Super Kmart Blog!

Manhattan Penn Station Kmart

2012-01-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

Manhattan Penn Station Kmart
250 W 34th Street, New York NY 10119

This multi-level 141 thousand square foot store, unique to Kmart in many ways, was the first store by Kmart in New York City, and opened in 1996. Perhaps it can be considered a "flagship" store, as in recent years Christmas toy promotions have been unveiled in front of this store in the busy pedestrian area. It sits in a prime location for office workers, commuters, and travelers as it includes entrances from the train/subway level at Penn Station and at street level. In the middle of this busy city, across from Madison Square Garden, the store was expected to generate $50-75 million a year in sales when it opened. There are cash registers at multiple entrances, and the store layout is obviously quite different from the average single-floor suburban Kmart. It is also interesting to note that Walmart and Target are now trying to expand into core urban areas, with Target also having multi-level stores, although oftentimes in a smaller footprint.

Photos above taken July 2005, below taken October 2011

The concourse level entrance from inside Penn Station includes the main entrance to the store and pharmacy (on the right), and a "convenience mart" entrance on the left that features its own cashier and tourist souvenirs and grab-and-go drinks.

A security guard is stationed at both this entrance and the street level entrance and occasionally asks to check receipts, although how effective this is at preventing shoplifting we are not sure.

The view of the "convenience mart" on the concourse level, which can remain open even when the main store is closed as it has a separate entrance to the concourse and the connector to the main store (shown above) can be closed.

Shopping carts, bag recycling, and greeting cards are on the left when entering from the concourse level.

On the concourse level are electronics, sporting goods, toys, seasonal, and foods; on the ground (street) level is mainly women's apparel; and the intermediate level has men's clothing and home fashions.

Some of the concourse level registers.

There is a cell phone kiosk at the entrance to the electronics section, which is "shelved in" with a single entrance/exit manned by a security guard.

One of the main aisles on the concourse level.

The entrance to the "shelved in" electronics section.

New Yorkers use pull carts a lot!

Odd for carts to be lined in the middle of a busy main corridor.

One of the several banks of escalators in the store. Signage could have been improved.

The middle level.

Computer kiosk. Unsure of whether anyone uses it frequently...

Softlines at the street level, which could almost pass for a nice department store given its floor to ceiling windows.

The registers at street level have a "single line" cash register setup in which everyone is the same line and then whenever a cashier opens up the cashier (and an automated voice) yells for the next customer to proceed. Computer models show this is, in theory, much faster than each cash register having its own line.

Revolving door entrance optional. The floormats still have the old logo.

View from the street entrance, note the flat-screen TVs throughout the store that occasionally flash product or store ads.

Single line cashier system.

View from street level.

Perhaps the high visibility street level window display could be improved...

End of 2011

2011-12-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Happy new year, for they may be numbered for Sears/Kmart...

SHLD announced year-to-date results as of 12/25/2011 with Kmart same store sales down 1.8%, continuing the familiar news of declining sales, revenue, profit, etc.

From the press release:
"While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment. "

What does that mean? Basically, over 100 stores will be closed in 2012... as in they know a bunch of stores are "marginal" and haven't done diddly-squat to improve them, and are now going to pay the price. Here's more from the PR:

"Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model. These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail - at the store, online and in the home," said Chief Executive Officer Lou D'Ambrosio. Specific actions which we plan to take include:

Close 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears Full-line stores. We expect these store closures to generate $140 to $170 million of cash as the net inventory in these stores is sold and we expect to generate additional cash proceeds from the sale or sublease of the related real estate. Further, we intend to optimize the space allocation based on category performance in certain stores. Final determination of the stores to be closed has not yet been made.

Basically, this means they have no clear plan for recovery other than continuing to close stores, which is not a good plan at all. "Integrated retail" isn't going to work - MyGofer was a flop (even Wal-Mart now has site-to-store online shopping), Sears.com marketplace isn't going to beat Amazon on price, Walmart has layaway nowadays... why would most people still shop at a 40-year-old Kmart whose last remodel was in the 1980's other than to beat the crowds at large Walmart supercenter? Yes, Kmart still has profitable urban/city center locations, but even Walmart is adapting with smaller footprint urban stores and continued invasion of major cities like Chicago, NY, Philly, DC, San Francisco, and Boston.

from
http://www.searsholdings.com/pubrel/pressOne.jsp?id=s16310_item98114

UPDATE: A partial list of store closings can be found here.
http://searsholdings.com/about/122711_close.pdf
UPDATE 2: As noted per some astute readers in the comments, some of the closing stores were profiled previously on this blog, for example:
http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/09/hendersonville-tn-big-kmart.html

Super Kmart, revisited

2011-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Store 3147, Kingsport TN (de-Superized), copied from other website

#3251, Indianapolis IN

Store 3555, Cambridge OH

#3575, Detroit MI

3785 Newport News, VA (This store pics from someone else's website, sorry I forgot who...)

3785 Newport News, VA

#3786 Medina OH

#3910, Lorraine OH

4108 Portage, IN

4108 Portage IN

4203, Indianapolis IN

4438 Indianapolis, IN

4745 Ashtabula, OH

4745 Ashtabula, OH (Note that it is in a mall!)

4745 Ashtabula, OH

4758 Concord, NC

4858 Caguas, Puerto Rico (!)

4910 Mentor OH

4913 Terre Haute, IN

4928 Queensbury NY

4935 Moon Township, PA

4936 Unionstown PA

4937 Chillicothe OH

4938 Round Lake beach IL

4938 Round Lake Beach IL

4939 Warren OH

4953 Charleston SC

4964 Hillsboro OH

4966 Cleveland OH

4984 Tinley Park IL

4988 Norfolk VA

4995 Taylor MI

4996 Tucson AZ

4998 Roseville MI

7353 Johnson City TN

7525 Bradley IL

7634 Port Huron MI

9814 Detroit MI

4997 Virginia Beach, VA

From our own blog, spotlight on the Fremont OH Super Kmart:

http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/05/fremont-ohio-super-kmart-center.html

and the Lubbock Super Kmart

http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2009/07/lubbock-kmart.html

(both have since been de-supersized)

In contrast to the Smallest Kmarts: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/06/smallest-kmarts-and-iowa-spotlight.html

A brief unofficial history of Super Kmart Centers:

Kmart Corporation reached $1 billion in sales in 1966, a full 13 years before Wal-Mart reached that milestone, and opened its 2,000th store in 1981. But recognizing the rise of Wal-Mart, Kmart began trying to diversify in 1984, buying up a seemingly random collection of big boxes such as the Sports Authority, OfficeMax, Builder's Square and Borders Books and Music Group. By 1994 it abandoned the strategy , seeking instead for the one-stop shopping of a Super Center and by 1997 Kmart had converted 107 stores to Super K format.

The first Super Kmart to be built was in Ohio, and the first existing Kmart to Super Kmart conversion was in 1994 (from a store that opened in 1992 in Fresno, California - with projections of $80 million/year in revenue for the Supercenter. This store is now a RV sales lot, while a Walmart Supercenter which opened next door is busy as ever). There were grand plans of converting most Kmart stores into Super Kmarts, or at least offer some groceries. In 1996 Super Kmarts hit $3.7 billion sales, and in 2001 pre-bankruptcy, there were 124 Super Kmarts. In 2002, the peak, there were 129 (out of 2113 Kmart stores), but then 12 were shuttered, and the trickle downward toward zero continued for the next decade... But at the peak in 2002, Super K's sales per square foot have been estimated at a now-impressive for Kmart $308, below Wal-Mart's $400, but higher than the forecast for SuperTarget of $290 - and at that time, there were only 80 SuperTarget and 1180 Walmart Supercenter stores and 152 Meijer stores. Following the merger with Sears, a grand plan of Sears Essentials was hatched – first hybrid conversion opened in 2005 with public plans for 400 more by 2007, but a lack of investment quickly sank this potentially decent idea. Super Kmarts were an afterthought, and most stores were closed. In the recent years, the few remaining Super K’s have been “de-supersized” into normal Kmarts, such as those stores in Greensboro NC, Burlington NC, Lubbock TX, Thornton CO, Charleston SC, Fremont OH, etc, losing the grocery department. Sears Outlet sometimes took over the vacated space. The last few Super Kmarts are mainly in the midwest (Ohio, Michigan).

