K-Mart

[TheFugitive]

Every day in my inbox I get increasingly desperate sounding emails from
Sears-Kmart begging me to shop there.

The last time I did some pity shopping there they got hacked and my bank
had to cancel my debit card.  Not sure I want to go back.

[BillyGr]

Every day in my inbox I get increasingly desperate sounding emails from
Sears-Kmart begging me to shop there.

The last time I did some pity shopping there they got hacked and my bank
had to cancel my debit card.  Not sure I want to go back.

I'd say if they were having good deals go ahead and go, just bring some cash along to avoid any issues with your card.

[standa]

Has anyone else seen the "Summer Blowout: 10-50% off everything" sale that kmart is having?
They say it's so they can make "room for fab fall deals", yeah sure.
I suspect that much of the items they sell won't be restocked and they are just using the extra income to stay afloat so they can make it until Christmas.
If that's the case it's likely the complete going out of business for kmart will be sometime early 2018.

That's all speculation and people have been guessing the end for years now so who knows but that is what it seems like to me.

You might be jumping to conclusions. I went to kmart.com and this "summer blowout" looks like a run of the mill seasonal clearance/markdown that every store does to entice people to buy seasonal items before they begin bringing in their next season's merchandise. NOT their entire stock/website. Let Kmart's demise happen when the time comes. Until then, let them continue on. I don't understand how some people want to see them disappear completely and try and predict the end. I don't want to see them go just yet.  

I very well could be jumping to conclusions, hence why I said " That's all speculation" I have no idea.
Also it's not just seasonal items on sale if you look everything is at least 10% off, the two kmarts I visited on Sunday had pretty much every item in the entire store discounted with higher discounts on the seasonal items. I don't know what retail is like out where you live but I've never walked into a Walmart or a Target and seen the whole store 10%-50% off for a "run of the mill seasonal clearance", not to mention most of the signs were hand written with the amount of percentage off which I've only ever seen during a going out of business or liquidation sale.
Another thing that I find odd is on the kmart website and in store they are advertising only 10% off in some sections but many of the products are actually cheaper than that, so why would you not want to properly advertise the lower prices?

Maybe you are right and this is just a normal sale but I've personally never seen anything like it except when a store was going out of business. I just can't see any other reason why they would run a sale like this unless they want people to think that their local Kmart store is going out of business cause that's what it looked like when I walked into my local kmart.


Look at those signs and tell me your first impression



For comparison here is a kmart that closed

Where is that KMart that appears to be going out of business located?

[buzz86us]

with everything happening I am surprised that the K-Mart in Queensbury still stays in business especially with two walmart super centers a short drive away

[BillyGr]

with everything happening I am surprised that the K-Mart in Queensbury still stays in business especially with two walmart super centers a short drive away

Even if they are slightly less Super than they used to be ;)

Not really sure who had the idea to put that out so far from the rest of the shopping areas (at least before Walmart decided to join them, apparently not thinking the existing WalAmes [which may have been one of few, if any, where the two existed side by side] was enough).

[Zayre88]

Kmart in Salem NH:

The store does not have the current logo.  It's part of the former Big Kmart logo.

[Pikapower]

Kmart in Salem NH:

The store does not have the current logo.  It's part of the former Big Kmart logo.

From the looks of that Kmart I though that was one of the Kmarts that had never gone big and used the 1990 logo (without the "Big" on it).

[Zayre88]

Kmart in Salem NH:

The store does not have the current logo.  It's part of the former Big Kmart logo.

From the looks of that Kmart I though that was one of the Kmarts that had never gone big and used the 1990 logo (without the "Big" on it).

It did have the Big Kmart logo at some point, however it's possible that this logo was not part of the BigKmart logo and is simply a larger single "K" logo.

[danfifepsu]

IT had the BIG KMART LOGO And took it down 2 yrs ago.

