K-Mart

[Mobil]

Originally posted by videogamer75
That's when Kmart was founded! What a rare find!

Amazing. I wonder what location that came from, because Kmart did not seem to have stores in the Philadelphia area before 1969. And just a side note, the store where I found it is next to a classic Acme.

[BillyGr]

The (rather small) Big K in Glenmont, NY (just outside) Albany will be closing.

This was in the Times Union earlier this week - they decided not to renew the lease.

GOB sales starting on Sunday (1/18), should close by March.

This appears to be an isolated closing (due to the lease).

[Zayre88]

Originally posted by BillyGr
The (rather small) Big K in Glenmont, NY (just outside) Albany will be closing.

This was in the Times Union earlier this week - they decided not to renew the lease.

GOB sales starting on Sunday (1/18), should close by March.

This appears to be an isolated closing (due to the lease).

I also saw that news about yet another isolate closing.  Kmart is closing a store here and there every once in a while...  

(When i saw that it was in Glenmont, i immediately thought about the famous Ames video about A+ service at Ames in Glemnont!)

[dmx10101]

This is definitely new, Kmart now has a separate site for Super Kmarts - http://www.superkmart.com, it even has a locator just for super K's, pretty cool.

[Zayre88]

Originally posted by dmx10101
This is definitely new, Kmart now has a separate site for Super Kmarts - http://www.superkmart.com, it even has a locator just for super K's, pretty cool.

Thanks for pointing that out.  Again, Kmart puts money in Super Kmart for a nice website, but we found out about it just today...  On the other hand, Kmart closed more than half of the Super Kmart stores during the past 6 years. :duh:

[Mobil]

Originally posted by dmx10101
This is definitely new, Kmart now has a separate site for Super Kmarts - http://www.superkmart.com, it even has a locator just for super K's, pretty cool.

The only Super K near me was in Humble, TX. But I moved away less than a year before it closed.

[videogamer75]

They need to just go back to basics with Kmart, Super Kmart, Sears, Lands End and nothing else. How many of these concept stores could you possibly make? There is no need for more than 1 discount store, so scrap both Sears Essentials and Sears Grand and focus on Kmart. Sears Holdings, as of last year, is the 8th largest retailer in revenue in America. Several companies such as Lowe's are below them on the list but yet they seem to be doing fine and are continuing to open more stores. Now is not a good time to open more stores, but I feel like Sears/Kmart missed out on big opportunitys by focusing on all these failed concepts instead of just focusing on improving Sears and Kmart.

[dmx10101]

Super K's current logo-

[videogamer75]

Actually, I think you're right. I do agree that the new, built from the ground up Sears Grand stores are nice and good in this economy. I just think that it doesn't make much sense to have two similar discount stores at the same time. They could rebrand them as Kmart and remodel the old Kmart stores to look like the above Sears Grand, that might boost some sales. They could also expand them largely and make more selling space.

[tntornadox]

Ah, Sears Grand... as a former Sears associate (started there when I was 16, worked for 4.5 years before I realized I was merely re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic, now I am with Target..)

Story-time... Sears Grand was the brainchild of then CEO Alan Lacy who wished to take Sears in a new direction- they had attempted to move upscale out of their middle market niche and it had came back to haunt them, so he wished to take the venerable retailer into the discount market- going head to head with Walmart and Target.

He combined the best of Sears and some new departments under one roof for the ultimate one stop shop- and these stores are huge- as has been said, the first was 225,000 square feet. They introduced several new merchandise categories as well, such as: Dry Grocery, Books & Magazines, HBA, Pharmacy, Toys (year-round), a real seasonal department, and a Garden Center (seasonally).

The first store opened in 2003 at Jordan Landing in Utah, where these pictures were taken. It was a massive success with the store beating the company's expectations by 30% revenue wise. They even had a price war with Walmart (which is in the same center) and won for several weeks, beating them at their own game.

Four additional Sears Grand prototypes opened across the country with different styles- some were larger than others, some had dropped ceilings while others had a warehouse ceiling, some had one entrance while others had the dual entrance of a supercenter. They were committed to finding a formula that worked- they learned from their mistakes at Jordan Landing, and when the 2nd store opened in Gurnee, IL it had a much larger Grocery department, as that was a major draw in Utah.