Super Kmart’s strategy may have been flawed – for example, papers have been published on the geographic locations of Super Ks. Many believed that Kmart expanded too broadly with locations far flung apart, resulting in insufficient market saturation, increasing both marketing costs and distribution issues. Distribution was probably a major problem – with the demise of the American Fare hypermarket and struggles with Fleming and other food distributors, Kmart never had the leadership to grow its local supplier, national supplier, and distribution truck networks as well as Wal-Mart. In the 1990’s, there were attempts at mergers with then-leading supermarket chains such as Albertsons, but ultimately, nothing resulted.

At any rate, we present a small collection of Super Kmart photos, most by our blog, some from other online sources (tried to give the credit). Many Super Kmarts had Olan Mills portrait studios, K-Cafes converted to Little Caesars, barber shops, banks, flowers, deli, auto centers, Kmart Express gas stations, etc…

Map of remaining Super Kmart locations in the continental US, around 2010

Site plan of Johnson City TN Kmart 7353 with highlighting of the perishables section that would be replaced with a tenant such as Sears Outlet or sub-leased.

Layaway Competition

2011-09-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Apparently Kmart and Sears garnered enough attention from their Layaway program that now Wal-Mart is reviving their layaway program for this year's holiday season, and has already gotten widespread positive attention from its shopper base, many of whom SHLD bragged that Kmart had lured over with its layaway program. So now that these shoppers are going back to Wal-Mart, which is also experimenting with various size store formats (think Wal-Mart Express), will this holiday season mark another dismal sales record for Kmart? In the past decade, Kmart has slipped from being close to Target in sales to a distant fourth (or even lower, depending on which stores one counts in the category) in its category of sales.

Furthermore, SHLD has decided to sell Craftsman at Costco, further diluting any semblance of brand leverage that Sears still retains in its oftentimes shoddy stores. First, Craftsman sold at Kmart - well, maybe that's OK because it is still the same company; then at ACE/TruValue Hardware stores, now Costco...
So what is the future of SHLD? The company since the merger has been quite disappointing, with some poorly-executed cheap ideas (Sears Essentials anyone?) that may have had the potential to succeed given more investment, but alas, everything in the world is impermanent, with even former #1 in sales retailers (actually, both Sears and Kmart were tops in the categories in the past) possibly turning into mere memories.

Updates

2011-09-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry, been busy with work. Will have another store photo or Super Kmart post up within a week or two once things settle down more! But in the meantime, Sears Holdings announced another disappointing quarter financially (any surprise here?) and 29 more store closings (sound familiar? kind of the theme for the past decade...) include 3 full Sears and 10 Kmart stores. These include Kmart stores in Spokane WA, Orlando FL (the previous post actually!!!! 40 years of that store, gone, perhaps for the better of that area... although it supposedly employed 91 people, seems a bit high), Cary NC, Ocala FL, and Burlington WI (55 employees). That's 5 out of the 10... anyone know the full Kmart list? Although it's getting so hard to keep track with store closings seemingly announced every few months!

Semoran Big Kmart, Orlando FL

2011-07-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Big Kmart #4390

1801 S Semoran Blvd

Orlando, FL 32822

This 122,473 sq ft standalone Big Kmart store is fairly typical for a store probably built in the 1970's or late 1980's, my guess. The real estate is pretty good, on the very busy SR436 (currently managed by Auburndale Properties), and as Kmart no longer needs a large parking lot, numerous outparcels for banks and fast food restaurants have been developed. This Big Kmart seems to have been last remodeled in the late 1990's or early 2000's, but at our last visit was fairly clean and organized - nothing fancy like Wal-Mart or Target, but decent by SHLD standards. It still has an Olan Mills portraits, Little Caesar, and garden center and pharmacy, but has lost the Kmart Restaurant (not sure what brand it was) and Penske Auto Center. A Wal-Mart Supercenter opened down the street on Semoran, and another one more recently opened a couple miles away on Goldenrod, and the dollar stores are continuing their sucking off of customers, but this Kmart still seems to survive with a decent (for Kmart levels) shopping crowd. I think Kmart could target the Hispanic population better with more Spanish-language signage, as that is a quite important demographic around this area.

Standard Big Kmart store - a couple more fast food or bank outparcels may be built in this parking lot area

Little Caesar's Pizza!

Olan Mills portrait studio!

Hm, I can't figure out why this photo refuses to be in order...

standard Kmart soft-lines (clothing) section

Nice wide aisles... this is a fairly large store for a Kmart at over 120 thousand square feet

An older-looking jewelry center

I think this corner may use to have had a photo center or something else.

Again, not sure why these photos refuse to be in the order I want them to be in! Sorry for jumping around sections of the store.

8 registers now + customer service desk, but possibly this store used to have more in its golden years

An ancient directory, dating back at least to the 1990's. Note the restaurant still there in the right corner, and the Penske Auto Center in the left.

Fairly old blood pressure monitor

There's so many different Kmart pharmacy styles... this one looks like a little paint job was added

Again, the pathetic grocery section. Even some dollar store chains are getting to be better than Kmart at this...

Seasonal area leads to the garden center

Pretty nice for being almost in the winter when these photos were shot... the benefits of Florida

Can't exit the garden center at least not during the winter

The indoors part of the garden center

this is fine with me, but probably not a sight you'll find at Target

a rather odd store corner... the corners of Kmart stores typically seem rather unproductive

The former auto center area is beyond those gates, now a wasteland for storage.

Layaway - something that Kmart seems to do well with, from news reports at least

Again, I'm fine with boxes, but Target probably would be more trendy than this...

I'm not sure if Kmart Restaurants all became Little Caesars corporate-owned or Kmart-owned locations, or just subletting to outside franchisees, but in any case, not that many of restaurants, K-Cafes, or Little

that's all folks! The Super Kmart Center posting has been long delayed, but hopefully it's next! I've got the photos and most of the stats, just need to write the superficial analysis.

Continued Failures: Sears Essentials

2011-06-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

First, Sears Holdings is continuing to outsource brand strengths such as having franchise Sears Auto Centers and selling Craftsman tools at ACE hardware stores, with recent news that the DieHard battery brand will now be carried at many other places, including competitors such as the Home Depot.

From the real estate angle, by sub-leasing space, Sears may be generating short-term revenue (like a Whole Foods store taking over part of a Sears) but it isn't really generating any brand traction or long-term growth.

So what is Sears left with? Well, the initial concept that combining Kmart and Sears would lead to improved synergisms (corporate speak!) basically has fallen flat. The few Sears Grands (aka wannabe Wal-Mart Supercenters) that were concept stores before the merger never really took off after the merger, and the haphazard concept of Sears Essentials basically seemed like slapping the Sears name (and ok, adding some better clothing and appliance brands than at a Kmart) on aging 25 year old Kmart stores without that much of an improvement in the shopping experience - no surprise it didn't work out that great.

Several Sears Essentials have already been converted back to Kmarts or closed entirely, and the trend continues with six more stores being converted back to Kmart, from these couple recent news sources:

Lakeland, FL Sears/Kmart photo by Ernst Peters - The Ledger

The Sears Essentials store at 4717 South Florida Ave., which converted from a Kmart in 2005, will revert to its original banner in August, said spokeswoman Kim Freely.

"It's just something our customers told us they wanted," Freely told The Ledger. "We're listening to what our customers have stated they prefer."

