Last Kmart closing

[Soundguy]

Kmarts here have been drying up for about 15 years. one store south, was so badly maintained, that the farm store that moved in to it's place had to heavily renovate just to sell bags of manure.

[beezapilot]

Oddly, on the South end of town, the economically challenged section, we've a WallMart Neighborhood Market going in. Walking distance, convenience and common items, and you can order anything that WallMart sells and pick it up at that store with no shipping charge. Looks like they might be casting a gauntlet to DG.

[QUOTE=richhodg66;4108810]Dollar General subscribes to the liquor store mentality of being within walking distance of your clientele. The three in Junction are located close to neighborhoods and you see people walking to and from them, the Wal Mart is out on the edge of town close to the interstate. They're also willing to put stores in little towns Wal Mart won't.

[Soundguy]

Is there an aldi nearby?

Around here, aldi co locate with walmarts. Cash/equiv only, but generally technically beat wm prices, even if by a penny.

[TexasGrunt]

Kmart left as soon as Walmart announced a Super Store opening. Dollar General has opened 3 new local stores and left the strip mall. Five grocery chain stores closed as Walmart opened small local stores. Sears is still in the mall, but barely holding on.
I despise Amazon, but the choices are getting few and further between.
The choices we make today affect the ones we can make in the future.

I needed a selection of ATM fuses for my truck. Went to Walmart $18 for a box of 30 fuses. I thought that was a bit high, $8 delivered from Amazon for 120 fuses. I did pick up six 100% cotton tee shirts for $2 each, a can of acetone and a computer mouse for my wife. We also bought some groceries.

[jonp]

The real weird thing is that M Mart owns Sears. Makes hou pause and wonder whats next.

Yes and no. It was a kinda complex deal where Lampert took over Sears in an effort to save Kmart and will do away with the Kmart name and keep Sears selling off real estate which is Sears strong point. Interesting deal making. My take is that neither will survive. There is little reason for Sears to be in existence anymore. The mall real estate they have now which is the total value of the brand is plummeting with the decline of the brick and mortar stores.

[daniel lawecki]

Our last Sears & K-Mart stores are both closing as I type.

[SciFiJim]

The last Kmart on island is closing.
Kind of sad.
I liked to shop at Kmart more than Walmart.
I hope Sears can rebound.
Grew up with Sears.
Christmas catalog was the best.

Is that the one by Aloha Stadium? We always shopped there and the Makai market next door when vacationing in Hawaii.

[edler7]

I have 2 boxes of 7mm rifle ammo I bought years ago on markdown at K-Mart for 88 cents/box.

Those were the days !

[oldblinddog]

Is there an aldi nearby?

Around here, aldi co locate with walmarts. Cash/equiv only, but generally technically beat wm prices, even if by a penny.

Aldi is an EU store. Will not shop there.

[oldblinddog]

Kmart closing/walmart coming in sounds like a good thing to me.

Yep! +1 on that!

[MaryB]

Kmart near me went under years ago, local Sears is also on the way out from the rumor mill. Walmart online is beating Amazon on a lot of prices and over $25 ships free with no need to spend $99 a year on prime. I buy toilet paper by the case so I have it on hand, instead of having to drag it in the house from the store I let Walmart deliver it to my front porch! Walmart is not always the cheapest fr groceries, in MN Hyvee often beats them on pricing on a lot of things plus Hyvee has a much better selection when it comes to ethnic foods and spices where Walmart stocks the top movers only.

[Soundguy]

Aldi is an EU store. Will not shop there.

I don't shop there either, just noticing they seem to co locate.. when a walmart moves in, an aldi moves in next door to the walmart.

[Walkingwolf]

aldi does have some ok points, like having the lowest cost gluten free stuff possible. without having to eat cardboard.

sears and k mart were started in a time of basically ww2 guys coming home, and needing a place to shop that could ress them for church, work, hunting, provide a sandwich, and sell them a gun. BLUE COLLAR

The End of Monkey wards in the late 1980s tricked sears and k mart into going "high end holloywood" boutique.

