re: Anyone miss K-Mart?

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More entertaining than Walmart.

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They had playlists like this on a loop tape back in the 1970’s.

Kmart Christmas Music Loop Tape

I once bought a cheap pair of K-Mart tennis shoes when I was in college. I swear, I think they were $7. Played a ton of sports. Sandlot football, basketball, etc.
They lasted longer than any sneakers I ever bought since and I’ve owned just about every top notch brand. Still blows my mind.

K-mart was the goat for keeping old arse video game consoles and games.
Loved it.

The one off Airline & Mcclelland Dr in the 70’s had a pet dept. My mother use to buy our pet hamsters and pet fish from that store.

My grandfather bought an aluminum riveted bateau and Minn Kota trollmotor from that place. That boat seen a lot of places.

Even had K-tel vinyl records, 8-track tapes, and later on cassettes.

They had a dark room where they had black & white and color TV’s on display to buy.

Back in the day it was the Wal-mart of the 70’s and 80’s.

They failed by not keeping up with the times.

Was my first job. I was a cashier. They paid in cash. At the back of the store. Really smart move on their part and who can argue about getting paid cash.

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Blue light special on Isle 14!

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I knew these high interest rates would bring the price of real estate down. Even island real estate.

Sure, to mess with kids at school. "Yo mama buys your clothes at the Kmart, blue light, side walk sale."

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Back in the day it was the Wal-mart of the 70’s and 80’s.

They failed by not keeping up with the times.

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Part of their failure should be studied In business of how not to reduce the size of the business in order to stay afloat and reverent. I know they had tough times in the late 1990’s, but their continued shrinking of their footprint in the 2000’s also cut future revenues leading to more closures.

Leaving open an unprofitable store as a loss leader has some advantages such as brand recognition and as store front that people are willing to shop there. One could say that instead of closing those locations, they should have reduced the store size and focus on core business models like clothes and electronics.

When my Kmart closed, they were trying to expand into the grocery business with their Big Kmart and Super Kmart refreshes that were done a few years prior. They were trying to go head to head with Walmart since Walmart was expanding with their Supercenter stores. Expanding into the grocery business was not a good idea since some Kmarts were located in a shopping center with an established grocery store next door or adjacent to the Kmart store. Also, around this time credit cards started taking chunks of its layaway business and I think they stopped doing layaways too. Walmart too eventually stopped layaways too because of easy credit. One other reason Kmart failed, not every store had the same experience as other Kmarts. Some Kmarts had cafes, some didn’t, some had automotive services, some didn’t, etc.

Also Kmart’s wages were higher than Walmart. I can remember the buzz when Walmart hired some former Kmart employees at higher rates than some established Walmart workers after Kmart closed.

When I was young, we shopped at KMart, Roses, Sears for the most part. It was the norm. I remember the first Walmart that opened near us and going there

It was like heaven.

Then a few years later, I was fishing on Lake Martin and the opened the first Super Walmart. Holy frick!!!!