[MikeinBuffalo]

Did some pity shopping at the last Kmart in the Buffalo area, on Hertel Ave if any Buffalonians are reading this. Picked up some jumper cables and a candy bar.

The store is very old, and has the Big Kmart logo on top out front. Its kept alive sheerly because of its location, which is right near some colleges. They sell a lot of college merchandise, especially Buffalo State Bengals stuff.

Very pleasant employee in their garden section. Hope he does well when Kmart finally goes down the drain.

[AmesNewington]

I went shopping with my parents at the Vernon, CT store today and what I saw was alarming. The entire store had the similar signage you would see at a GOB sale (as mentioned here), just with their Summer Blowout campaign as a cover. With that observation alone, I wouldn't have been so suspicious, but a few other things caught my attention. First, I partly went to stock up on store brand paper goods and health and beauty items and I was unable to purchase several items such as pocket tissues, toothbrushes, and foam cups, as the shelves were empty of these items. I have never seen these items out of stock before at Kmart, which makes me think they let stock run out and won't be replacing it. Also, the shelves looked picked over and there were no regular sale tags, I'm assuming due to almost everything being on sale. Finally, there were only 2 registers open when we got there and one by the time we were done shopping. They did open 2 more when we were checking out. The store was at least not very busy, being a Monday afternoon. I can't help but think they are getting ready to close the entire Kmart division (or even the entire Sears Holdings company). I wasn't sure when it was first mentioned here, but I got to experience it for myself at a location that was fully stocked and busier back in April. Of course I could be entirely wrong and they are just trying to entice shoppers to come in and will fully restock after this week. I must say that their clothing department was well stocked and my mom did in fact see some new fall arrivals. We won't really know until next week, when the sale is over what the fate of Kmart is.

[MikeinBuffalo]

Did Kmart have a size limit for conversion fro their existing to its "Big K" stores? I am doing a little research on my Kmart, and an old newspaper article says that it was converted with the rest of the WNY locations in 1998. This store can't be more than 60,000 square feet. Seems silly to make it a "Big" Kmart!


http://buffalonews.com/1998/02/19/a-new-look-for-kmart/

For the record, the Williamsville store mentioned in the ad was heavily modified after closing in 2002 and became a Hobby Lobby.


EDIT I am wrong. Apparently that store became a Lowes. The store on Niagara Falls Blvd is in a plaza, and has been heavily modified into a Christmas Tree shops/Old Navy/Office Max

[MikeinBuffalo]

Found a very helpful article from '02 that lists the Kmarts that closed near me in 2002. Now that I have addresses, I can figure out what they became.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/03/08/list-kmart-stores-to-be-closed.html

7144 Big Kmart 5770 S. Transit Rd. Lockport NY - Seems to have been divided into a few stores. Half is empty, with an Office Depot in the other half.

3694 Big Kmart 998 Broadway Buffalo NY -this one has a sad story. Was a very famous store called Sattler's before they went belly-up in the 1990s. Store was demolished and is now an Aldi (whose suburban style looks stupid in the dense urban area of this part of town)

3008 Big Kmart 8150 Transit Road Williamsville NY - Heavily modified into a Lowes.

4788 Big Kmart 3901 Vineyard Drive Dunkirk NY - now a Home Depot.

I don't know exactly when Amherst closed, only that it's in a massive shopping plaza and it's hard to tell which store was which as I never shopped at this one.

[Zayre88]

Found a very helpful article from '02 that lists the Kmarts that closed near me in 2002. Now that I have addresses, I can figure out what they became.

#3087 Big Kmart 1525 South Willow Street Manchester NH  - Sat vacant for some time then became Burlington Coat Factory.  That store eventually closed and it re-opened as a Hobby Lobby.

[MikeinBuffalo]

Got to say, at least the last Kmart by me is fairly well stocked. There were not a huge amount of empty shelves like I see at Wally World.

Did some deeper looking around and found a couple cool things.



This old health monitor thing is at least 30 years old.



