Goodbye K-Mart!

**Danny** · July-11-14, 04:07 AM

Just about Detroit is getting two new Mejier's Superstores, The Super K-Mart in Telegraph Rd. near W. 8 Mile Rd. will be closed along the Super K-Mart on Fort St. near Pennsylvania Rd. in Southgate.

Terrible is'n it. But that's competition.

Both of those supercenters will close on October 12.

**GPCharles** · July-11-14, 07:11 AM

FYI - It's Kmart.

Kmart hasn't been much of a retailer for more than 10 years. The store at Nine Mile and Harper in St. Clair Shores was the #1 store in the chain [[in sales) for many years -now it's a joke.

Former Kmart Associate

**313WX** · July-11-14, 07:13 AM

The title is a bit misleading.

I thought Kmart was finally being liquidated and closing all of their stores...

**emu steve** · July-11-14, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by 313WX

The title is a bit misleading.

I thought Kmart was finally being liquidated and closing all of their stores...

K Mart and Dennys are two big chains which have really gone south over the decades.

I used to love to eat at Dennys but they are closing [[or closed) and some of the remainder are not in good shape.

The best Dennys I know: Rawsonville, off of 94. Excellent Dennys. Was there Monday while in S.E. Michigan.

Best K Mart? Is there one?

**Scottathew** · July-11-14, 08:39 AM

K-Mart sucks. It will go the way of Farmer Jack soon enough.

I used to work at the Maple Road store in Troy, it was the closest to headquarters. The store manager was a dick. Their technology sucked. I wasn't allowed to take one weekend day off in 9 months.

I worked at Walmart afterward and it was WAY better. Walmart paid me more, gave me more opportunities for advancement, had awesome technology, and had very flexible scheduling around my college and personal needs.

**preserve** · July-11-14, 10:41 AM

I was sadder when Bonny Brook closed.

**mtburb** · July-11-14, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Danny

the Super K-Mart on Fort St. near Pennsylvania Rd. in Southgate

Sounds like come October 12, it'll be the Meijer across the street or the Kroger near the Southgate Shopping Center for me.

I wonder, though, if SMART will be closing the bus stop at that store, however, once it closes-and what will they do with the park-and-ride lot there? It's conceiving how both Kmart stores have had at least some service from SMART during the times they were open-the Detroit one was once the endpoint for the now-discontinued-due-to-Livonia-wanting-to-distance-itself-from-Metro-Detroit route #315.

**matt76** · July-11-14, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

Sounds like come October 12, it'll be the Meijer across the street or the Kroger near the Southgate Shopping Center for me.

I wonder, though, if SMART will be closing the bus stop at that store, however, once it closes-and what will they do with the park-and-ride lot there? It's conceiving how both Kmart stores have had at least some service from SMART during the times they were open-the Detroit one was once the endpoint for the now-discontinued-due-to-Livonia-wanting-to-distance-itself-from-Metro-Detroit route #315.

this is just a rumor but i've heard Sears will be moving to the site. they will be closing the lincoln park store in the near future. walmart is trying to buy up the entire lincoln park shopping center to open up a new super store. kind of like what they did in southgate with the former best buy site.

**Brian1979** · July-11-14, 09:37 PM

All I know is that Saginaw has been without a KMart since the winter. There use to be three KMart's in Saginaw, now there is only one and that one location had it's roof cave in last winter and has been closed ever since. Heard it's suppose to reopen in October.

**softailrider** · July-11-14, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by preserve

I was sadder when Bonny Brook closed.

When that was a nine hole course it was a great track.

**iheartthed** · July-12-14, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

The title is a bit misleading.

I thought Kmart was finally being liquidated and closing all of their stores...

KMart is a subsidiary of Sears.

**Hypestyles** · July-13-14, 05:51 PM

I wonder if the brand will get "revived" at some point as a dollar-store concept, which, ironically, would bring it back to its roots.
In the 1990s, even as Wal-Mart, Big Lots and Target were getting better at K-Mart's game, chains like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar [[and indie outlets) were gaining momentum for smaller-scale stores.

**313WX** · July-13-14, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

KMart is a subsidiary of Sears.

Yes, I'm aware of that.

What's your point?

**Hermod** · July-14-14, 04:49 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

I wonder if the brand will get "revived" at some point as a dollar-store concept, which, ironically, would bring it back to its roots.
In the 1990s, even as Wal-Mart, Big Lots and Target were getting better at K-Mart's game, chains like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar [[and indie outlets) were gaining momentum for smaller-scale stores.