Freely said the store will close temporarily Aug. 4 through Aug. 7 for the conversion, with a soft opening planned for Aug. 8. The store has already begun liquidating some items to make room for new inventory, she said.

At least this 69 thousand square foot Kmart turned Sears Essential turned back into Kmart in Bethlehem Township PA is getting an "updated" Kmart logo instead of the 1990's BIG-K style signs. Although sadly probably not much else will be updated...

Express-Times photo by Chris Post

3843 Nazareth Pike, Bethlehem, PA 18020

More store closings...

2011-05-17T15:41:00.001-07:00

In what has become almost a quarterly theme for the past decade, more Sears and Kmart stores are on the chopping block, although this time we only have reports of two (though there may be more that we are not aware of).

2011: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-news-store-closings-and-tidbits.html
2010: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-store-closings.html
2009: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-kmart-closings.html
and we didn't post every announcement either...

downgrades: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2011/02/super-kmart-conversions.html
recurrent commentary: http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/12/nyt-tough-sell-at-sears.html
http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/12/blue-friday.html
http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2009/12/columbia-closing.html
Example of a complete market exit:
http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/01/houston-sign-of-things-to-come.html
and the pathetic remodeling effort:
http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2010/08/kmart-project-renaissance.html

This time the list is actually quite short, but this is a mid-year list, a random time to announce (not right after the holidays).

- Martinsburg, West Virginia Sears. 57 employees, open since 1991 in the Martinsburg Mall, this 68 thousand square foot one story store was on the small side for a full-line Sears. This mall houses a Wal-Mart, which when it turned into a Supercenter in the mid 2000's, closed off the interior entrances and thus basically very few people went into the actual mall. Now Mountain State University is planning on converting much of the retail space into student and learning areas.

- Royal Palm Beach, Florida Big Kmart at 10101 Southern Blvd. 59 employees, this 89.404 sq ft store will be replaced by Burlington Coat Factory.

SHC

Bing maps

Excerpt from an article, “Twin Titanics” or turnaround—which way are Sears and Kmart headed?, by Lauren Daniels:

The current performance of Sears is a barely recognizable to the Sears of the past. At its strongest, Sears was the nation’s most prominent retailer; accounting for 1 percent of the gross national product.
...
“Does Lampert really want to turn Sears around?,” questioned Lewis. “We have seen no investment into the core of the business, the retail sector.”
Lewis believes Lampert is deleveraging the brands for a soft landing instead of a quick collapse like Borders Group Inc. and Linens ‘n Things.
“The overarching strategy has been cash management, to gently lower the ‘Twin Titanics’ into the ocean,” argued Lewis. “The way to do that is to give the public and Wall Street the impression of action.”
full article here:
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=185901

Philadelphia - Central City Big Kmart

2011-05-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Big Kmart at the Gallery at Market East

Store #3953
901-99 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Sorry about not posting the comprehensive Super Kmart blog post yet... things have been a little busy and haven't got time to finalizing it. Also coming in the next couple months for our Kmart series - we will be reporting from Bowling Green, Kentucky; Miami, Florida; and Hyattsville, Maryland - so a lot to look forward to!

Anyway, this 122,254 square foot 2-story urban Big Kmart is probably one of the "crown jewels" of the Kmart real estate - prime location in a dense urban area, far (at least previously) from the reaches of Wal-mart and Target. It is literally in the heart of the city, surrounded by the hubs of PHL's mass transit and within minutes of walking by Chinatown, the Convention Center, Reading Terminal, Thomas Jefferson University, and the historic commerce district of Market Street. Unfortunately, the store itself is far from a crown jewel to shop at - though it's not bad by any means for a Kmart. The hours of the store seem to hint that it targets people who work in downtown or otherwise commute on the bus/subway lines through it, as the store closes fairly early for a Kmart.

Mon: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Tue: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Wed: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Thu: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Fri: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Sat: 7:00 am - 8:00 pm
Sun: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

Otherwise, the layout of the store molds to the Gallery at Market Street mall, a 1.1 million sq ft mall built in 1977 in which the Kmart is smack dab in the middle of - literally, the mall runs under and on both sides of it. The Kmart site was originally Gimbel's, then Stern's, then Clover's, before becoming Kmart in 1999, according to this post at LabelScar

http://www.labelscar.com/pennsylvania/gallery-at-market-east

It's a little odd that Kmart would be one of the flagship stores in such premium real estate, so we'll see how long it lasts - my bets is that as the area is redeveloped, if Sears can find a buyer at a satisfactory price, this store may be sold for its real estate value in the future.

One of the main street level entrances on Market Street

The view from the main Market Street entrance

Jewelry is the closest to this door

This store has a lot of Philadelphia pride. Odd that clearance and jewelry line this entrance, though.

Apparel takes up most of the ground floor. Note the K Cafe!

K Cafe open for business!

Looks like original signage!

This is one of the ground level exits to the other side of the mall. There are at least 5 main entrances to the store!

Up the escalator...

The upper level exit to the mall

Signage for mygofer and sears online order pickups... don't really see how it is much different from Wal-mart's site to store

It's a little difficult to find things without good directories, and also without the weekly ads anywhere around the store.

One of the upper level exits

here's the shift assignments for our visit date! This clipboard was lying at the cash register where we were checking out, was putting things into bags and saw it next to the bags. The Cafe is run by one person!

The pantry (I can't really call it a grocery) section had much to be desired.

the Price Scanner has Super Kmart logo!

The view of the upper floor from the West wing of the Gallery mall

The 10th street entrance

View of the store from Chinatown. Not sure if city codes allow it, but the whole mall could definitely use better signage. The 2009 Market Street commission was looking at ways to improve the looks and function of this area.

Philadelphia's Chinatown.

View of the area

That's all from the Big Kmart at the Gallery at Market Street East, in Center City/Downtown Philadelphia!
Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for more posting!

Paintsville, KY Big Kmart

2011-02-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

Special: Guest Posting: Kmart Nightmares... the clutter returns!

Big Kmart #4827
344 North Mayo Trail
Paintsville, KY 41240

This 94,840 sq foot Big Kmart on a hill has a new neighbor that opened in the 2000s next door: a Wal-Mart Supercenter. How long will the Paintsville Kmart stay open? Well, from the photos submitted by our anonymous contributor, our small - town Appalachian Kmart may have its days numbered. It seems like a makeover of the employees or management is needed! But hey, it seems like such a rural small town community in the poor Appalachian area (which on a tangent is 99% white) might not support both Walmart and Kmart even if Kmart were run slightly better... Indeed, even the Paintsville city government website seems to acknowledge this fact (well, OK, Kmart was cheap and didn't bother joining the local Chamber of Commerce while Wal-Mart did) with this quote on the home page:
"Paintsville is home to both award winning city and county school systems, and Paintsville is the major retail hub for all of Johnson County having such retail gaints as a super Wal-Mart and a super Lowes store. "

Well, being proud of a Wal-Mart definitely means you're in the middle of nowhere, and misspelling "gaints" on your city government homepage just adds even more embarrassment for educated urban dwellers to be seen in the economically isolated area of Appalachia, Kentucky. And thanks to our anonymous contributor for these photos.

What a disaster!

Well, that's all for this post... Kmart Nightmares! Next time, we'll return with Super Kmart Center comprehensive analysis!

New CEO and other news

2011-02-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

Sears Holdings reports earnings:

For the year, Sears earned $133 million, or $1.19 per share. This was off 43 percent from $235 million, or $1.99 per share, in the prior year.

Adjusted earnings fell to $2.07 per share from $3.19 per share.

Annual revenue declined 2 percent to $43.33 billion from $44.04 billion.

Full-year revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1.6 percent, with Kmart posting a 0.7 percent increase and Sears reporting a 3.6 percent decline.