The pharmacy itself had closed.




How old do you guys think this sign is? It seemed way out of place in the store. There was nothing else like it.

[Pikapower]

How old do you guys think this sign is? It seemed way out of place in the store. There was nothing else like it.

I think that "Music & Video" sign has to be from at least 1997, so I'm guessing it's 20 years old  by now.

[MikeinBuffalo]

I think that "Music & Video" sign has to be from at least 1997, so I'm guessing it's 20 years old  by now.

makes sense, the store was last remodeled in 1998.

[busman_49]

Found a very helpful article from '02 that lists the Kmarts that closed near me in 2002. Now that I have addresses, I can figure out what they became. 

I did that with Ohio a number of months back.  With the help of a Flickr user, I think I managed to log nearly all of the Kmarts that operated in Ohio.

[shore72]

Were all Kmart pharmacies closed? Both of the ones nearby went away this year. I wonder if someone could talk the manager into selling that health monitor?

[MikeinBuffalo]

Were all Kmart pharmacies closed? Both of the ones nearby went away this year. I wonder if someone could talk the manager into selling that health monitor?

Might be kind of a cool idea for people with more room (and money) than I do. It might be worth saving, especially if Kmart finally goes belly-up.

[Pikapower]

Did Kmart have a size limit for conversion fro their existing to its "Big K" stores? I am doing a little research on my Kmart, and an old newspaper article says that it was converted with the rest of the WNY locations in 1998. This store can't be more than 60,000 square feet. Seems silly to make it a "Big" Kmart!


http://buffalonews.com/1998/02/19/a-new-look-for-kmart/

For the record, the Williamsville store mentioned in the ad was heavily modified after closing in 2002 and became a Hobby Lobby.


EDIT I am wrong. Apparently that store became a Lowes. The store on Niagara Falls Blvd is in a plaza, and has been heavily modified into a Christmas Tree shops/Old Navy/Office Max

I don't know when the Amherst Kmart on Niagara Falls Boulevard closed, but all I know is that it was demolished for Christmas Tree Shops and I think Old Navy and Office Max were in that plaza when Kmart was there.

[MikeinBuffalo]

I don't know when the Amherst Kmart on Niagara Falls Boulevard closed, but all I know is that it was demolished for Christmas Tree Shops and I think Old Navy and Office Max were in that plaza when Kmart was there.

Thanks. Google is fruitless so far.

[Pikapower]

From what I've heard about the Williamsville Kmart was demolished to make way for Lowe's because the old Kmart building had asbestos in it when they were planning to to use the building for Lowe's after Kmart closed. The surrounding plaza by the Williamsville Kmart was heavily revamped, part of it was demolished a few years ago for easier access to the Wegmans and Target stores next door.

[giantsfan2016]

It's interesting whether or not they decide to reuse a KMART building or demolish it.

In Wallingford, Connecticut both old KMART's are being reused. The original location is in a plaza anchored by Big Lots is now a locally owned movie theater called Holiday Cinemas. The other location a free-standing location, which was a Super KMART is now a Walmart SuperCenter. As for the original Walmart they demolished that for a Lowe's and have added a few restaurants.

In Southington, Connecticut the KMART is Price Chopper.

In Bristol, Connecticut the KMART (which was Caldor and before that WT Grant's) is also a Price Chopper.

In Waterbury, Connecticut the KMART was subdivided into Ollie's Bargain Basement and Porter and Chester Institute. (A career school).

[MikeinBuffalo]

From what I've heard about the Williamsville Kmart was demolished to make way for Lowe's because the old Kmart building had asbestos in it when they were planning to to use the building for Lowe's after Kmart closed. The surrounding plaza by the Williamsville Kmart was heavily revamped, part of it was demolished a few years ago for easier access to the Wegmans and Target stores next door.

you know what, that makes sense. I was just there (I get my hair cut in the plaza) and I was thinking there is no way this used to be a Kmart.

