"Attention Kmart Shoppers"
This was the first ever opened Kmart that opened in 1962. The Kmart stores had since expanded rapidly and they had 2,486 (nearly 2,500) stores in 1994. and they were mostly off mall. Sadly they had only 13 distribution centers across the country that they put after the stores were already in place, which put a strain on the system and the entire thing shut down when the weather happened. In the end it is the same old story: greed.
Kmart hit its peak in 1994. Joseph Antonini left the company a year later in 1995. Antonini was either aware that Kmart hit its peak and that it was falling and so he decided to leave as to not deal with it, or Kmart starting falling without his leadership.
After Antonini left, Floyd Hall became the next Kmart CEO. He did things such as spin off unrelated companies such as Bulders Square, Office Max, Borders (which took Waldenbooks with it), and introduced Big Kmart, which was kind of a waste of time and money. It didn’t do much for the company, it felt like a total rebrand of the company and not just a store concept type of thing and it was underwhelming. From what I’ve read “Big Kmart” was just a regular Kmart but with more clothes and a pantry food section, but that's about it.
Floyed Hall made a good decision selling off unrelated assets and focusing on the Kmart brand itself. The Big Kmart concept was, again, an underwhelming waste of time and money however, it was an attempt to save the company. Sure, it might not have worked out that much but at least it was an honest attempt. At least Floyd Hall attempted to make Kmart more profitable. Kmart was becoming less profitable, and Hall just tried to fix it. His plans for the company kind of backfired, but at least he actually tried.
Super Kmart was the future and it had a lot more than just that. It had a fresh produce and expanded grocery section.
In 2000 Charles Conaway became the Kmart CEO. Lets look at a quick timeline;
2000- Conaway becomes Kmart CEO
2002- Kmart files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
2003- A Kmart fraud / embezzlement scandal is revealed
2005-2010 - Conaway, along with other higher ups at Kmart, are charged with embezzlement and fraud.
Antonini and Hall put money into the company, Conaway kept taking money out.
Kmart was honestly slipping before Conaway became the CEO, but after he left, the company was basically broken, shattered and destroyed almost beyond repair.
After Conaway left Kmart, Eddie Lampert became the CEO. Lampert didn’t do much to help the company either but he’s not the one who originally destroyed it. Metaphorically speaking; Conaway dug Kmart’s grave, Lampert was just digging deeper and he also dragged Sears down to Kmart’s level. Ironically, Lampert buying Kmart prolonged the company's existence, lifespan and longevity. I genuinely believe Kmart would have gotten to Chapter 7, ceased all operations and dissolved completely past 2008 or so if Lampert didn't buy them out of bankruptcy. This means that all locations, including this first one, would have shut down for good at the same time way, way earlier, less than a decade before this store here in Garden City Michigan actually did in 2017. Kmart lost so much market share to Walmart and Target, and Kmart stores were increasingly outdated and uninviting. As for Sears, simply having good management (not Lampert) would have given them time to refocus on the internet (which also included investments in the inventory site wide on Sears.com (1992/96-present) and in the stores for curbside pick up and ship from store and ship to store, staffing, and even store and site upkeep) coupled with concepts like Sears Hardware (1985-2019) and The Great Indoors (1997-2012) etc. Sears was an even stronger brand than Kmart with all the brands Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, a window to go off mall and expand concepts like Sears Grand, Sears Hardware and The Great Indoors when the Kmart thing happened, and a window to refocus on e-commerce by the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s at the absolute latest. Lampert ran Sears into the ground with pretty much no room to get out.
With all of that being said, this location had a [Kmart Cafe] (https://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalsky/5994442565/) that later became a [Nathan's Famous] (https://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/15984447483/). Last day was March 26th of 2017.
Sources, Credits and Dates Taken
Free Press Archives, Peter Yates and JC Reindel (Detroit Free Press)
Kmart through the years
https://www.freep.com/picture-gallery/money/business/2017/01/04/kmart-through-the-years/96179366/
Nicholas Eckhart aka (also known as) Fan of Retail (Flickr) January 18 2015 and February 20 2017
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=71978807%40N03&view_all=1&text=Kmart+Garden+City
PeRrshGo (Wikimedia Commons) May 25 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmart
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Kmart_-_Garden_City,_Michigan.jpg
Mike Kalasnik (Flickr) February 28 2017
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=10542402%40N06&view_all=1&text=Kmart+Garden+City+MI
As of the day of this post well over 9 years after this first location closed down, there are only 3 Kmarts left and they also have the website Kmart.com as well. The 3 locations include 1 in the continental US, at Kendale Lakes Plaza (1977-present) in Florida, not far from the Coral Gables Sears (October 27 1954-present, address 3655 SW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33145), in Miami, one of 2 Sears left in the state of Florida, which is also home to the last Kmart in the state and on the mainland. As for Sears, there are 5 left and they are still also online as well. In the state of Florida, there are 2 Sears left like I just said, and the other one is located at The Florida Mall (March 12 1986-present) in Orlando. The other 3 Sears are located at the Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord, the last in California and on the West Coast (Sears store itself October 19 1966-present, mall itself August 5 1967-present), the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, the last in Massachusetts and in New England as well as the Northeastern United States (October 6 1980-present) and the Cielo Vista Mall (Sears department store itself February 25 1982-present, shopping mall itself November 13 1974-present) and the other 2 Kmarts are in the territories, at the Tutu Park Mall in St Thomas US Virgin Islands (1993-present) and the freestanding Kmart in Tamuning Guam (1995-present)
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