Last Metro Detroit Super Kmart to Close

Looks like Kmart is closing its last "Super" Kmart on Van Born in Taylor. The failed discount + grocery superstore concept, in the vein of Kroger Marketplace/Meijer/Fred Meyer, is just one of a variety of almost comical missteps made by the troubled retailer--at one time, the world's largest.

For years, this store has always been one of my favorite guilty-pleasure destinations: time is running out if you're interested in a journey down a rabbit hole into a rundown, deserted, outdated 80s/90s time warp.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...s-us/83356912/

It's crazy to think that something that seemed unstoppable 20 years ago is dying so quickly.

I worked at the Troy K-Mart on Maple Road [[15 Mile) and Livernois for 9 months. It was a poor experience. They refused to give me a single weekend day off in the 9 months I worked there.

I had a much better experience at Walmart.

K-Mart could go back to its roots and start opening much smaller outlets with dollar-store style pricing [[Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General). They could reestablish a footprint in urban and suburban areas alike.

Here's another, more local article on this.

http://www.thenewsherald.com/article...0362858194.txt

I'm still waiting on something to happen at the former Southgate Super Kmart.

Kmart is one of the most harrowing corporate management failures in modern business history. Once the largest retailer in the country by sales dollars. They over-extended into other businesses while failing to improve either operations or customer experience. While other retailers reinvested substantial earnings into better stores, newer technology, improved distributions, big value and quality, Kmart sat on their laurels into the poorhouse. I didn't think it was possible, but they only got worse after being acquired by Sears. I grew up as a Kmart loyalist. A high school friend of mine was once a store manager for Kmart [[now he is a regional manager for Lowes) and he says that the management culture was the most disorganized, cheap and lackadaisical of any of several national retailers he has worked for. I am not surprised. I think it might be fun to place bets on when the last Kmart will close. Meijer gets most of my shopping money now. And you know what? A Meijer store is better than a Meijer 30 years ago; a Kmart is worse.

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Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

A Meijer store is better than a Meijer 30 years ago; a Kmart is worse.

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I think you hit the nail on the head right there. Meijer has invested in their stores and keep them from looking jaded. K-Mart stores are just down-right depressing to be inside of.

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Originally Posted by Hypestyles

K-Mart could go back to its roots and start opening much smaller outlets with dollar-store style pricing [[Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General). They could reestablish a footprint in urban and suburban areas alike.

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Since they have tried and failed at the big suburban concept, I suppose going the other way with smaller outlets couldn't be any worse. And because K-Mart is now such a tainted brand, why not call a urban based store "Kresge"!

DOTWC, if Kmart were to survive in some form [[and I think it won't for reasons I'll post below), a name change is essential. The brand is so tainted that it is not a store anyone looks forward to going to. Even if the stores were suddenly new and wonderful, a whole lotta people would never go back to Kmart. The Kresge name is cool and would honor history, although I'm not sure the marketing research always used to determine branding would like it as much as we do.

About Kmart's survival, I think the outlook is bleak, mostly because the company seems to be trying to find ways of making money that have nothing to do with retailing. Since the acquisition by Sears Holdings, both national brands have done nothing but shrink and decline. Kmart, in a now-apparent bad strategy, owns lots of it's stores, rather than leasing retail space, which is the norm for most national retailers. That has made Kmart slow to embrace newer, better locations. Walmart and Meijer have over the years built new stores on a regular basis, often near older ones which are then closed. They are able to do that because they have no financial commitments beyond the terms of the lease. Kmart stores are often much older, smaller, and in less heavily trafficked locations than their rivals as a result. When those rivals cause a local Kmart to begin to falter financially, they close the store and cash out by selling the store or plaza it's attached to. Selling of closed Kmarts and Sears stores has been a major source of revenue for Sears holdings. Sears, also, has begun cannibalizing its stores by making them much smaller, and subletting the unused space to other retailers. Brings in cash, but further lowers opportunities to make sales. As they keep closing stores, national buying power and marketing clout further diminish, as does the desire of a brand to partner with Kmart or Sears. They have also been selling off [[or trying to sell off) the company's non-physical assets, such as the successful Lands End online & catalog business, Sear's Auto Center, etc. Word is they have been trying to market Kenmore appliance brand, and other proprietary brands. Sears Holdings has come to the conclusion that selling the company, bit by bit, will net more money than trying to make the company itself sell things. At this point, they are probably correct. It was fixable 20 years ago, maybe even 10. Now, would the last person leaving Kmart please turn out the blue light?

