Sears-Kmart Death Watch

[Flint1979]

Someone on Facebook mentioned getting their driver's license and going to driver's education. I thought for a second and said you know where I went for driving school? If you guessed Sears you'd be right. And I was walking around Fashion Square Mall last night, the Sears is still there but been closed for about 5 years now or so. If you are inside that mall though the signs are still up and lit up too looking like Sears is still in business. I thought to myself this place has been outta here for awhile and the signs are still up. Those were the days.

[vdeane]

The local mall that used to have Sears has done a decent job of covering for it (and other vacant retail spaces) but building "temporary" walls with patterned artwork to disguise it in the interior space.  What's weird with how this interacts with Sears is that they did actually fill the space (or at least most (?) of the first floor; the second floor is still vacant) with Whole Foods, Floor and Decor, and Sierra.  Where this gets weird is that none of them are accessible from the interior.  If you're walking inside, you just hit a wall, and then have a long passage to the doors outside.  I can understand Whole Foods, which moved in before Sears left, so there probably wasn't a good way to connect it at the other time, but why aren't the other two connected?

[SectorZ]

The local mall that used to have Sears has done a decent job of covering for it (and other vacant retail spaces) but building "temporary" walls with patterned artwork to disguise it in the interior space.  What's weird with how this interacts with Sears is that they did actually fill the space (or at least most (?) of the first floor; the second floor is still vacant) with Whole Foods, Floor and Decor, and Sierra.  Where this gets weird is that none of them are accessible from the interior.  If you're walking inside, you just hit a wall, and then have a long passage to the doors outside.  I can understand Whole Foods, which moved in before Sears left, so there probably wasn't a good way to connect it at the other time, but why aren't the other two connected?

I think a lot of places don't want to devote manpower to running two banks of registers. Also Floor and Decor wouldn't benefit much from mall access too much because few people would likely pay to then haul their purchases inside the mall. Just a guess on my part I don't really know the why involved with the decisions.

A lot of malls around me are slowly building up outside-access only locations as well. Will be interested to see how these long-term decisions shake out.

[GCrites]

In the past outside access was often used to keep different hours than the mall. For example some stores want to be open before noon on Sunday when the mall opens. On the other hand beck when malls strictly enforced very long hours around Christmas the outside entry stores could close earlier than the mall in order to make sure they didn't have any money-losing hours very early in the day or late at night. It's also easier on the staff.

On the other hand, you don't get the stroll-in traffic from the mall and the other stores get kind of mad at you that they can't capitalize on your traffic.

[Flint1979]

The local mall that used to have Sears has done a decent job of covering for it (and other vacant retail spaces) but building "temporary" walls with patterned artwork to disguise it in the interior space.  What's weird with how this interacts with Sears is that they did actually fill the space (or at least most (?) of the first floor; the second floor is still vacant) with Whole Foods, Floor and Decor, and Sierra.  Where this gets weird is that none of them are accessible from the interior.  If you're walking inside, you just hit a wall, and then have a long passage to the doors outside.  I can understand Whole Foods, which moved in before Sears left, so there probably wasn't a good way to connect it at the other time, but why aren't the other two connected?

I should have snapped a picture so I could show what I'm talking about but the whole wing of Fashion Square Mall where Sears used to be is alright up until the food court but past the food court they could shut that entrance down and put a wall up and it wouldn't matter. The only business down there is a nail salon that could be relocated. You can kind of see the layout from this map https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4775108,-83.9731,19z/data=!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu
(Sears used to be at the top of the map, then Modern Nails which is the nail salon I mentioned, the part where Yummy Japan is that's the food court). I only saw 8 people in the mall which granted it was a Tuesday afternoon around 4:30-5:00ish but 8 people total I saw in the mall. The mall in Jackson has a Walmart in it that is like you described with the bare wall. The Sears here only had one floor, Macy's and JCPenney have two floors, the mall itself only has one floor. It's about 800,000 square feet so it's not a small mall but not a huge one either.

[Great Lakes Roads]

BREAKING NEWS: The Kmart store in Bridgehampton, NY will be closing in October!

[Ted$8roadFan]

I'm surprised that any are still open.

[SectorZ]

One Kmart left in the continental USA (or in a state). Literally a sole proprietor now.

[Rothman]

They'll bounce back.

[Max Rockatansky]

Found myself in Lemoore the other day and the Kmart marque in Hanford-Armona Road is still there.

