Headquarters: Hoffman Estates, IL
Founder: Sebastian, S. Kresge
Employees: n/a
US Mainland Stores: 1 (2024 Miami) 35 (2021 estimates) (115: estimated after the closings of 12/2019) (70: after the 02/2020 closures)
Past store counts: 202 (After bankruptcy 2019) 365 (Q1 2018) 432 (Q4 '17) 510 (Q3 '17) 624 (Q1 '17) 801 (Oct. '16) 952 (Oct. '15)
Slogan: Shop your way!
Founded: 1899 (Kresge) 1962 (Kmart)
Website: kmart.com
Embedded Files
COMMENTARY:
COMMENTARY:
Once the #1 discount retailer in North America, Kmart dropped to second and then third behind Target and Walmart. In 2008, the Top-250 global retailers was dominated by Walmart. Target was 10th and the combined Sears & Kmart were ranked 20th. Kmart tried and failed when facing the rapid expansion of Walmart on its turf. Walmart opened stores everywhere and K-mart’s answer was to close its own stores instead of being prepared and on the offensive.
The company did launch the Big Kmart concept, but too often, it only meant installing a Big Kmart logo and doing minimal renovations to very old stores. It was too little too late. Customers had plenty of choices for their shopping needs and Kmart did not stand out. It tried to be like Walmart with Super Kmart stores and Big Kmart but it did not worked. Kmart should have come up with a bold new improved concept to move the Kmart brand to the 21st century. It should have slowed down expansion and put its efforts in improving existing stores that were stuck in the 70’s.
In Skowhegan Maine for example, there was a small K-mart store that opened in 1979. Kmart did nothing to upgrade the store's look. Walmart arrived in town and customers left Kmart in droves. Before the news of its closing in February 1996, that store's decor consisted of big oranges paint stripes on the walls, faux-wood counters, orange & beige wood tables and bins, chromed round racks and brown checkout counters, all that with vintage buzzing neon lighting and old dirty ceiling tiles. The outside was the same way with brown brick, foggy dirty windows, and the old turquoise K-mart logo.... not very attractive.
Their reaction was: «Maybe Walmart will open a store soon, let's close our K-mart there, we can't face it» The store has been there for 17 years and the town is still supporting it! Just refresh the store and make it modern before Walmart's arrival and show the customers that you care for them by offering them a renewed shopping experience. Too bad, but the story ends with yet another Kmart closing and Walmart thriving. In 1992, there were nearly 2,300 Kmart stores, twenty years later only 1,300 remained. In the meantime, Walmart, Target and Kohl's kept expanding and renovating stores.
OVERVIEW:
OVERVIEW:
Kmart Corporation started in 1899 when Sebastian S. Kresge opened a small five-and-dime store in downtown Detroit. Shoppers were attracted to the low prices, so it was quick success. By 1912, Kresge incorporated in Delaware and expanded to 85 stores with more than $10 million in sales. In 1916, it reincorporated in Michigan (where the headquarters are still located.) During the mid-1930's, supermarket chains began to offer Americans self-service. Kresge then opened a store in the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, the country's first suburban shopping center. Shortly after, he launched newspaper advertisements. Print ads still dominate promotions.
The first Kmart discount department store opened in Garden City, Michigan in 1962. In that year,corporate sales were $483 million. Sales topped $1 billion in 1966. S.S. Kresge Co. changed their name to Kmart Corporation in 1977 when Kmart performed almost 95% of company sales.
Between 1984 and 1992, Kmart made many acquisitions, and perhaps stretched too far. They included Waldenbooks, OfficeMax and The Sports Authority. During the mid-1990's, Kmart began to refocus on the core businesses and sold or divested its equity interest in many of its newly acquired operations. 1990 brought a new logo for a new Kmart. The first Super Kmart opened in 1991. Kmart Corporation now operates stores under the names of Kmart, Big Kmart and Super Kmart.
Kmart filled for Chapter 11 and closed 284 stores in 2002, including only one in New Hampshire, in Manchester. In 2003, they closed more than 300 other stores in January in a plan to emerge from chapter 11 more quickly.
Kmart Holdings Corporation merged with Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2004. The new company was then named Sears Holdings Corp. and is based in Hoffman Estates, IL where Sears was based. Kmart maintained a headquarters office in Troy, Michigan. The new Sears Holdings operated Sears and Kmart and introduced the Sears Essential format. These stores were Kmart stores re-opened as Sears Essentials. They were selling brands of both chains under one roof. The company also operated a larger version called Sears Grand. Early in 2006, the company dropped the "Essential" format and planned to rename the stores Sears Grand even if they were smaller than the original Sears Grand format which was 210,000 sq.ft. Some Sears Essentials even went back to the Kmart brand and/or closed. Martha Stewart Everyday is no longer offered at Kmart.