I still maintain that Tom Cruise and Rain Man killed KMart. The "KMart sucks" line was the most memorable thing in the movie.

Brick and mortar retail is on life support, and has been for some time now. Retail has been a drag on the GDP figures as well.

An estimate of the nation's department stores averaged $165.00 in sales – per square foot last year, which is an incredulous 24% decline since 2006. That bargain basement figure is likely due to the consumer shifting towards online, making a trip to a tri-level Macy’s at the local mall increasingly unnecessary. For department stores – especially anchor stores – they must boost per square foot sales; which is essential to driving profits, and pay their high rents.

Sears Holdings Corp., has been bleeding, and on life support since they owned the Prodigy network – not quite.
Sears has been quietly culling their store population [[over and over again) for some time now. Their stock snapshot is as dismal as their product lines. SHLD – the stock symbol for Sears Holdings, has lost over 57% of its value in the past 12 months, leaving it with a paltry market cap. of 1.9 billion – which puts it in the small capitalization category. I hope pain is something their shareholders enjoy. To go back to somewhat greener times, 2006 for example, much deeper cuts – down to the bone – are required, such as shuttering an additional 300 stores, which is ~ 43% of the total stores left in the portfolio. I do not think any amount of cuts will reverse the coffin that has been waiting for Sears.

Misery loves company; J.C. Penney is top heavy as well; needing to close ~ 300 locations, or ~ 31% of its store base.
By comparison, Macy's, which has been one of the more aggressive retailers to minimize their mall footprint, is shuddering 35 stores this spring. Macy’s has, and is, closing their expensive, under-performing brick and mortar locations, and would only need to eliminate a further ~ 60 sites, or ~ 9% of its base. Leaving Macy’s with a little over 700 stores – down from 858 in 2006. Macy’s stock is down 40% in the past 12 months – it has a market cap. of 12 billion.

Free shipping on Amazon Dash replacement buttons – over 100 in stock
Amazon has a market capitalization of $295 billion

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Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

Kmart, in a now-apparent bad strategy, owns lots of it's stores, rather than leasing retail space, which is the norm for most national retailers. That has made Kmart slow to embrace newer, better locations. Walmart and Meijer have over the years built new stores on a regular basis, often near older ones which are then closed. They are able to do that because they have no financial commitments beyond the terms of the lease. Kmart stores are often much older, smaller, and in less heavily trafficked locations than their rivals as a result. When those rivals cause a local Kmart to begin to falter financially, they close the store and cash out by selling the store or plaza it's attached to.

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Case in point: Kmart is currently in the liquidation process at its Sterling Heights 18 Mile/Dequindre store in the ailing "Windmill Plaza". A conventional Kroger already occupies the opposite SE corner, but is planning to demolish the former Kmart & Windmill Plaza to expand and build a Kroger Marketplace.

One would think this situation would give the braniac senior management at Sears Holdings reason for pause as to why Kroger can do what Kmart can't do on the exact same street corner. But, no . . . .

Like Mikey says [[particularly under the helm of "corporate cannibalizer"/hedge-fund manager Eddie Lampert), Sears/K has basically been burning the furniture to heat the house. Consequently, there are no funds available to allocate toward capital improvements to the existing stores, which drives even more customers away. So far, they have been using sale proceeds to buy buckets for bailing, but the gaping leak [[the product itself) has never been fixed.

Add to the toxic mix: what real estate they do hold continues to devalue by the day, as brick-and-mortar space [[particuarly mid-tiered shopping centers) are struggling due to oversaturation and changing demographics. Not a pretty picture of the future.

They merged two competing and failing companies into one big failing company.

I still shop Sears and Kmart exclusively,but 100% online.

I think Sears needs to go back to its roots and go after Amazon,they still have a following of memories but the young ones do not care, if joe blogs has it for 1c cheaper that is the loyalty.

Keep the brick n mortar Kmart as a 100% made in America outlet and use the Sears platform for the online ordering in one place to save tech and labor.

I do not think the Kmart brand is beyond repair,it just needs direction.

At least they are staying out of the bathroom issue.

