Super Kmart concept will almost die in the near future

[Hudsons81]

For those of you who live in an area that still has a Super Kmart, well, something has just been announced. According to employees at the Super Kmart in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, groceries will be removed from all larger-sized Super Kmarts in the near future, leaving only the smaller Super Kmarts still operating as such. The former grocery sections will either be repurposed into back rooms or rented out to other stores. Jobs will be lost.

The Super Kmart concept we are familiar with will nearly be coming to an end after nearly 24 years.

Source: http://www.deadanddyingretail.com/2011/10/current-kmart-supercenter-locations-as.html?showComment=1422987419453#c6450566340031613566

[danfifepsu]

why couldnt Kmart make it with that format? thats bad? since last decade thats been rumored.

[store215]

It looks like the majority of Super Kmart's will be scaled down to a concept called 'K-Fresh':
https://community.kmart.com/Discussions/Single_question_detail/All_k/Allquestions/My-local-store-is-%234936--Super-Center-Uniontown---Talk-of-changing-to-K-fresh---Need-someone-to-explain-the-change-to-the-store--Thanks!

[danfifepsu]

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/story/news/local/2015/02/16/kmart-rebranding-chillicothe-ohio/23507299/

[Zayre88]

I have never been to a Super Kmart, but based on pictures on the web, Super Kmarts looked already dead anyway.

Kmart started these to do like Walmart but at tome point they stopped opening these stores, they stopped investing and never really did like Walmart and convert many stores to "super" centers. 

It looks like the ones that are left look mostly like they did in the 90's and are not very busy.

[ynkeesfn82]

I have never been to a Super Kmart, but based on pictures on the web, Super Kmarts looked already dead anyway.

Kmart started these to do like Walmart but at tome point they stopped opening these stores, they stopped investing and never really did like Walmart and convert many stores to "super" centers. 

It looks like the ones that are left look mostly like they did in the 90's and are not very busy.

Ironically the Walmart Supercenter in Wallingford, CT (and I think New Haven, CT too) are former Super KMART's.

[JimSawhill]

I have never been to a Super Kmart, but based on pictures on the web, Super Kmarts looked already dead anyway.

Kmart started these to do like Walmart but at tome point they stopped opening these stores, they stopped investing and never really did like Walmart and convert many stores to "super" centers. 

It looks like the ones that are left look mostly like they did in the 90's and are not very busy.

Ironically the Walmart Supercenter in Wallingford, CT (and I think New Haven, CT too) are former Super KMART's.

The Wallingford, CT was... it  is on Rt 5. Up the street was a Stars and another department store. (Can't think of the name now)

[ynkeesfn82]

I have never been to a Super Kmart, but based on pictures on the web, Super Kmarts looked already dead anyway.

Kmart started these to do like Walmart but at tome point they stopped opening these stores, they stopped investing and never really did like Walmart and convert many stores to "super" centers. 

It looks like the ones that are left look mostly like they did in the 90's and are not very busy.

Ironically the Walmart Supercenter in Wallingford, CT (and I think New Haven, CT too) are former Super KMART's.

The Wallingford, CT was... it  is on Rt 5. Up the street was a Stars and another department store. (Can't think of the name now)

The Super KMART (Now Walmart Supercenter) was built sometime in the mid 1990s. It's exact address is 844 North Colony Road. (Route 5).  It's near the intersection of IVES Road. Next door Wallingford Fair Shopping Plaza was built at the intersection of Route 5 and IVES Road around 1996.

[JimSawhill]

I have never been to a Super Kmart, but based on pictures on the web, Super Kmarts looked already dead anyway.

Kmart started these to do like Walmart but at tome point they stopped opening these stores, they stopped investing and never really did like Walmart and convert many stores to "super" centers. 

It looks like the ones that are left look mostly like they did in the 90's and are not very busy.

Ironically the Walmart Supercenter in Wallingford, CT (and I think New Haven, CT too) are former Super KMART's.

The Wallingford, CT was... it  is on Rt 5. Up the street was a Stars and another department store. (Can't think of the name now)

The Super KMART (Now Walmart Supercenter) was built sometime in the mid 1990s. It's exact address is 844 North Colony Road. (Route 5).  It's near the intersection of IVES Road. Next door Wallingford Fair Shopping Plaza was built at the intersection of Route 5 and IVES Road around 1996.

Up the road near Rt 15 overpass was 2 old strip malls... one on them had Stars in it... (when I moved from CT... I visited it and it had a few label scars on it... (and it looked identical to the Torrington Stars). The other I think was a Kings...

[Chuck E. Cheese]

Been to the "BIG" K-Mart in Cromwell, CT a lot and It looks like it's stuck in 1997. CRT TVs in the Walls, Drab Colors, Little Radios inside the customer Service Desk..

[JJBers]

Well as of last month, the last Super Kmart closed for good. 3 years later.

[danfifepsu]

Well as of last month, the last Super Kmart closed for good. 3 years later.

It already has and has been which is pathetic as the couldnt make it in the best format to do business that WAlmart is thriving in.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Well as of last month, the last Super Kmart closed for good. 3 years later.

It already has and has been which is pathetic as the couldnt make it in the best format to do business that WAlmart is thriving in.

Walmart leads, other retailers follow in the superstore race. Meijer is concentrated on the Midwest (with partial east coast penetration in western Pennsylvania), while Fred Meyer is focused on the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii, and Target's SuperTarget format is national, and Kroger Marketplace is regional.