Continued decline:
Continued decline:
In recent years, Kmart has somehow managed to stay in business despite an array of fierce competitors and online shopping. The Sears Essential brand has slowly been phased out and some stores even reverted back to Kmart or Sears. Following bad holiday sales in 2011, the company announced it would close 100 to 120 Sears & Kmart stores in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, the company continued to close more stores, most of the time when store leases expired. In 2014, Sears Holdings announced it would close 77 Sears and Kmart stores by year end. In 2015 and 2016, more Kmart stores have closed and new store closings happened almost every month. Just type "kmart closing" in Google News and you're assured to find several recent articles on a Kmart store closing somewhere.
Early in 2016, Sears Holdings announced the closure of 78 stores including 68 Kmart stores. In December 2016, more store closings were announced for early 2017 and days later in January 2017, it was announced that 78 extra Kmart stores would close as well as 26 Sears stores. On that list of Kmart store closings is the original Kmart store located in Garden City Michigan which had opened in 1962 when Sebastian S. Kresge was still alive. In July 2017, Sears Holdings announces the closing of 43 Sears & Kmart stores. Shortly after, 28 more Kmart stores were added to that list. In November, the closing of 45 more Kmart was announced. In 1993, Kmart operated more than 2,200 stores in the U.S., as of October 2017, the company has roughly 510 locations left. Nearly 1,700 Kmart stores have closed in the past 25 years.
Kmart started year 2018 with barely more than 400 stores. In June 2018, the Sears Holdings Q1 results indicated that Kmart only had 365 stores left. Sears also announced at the same time the closing of 15 Kmart and 48 Sears. By fall 2018, Sears shares had dropped significantly and on October 15th, Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 and announced the closure of 142 stores including 63 Kmart stores. In November, the company announced the closing of 40 additional stores including 11 Kmart stores.
In February 2019, a bankruptcy judge approved Eddie Lampert's takeover of Sears Holdings, keeping 425 stores open including 202 Kmart stores. Kmart will have a mere 9 percent of its peak size of more than 2,200 stores of the 90's. In August 2019, Kmart announced the closing of 5 more stores leaving the brand with less than 200 stores. On August 30 2019, a list of 80 Kmart stores potentially slated for closure started to circulate online. Local news outlets in several towns mentioned in the list then published news confirming the closings. After these latest closings in December, Kmart will be left with roughly 115 stores.
What could be the second to last round of closing ever happened on November 7th 2019. Transform Holdco, the new company that kept the Sears and Kmart stores open after Sears Holdings' bankruptcy, announced the closing of 96 stores including 51 Sears and 45 Kmart. Stores will close in February 2020. After that, Kmart will be left with roughly 70 stores in very few states. More stores were added to the closing list in February 2020: an additional 15 stores were slated to close by April. Kmart was now out of Colorado, Illinois and some estimates show that the chain will operate in only 12 states after April. More closings were revealed during the summer and estimates are that there will be only 35 Kmart stores left after this round of closures. Several stores were closed in 2021 including its last store in Michigan, leaving only 3 stores on the U.S. mainland.
In 2023, it was announced that the Westwood NJ location would close leaving only two stores open. Today, Kmart operates only two locations on the U.S. mainland. The Bridgehampton NY is the last full-size Kmart. In September 2024 it was announced that this store would close in October. The Miami store is located at Kendale Lakes Plaza and operates out of the former Garden Center of the previous full-size store which is now an AtHome. There are 3 other stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands and 1 in Guam. This means that as of 2024, Kmart is a chain of only 4 stores. More than 2,300 Kmart stores have closed over the last 30 years, yet the company still exists.
NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND KMART OVERVIEW:
NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND KMART OVERVIEW:
Kmart always had a small to moderate presence in northern New England. The stores were mostly located in larger towns with the exceptions of Skowhegan and Madawaska in Maine where Kmart had small stores. Maine once has 9 stores, NH had 12 stores and Vermont 4. The first Kmart closings occurred in the mid 90's when a large Kmart store closed down in Scarborough near Portland. With that, Kmart left the largest market in Maine. Skowhegan and Falmouth were closed in 1996. From 2000 to 2002, 3 NH stores were closed in North Conway, Gilford and Manchester (again leaving important NH markets to Walmart and Target).
In 2005 Sears launched a new concept called Sears Essentials which was a mix of Sears and Kmart in the Kmart store format. Three NH stores were converted to that format with very little success. All three stores were eventually closed. More Kmart stores closed their doors after that: Portsmouth NH in 2013, Claremont NH in 2014 and two more in 2016: Presque Isle Maine and Burlington Vermont. In January 2017 Kmart announced more closings including the Bangor Maine location. Early in 2018, Sears announced the closing of 64 Kmart stores including Rochester NH, Plattsburgh NY and Rutland VT. In May 2018, Kmart announced the closing of its last store in Vermont (Bennington).
