More Kmart stores closing

[Brandon]

I think the odd full-service restaurant/diner that the Williamsport Kmart had until fairly recently may have owed its existence to the fact that the store was built as a Grants in the mid to late '60s and then converted to Kmart in the early '70s. Apparently, many Grants stores of the era had a similar family restaurant under the Bradford House banner.

The Kmart in Belle Vernon, PA–also a converted Grants from that era–has its restaurant still in operation (at least it was as of earlier this year). I found this set of photos on Flickr, and the "K Cafe"  signage inside, the red and white RESTAURANT sign outside, and the booths and paneling in the restaurant look exactly like what Williamsport had. Williamsport's restaurant never had glass separating it from the store selling floor, though, and the amateur-looking menu suggests that any semblance of support from the home office has evaporated.

Yes, that's a bit different than the Grill Kmart's older stores from the 1960s had.  Those were in the rear center of the store and featured the word "Grill" in a Times-New Romanish font, with on letter panel.  Our Kmart in Joliet (Larkin & Jefferson, just closed as of 12/9/16, originally opened in 1965 as one of the first 100 stores in the chain) had one of those.  Here's some photos of them: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=1970+Kmart+Restaurant&FORM=RESTAB

[jeffandnicole]

...the amateur-looking menu suggests that any semblance of support from the home office has evaporated.

The same can be said for the rest of that store!!

[GCrites]

^Wow. That's the kind of stuff that that makes me feel that PA is the border state that is by far the most different from us. Everything is so compact and old there as compared to us.

[jwolfer]

In high school i worked at the KMart in Bricktown,NJ.. In 1987 they still had the Grill in the back...
Most memorable thing about working there was we did not get paychecks, we got envelopes of cash. They wanted us to spend in store

LGMS428

[ixnay]

I think the odd full-service restaurant/diner that the Williamsport Kmart had until fairly recently may have owed its existence to the fact that the store was built as a Grants in the mid to late '60s and then converted to Kmart in the early '70s. Apparently, many Grants stores of the era had a similar family restaurant under the Bradford House banner.

The Grants at PA 352 and Dutton Mill Road in Brookhaven, PA indeed had a Bradford House.  That shopping center (which also included a Pathmark) was built in the early '70s.  It later became a Kmart.  Lowes now occupies the Grants/Kmart space.

ixnay

[NJRoadfan]

In high school i worked at the KMart in Bricktown,NJ.. In 1987 they still had the Grill in the back...
Most memorable thing about working there was we did not get paychecks, we got envelopes of cash. They wanted us to spend in store

Its a small world, both my cousins worked there while in HS years later. Somehow that store is still in business.

[jwolfer]

Cool... I worked with some really cool people.. One of the few friends I kept in touch with from HS days worked with me there in toy department

LGMS428

[jp the roadgeek]

30 more closures:

http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-sears-and-kmart-stores-closing-2016-12

Add Enfield, CT to the list.  Whole mall in trouble having lost its Macy's last year at this time

[kkt]

Anyone else remember the "Solid as Sears" ad campaign?

[LM117]

30 more closures:

http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-sears-and-kmart-stores-closing-2016-12

Add Enfield, CT to the list.  Whole mall in trouble having lost its Macy's last year at this time

The fact that the Kmart in Danville VA hasn't made it to the list yet is mind-blowing. It hardly does any business at all. Hell, the last time I was in Sears at the Danville Mall, it looked like we were the only customers. I initially thought they were packed out due to the number of cars in the parking lot, but once I stepped inside, it became obvious real quick people were only using Sears as a mall entrance and nothing more. You could hear a pen drop in that place.

The Kmart in Goldsboro, NC is barely a step up from Danville these days, but it's close proximity to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and being on one of (if not THE) busiest thoroughfares in Goldsboro (Berkeley Boulevard) is probably what's keeping it afloat, although that shopping center recently lost a Save-A-Lot grocery store. I haven't been to the Berkeley Mall since 2009, so I have no idea how Sears is faring there these days.

[SP Cook]

This may finally kill the Charleston Town Center (WV).  The Montgomery Ward store when that chain died found no takers and was eventually "redeveloped" into a insurance company back office and a TV station, and half of food court stood empty and was turned into office space.  This leaves the place with only 2 "anchor stores" (JC Penney and Macy's).