For the 4th quarter, revenue at stores open at least a year rose 2.5 percent for Kmart. The chain reported strong sales of jewelry, clothing, toys, footwear and sporting goods but experienced weakness in its foods, consumables and pharmacy categories. Surprise - an increase in sales! Granted, not very much, but better than continual decreases in comps...

and a new CEO! The revolving door of poor leadership... is it going to continue with Lou D'Ambrosio? He's known as an information technology guy, having been at Avaya and IBM previously. Sure, Sears could improve with online shopping and mobile apps, but how it is going to fight a war on both price and innovation against Wal-Mart site to store or Amazon's powerful warehouse system, I don't know. Analysts again don't seem impressed with his lack of retail credentials and by Edward Lampert's (largest share-holder and Sears chairman) annual speech, which did not mention store remodelings, an investment that most analysts think is necessary given the company's aging stores. "Getting the customer in the door and servicing them is the basic problem for this large chain," Credit Suisse's Balter said, "a problem where the gap with its competitors seems to widen each year."

Also, Fremont Super Kmart is to become de-grocerized and become a mere Big Kmart, and cut store hours from 24 hours to 8am-10pm. Some job cuts are expected. Guess the Wal-mart supercenter proves superior! More on our comprehensive Super Kmart Center analysis, coming soon!

Super Kmart Conversions

2011-02-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

In a few weeks, we'll have our comprehensive SUPER KMART post up, but for now, just a little sampling of the Super Kmart Centers in the news:
By April, two of the remaining Super Kmart Centers (or should we say Super K, or Kmart Supercenter, or... well at any rate, whatever they were called, they didn't ever generate much brand clout) will be converted to normal kmarts and de-grocerized. Hm, that's probably not an English word, but you know what that means. Around 20,000 square foot of the grocery section, including the meat and deli and bakery counters, will be emptied. SHLD would likely want to sub-lease this space out to 3rd party "store-within-a-store" retailers as that would guarantee revenue at basically no cost, but it might be tough to find a store that wants to be in, honestly, a much lower volume (fewer customers than the Wal-Mart down the road) aging store.

The two Super Kmarts that are being downsized are in Tabb, VA and in Medina, OH.

Super Kmart Store 3786
1105 N Court St, Medina OH 44256

This 151,544 square foot store was the FIRST Super Kmart ever, opening in 1991, and was the first 24 hour store too! It featured a 53,000 square foot grocery section with an "upscale flair" (the press release), and was touted as the next trend in retail. Well, Supercenters were the next trend, just not the Kmart kind. Sad to see the original Super K become a normal Kmart.

Super Kmart Store 3785
5007 Victory Blvd, Tabb VA 23693

This 192,861 square foot store held out when the few other Super Ks in Virginia closed or lost their grocery sections in the past couple years. Guess it's your turn... sorry!
RetailbyRyan95 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanrules/ has an extensive collection of store photos, including the bathrooms, haha. Some of them are shown below for your pleasure.

rather empty space... gonna get even emptier!

wow, a fresh floral section!

thanks to RetailbyRyan95 for these photos

2011: News, Store Closings, and Tidbits

2011-01-06T17:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to SUPERKMARTBLOG 2011!

This is your source for entertaining Kmart commentary, all unofficial and not related at all to Kmart or Sears Holdings.

Thank you for visiting our site too!

Super Kmart Blog!

So according to our poll in the month of December 2010, our most popular full photo-post of 2010 was the "Smallest Kmart stores" - thanks for voting! Second place was the Fremont, Ohio Super Kmart Center post. We didn't include posts that didn't feature lots of photos (like this one) in the voting.

So, now to 2011: The News

More Kmart (at least 6 Kmarts and 2 Sears Essentials) and Sears store (at least 12) closings. No surprise here, the company is still struggling, and given their tremendous under-investment in stores (capital investment total and per store and really by any measure is far below that of rivals including Wal-mart) and increasing competition from Amazon/online sellers, dollar stores, drugstores, and traditional rivals like Wal-mart and Home Depot, the future still remains in doubt for Kmart and Sears. Granted, SHLD is trying to adapt and evolve new features, such as online digital movie rental/sales, and electronics/"Blue Crew" social media blogging, but overall, the stores are sagging... and seems like SHLD no longer has Press Releases to announce these more than annual events...

Kmart store closings: Wisconsin, Utah, Ohio, New Jersey and at least two in Illinois. Going-out-of-business sales will begin Jan. 16, and the stores will close April 3.

Some of those closing:

Big Kmart at 2633 S Business Dr, Sheboygan, WI 53081. (This store is also featured in the top photo above) Built in 1976, it currently has 62 employees.

(Photo courtesy WHBL and other local newspapers)

Kmart at 1780 Erie Highway South, Hamilton OH. This store currently has 79 employees and a "new" logo on the street signage.

(pic courtesy JournalNews)

Big Kmart at 1268 Highway 22, North Plainfield NJ 07060. This store has 64 employees. It also has very interesting parking lots, in that the majority of the parking for the plaza is on either sides rather than facing the stores.

Sears Essentials at 1515 East Riverside Boulevard, Loves Park, IL This store was converted from a Kmart in 2005 and currently has 86 employees. Lousy cheap half-hearted conversion, lousy results.

Big Kmart at 10205 Grand Ave, Franklin Park IL. This store, next to Chicago O'Hare International Airport, was built in 1975 and employs 92 people, and is next to a Jewel-Osco supermarket.

Big Kmart at 424 W Oregon Ave, Philadelphia PA. This store dates from 1980, and employs 114.

(2 photos from Greg Bezanis/Joseph Myer of South Philly Review)

Kmart store at 70 Cherry Tree Center, Washington IL 61571. This store was one of the five lime-green "prototype" Kmart stores that were converted in 2002 (or 2003?) after the Kmart bankruptcy. Three of the other lime-green stores were in Illinois also, in Peoria, Morton, and Pekin; while one was in White Lake, MI. This store was built in 1981 and employs 71 people.

An set of photos of the prototype store in White Lake can be found on this Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britain/3799335113/

and here is one from user PlasticFootball of the Pekin Kmart store, similar to the Washington one that is closing. The Pekin store will remain open.

Sears (Essentials?) at 3315 Court Street, Pekin IL. This store, which employs 79 people, was one of the first Sears Essentials prototypes (sigh... failure of execution of concept by the lack of investment) and opened in 2004 in a former Wal-Mart building (the Wal-mart built a new Supercenter down the block). However, the exterior signage only has Sears. Interestingly, it is just down the road from the Pekin Kmart store, and both remained opened during the time this Sears was in operation. Don't worry, this photo from the PekinTimes was of a DUI Safety Demonstration, and not a real accident. Don't drink and drive, folks!

Full-line (ie regular) Sears store at Charlestowne Mall at 3700 East Main Street, Saint Charles, IL This store was built in 1991 and employs 94.

Full-line Sears store at Raleigh Springs Mall at 3344 Austin Peay Highway, Memphis, TN. This store was built in 1971 and the whole mall is also struggling.
Full-line Sears at 301 Eastwood Shopping Center, Frankfort KY. This store was built in the 1960's.
Full-line Sears at at Rolling Acres Mall at 2400 Romig Rd, Akron OH. This store was built in 1975 and was almost the last surviving store after the mall basically closed in 2008. It employs 85 people.
(most of these Sears stores include auto centers as well)

Digital Movie Sales:

Sears and Kmart are entering the digital-movie rental and sale industry with the new online video store Alphaline Entertainment.

The retailers, both owned by Sears Holdings, charge per title, making the service less like Netflix's subscription model and more akin to Apple's iTunes, except that it's not yet available to Mac users.

Television episodes sell for $1.99, while movies sell for $19.95 and rent for $3.99. Most content cannot be burned to a DVD, but users can watch their rentals and purchases on a TV screen connected via S-video jack to their PC. Alphaline uses the RoxioNow platform, which also drives Best Buy's CinemaNow, so the services have much in common, including available film and TV titles.