Other retailers which that tried the superstore format in the past:


Shoppers' City/Zayre Shoppers' City - Zayre acquired Duluth, Minnesota-based Shoppers' City in the 1960s, and rebranded the stores Zayre Shoppers' City, which Zayre operated until the early 1970s, when they exited Minnesota to refocus their efforts on the markets they were better in.

ShopKo & SuperValu - Operated four Twin Valu locations in the Cleveland, Ohio area from 1989 to 1995.

ALCO - Operated a superstore called C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Adjusters) for a short period of time.

JCPenney - Operated two different superstore formats, Treasure Island and The Treasury in the past.

Sears - Operated the Sears Grand stores for a short time with a grocery department before making the stores look more like a traditional Sears department store (with mismatched department signage in certain areas).

Wal-Mart - Inspired by the French Carrefour hypermarkets, Sam Walton envisioned Hypermart USA in 1987. A dozen Hypermart USA locations opened in the southern United States before the conceptt was abandoned in the early 1990s in favor of their popular Supercenter concept. Some current Wal-Mart stores still utilize former Hypermart USA locations.

Kmart & Bruno's Supermarkets - Kmart and Bruno's teamed up to create Kmart's first attempt at a hypermarket: American Fare, in the early 1990s.

Kmart - The Kmart Australia version of Super Kmart predates the American version by about ten years. Where it failed in Australia and Mexico, it was more successful in the United States. The last American Super Kmart closed in 2018.

Grand Union - started a superstore format called Grandway which was usually found in one- or two-story buildings. Some locations were later converted to Kmart stores.

French Market - Only one French Market location, in suburban Kansas City (Overland Park), which operated from the 1960s to 1970. Became Kmart in the early 1970s.



Department store/supermarket pairings:


ShopKo/Sure Way - The first two ShopKo were paired with local Green Bay, Wisconsin grocery store Sure Way.

Kohl's Department Stores/Kohl's Food Stores - Found throughout Wisconsin from the 1960s to the mid-2000s.

Bradlees/Stop & Shop - Bradlees paired some of their stores with Stop & Shop in the 1960s

Kmart/Kmart Foods - Kmart paired some of their stores with Kmart Foods in the United States and Australia while still owned by the S.S. Kresge Co. in the 1960s.

[retailisking]

Here in Maine Kmart and Bradlees were combined not with Kmart Food or Stop & Shop but Cottle's and Martin's, both partnered with Hannaford Bros. Eventually both went with the Shop 'n Save format as Hannaford Bros. bought out their partners. Another combo was JM Fields and Food Fair; in Newington, NH Food Fair eventually became Shaw's as JM Fields became Bradlees.

[BillyGr]

Here in Maine Kmart and Bradlees were combined not with Kmart Food or Stop & Shop but Cottle's and Martin's, both partnered with Hannaford Bros. Eventually both went with the Shop 'n Save format as Hannaford Bros. bought out their partners. Another combo was JM Fields and Food Fair; in Newington, NH Food Fair eventually became Shaw's as JM Fields became Bradlees.

It seems that Kmart (after their early experiences with the Kmart Foods name) simply picked a store (or two) in each area to partner with.
For instance, in this area several of the Kmart stores were paired with a Price Chopper store, but there were also a few that had Albany Public (later bought by Grand Union so it is hard to know which were Albany Public and which may have been original Grand Union stores).  While we have Hannaford now, they weren't in this area (under any name, even Shop n' Save) when Kmart was building.

This would make sense as there weren't that many (if any) chains of supermarkets that could be called truly nationwide.

Our Bradlees stores (and we only had three in this area) all wound up in plazas (or in one case a mall) with Price Chopper locations eventually - in the two non-mall cases the Price Chopper eventually replaced or took over a portion of the Bradlees after they were gone.

[MikeRa]

Department store/supermarket pairings:

ShopKo/Sure Way - The first two ShopKo were paired with local Green Bay, Wisconsin grocery store Sure Way.

Kohl's Department Stores/Kohl's Food Stores - Found throughout Wisconsin from the 1960s to the mid-2000s.

Bradlees/Stop & Shop - Bradlees paired some of their stores with Stop & Shop in the 1960s

Kmart/Kmart Foods - Kmart paired some of their stores with Kmart Foods in the United States and Australia while still owned by the S.S. Kresge Co. in the 1960s.

Kohl's Department Stores and Kohl's Food Stores were split into 2 when BATUS was forced by the FTC to reduce their holdings in Milwaukee, WI (then consisted of Gimbels Department Stores, Kohl's Department Stores, and Kohl's Food Stores) when they acquired Marshall Field's Department Stores in 1982, so they sold the Kohl's Food Stores to A&P

J. M. Field's Department Stores/Food Fair-Pantry Pride - Food Fair had stores paired with J. M. Field's in the 1960's and 1970's, even after Food Fair renamed their supermarkets to Pantry Pride

[MikeRa]

Here in Maine Kmart and Bradlees were combined not with Kmart Food or Stop & Shop but Cottle's and Martin's, both partnered with Hannaford Bros. Eventually both went with the Shop 'n Save format as Hannaford Bros. bought out their partners. Another combo was JM Fields and Food Fair; in Newington, NH Food Fair eventually became Shaw's as JM Fields became Bradlees.

J. M. Fields were paired with Food Fair (later renamed to Pantry Pride) right up to the 1978-79 Bankruptcy that eventually led Food Fair corporate name to become first Pantry Pride Inc., and eventually Revlon Group, Inc.