They could probably set up a nice distribution and online ordering center in Detroit and incourage some made in America manufacturing to relocate,the cost saving factors should make the stockholders happy to stop the bleeding.

Or shut them all down so we can keep kissing China's rear end in our race to the bottom in order to save a buck.

Is the Garden City store [[Ford Rd & Middlebelt) still open?
That was the 1st original K-mart store.
A former grocery store.

Visited an out-of-state Kmart not long ago [[in Pennsylvania). There were many signs advertising that they were hiring, with lots of signs proclaiming "Start Your Kmart Career" or something of the like. I thought it was both funny and sad. What's the difference between a Titanic passenger and a Kmart new hire? The Titanic passengers did not know they were boarding a sinking ship.

K-Mart pioneered the concept of hiring checkout clerks with IQs in the low double digits. Unfortunately, that idea has now spread and even supermarket checkout clerks are trending that way.

It is a far cry from the old supermarket checkout clerks. They would stand there with a cigarette dangling from the corner of their mouth and one foot up on an overturned wooden coke case. They would drag the groceries with their purple price stamps through with one hand while the other hand entered the prices using their fingers and the heel of their hand would hit the large "grocery" "meat" or "produce" keys. Those ladies are long gone, but justly remembered.

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Originally Posted by wilderness

Is the Garden City store [[Ford Rd & Middlebelt) still open?
That was the 1st original K-mart store.
A former grocery store.

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Still there. It was not a former grocery store, though. It was built new for KMart. It did have a grocery store next to it, which was later closed and KMart then expanded into its space.

I grew up a few blocks from there, and our family was among the crowd on its opening day.

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Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

DOTWC, if Kmart were to survive in some form [[and I think it won't for reasons I'll post below), a name change is essential. The brand is so tainted that it is not a store anyone looks forward to going to. Even if the stores were suddenly new and wonderful, a whole lotta people would never go back to Kmart. The Kresge name is cool and would honor history, although I'm not sure the marketing research always used to determine branding would like it as much as we do.

About Kmart's survival, I think the outlook is bleak, mostly because the company seems to be trying to find ways of making money that have nothing to do with retailing. Since the acquisition by Sears Holdings, both national brands have done nothing but shrink and decline. Kmart, in a now-apparent bad strategy, owns lots of it's stores, rather than leasing retail space, which is the norm for most national retailers. That has made Kmart slow to embrace newer, better locations. Walmart and Meijer have over the years built new stores on a regular basis, often near older ones which are then closed. They are able to do that because they have no financial commitments beyond the terms of the lease. Kmart stores are often much older, smaller, and in less heavily trafficked locations than their rivals as a result. When those rivals cause a local Kmart to begin to falter financially, they close the store and cash out by selling the store or plaza it's attached to. Selling of closed Kmarts and Sears stores has been a major source of revenue for Sears holdings. Sears, also, has begun cannibalizing its stores by making them much smaller, and subletting the unused space to other retailers. Brings in cash, but further lowers opportunities to make sales. As they keep closing stores, national buying power and marketing clout further diminish, as does the desire of a brand to partner with Kmart or Sears. They have also been selling off [[or trying to sell off) the company's non-physical assets, such as the successful Lands End online & catalog business, Sear's Auto Center, etc. Word is they have been trying to market Kenmore appliance brand, and other proprietary brands. Sears Holdings has come to the conclusion that selling the company, bit by bit, will net more money than trying to make the company itself sell things. At this point, they are probably correct. It was fixable 20 years ago, maybe even 10. Now, would the last person leaving Kmart please turn out the blue light?

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Sears chairman Eddie Lampert – who also manages a Hedge-Fund – last wrote to investors in February of 2016. This was a letter of some significance, as Lambert rarely speaks to the media – exception being a 2004 BusinessWeek cover story proclaiming him the next Warren Buffett. Lambert doesn't talk to Wall Street analysts, or CNBC – who threw the towel in on this has-been fighter several rounds ago. Lambert’s letter to shareholders, in which he moans, grumbles and sobs, about how unfair it was that traditional retailers such as Sears are held to different standards than West Coast startups. He specifically mentions Uber's ability to raise almost unlimited capital, Amazon's historical evasion of sales tax [[2014), and Tesla's acceptance of government subsidies. Blaming everyone and everything but himself, and the poor decisions his company has made; Sears has reported a loss since 2011.

