Years later, having just moved to a town in the Rust Belt, I was surprised to see one co-anchoring a shopping center, along with a Kroger. A few years later the Kroger moved to fancier digs maybe a mile away, replaced by a Dollar General. The Kmart eventually closed, and the Dollar General didn’t hold out much longer.
Last I was there the center was still there, but with no stores. The parking lot was being used by truckers to spend the night, since it was so close to an interstate,
The new does away with the old.
Cleaning out my dad’s garage after he passed away last year, I found some new-in-the-box steel shelves with a K-Mart shipping label on them and a store address. The date on the label was sometime in 1983!
The address was to a space in North Park Mall, on North Ave in Villa Park, IL. I had forgotten that there was a K-Mart there. It wasn’t a strip mall either, so the K-Mart must have connected to the interior of the mall—I don’t remember.
As I recall there was also a Dominick’s grocery store and a JC Penney (outlet?) in that mall.