"Blue Crew Blogs"

Just in time for The Consumer

Electronics Show, the world's largest technology tradeshow, Sears consumer

electronics launches a new social media initiative called the Sears Blue

Blogger Crew, which is dedicated to providing knowledgeable, industry

bloggers the opportunity to engage in consumer electronics announcements,

events and activities throughout the year. The goal of the Sears Blue

Blogger Crew initiative is to provide enthusiastic bloggers with new

resources and early access to consumer electronics information, so they can

further report, blog and interact with their social media communities about

the latest technology news.

And finally, some photos of closed Super Kmart Center store in Texas at this other retail site:

http://southernretail.blogspot.com/2011/01/retail-district-of-humble-texas-2010.html

Upcoming soon this year on SuperKmart Blog: Store photos from Orlando and more; a look at Sears' many concept stores; an analysis of the remaining Super Kmarts / Supercenters; guest blog posts; and more!

NYT: A Tough Sell at Sears

2010-12-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

In random recent news, Everlast (athletic brand) has signed a deal to be sold at Sears/Kmart stores. But, here's a very nice article from this week's New York Times - Sears Struggles Five Years after Merger with Kmart.

From the New York Times, a look at the current state of Sears Holdings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22sears.html or copied below ( I hope that's legal!)

A Tough Sell at Sears

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

This holiday season, Sears and Kmart, which merged in 2005, are pushing a single message: Buy with layaway, buy with coupons, buy now and pay later, buy with loyalty rewards points — but please, just buy.
Five years after the merger, Sears Holdings is beleaguered, with sales markedly worse than its competitors’. The company’s revenue dropped more than 10 percent from 2005 through 2009, the most recent full fiscal year. In the same time period, Wal-Mart’s sales rose almost 31 percent, Target’s more than 24 percent and Macy’s about 5 percent. Sales at J. C. Penney’s declined by about 6 percent.
Recently, too, as shoppers seem to be cautiously loading their carts again, Sears Holdings has not benefited. In the first three-quarters of this year, Sears Holdings’ sales are down about 1.9 percent compared to the same period last year, while the competition moved into positive territory.
Edward S. Lampert, the billionaire hedge fund manager who engineered the merger and is chairman of the company, has promised that Sears Holdings will be “unrecognizable” in 30 years. To drive sales, it is emphasizing online shopping, mobile apps and an Amazon.com-like marketplace with other vendors, along with heavy promotions in stores.

Still, its long-term strategy remains murky, analysts say. Sears Holdings is primarily a physical retailer, and many of its 2,200 stores in the United States are run-down and in undesirable locations. Among discount stores, Kmart lags Wal-Mart and Target. Sears is trying to edge out Lowes and Home Depot in appliances on the one hand, and Macy’s and J. C. Penney in apparel on the other.
“People assume that Eddie’s got some magic formula,” said Gary Balter, an analyst with Credit Suisse. “If you’re Sears, you’ve got a problem because you’re trying to sell a product in a dilapidated building,” he said. And Kmart stores are “about a quarter the sales productivity of Wal-Mart,” he said. “How do you compete?”

When Mr. Lampert combined Kmart and Sears in an $11.9 billion deal that went through in 2005, many of the same analysts considered it a smart move. Mr. Lampert, who became the majority owner of Kmart after it went into bankruptcy, said then that he wanted to combine the best of both, putting brands like Kenmore and Craftsman into Kmarts, and building Sears’s presence outside of malls by turning some stand-alone Kmart stores into Sears stores. Some attractive store locations, particularly in urban areas, led analysts to believe he could sell those to competitors for premium prices.

But the sudden consumer pullback in 2008 led to lots of empty retail space, at less expensive prices than Mr. Lampert’s. Today, Mr. Balter said, Sears Holdings still has some showcase spots, in high-end, high-traffic areas like Bergen County, N.J.; South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif.; and in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, N.Y. But much of the remaining real estate in older, decrepit malls is a problem, Mr. Balter said. “Of the 2000, there’s 1,500 that you don’t want to be in, that nobody’s going to buy,” he said. (It also has a growing division of about 1,600 specialty stores, like small hardware stores and outlets. ) The better locations “are where Sears and Kmart are making their money — if you sell those, what are you going to be left with?” Mr. Balter said.

Mr. Lampert has also not invested much in the stores themselves, analysts said. In 2009, capital spending only amounted to 0.82 percent of sales. That is about half of Macy’s spending, at 1.51 percent of sales, and a fraction of the spending at Target, Wal-Mart, J. C. Penney and even publicly traded dollar stores, all of which are at 2 percent and above. In an interview, David Friedman, Sears Holdings’s new senior vice president and president of marketing, played down the importance of appearance. “The customer’s experience is made up of lots of pieces,” he said. “The in-store experience is one of those that matters a lot, and we believe that the physical plant is one piece of it, but we believe the associates and the products drive the in-store experience.” Sears Holdings is experimenting with new layouts and fixtures and will introduce those more widely if they are shown to improve sales. And Tom Aiello, a Sears spokesman, said in an e-mail that brightness and cleanliness were priorities, and noted that customer-satisfaction scores had risen this year.

The stores’ products pose another challenge. Sears has long commanded the appliance world, but Home Depot and Lowes are formidable up-and-comers. In 2009, Sears still led the group with a little more than $7.1 billion in major appliance sales, according to This Week in Consumer Electronics magazine and the Stevenson Company. But its appliance sales fell 8.2 percent that year. Lowes came in second, with $4.5 billion, up 3.8 percent, and Home Depot was in third with $3.4 billion, a 4.3 percent decline.
“That’s increased the competition for sure,” Mr. Friedman said, but he added that Sears’s employees and price-matching gave it an advantage. Sears is also now selling some exclusive brands outside its stores. Craftsman tools, for instance, are available at some Ace Hardware stores.
It is also trying to figure out apparel sales. In its high-performing stores, it has been able to sublease space to the teenage retailer Forever 21, and it is trying to lease other spaces to other brands.
New exclusive brands, like a fashion line by the Disney star Selena Gomez at Kmart, and ones by the British brands Next and French Connection, are the latest efforts to lure shoppers.
“When you have things that are more on trend,” Mr. Friedman said, “aligned with people that are more compelling, they’re more willing to take a separate trip to your store.” But exclusives may not hold the same cachet anymore. Kmart may have signed Selena Gomez, but Target has Demi Lovato, Wal-Mart has Miley Cyrus, Kohl’s has Britney Spears and so on.
Transforming Sears or Kmart into fashion destinations will be difficult, said Jason Asaeda, a retail analyst at Standard & Poor’s. Mr. Friedman said that customers were “more willing to purchase fashion at a Sears than at a mass merchant,” and described Kmart’s fashion efforts as having a “very good response.”

Aside from working on appliance and apparel, Sears seems to be putting the most weight behind its promotions and Internet efforts. Through a program called AdYourWay, shoppers can choose an item online and direct the site to notify them when it reaches a certain price, or ask the site to recommend products. Mygofer lets people shop online for basics like eggs or bread along with tools or gifts, and pick up those items in a store the same day. Sears Holdings has several mobile applications to help people choose gifts or order items. Earlier this year, it formally announced Sears Marketplace, where more than 18 million products were available via third-party sellers. And a single login and profile can be used across all Sears Holdings sites, like LandsEnd.com or TheGreatIndoors.com. Analysts said that while they were impressed with the company’s forays online, they did not see the Web sites as a cure-all. The retailer is also trying to lure shoppers with promotions. It extended its popular layaway program this year, and is also running no-interest offers on the Sears credit card and buy-now-pay-later plans with monthly payments. It began a rewards program at Kmart last year and Sears this year, offering points for buying and activities like writing reviews online. It is also offering holiday-season promotions, like offering Black Friday-level pricing on weekends beginning in October, and keeping Sears and Kmart stores open on Thanksgiving day.