That was the problem with the Ames that I posted about in the Ames forum - asbestos make saving older buildings very hard. Might as well tear it down rather than spend huge amounts to remove them.

[Pikapower]

From what I've heard about the Williamsville Kmart was demolished to make way for Lowe's because the old Kmart building had asbestos in it when they were planning to to use the building for Lowe's after Kmart closed. The surrounding plaza by the Williamsville Kmart was heavily revamped, part of it was demolished a few years ago for easier access to the Wegmans and Target stores next door.

you know what, that makes sense. I was just there (I get my hair cut in the plaza) and I was thinking there is no way this used to be a Kmart.

That was the problem with the Ames that I posted about in the Ames forum - asbestos make saving older buildings very hard. Might as well tear it down rather than spend huge amounts to remove them.

The Amherst Kmart was probably demolished because of asbestos as well. Asbestos might have been a good idea for fireproofing buildings at one point, but now we know that asbestos causes cancer and it's one of the reason why some older Kmart (and some other stores) building can't be saved for remodeling into something else.

[busman_49]

From what I've heard about the Williamsville Kmart was demolished to make way for Lowe's because the old Kmart building had asbestos in it when they were planning to to use the building for Lowe's after Kmart closed. The surrounding plaza by the Williamsville Kmart was heavily revamped, part of it was demolished a few years ago for easier access to the Wegmans and Target stores next door.

you know what, that makes sense. I was just there (I get my hair cut in the plaza) and I was thinking there is no way this used to be a Kmart.

That was the problem with the Ames that I posted about in the Ames forum - asbestos make saving older buildings very hard. Might as well tear it down rather than spend huge amounts to remove them.

The Amherst Kmart was probably demolished because of asbestos as well. Asbestos might have been a good idea for fireproofing buildings at one point, but now we know that asbestos causes cancer and it's one of the reason why some older Kmart (and some other stores) building can't be saved for remodeling into something else.

Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the asbestos have to be removed from the building before it can be torn down anyway?  Otherwise the demolition will cause it to go into the air.  Whether re-using or demolishing, the asbestos still has to come out before anything else can be done.

[MikeinBuffalo]

The Amherst Kmart was probably demolished because of asbestos as well. Asbestos might have been a good idea for fireproofing buildings at one point, but now we know that asbestos causes cancer and it's one of the reason why some older Kmart (and some other stores) building can't be saved for remodeling into something else.

this is a bit off topic but do you remember or know what the Hobby Lobby up Transit by the theatre used to be? I swear that was a Circuit City but I am not sure. I know it was remodeled, not torn down and built up.

[Pikapower]

The Amherst Kmart was probably demolished because of asbestos as well. Asbestos might have been a good idea for fireproofing buildings at one point, but now we know that asbestos causes cancer and it's one of the reason why some older Kmart (and some other stores) building can't be saved for remodeling into something else.

this is a bit off topic but do you remember or know what the Hobby Lobby up Transit by the theatre used to be? I swear that was a Circuit City but I am not sure. I know it was remodeled, not torn down and built up.

It was a Media Play, then an FYE Superstore. It might've been something else before it was Media Play, but I don't know. :/

[MikeinBuffalo]

The Amherst Kmart was probably demolished because of asbestos as well. Asbestos might have been a good idea for fireproofing buildings at one point, but now we know that asbestos causes cancer and it's one of the reason why some older Kmart (and some other stores) building can't be saved for remodeling into something else.

this is a bit off topic but do you remember or know what the Hobby Lobby up Transit by the theatre used to be? I swear that was a Circuit City but I am not sure. I know it was remodeled, not torn down and built up.

It was a Media Play, then an FYE Superstore. It might've been something else before it was Media Play, but I don't know. :/

Thanks! Not sure how I got the Circuit City idea in my head. The only thing I am really sure of on that side of Transit is that the Big Lots used to be a Vix Drug Store.