Kmart - the zombie store

[fisheye]

We live about 8 miles form the 'then' mansion of the original founder of the predecessor of the Kmart chain. It is small by today's standards; but it does have a hand laid stone wall around the 35 acre estate. S.S. Kresge and Mr. Woolworth pioneered the whole business. I remember Mr. Kresge from the 1950's. If you saw him you might reach in your pocket for some change - the times I bumped into him he did not dress as if he was rich and he ran around in an old 'woody'. Here is a Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmart.

Even before Kmart bought Sears; the handwriting was on the wall - it was not keeping up with Walmart. I still think it was a major mistake for them to do the partial grocery store. It was not worth our time to go shopping there because we could not buy everything on our list. Walmart, on the other hand, has a full selection and one can get all their groceries and household items - one stop shopping. We still prefer a grocery store to either chain.

I feel sorry for the Kmart employees; the ones left will not have their jobs too much longer. I blame bad management.

[Bazzwell]

Originally Posted by fisheye

I still think it was a major mistake for them to do the partial grocery store.

That's where a Super K came into play. Around here they had a full blown grocery section with separate deli, fish & seafood and cooked foods counters. It was every inch as stocked as what we now see in a W-Mart. They stood their ground while the W-mart across the street was still an infant with a limited self-serve food section. Once the new W-mart was built a mile away, that was the end for Super K as a full market. They sectioned off nearly half the store and stocked only the most basic stuff instead of trying to compete and hold on to the lead they pretty much had built in.

As I mentioned in another post, they had 35 or so checkouts, at any time 3 were open. W-mart had 30 and most were open. Both were open 24 hours until Kmart gave in and started shutting down at 11pm. Kmart always, without fail, had higher prices on pretty much everything. W-mart would knock a nickel off here, a dime off there, price matched. It all added up.

Kmart has nobody to blame but themselves.

[evening sun]

I like K Mart, it is the only large store in my town, if we want to go to Walmart or Target it's 15 miles away. I like the points, I get $10 off most of my shopping trips, so that helps with the prices. I think it is called shop my way or something, a loyalty point system.
It is not the most organized store, but it is handy to have a large store local to us. I hope it stays open.

[unfocused]

They are all closed down around here, in Columbus Ohio a large metro area. You would probably have to drive 50 miles or more to find a open Kmart. The last one closed down last year, I paid a visit during the sale. It appeared that nothing had changed in the store in about 20 yrs.