For longtime shoppers like Linda Formicola, the rewards are a nice bonus, but it is Sears’s history and good discounts that bring her in. “We’ve been shopping at Sears since I can remember,” said Ms. Formicola, 43, of Franklinville, N.J. Her husband is a mechanic, so he picks up tools there while she looks at clothes and supplies. “If stuff’s on sale, it’s pretty much the same price as you’d buy at a Wal-Mart,” she said, adding she believed the quality was better at Sears. Bill Dreher, an analyst with Deutsche Bank, acknowledged that the company had maintained some loyalty among shoppers, but said he was puzzled about its future. While an asset mix including brands like Kenmore and Lands’ End, real estate holdings and the successful Sears Canada division may be valuable, retailing magic seems to be lacking in Mr. Lampert’s vision, he said.
“He’s got this huge conglomerate of retailing which is really not doing very well right now, and frankly, if it weren’t for Sears Canada, would be in a real mess,” Mr. Dreher said. “He’s focused so much on reducing costs and driving cash flow, and not focusing on sales and market share.”

Cheryl Thomas-Gorny, a mother of three in McRae, Ark., may not be concerned with Mr. Lampert’s market share strategy, but shoppers like her contribute to Sears’s diminishing popularity and sales. Although she said she sometimes shopped at Kmart, she criticized the quality of its goods, and said she often found the employees disagreeable.
“Honestly, I’d rather go to Target,” she said.

Toledo OH brief glance...

2010-12-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Update: EXTENDED HOLIDAY STORE HOURS: Most Kmart stores nationwide are open 6am until MIDNIGHT this week (the week before Christmas). The few remaining Super Kmarts are mostly open 24 hours as usual.

Following up from the Black Friday sales, SHLD has not broken out the details publicly, so we aren't sure how Kmart fared. Both SHLD and Walmart are no longer providing some of the sales data that they used to. But, in comparison, a low-performing very slow Rite Aid store makes around $20,000 in sales / week (non-prescription) - around $1 million/yr in sales. That's probably the same amount a slower Starbucks does in a year. From our estimates using Wal-Mart official sales data, averaged over 711 traditional stores and 2898 Supercenters but not counting Neighorhood Market, Sams Club, or international stores, we think a Wal-mart store makes around $200,000 on an average day, for around $72 million / year in sales. Optimistically, in 1994, Super Kmart was expected to hit $80 million / year in sales per store. Of course, by 1998, sales per square foot at Super K were around $330 (pretty good compared to now), with Kmart's supercenters raking in approximately $4.3 billion a year, or about $43 million per store. In 1998, Wal-Mart Supercenters did about $32 billion this year, or about $60 million per store for ~550 stores, while Super Target, with 18 stores, will do volume estimated at $800 million this year, or $44 million per store.

Anyway, we'll save our Super Kmart analysis/history/photo post for 2011. And we'll do a "Seismic Shifts in Retail" layman's analysis post in 2011. And more Kmart Photo Blog Posts, of course. Stay tuned! And don't forget to vote for your favorite Photo-post of 2010!

Finally, if you ever want a photo-post of your store with pictures you submit, just email your photos (please, .jpg /.bmp / .gif/ other acceptable formats, no Zip folders, no viruses) , any commentary you want up, and the name you want to appear as the attributed author on our site to SuperKmartBlog {a t] g ma i l (do t} com. That's SuperKmartBlog - not SuperKmart, since that account was already taken. Cheers!

From comment by reader Daniel C: "As a sales associate for 4276 in Toledo, OH, I hope I can help you fill in on some details.

Our staffing level is roughly 70 permanent employees with around 30 temporary associates hired for October through the second week of January.

Sales for last Thanksgiving were $59,000 and we finished 10% over last year's figures. Black Friday sales were $196,000 and we finished at $192,000 (however, while we did not match last year's number, we did perform 8.8% over sales plan). On Saturday we did $56,000 last year and finished 16% over last year's numbers.

Our store (which is a 86,000 square foot store) performed at the top of our district and almost beat the Fremont store (which is a Super Kmart)."

So naturally, we were curious. At first we thought this was Daniel's store:

but it turns out that was actually Kmart Store #4209
627 E Manhattan BLVD
Toledo, OH 43608

Another Kmart in Toledo is his store!

2244 South Reynolds Road, Toledo, OH
KM4276
110,286 Sq Ft w/ 4000 sq ft auto center (I think the Sq Ft is total, not just gross selling area, not sure if it includes the auto center)

photos of KM4276 taken from Microsoft/Bing Maps.

Blue Friday

2010-12-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

We'll update this post when the Black Friday /Thanksgiving week sales scores are out, but in speculation of SHLD's open-for-Thanksgiving strategy, there have been mixed reports of some Sears and kmart stores with "100's" of people in line, and others with more employees than shoppers. Sears was open for the first time, it claimed, on Thanksgiving, from 7am-12pm, while Kmart continued its new tradition of opening on Thanksgiving, until 9pm!

Given a typical Kmart store's permanent staffing of 50 to 120 employees, likely averaging around 70, it would be highly difficult to staff the store at full crowd-control level on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, especially given the extended hours, and especially given the need to de-clutter/restock/reprice items in the store in between (and during!) the busy days. Anyone know how many temporary staff were hired per store? Or what the Black Friday week results were? Kmart was prominently featured on several news reports, including NBC Nightly News, during their annual news-filler on Black Friday shopping, and Sears received a lot of publicity for being open on Thanksgiving.

Finally, Sears stores are seriously lagging in sales, so we wonder how much of a boost Black Friday was. Apple sells $11.8 million per store, Best Buy $9.1, but Sears only $2.3 million sales per store. Granted, only 18% of Apple sales are in its stores, but still, Sears stores generally are underperforming by most metrics, including sales per square foot, and profitability. It will take a great Thanksgiving to return Sears and Kmart to consumer minds, something increasingly difficult given the lack of investment in most of SHLD's stores.

Anyway, we'll update this post next week with more sales results. And next month, more Kmart store pictures!

Clarksville TN: Commons Big Kmart and Kmart Express

2010-11-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Clarksville Commons Big Kmart Store 7461 and Kmart Express gas station

2300 Madison St
Clarksville, TN 37040

This 88,146 sq ft is typical of the Big K stores that dot the deep South, and similar to most of the others ones still existing in the Tennessee and Kentucky area. In the same shopping center is a Food Lion, but more importantly, directly across the street is a 24 hour Wal-Mart Supercenter. Surprisingly, this old Kmart survived the drastic store cuts of the past decade and is still operating despite the superior competition next door.

More Kmart Express gas station photos at the end of this post.

The very typical store design, "Big K" signage, and large lonesome parking lot.

The Garden Center canopy can be found in several other Big K stores.

The K Express was doing decent business, actually. And yes, there is a gas station at the Walmart across the street.

Anyone know what percentage of Kmart stores look like this (rounded top, Big Kmart logo still in place)? Maybe 50%? Or 75%?

Seriously, probably one of the biggest things that Kmart lags behind in would be the dismal ancient lighting, harsh fluorescent lights in straight lines that don't make the store sell

.
25 years of JS products

The dismal fresh food selection. Well, it's an average selection for Kmart stores, but pales vastly compared with Supercenters or even Target's P-fresh program. At least there were a lot of yummy Smart Sense dried fruit snacks on sale!

The pharmacy window

The seasonal corner of the store looking rather bare... this is before Halloween.

Anyone see anything missing in this photo?

The desolate unused entrance/exit to the garden center is missing the Kmart part of Big-Kmart sign!

More of the garden center garage-space

Now here's something you probably will never see at a Target: dirtiness and ugly re-stocking pallet drivers...

Seriously, don't those clearance racks look very tacky?