Back stepping to 2014; Sears lost $1 billion in the first half of the year, it was at this time that the company revealed a loan in a vaguely-worded regulatory filing. This short-term loan was provided by individuals tied to ESL Investments [[Eddie Scott Lambert?), whose sole stockholder and CEO is Sears head Eddie Lampert. Additionally, ESL Investments controls ~ 25% of Sears's outstanding shares, making ESL the No. 1 stockholder. Lampert personally owns ~ 25% of the company's outstanding stock - Awkward and shady.

Going back to the 2006 merger; Lampert orchestrated the merger of Sears and K-Mart, and took the captain’s chair of the newly formed Sears Holdings. At that time, Sears' enterprise value stood at $22 billion, it took in $49 billion in annual revenue and made $2.2 billion in cash from operations. Today, its market capital capitalization is less than $2 billion, and it's been five years since the word profit and Sears were mentioned in the same sentence. By any financial standard – sales, profit, cash flow – Lampert has done nothing right, he has ripped the retailer apart. He's also has stymied the company with debt, to the tune of $5 billion in two years from capital raises and asset sales. Lambert has sold off divisions such as Lands End and Sears Canada, and spun off the bulk of the company's best properties into some real estate investment trust. He used all of this money to fund the day to day operations of a company that continues to bleed and burn cash. I see an obituary in 2017, put all the lipstick you want on this pig, it’s still a pig.

Sears is among 218 companies listed by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services earlier this month as being among the "weakest links," having the lowest credit ratings with a negative outlook.

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Originally Posted by Hermod

K-Mart pioneered the concept of hiring checkout clerks with IQs in the low double digits. Unfortunately, that idea has now spread and even supermarket checkout clerks are trending that way.

It is a far cry from the old supermarket checkout clerks. They would stand there with a cigarette dangling from the corner of their mouth and one foot up on an overturned wooden coke case. They would drag the groceries with their purple price stamps through with one hand while the other hand entered the prices using their fingers and the heel of their hand would hit the large "grocery" "meat" or "produce" keys. Those ladies are long gone, but justly remembered.

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K-Mart also started the concept of never having more than one checkout lane open at a time. And it always ended up with a price check in checkout aisle 1. Many minutes would pass before either the phone would ring or a bored employee would wander up and ask what item needed a price check. Biggest reason I stopped going there. I still buy the few American made tools at Sears.

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Originally Posted by catch22

Still there. It was not a former grocery store, though. It was built new for KMart. It did have a grocery store next to it, which was later closed and KMart then expanded into its space.

I grew up a few blocks from there, and our family was among the crowd on its opening day.

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The second Kmart to open [[on the east side at 9 Mile & Harper in St Clair Shores), is still in operation as well. In 1964, my Mom [[a housewife for 10 years at that point) put in a job application there--- mostly to see if she was still employable in the business world. They called for an interview, but she chickened out. To this day, when I pass by 9/Harper with my 88-year old Mom in the car, I'll say "let's stop in and see if they still have your job application on file".

9 Mile & Harper in St Clair Shores - in the late 80s, consistently either #1 or #2 in the entire chain in sales. It was a sales machine.

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Originally Posted by catch22

Still there. It was not a former grocery store, though. It was built new for KMart. It did have a grocery store next to it, which was later closed and KMart then expanded into its space.

I grew up a few blocks from there, and our family was among the crowd on its opening day.

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The original Southgate store [[on Eureka Road) opened that same year as well. They even had a second floor for the furniture area. It had a neighboring grocery store as well.

That store closed in 1994, by then the grocery space was now a Farmer Jack. Office Depot took over for a while in the late 1990's, then the grocery space expanded into the western area of the former Kmart to become a Kroger by 2000. The remainder now operates as Dunham's Sports.

They are also closing the K-Mart on Orchard Lake and 14 Mile on July 3rd. Having closeout sales now. It's ironic that while the store is closing, they have "we're hiring" signs everywhere.

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Originally Posted by Hypestyles

K-Mart could go back to its roots and start opening much smaller outlets with dollar-store style pricing [[Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General). They could reestablish a footprint in urban and suburban areas alike.

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Don't think they could survive that either. The stores you mentioned already have a leg up on them, so to speak.