The number of Kmarts in the U.S., once well over 2,000, will be down to three last holdouts, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.
The familiar sights and sounds are still there: the scuffed and faded floor tiles, the relentless beige-on-beige colour scheme, the toddlers' clothes and refrigerators and pretty much everything in between.
Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the U.S. -- once well over 2,000 -- will be down to three last holdouts, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon. In its heyday, Kmart sold product lines endorsed by celebrities Martha Stewart and Jaclyn Smith, sponsored NASCAR auto races and was mentioned in movies including "Rain Man" and "Beetlejuice." It was name-dropped in songs by artists from Eminem to the Beastie Boys to Hall and Oates; in 2003, Eminem bought a 29-room, suburban Detroit mansion once owned by former Kmart chairman Chuck Conaway.
"Kmart was part of America," said Michael Lisicky, a Baltimore-based author who has written several books on U.S. retail history. "Everybody went to Kmart, whether you liked it or not. They had everything. You had toys. You had sporting goods. You had candy. You had stationery. It was something for everybody. This was almost as much of a social visit as it was a shopping visit. You could spend hours here. And these just dotted the American landscape over the years.
A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness, but the recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing those goals. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and currently has a handful of stores left in the U.S. where it once had thousands.It didn't have to end this way, according to Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University in New York and former CEO of Sears Canada.
Transformco, which owns Kmart and Sears, did not respond to an email seeking comment and a phone number listed for the company was not taking messages.
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