After Martha stewert got dropped, kmart went into a weird super duper liberal political correctness sctick trying to become the destination store for Hispanics instead of dollar general and family dollar. It failed.

Monkey Ward going belly up after moving into the high rent district(malls) should have alerted Sears that they might have made the wrong move. Our family shopped a lot in Sears department store up until they moved into the mall. My dad hated malls, now that I am older I also hate them.

ETA at least Monkey Wards continued to sell firearms in the mall, Sears stopped as soon as they moved into the mall.

[Soundguy]

All this talk of older stores reminds me of JC Penny. I remember catalog show rooms, eyeglass and picture counters at sears, etc.

[Walkingwolf]

All this talk of older stores reminds me of JC Penny. I remember catalog show rooms, eyeglass and picture counters at sears, etc.

It was great the things that Sears sold, more like a farm store than a department store. Before the move, besides guns they usually had an assortment of go karts, and mini bikes. As well as complete vehicle motors on display stands. There was almost nothing you could not buy, or order.

[tdoyka]

kmart has been gone for years now, i believe it was '91 or '92? wal mart came in and destroyed everything. value city, hills, jc penny, etc... soon sears will be gone too, like their craftsman junk. boscov will be staying, but that is just a matter of time.

[dragon813gt]

boscov will be staying, but that is just a matter of time.

Not so sure about this w/ the founder passing away somewhat recently. He had to come back to save the company once. It's the only reason it's still around. It's definitely one of the better department stores in the area. But I don't buy anything there. I use it to try on clothes that I then buy from Amazon for less money. Why would I pay $50 in Boscov's when I can buy it for $32 on Amazon.

I do try to buy items locally. But it's really hard anymore. I wanted a vest to make airport security easier. Couldn't find one locally and I went to a lot of stores. Needed a travel wallet to keep my passport and a few credit cards in. Could only find really cheap quality ones. And they wanted a lot of money for what they were. In both cases I bought them through Amazon. I even did it w/ LOTO lock yesterday. I need four more on my van. I could pay around $25 a piece through Grainger. Or buy them for $9 a piece through Amazon.

I don't know what the future holds for brick and mortar stores. For some items they will always be a necessity. But for a lot of things they can never compete w/ the internet. Walmart is now offering a discount for ship to store purchases. This seems like the first attempt to keep less stock on hand in their stores. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming decades.

[jcwit]

Aldi is an EU store. Will not shop there.

Why the problem with an EU store?

Youare likely buying chinese merchandise at other stores and likely typing ona chinese computor as am I.

[DerekP Houston]

Is there an aldi nearby?

Around here, aldi co locate with walmarts. Cash/equiv only, but generally technically beat wm prices, even if by a penny.

I'm an Aldi convert, nice small stores and quick to get just what i need. Walmart/HEB are cool if we need a lot of cleaning supplies or sundries that aren't carried but the huge line of registers with 2-3 open and backed up drives me nuts every time.

I must have missed the KMart heydey, they have always been gross and rundown as long as I can remember (only 34 though!) We visited a few growing up with my grandparents but i never saw the appeal. With Target on my boycott list my # of stores to visit is dwindling rapidly.

[mold maker]

When I was young, we drove 44 miles to the nearest K Mart and Sears. It was a real treat not to have to go to a different store for clothes, toys, tools, and yard supplies.
We usually made the trip at least once a year before school started or before Christmas.
As a young married couple K Mart, Sears, Bradford, Sky City, and several other such stores discovered our dollar base and moved close by.
In the last 15 years, every one but Sears is gone and now we have WalMart.
Although I long for the smaller stores because of walking issues, I can find almost everything needed under one roof, and if the electric cart doesn't die, do it without much walking.
I will say that Walmart ( 5 stores in 8 miles) has a price match program that gives me back the difference if they find a local better price on most of my receipt. They have free store pickup for most anything I order, or home delivery for a small fee.
The times, they are a changing !!!!!