The basic problem is location.  It is on the edge of downtown.  That means it gets many times to foot traffic of the traditional suburban Huntington Mall, which serves a similar population, but far less sales.  Lots of hangers out who are not shopping. 

I was wishing to see my local K-Mart on the list.  It is in a shopping center with a Kroger.  Kroger has held off remodeling, supposedly because it is waiting for the K-Mart to close so it can build a new store on its lot and then repurpose the current store into something like a Big Lots or Ollie's.   My Kroger is way out of date. 

[thenetwork]

As of late, it seems like they plan to shutter a block of Sears and Kmarts about every 4 months.

I had to go shopping for a new dryer and one of the places was a Sears Outlet that was only about 2 years old.  I had thought this was going to replace the floundering Sears big box across town -- both are still in operation along with Kmart. 

The salespeople were nice but the deep discounts claim were off the MSRPs.  The dryers were pretty much were the same price if not 10% more than the same models at Lowe's.  Hence I went to Lowe's as there is a better chance the store will outlive my dryer.

[Brandon]

As of late, it seems like they plan to shutter a block of Sears and Kmarts about every 4 months.

I had to go shopping for a new dryer and one of the places was a Sears Outlet that was only about 2 years old.  I had thought this was going to replace the floundering Sears big box across town -- both are still in operation along with Kmart. 

The salespeople were nice but the deep discounts claim were off the MSRPs.  The dryers were pretty much were the same price if not 10% more than the same models at Lowe's.  Hence I went to Lowe's as there is a better chance the store will outlive my dryer.

Judging from the closure of several Lowe's around Chicagoland, I don't know if the store would survive the dryer.  Lowe's runs a distant third to Menards and Home Depot here, with Menards in the lead from what I can see.

[Max Rockatansky]

As of late, it seems like they plan to shutter a block of Sears and Kmarts about every 4 months.

I had to go shopping for a new dryer and one of the places was a Sears Outlet that was only about 2 years old.  I had thought this was going to replace the floundering Sears big box across town -- both are still in operation along with Kmart. 

The salespeople were nice but the deep discounts claim were off the MSRPs.  The dryers were pretty much were the same price if not 10% more than the same models at Lowe's.  Hence I went to Lowe's as there is a better chance the store will outlive my dryer.

Judging from the closure of several Lowe's around Chicagoland, I don't know if the store would survive the dryer.  Lowe's runs a distant third to Menards and Home Depot here, with Menards in the lead from what I can see.

But Lowe's isn't at risk of going out of business like Sears/Kmart is.  Even a Lowe's store shut down I'm sure it would be easy to go to the next store in the chain to find help....Sears is literally a crap shoot with the poor financials. 

Incidentally I'm completely tripped out at how big Menards has gotten every time I go back to the midwest.  They really weren't much of anything other than a small chain when I was living out there.  I'm surprised Meijer has hung around in the capacity it has as well.

[Brandon]

As of late, it seems like they plan to shutter a block of Sears and Kmarts about every 4 months.

I had to go shopping for a new dryer and one of the places was a Sears Outlet that was only about 2 years old.  I had thought this was going to replace the floundering Sears big box across town -- both are still in operation along with Kmart. 

The salespeople were nice but the deep discounts claim were off the MSRPs.  The dryers were pretty much were the same price if not 10% more than the same models at Lowe's.  Hence I went to Lowe's as there is a better chance the store will outlive my dryer.

Judging from the closure of several Lowe's around Chicagoland, I don't know if the store would survive the dryer.  Lowe's runs a distant third to Menards and Home Depot here, with Menards in the lead from what I can see.

But Lowe's isn't at risk of going out of business like Sears/Kmart is.  Even a Lowe's store shut down I'm sure it would be easy to go to the next store in the chain to find help....Sears is literally a crap shoot with the poor financials. 

Incidentally I'm completely tripped out at how big Menards has gotten every time I go back to the midwest.  They really weren't much of anything other than a small chain when I was living out there.  I'm surprised Meijer has hung around in the capacity it has as well.

"Hung around"?  Hell, Meijer is growing at the pace they want right now, expanding into Madison, Rockford, and Milwaukee, with sights set on Cleveland and the Twin Cities.  Unlike their bigger rival from Arkansas, they (and Menards) want to stay privately owned - no stocks for sale.