WT Grant, Caldor, Ames, Zayre, Woolco, JM Fields, and Masons all failed at K-Marts game.

**emu steve** · July-14-14, 05:08 AM

There is a very big market there but Wal-Mart and Target have simply beat K Mart in success at that market.

One thing over the last say 25 - 50 years, many products that folks bought at say K Mart they now buy at say CVS or their grocery store or even 7 - 11.

Does one need to go to K Mart to buy windshield wiper solution for the car? [[I bought my last solution at 7 - 11).

**DetroitPlanner** · July-14-14, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by emu steve

Does one need to go to K Mart to buy windshield wiper solution for the car? [[I bought my last solution at 7 - 11).

I do agree that K-mart has lost it distribution edge.

Convenience Stores always have the highest prices. You are paying 20-50% more for the convenience.

**motz** · July-14-14, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by emu steve

There is a very big market there but Wal-Mart and Target have simply beat K Mart in success at that market.

One thing over the last say 25 - 50 years, many products that folks bought at say K Mart they now buy at say CVS or their grocery store or even 7 - 11.

Does one need to go to K Mart to buy windshield wiper solution for the car? [[I bought my last solution at 7 - 11).

Problem stemmed from Eddie Lampert's lack of reinvestment in the business. Instead of developing a strong team that could modernize stores, update systems to be less archaic [[when I worked there back about 7-10 years ago, their registers as well as many other systems were probably 20 years old), try and match market trends as well as advertise to the people who spend money, Eddie has just made preparations to split Kenmore/Craftsman/etc off and sell them for tons of money, while letting Sears/Kmart die. It's a really sad story, Eddie Lampert is really a pretty terrible person, just looking for more money and power.

**Scottathew** · July-14-14, 11:10 AM

Back when I was ringing register for K-Mart they had some funny tech issues. If it would rain really, really hard the store's music would go out. When the music went out, so did the ability to ring up items on the register.

We would wait and eventually the music would come back on and that's when we knew the registers would start working again.

**mtburb** · July-14-14, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by 48307

Back when I was ringing register for K-Mart they had some funny tech issues. If it would rain really, really hard the store's music would go out. When the music went out, so did the ability to ring up items on the register.

We would wait and eventually the music would come back on and that's when we knew the registers would start working again.

The store that you worked at must've had some serious roof problems at the time. Was it eventually repaired or did it stay like that until it eventually went out of business?

**emu steve** · July-14-14, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by 48307

Back when I was ringing register for K-Mart they had some funny tech issues. If it would rain really, really hard the store's music would go out. When the music went out, so did the ability to ring up items on the register.

We would wait and eventually the music would come back on and that's when we knew the registers would start working again.

Are these the two lead paragraphs of the death story of K-Mart?

Like does anyone need to read more?

Why would anyone shop there? Did they run to the nearest Target or Wal-Mart?

**jlnascar** · July-14-14, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by 48307

K-Mart sucks. It will go the way of Farmer Jack soon enough.

I used to work at the Maple Road store in Troy, it was the closest to headquarters. The store manager was a dick. Their technology sucked. I wasn't allowed to take one weekend day off in 9 months.

I worked at Walmart afterward and it was WAY better. Walmart paid me more, gave me more opportunities for advancement, had awesome technology, and had very flexible scheduling around my college and personal needs.

Though Walmart was the debil

**Hypestyles** · July-14-14, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Hermod

WT Grant, Caldor, Ames, Zayre, Woolco, JM Fields, and Masons all failed at K-Marts game.

You forgot about Venture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_Stores

**mtburb** · July-14-14, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

You forgot about Venture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_Stores

And there was also Jupiter-another discount store spin-off from Kresge.

**Hermod** · July-14-14, 03:05 PM

K-mart pioneered the use of cashiers with an IQ of twenty or less.

**motz** · July-14-14, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

The store that you worked at must've had some serious roof problems at the time. Was it eventually repaired or did it stay like that until it eventually went out of business?

There was a satellite system that would stream in the music from their Kmart Radio thing based from headquarters. It also supplied some functionality to the in-store systems, even though if I remember correctly the in-store downtime was largely due to the fact that everything we used would've already graduated high school and was quickly approaching college graduation.