The far corner of the store with the entrance to the former automotive center. This back corner actually extends deceptively far back, since the back wall that blocks off employee areas (including layaway) abuts out quite a bit - not sure why they couldn't make the corner "blocked" instead of having it protrude into the store.

Fairly decent vacuum selection, with Kenmore quality vacuums now being sold at kmart!

Formerly (I think) the auto center garage area... now a messy storage space

More of the former auto center.

View of the main back aisle of the store

Layaway.

Ok, another exhibit of protruding displays that clutter the already not-so-wide aisles. Yes, merchandisers probably pay for those displays, but they do get annoying to maneuver around...

PetK ads...

Standard Kmart electronics section. Most electronics sections are somewhat segregated from the store with only one customer entrance/exit point, but I seriously wonder if that is effective at all at loss prevention.

The main transverse aisleway.

Ok, another exhibit: those columns that block the aisle are very annoying as well, even if they do have price scanners on them...

Pretty decent furniture selection!

Kmart now runs its own shoe department, which is very competitively priced, but the selection can be hit or miss.

Wow, fun & games & exercise equipment!

The employee stockroom by the apparel area

Looks like another former K-Cafe or Little Caesars has become the stroller and infant furniture area now....

More of the former food serving area.

Ok Kmart, the endcaps are some of the most important sales areas. And you put low-priced gallons of water in the infant section??

The seven remaining cashier lanes, pretty typical for Kmart.

Join our team!

The exit. All in all, a fairly decent Southern (or heck, American) Big Kmart, probably built in the 1970's as a Kmart with some remodeling to "Big Kmart" done probably in the late 1990s, and in need of a makeover now. But, the strategy is to keep costs down, and this store still survives across the street from a Walmart Supercenter, so I guess Sears Holdings' strategy is working, at least in the short term.

The Kmart Express gas station. Anyone know if these are also corporate-owned, or franchised, or merely name-licensed?

There was no Kmart Express gas station sign (or heck, even Kmart at all) sign from the main street, so the electronic price on the canopy will have to do.

Well, thanks for reading! This may be the last post of 2010, but hopefully we'll return for another Holiday update before the new year!

Madison TN Big Kmart

2010-10-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Madison Nashville Gallatin Pike Big Kmart Store 4093

1508 S Gallatin Rd
Madison TN 37115

Another one of the aging (probably approaching 40 years old) Big Kmart stores typical of the middle Tennessee region, this 91,743 sq ft solitary store features an extremely large parking lot (probably full 30 years ago, but not anymore) and pharmacy, K-cafe, garden center, portrait studio, jewelry, electronics, layaway, etc...
The oversized lot means this store is ripe for the leasing of outparcels and even kiosks/store- in - a - store revenue opportunities that Sears Holdings is desperately trying to generate to make up for continual declines in actual store performance. This might include the currently empty 7,832 sq ft former auto center...

However, a new Walmart (with groceries, of course) opened just a couple miles away on Dickerson Pike next to Skyline Medical Center - and with the many dollar stores nearby becoming more aggressive, we'll see how long this Kmart can stay open without any signs of capital investment. Seriously, a complete tear-down remodel would be nice, but the folks at corporate believe the costs of that outweigh any gains in sales. They may be right, but Kmart sales aren't going anywhere in the meantime...

Ok, enough corporate-bashing, we'll get on with the store tour. Not a bad Kmart by any means, but nothing spectacular either.

The store is on the Nashville MTA Bus route #26 and Bus Rapid Transit BRT #56, serving Gallatin Pike from Downtown Nashville to Rivergate.

Oversized parking lot, built for back in the heyday when people actually shopped at Kmart as a destination. Nowadays, people drive extra to go to Walmart Supercenters and don't think of Kmart on their radar.

The late 1990's/early 2000s Big Kmart facelift, with the typical orange paint added several years ago.

A lot of cashier lanes =)

The Kmart Cafe still exists. It might have been a Little Caesars in the past, not sure, but most other Kmart Cafes have been converted into space for clearance items or baby strollers.

Still some empty prominent racks...

NARROW AISLES~!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... stop cluttering major aisles (and heck, all aisles) with protruding endcaps, display setups, clearance carts, and other stuff. I know you can't do much about the building poles that sometimes are annoyingly in the way without a remodel, but this photo shows how the clothing racks are in the middle of the main aisle that transverses the back of the store, and literally the cart had trouble fitting through - it had to push some clothing sleeves out of the way. Totally unacceptable, and not seen at most Target or Walmarts, and heck, even dollar stores are cleaning their act up. On the plus side, this Kmart has newer nice carts.

Layaway and the (surprisingly busy on this visit) Olan Mills portrait studio are tucked away in the back.

How does one actually purchase the furniture? There should be a "press here for customer assistance" button located near departments with big ticket items to call salespeople - aka, sporting goods, furniture, electronics, garden center, tools, jewelry.

Electronics, pretty standard Kmart format, with the digital camera display upgraded.

The seasonal corner with Back to School. I've always wondered whether Kmart could expand the lackluster grocery selection (into something like Target's PFresh or Rite Aid's combination with Save-A-Lot) and push one of the sections like seasonals into unused space (like former auto center areas) or the garden center (and push more of the garden center merchandise into the semi-outdoors area)... but that would probably require actually investing some money into making their stores look nicer...

A colorful in store entrance to the garden center! Actually pretty cute!

Fairly decent garden center!

Kenmore grills... barbeque time?

It seems like there are several interior color scheme variants, depending on when the most recent half-hearted remodel occured - most of the time the pre-bankruptcy "Big Kmart" conversion paint job. This store had the orange-reddish paint scheme.

the "There's smart, and there's Kmart smart" slogan currently used makes no sense to us. Not sure how many people think Kmart is smart, considering that they've been getting their butts kicked by Walmart and competitors, with around 2/3 of their store base closed in the past decade... Does anyone actually like that slogan?

Hope you enjoyed a tour of the Madison Kmart! All in all, a fairly typical Big K, not a bad place to shop.
So that's all for now! Thanks for reading.

Hendersonville TN Big Kmart

2010-09-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hendersonville Big Kmart
237 E Main St
Hendersonville TN 37075

This Big Kmart store in Hendersonville, Tennessee has some interesting features that are shown in the pictures. The first, of the road sign, shows the newest Kmart logo - pretty rare for your typical Big Kmart in the South. However, as you can see in the background, the main exterior storefront signage is still the standard Big Kmart design of the 1990s. The second photo shows a relatively unique Big Kmart Garden Shop patio exterior. Since these pictures were taken in December, there was nothing growing and the external doors to the Garden Shop were locked, though one could go in through the store to see some bicycles blocking the Garden Shop exit and the usual array of hoses, garden tools, and stacks of bottled water somewhat haphazardly strewn about.
The street sign is updated and looks nice with the newest (which, at almost a decade old, has yet to appear on most Kmart stores)

Dollar stores like Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree, while each store very small, should really be considered a potent threat to Kmart, especially when one chain alone has over 9,000 stores - small bites each, but together, a biiiiig competitor! And the dollar stores are pretty well run and evolving - such as adding better food sections (hint hint, Kmart) to draw more people.

Pretty standard 1970's heyday of Kmart facade with the 1990's BIG K redo.

Interesting garden center signage!

Haven't really seen this in very many places

Main entrance

The interior picture of the center aisle of the store is shot from the rear toward the front, and you can see the "Thank you for shopping Big Kmart" signage that is found in most stores. The American flag seems to be a new and nice touch, though. The flag can be found at most Kmart stores nowadays. You can see the old-style large circular air vents, even! The store is organized such that the soft lines (clothing, shoes, and infants) and cashiers are on the right side upon entry, and everything else is on the left side. There were a lot of carts intruding upon the entry lobby space, and the atmosphere, well, it was fantastic for a Kmart fan but still cannot really compare to a Target or Wal-Mart. This store is fairly large and well organized, and there were plenty of salespeople and cashiers to help in the week before Christmas. In fact, there were more cashiers than shoppers checking out - plus, the cash registers were numbered 4-7. I believe they removed #1-3 to make room for seasonal merchandise, recognizing that four cash registers were plenty to handle the amount of business a Kmart does - but I wonder how Black Friday went with only 4 registers and the Customer Service desk? (Note: for comparison, the nearby Wal-Mart has 20 + 8 self checkout lanes; whereas other Middle Tennessee area Kmarts generally have 7 checkout lanes, even if only a couple are open at most times.)