This all sounds great, right? Why didn't Sears pursue this with a vengeance? Well, they started to- the Senior VP of Off-Mall Development told the Chicago Tribune in 2003 they wanted 500 Sears Grand stores opened across the U.S. in 10 years (a major growth spurt for a company with 800 Full-Line Stores)... but they ran into some trouble- after the hoopla of the grand opening and sales finalized, they realized they had a huge problem with the economies of scale and overhead compared to a FLS.

On top of the almost $20 Million price tag per new store, Sears had to lower prices and therefore profit margins to bring people to see the 'discount side of Sears'... this was a huge problem because Sears still operates in a combined Self/Full Service model- they have more associates than most other retailers making more money and commissions.

In conclusion, Sears Grand (built from the ground up) IS the growth vehicle for Sears Holdings because people still have a favorable view of Sears, where as Kmart is a little more grey in this area. And you can't half-arse do it either like Eddie Lampert did with those converted Kmart stores, you can't paint it blue and slap a Sears sign on it and expect the same results of these first stores... which is why we haven't saw any new ones since before the merger- Eddie refuses to spend money on store experience, and the company continues to die due to his horrible leadership.

[dmx10101]

wow thanks for sharing that with us. I have said all along eddie is an idiot and is making kmart/sears die a slow death. The company has so much potential, but he refuses to do anything with it, cause he's such a cheapsake.

[powersbt]

I agree. Tornado, that was some really interesting information. Look forward to reading more of your posts!!

[videogamer75]

Well, I now see that I was wrong when I said they should scrap Sears Grand. It definitely has potential. But, they waited too long to open more stores and they wasted money with stuff like Essentials and the thousands of failed Kmart concepts. They could have used that money into building Sears Grand and maybe convert some Kmarts to the new concept. Now, the economy is in a recession and it's really too late for them.

[tntornadox]

Honestly, the only reason Sears is tanking is because of the merger with Kmart and Edward Lampert getting involved.

Alan Lacy may have not been the best CEO around, but he was ten times more competent than this idiot- who can't even pull off a strong holiday sales season without steep discounting...

Had Sears remained independent, I guarantee we would see at least 300 or so Sears Grand stores around the country by now. It's also important to note here, with a 30% revenue increase over a regular Sears FLS- these stores are not built in traditional Sears markets- they are suburbs... which makes the results even more promising for Sears' future potential as a brand... it is still a very valuable name and still has a reputation, if only the store was more convenient to the population.

As far as Sears buying those Kmart (and a few Walmart) stores prior to the merger, they had an idea there. They picked the prime of the sites that were available and had full intentions of renovating them inside and out and even expanding the footprints, which is alot cheaper than building from the ground up. Sears, Roebuck could have used old Kmart's to their advantage...

The mistake that was Sears Essentials was an Eddie Lampert innovation, which flopped badly (along with everything else he's touched).

A comparison: The Sears Grand at Gurnee Mills in Gurnee, IL took over the anchor position from another retailer, yet Sears invested almost $15 Million to bring it up to the brand standard they expected... and it continues to thrive (one of Sears' best performing stores in Chicagoland).

Now, take a Kmart turned Sears Essentials/Mini-Grand (Sears Holdings refers to the original Grands as Mega-Grands which are A volume stores, the former Kmart Grands are Mini-Grands and are classified as B volume stores) at the most the company invested $3-4 Million per store.

Folks, that makes the difference right there.

[Mobil]

Originally posted by tntornadox
Honestly, the only reason Sears is tanking is because of the merger with Kmart and Edward Lampert getting involved.

Alan Lacy may have not been the best CEO around, but he was ten times more competent than this idiot- who can't even pull off a strong holiday sales season without steep discounting...

Had Sears remained independent, I guarantee we would see at least 300 or so Sears Grand stores around the country by now. It's also important to note here, with a 30% revenue increase over a regular Sears FLS- these stores are not built in traditional Sears markets- they are suburbs... which makes the results even more promising for Sears' future potential as a brand... it is still a very valuable name and still has a reputation, if only the store was more convenient to the population.

As far as Sears buying those Kmart (and a few Walmart) stores prior to the merger, they had an idea there. They picked the prime of the sites that were available and had full intentions of renovating them inside and out and even expanding the footprints, which is alot cheaper than building from the ground up. Sears, Roebuck could have used old Kmart's to their advantage...