In August 2018, Sears announced the closing of 13 more Kmart stores. In October, Sears announced the closing of an extra 63 stores as part of its bankruptcy filling. Kmart's northernmost store in Madawaska, Maine will close as a result. In November, the company announced the closing of 11 additional Kmart stores including the Waterville location. As of February 2019, only 3 stores remained in NH and two in Maine. Kmart operated 8 stores in Massachusetts and 3 in Connecticut. In late August 2019 it was revealed that Kmart planned to close 80 more stores including the last two in Maine, one in Connecticut and two in Massachusetts.
On November 7th 2019, Transform Holdco announced the closing of an additional 45 Kmart stores including two in New Hampshire. This will leave the West Lebanon NH as the sole Kmart of Northern New England. Kmart once had a 23 stores in ME, NH and VT. In December, the last store in CT closed for good. In May 2020, it was announced that the West Lebanon Kmart would close leaving only 1 store in New England in Hyannis MA. In 2020, Target announced it was taking over the former Auburn Maine store.
A former Kmart in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada
KMART CANADA OVERVIEW:
KMART CANADA OVERVIEW:
Kresge opened stores in Canada in 1929. The company closed its last Kresge stores in 1994. Over the years, Kmart-Canada grew and at its peak operated 127 Kmart stores. Kmart-Canada was the 3rd largest discounter in Canada behind Zellers and Woolco. The company stopped expanding and renovating stores and remained a distant 3rd in the market. Walmart acquired Woolco to enter the Canadian market in 1994. Kmart Canada did little to face its US rival.
Walmart Canada hardly broke a sweat in competing against Kmart with it's old stores. In June 1997, Kmart sold all but a 12.5% stake in the ailing division to a group of investors. In December 1997, the new owners closed 10 unprofitable stores. In February 1998, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) acquired the chain.
HBC liquidated the Kmart stores and merged most of them into their Zellers discount chain. Kmart Canada’s former CEO became President of Zellers and Zellers also moved its headquarters to the former Kmart Canada head office in Brampton, Ontario. At that time Zellers surpassed Walmart Canada as the largest discount chain in Canada. Zellers borrowed many Kmart strategies of the late 90's including a focus on brands. Zellers started to offer Westinghouse small appliances and the Martha Stewart Everyday line of products. Despite its efforts, Zellers kept losing market share to Walmart and other retailers over the years.
In 2011, Target Corporation announced it would acquire up to 220 of the 275 Zellers leases and select up to 135 to become Target stores starting in the spring of 2013. Several stores will have been Kmart, then Zellers and then Target stores. Target Canada eventually went bankrupt so several stores later became Walmart, Canadian Tire and other stores.
SITE VISITOR OVERVIEW:
SITE VISITOR OVERVIEW:
«My biggest memory of K-Mart would be the 70's color scheme, the insanely-large round air conditioner vents in the ceiling, reminiscent of the front of the engines of a commercial jet in both appearance and sound. Not to mention the smell of the stores- like popcorn, but with a little touch of something... something... very K-Mart, and something lost with the remodels. How about the Sandwich Shoppe? I NEVER ate there, NEVER saw anyone eat there, and have never met anyone who's EVER eaten there. But there it was, tucked away at the back of the store by Sporting Goods, with those white and brown Dixie cups and the lemonade and fruit punch bubbling through the drink machines behind the counter. Seems like as a kid they were always playing that song, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." That always sticks out in my head as being the typical K-Mart music of the 1980's.»
FORMER ME/NH/VT KMART LOCATIONS:
FORMER ME/NH/VT KMART LOCATIONS:
MAINE (9)
Augusta* (2019)
Auburn (2019)
Falmouth (1996)
Skowhegan (1996)
Scarborough (1995)
Presque Isle (2016)
Bangor (2017)
Madawaska (2018)
Waterville (2019)
NEW HAMPSHIRE (12)
Gilford (2001)
Hooksett (2020)
North Conway (2000)
Manchester (2002)
Portsmouth (2013)
Rochester (2018)
Claremont (2014)
Londonderry **
Nashua **
Keene **
Salem (2020)
West Lebanon (2020)
VERMONT (3)
South Burlington (2016)
Rutland (2018)
Bennington (2018)
LEGEND
** : Kmart store converted to the Sears Essentials format that has later closed
(year) : Year of the store closure.
This website is not affiliated with Kmart, Sears, Transformco, Transform SR Brands LLC or any division of Sears Holdings Corporation.
For the most accurate and up-to-date information, visit the official websites of Kmart, Sears, Sears Holdings or Transform SR Brands LLC.
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