[hotdogPi]

Found myself in Lemoore the other day and the Kmart marque in Hanford-Armona Road is still there.

The sign in Salem NH (same plaza as the 99 Restaurant) is still there. It was one of the last ones to close, but that means February 2020.

[Flint1979]

The sign at the old Kmart in Clio, Michigan is still there but the Kmart has been closed about 5 years ago.

[SectorZ]

Found myself in Lemoore the other day and the Kmart marque in Hanford-Armona Road is still there.

The sign in Salem NH (same plaza as the 99 Restaurant) is still there. It was one of the last ones to close, but that means February 2020.

Hampton Falls NH on US 1 still has an Ames marque hanging on the building. That closed in 2002. Maybe the scammy British-French-Indian owners of their IP that claims to be reopening the chain can recycle it.

[RobbieL2415]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

[D-Dey65]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

[thenetwork]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

I believe the one in Miami (the last official mainland Kmart by name only) is more akin to a cross between a C-store.and a Neighborhood Walmart.  The footprint is much smaller than even the smaller Kmarts that once roamed this land.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

Yes, the Kmart in Miami is still open*...

*It has been downsized and moved into the former Kmart's garden center (think of the size of Walgreens/CVS). The store is now taken up by At Home!

[D-Dey65]

Just think, in another generation young people will be watching Ruthless People and have no idea what Bette Midler is talking about when she's been Kidnapped by K-Mart.

Funny you should mention that since the B-52s song "Give Me Back My Man" mentions Korvettes, and that song came out in the same year they went out of business.

[kkt]

I never heard of Korvettes until now.  I see, they were an eastern U.S. chain, while I've lived in the west.

[Life in Paradise]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

Yes, the Kmart in Miami is still open*...

*It has been downsized and moved into the former Kmart's garden center (think of the size of Walgreens/CVS). The store is now taken up by At Home!

Just a question, why is that store still open?  Is it a part of the lease that to make money from the sublease they have to actually have an open K-Mart there?  That would fit Lambert's MO.

[Big John]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

Yes, the Kmart in Miami is still open*...

*It has been downsized and moved into the former Kmart's garden center (think of the size of Walgreens/CVS). The store is now taken up by At Home!

Just a question, why is that store still open?  Is it a part of the lease that to make money from the sublease they have to actually have an open K-Mart there?  That would fit Lambert's MO.

I read somewhere that they need to have an open location in order to keep the registered name. Why someone else would want to use that name is beyond me.

[roadman65]

Walmart and bad management on their part killed them, so I guess they are holding out like maybe they don't want to die.

Hey Boston Market ( I just found out) still is been keeping some stores open as well as Quincy's Steakhouse.  Although the latter still has a clientele in the South Carolina market, so they just did a major cut back and left a certain market open unlike Sears and Kmart leaving open stores scattered in diffferent markets.

[Great Lakes Roads]

https://www.elnuevodia.com/negocios/empresas-comercios/notas/sears-brand-central-cierra-su-tienda-en-plaza-las-americas/?utm_medium=Social&Key2=Value2&key1=value1&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawFs-YNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWQmzQaPmUC0CG01WLXeNSUAQ3fs8OUv2QNuXclAYNEmFDAO3Bm9JS8Kfg_aem_QvyjLIcfe95DAN0z5YwwGg

(Article is in Spanish, but the Sears Brand Central (Sears Home Improvement) store at the Plaza Las Americas Mall in San Juan closed for good and consolidated into the main Sears store.)

[SEWIGuy]

Well there you have it.

https://www.courant.com/2024/09/23/kmarts-blue-light-fades-to-black-with-the-shuttering-of-its-last-full-scale-us-store/

Wait a minute -- So is the Miami one opened or not?

Yes, the Kmart in Miami is still open*...

*It has been downsized and moved into the former Kmart's garden center (think of the size of Walgreens/CVS). The store is now taken up by At Home!

Just a question, why is that store still open?  Is it a part of the lease that to make money from the sublease they have to actually have an open K-Mart there?  That would fit Lambert's MO.

I read somewhere that they need to have an open location in order to keep the registered name. Why someone else would want to use that name is beyond me.

They also have an active web-site.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Number of Sears stores left in each state
CA- 3 (Burbank, Concord, and Whittier)
FL- 2 (Miami and Orlando)
PR- 1 (San Juan)
MA- 1 (Braintree)
TX- 1 (El Paso)

The Sears store in Tukwila, WA is closing this weekend on December 15th. Only 8 Sears stores left within the US!