retail apocalypse, with just four stores still in operation.
The once retail giant recently announced that it is closing two more of its locations - leaving just two in New Jersey, one on Long Island, New York, and one in Miami, Florida, according to the Oregonian.
The announcement came after decades of the discount retail chain failing to keep up with Walmart and Target's low prices, a problem that was only exacerbated by the rise of the Internet and the store's inability to properly brand itself.
It was supposed to be 'so bland that it nobody felt it was uninviting,' said Ben Schultz, a graduate student in public history at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee who has been studying the decline of the retail chain. 'It was a place that could be common to everyone.'
But 'when they tried to change their image, they didn't have an image
Kmart has filed for bankruptcy twice since the turn of the century, as its global profit margins fell from $49 billion in 2005 to just $3.26 billion in 2020. It continues to do well in Australia.
And shares for Kmart - which merged with the now defunct Sears department store in 2005 under the conglomerate Sears Holdings - have stagnated since October 2021 at less than one cent.
Target's stock price, meanwhile, was at $194 on Wednesday, and Walmart's was at $136.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I miss Sears, I hated Computer City but still I miss them, even if I could get Frys instead
Kmart Guam is world famous.
If by “rivaled” they meant number of stores, sure. In terms of quality, layout, and service, not even close.
There’s a completely empty one with the store sign still there in West Chester PA.
KMart seemed to hit the skids after they were all cocky about supporting abortion or gays and wrre boycotted.
That’s the first thing I though of too.
Most Kmarts we’re dumps during the later years. They failed to keep up with their competition.
Shop smart. Shop S-Mart!
Fast Eddie Lampert destroyed the one great American icon Sears.
I think you are thinking about Target.
I met Harvey Kresge, founder and owner of K-Mart, decades ago. He was an old man then and told me he never put anything in his stores that his wife didn’t approve of.
Perhaps that very old woman’s choices contributed to the downfall of the stores.
I don’t think I ever shopped there. But went to Walmart the minute it opened in a Seattle suburb. Saved a lot of $$$. Now I have many choices of places to go in Spokane, go to Walmart a few times a year for certain items I can’t find anywhere else.
Still one Blockbuster Video store left, last I heard.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/last-blockbuster-video-store-in-the-us/
We spend a few months in North Alabama in 1973. When we received military orders back to Alabama we were thrilled. On our first evening back, we visited a K-Mart just to hear them announce “Bweu lit specal? The lady who did the announcement was Asian.
Happens. My brother-in-law won’t set foot in Target because men can use the women’s restrooms there. I like Target, and make sure I won’t need to use restroom before I go.
I miss blockbuster. Rented a ton of topnotch DVDs there. They were very close to my home, could walk over.
“Harvey Kresge”
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Weren’t there Kresge dimestores or drugstores at one time - or am I thinking of something else?
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