[Max Rockatansky]

Yep, and that's kind of surprising considering the boom that the mainstream retailers made in the 1990s which led to the demise of a lot of smaller chains.  It almost seems like the smaller family or niche chains got a lot of business from people who were sick of the saturation of the big corporate retailers.  Its almost like as though chains like Menards and Meijer are starting to fill the void left by the Mom-and-Pop shops which are largely extinct aside from really small towns.  Ironically Kmart seems to be staying alive off of towns with no other retail competitors and Sears still has a pretty substantial franchise business.

[GCrites]

I was wishing to see my local K-Mart on the list.  It is in a shopping center with a Kroger.  Kroger has held off remodeling, supposedly because it is waiting for the K-Mart to close so it can build a new store on its lot and then repurpose the current store into something like a Big Lots or Ollie's.   My Kroger is way out of date.

Ha, that's the exact thing the Lancaster on the west side of Lancaster, OH did. The KMart shut down over the summer and work has begun on turning it into the new Kroger. I'd say it's about 30,000 square feet bigger than the old Kroger.

[LM117]

As of late, it seems like they plan to shutter a block of Sears and Kmarts about every 4 months.

I had to go shopping for a new dryer and one of the places was a Sears Outlet that was only about 2 years old.  I had thought this was going to replace the floundering Sears big box across town -- both are still in operation along with Kmart. 

The salespeople were nice but the deep discounts claim were off the MSRPs.  The dryers were pretty much were the same price if not 10% more than the same models at Lowe's.  Hence I went to Lowe's as there is a better chance the store will outlive my dryer.

Judging from the closure of several Lowe's around Chicagoland, I don't know if the store would survive the dryer.  Lowe's runs a distant third to Menards and Home Depot here, with Menards in the lead from what I can see.

Depends on the region. In eastern North Carolina, Lowe's is king. Home Depot tried to make a go of it in that same area and got creamed by Lowe's. Home Depot built several stores and most of them are now closed. People there are hardcore loyal to Lowe's. The only Home Depot stores remaining east of I-95 (IIRC) are in Jacksonville and Wilmington.

The one in Wilson barely lasted a year. It opened in 2008 and closed in early 2010. The building is now a Hobby Lobby. Lowe's & Home Depot did not co-exist in eastern NC. Meanwhile in Danville, both Home Depot & Lowe's are chugging along just fine.

[Max Rockatansky]

Article from yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-29/sears-jumps-after-lining-up-200-million-to-help-stay-afloat

[jwolfer]

WOKV radio in Jacksonville had a story yesterday about the last KMart in Jacksonville closing in the spring.

LGMS428

[US71]

Article from yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-29/sears-jumps-after-lining-up-200-million-to-help-stay-afloat

One wonders how many millions he'll make when the game is over?

[Max Rockatansky]

Article from yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-29/sears-jumps-after-lining-up-200-million-to-help-stay-afloat

One wonders how many millions he'll make when the game is over?

That's the suspicion by a lot of people that this is an intentional parting out to squeeze every last dollar. 

[LM117]

Article from yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-29/sears-jumps-after-lining-up-200-million-to-help-stay-afloat

One wonders how many millions he'll make when the game is over?

That's the suspicion by a lot of people that this is an intentional parting out to squeeze every last dollar.

Count me in as having that suspicion. Eddie Lampert was the worst thing to happen to Kmart/Sears. He destroyed that company.

[catch22]

Article from yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-29/sears-jumps-after-lining-up-200-million-to-help-stay-afloat

One wonders how many millions he'll make when the game is over?

That's the suspicion by a lot of people that this is an intentional parting out to squeeze every last dollar.

Count me in as having that suspicion. Eddie Lampert was the worst thing to happen to Kmart/Sears. He destroyed that company.

Add me to your list.  The way he's been selling assets off (Lands' End, Sears Outlets, etc.) and the sale of and subsequent leaseback of a lot of store real estate makes it apparent to me he's only interested in maximizing the cash removal.

[PHLBOS]

Anyone else remember the "Solid as Sears" ad campaign?

Yes; such was in reference to the Kenmore brand of appliances. 

The slogan went, "Kenmore, Solid as Sears".  Then one would see the 'block' part of the Sears logo (this was pre-1980) close on the Sears titles.