The mistake that was Sears Essentials was an Eddie Lampert innovation, which flopped badly (along with everything else he's touched).

A comparison: The Sears Grand at Gurnee Mills in Gurnee, IL took over the anchor position from another retailer, yet Sears invested almost $15 Million to bring it up to the brand standard they expected... and it continues to thrive (one of Sears' best performing stores in Chicagoland).

Now, take a Kmart turned Sears Essentials/Mini-Grand (Sears Holdings refers to the original Grands as Mega-Grands which are A volume stores, the former Kmart Grands are Mini-Grands and are classified as B volume stores) at the most the company invested $3-4 Million per store.

Folks, that makes the difference right there.

What former Wal-Marts became Sears?

[tntornadox]

Sears acquired several former Walmart locations, I do not know if they ever opened under their banner, however... the merger occurred about that time.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Various images of the 2002 Kmart prototype store in White Lake, Michigan.

[dmx10101]

sweet pics, That concept has some nicer signage than a regular Kmart, but it still like looks like an old Kmart inside compete with water-stained ceiling tiles in the one pic.

[tntornadox]

This was one of several concepts introduced by Kmart Corporation prior to the merger...

[Mobil]

The Kmart near me had this design. It opened in 1983, closed in 1994, and has been Hobby Lobby ever since.

[EddieJ1984]

Heres a pic of the KCafe inside the kmart I posted last week

[CTAmeshopper]

Various images of the 2002 Kmart prototype store in White Lake, Michigan.
 

I WISH they went with this look, it looks so nice and fresh,plus it doesn't look old.

It looks pretty classy. :cool:

Why'd they go with the other one? I never know.

My Torrington one went through a half-**sed renovation that looks bad. It's like they started but never finished. :flaming:

[tntornadox]

^ They went with 'Orange' because 'Lime' costed quite a bit more- they replaced every single piece of floor tile (look in the pics- they are brand new) and most of the fixtures.

[XDeSuEhTX]

They closed our Kmart Cafe at the end of last year, completely took it out and remodled it into a baby's supplies section, even took the bathrooms out of it too.

I have no idea why they did it, pretty stupid if you ask me. But our Kmart is really old, 1970's old I think, and it's relatively small in size compared to Wal-mart.

[shakethis1234]

2002 Kmart prototype store in White Lake, Michigan
did that kmart use to be a walmart looks like walmart on the inside

[CTAmeshopper]

Originally posted by tntornadox
^ They went with 'Orange' because 'Lime' costed quite a bit more- they replaced every single piece of floor tile (look in the pics- they are brand new) and most of the fixtures.

Oh, so the new ones are supposed to be an Orange color scheme? hmm Well I didn't know because my Torrington store did a hack job of a renovation. The outside looks nice but the inside looks trashy, there's walls that are painted half yellow and half white for no reason, and the inside hasn't had any major face lift. Sure they have new hanging signs, but that doesn't help much. I can't believe how BAD it is, it looks makeshift. My store feels pathetic,the only good thing is they still have the cool hanging clock at the front from the 1970's. Fascinatingly I have been able to tolerate this bad renovation whenever I'm in the store.

sigh.

[wwefan101]

webster mas kmart still has great service

[C. Fontaine]

This summer I needed wheels/tires for a boat trailer.  I couldn't find them anywhere, and the last junk yard I tried told me to go to K-Mart.  I thought the guy was pulling my leg but I went to the Webster, MA K-Mart anyway and behold, they had three different sizes and bolt patterns.

K-Mart was a the absolute last place I would expect to find trailer wheels, especially since they don't carry regular vehicle tires.

[Ameskid]

Huh.  One website says that my Kmart was a former Hills, which opened in 1980 and Kmart moved in in the early '90s, but another (and my parents) says that it used to be a Gold Circle.  Odd discrepancy, huh? :huh:








(Including the smiley, this post uses the word "huh" three times!

[XDeSuEhTX]

Did anyone here just recently that Kmart is shutting down over 300 more stores under another chapter 11?

Edit: Never mind. Someone accidently rehashed a 2003 story on another web site...

Anyhow, they are still shutting down a fair amount of Kmarts today aren't they?