The standard fluorescent lighting that Kmarts have... wish they did an upgrade to the enhanced lighting that most Target stores have.

The Christmas decorations!

The rather unorganized garden center pseudo-outdoor area, but hey, it was winter, so I guess it didn't really need to be that organized.

Patio furniture!

Exercise equipment too!

The Craftsman signage is already getting a little faded...

Cross-promotional ads for Sears auto centers, even though there isn't really one in town...

Electronics featured a flat-screen TV to welcome shoppers, but it wasn't showing anything much.

View from the rear of the store.

Yes, there is a Layaway, like most Kmarts.

An old "Bluelight Specials" piece of equipment from the 2000's is hidden away in a corner. Kmarts seems to have many of these semi-abandoned corner areas....

At least it was pretty well stocked...

Ok, before we get too far into details, let's wrap up with the history and competition trivia. The 89,000 square foot Kmart opened in 1976 (any surprise from the standard 70's Kmart exterior facade so prevalent in the South?) alongside some grocery stores, but by 1991 the grocery stores were all closed, and by 1997 Eckerds left, leaving Kmart as the sole large/chain anchor. Today, some competitors to Kmart fill up the other major spots in the shopping center - Big Lots and Dollar General. In 1989, a Wal-Mart opened down the road, but luckily this Kmart survived... until 2005, when Wal-Mart relocated away from Main Street and opened as a 205,000 sq foot Supercenter. Somehow, this Kmart remains open as of 2010 though. The average household income within a 5-mile radius is almost $75,000 - not sure if this helps or hurts Kmart's business. The City of Hendersonville seemed to have wanted to "revitalize" this corner of the city center and make a new hip-urban lifestyle center, but from our visit, an aging shopping center still stands.

Overall, the interior of this Big Kmart is pretty standard and well-decorated and nicely stocked for a Kmart, but with some twists on the exterior signage. I'm surprised it remains open with a Wal-Mart Supercenter so close, but hopefully there is enough population to support both stores. All in all, a pretty nice, but aging, store.

Kmart Project Renaissance

2010-08-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

So rumor has it that SHLD is pushing a "Rediscover Kmart" campaign that has now been branded under the "Kmart Renaissance" umbrella...

"Your local Kmart has made some really big changes... to celebrate we're hosting some great family-friendly events... so come on by and rediscover Kmart"

There are community tie-ins, coupons to local events and attractions, small in-store demonstrations or shows, things like Easter Egg hunts or fashion shows or even shopping cart parade floats, a branded van drives around the area, and Mr. Bluelight shows up. The goal is to "generate excitement" among the store associates and "inviteshoppers to rediscover the value of Kmart" as part of their local community. This re-launch speaks volumes about how Kmart has lost most sense of position - people will drive an hour to shop at Costco or Walmart, but who drives an hour to shop at Kmart? Walmart and Target have filled the position in the average shopper's mind for low-price and trendy stores, respectively, leaving Kmart with, well, so far, not much. Add to that the lack of convenience compared to Walmart's supercenters or the local corner dollar store or drugstore, and Kmart really struggles to obtain a "brand awareness" in consumers' mindsets. If done successfully, Project Renaissance should invite people who haven't been to a Kmart in a long time to come back and try it out.

However, the key is a successful execution, something that Sears Holdings does not seem capable of currently. If you manage to convince (very skeptical) people to stray away from trendy Target or convenient/low-cost Walmart into your Kmart store, then you want your store to say "Wow, this is a nice place to shop" or "Wow, I like the selection of cool styles here", or "Yeah, the prices here are great and the service is nice". It is hard to get one new customer to Kmart, and even harder to persuade them to stay loyal. A "Rediscover Kmart" ad is not good enough - a entire store freshening remodel is needed. And some stores look absolutely great, better than many Targets. But sometimes it seems like all they've done is throw a few banners and have Mr. Bluelight show up without doing a good job redoing the store... at least update the main signage!

Examples photos from the web:

Ooh, the Kmart van!

Mr. Bluelight!

An older "Extreme Makeover" remodel campaign from a couple years ago

Ooh, this store looks really nice

Another great looking store.

It looks nice, but still, please remodel completely the signage too! Otherwise it looks the same...

Bronx NY store

A former Super Kmart Center now just a normal Kmart

Another really nice Kmart

Interesting color scheme....

A nice Kmart

An example of your typical 1970's Kmart... NOT PART OF THE RENAISSANCE PROGRAM, can you tell? haha... seriously, sadly it seems like there's still too many of these olden goodies around that aren't remodeled.

The new red colored cashier lights!

Chicago Kmart doing good business across a Target. (From Flickr user uh, thanks, I'll find the credit when I refind your photo)

2009 Markets:

Asheville

50 years in Puerto Rico

etc...

2010 Rediscover Kmart: Project Renaissance markets, May-September 2010:

New York City

Chicago

Maryland

Long Island

Albany

Richmond

Cleveland

Los Angeles

Southern California

Michigan

Ft Myers

Philadelphia

St Louis

Phoenix

Portland

Phoenix

Raleigh

Hawaii

Bay Area CA

Braintree MA Big Kmart

2010-08-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Boston - Big Kmart #3879

350 Grossman Dr
Braintree, MA 02184

This 118,749 sq ft Big Kmart at the Marketplace at Braintree is on the large side for Kmart stores. It is conveniently located near an interstate highway and by public transit - connected by a pedestrian bridge to the Braintree T station on the Red Line (Boston's public transit system). Location wise, it is pretty good for a Kmart - other stores in the well-kept shopping center and across the street include Best Buy, Babies R Us, Bed Bath and Beyond, Borders Bookstore, and Shaws supermarket - much better selection than many of the older Kmarts in low-traffic standalone or dingy shopping centers. On a July weekend visit, it was also very busy for a Kmart, with multiple cashier lanes open and lots of people shopping. However, the flip side was that despite many employees visibly stocking shelves (and also many helping customers with large purchases such as furniture or small appliance boxes), the store was still rather cluttered and not well-stocked, with patches of empty shelves throughout the store - that might be a plus, a sign of lots of business, or a minus, not a perfectly clean store.

The signage that faces the interstate highway:

The local road signage:

The inside shopping plaza sign. A little faded.

The entrance is on the left side of the store. The apparel is on this side, with infants, shoes, and layaway in the rear left corner. There used to be a restaurant in the corner immediately to the left of the entrance, but it no longer exists and now carries (rather unorganized) seasonal items. I believe the area that used to hold the one-hour photo now has become an obscure recessed area behind the cashiers that has more merchandise, but that small area is hard to notice for customers. The Olan Mills portrait studio is still next to it. In the middle of the store are jewelry, home, furniture; while at the front of the store to the right of the cashiers are electronics (walled off by books & sunglasses) and health. The pharmacy no longer exists, not sure why. The right side of the store has a large area that is also somewhat haphazard, though there were several employees stocking it. The garden center was pretty decent and large for a Kmart.

The garden center entrance

Connecting the exterior garden center to the main store. There is no divide between the "interior" garden center and the main store.

There were a lot of plants on a summer day in the exterior garden center. Well done!

Looking at the garden center exit. Why the "Thank you for shopping Big Kmart" sign is so far to the left, not sure.

Lawnmowers!

Patio furniture

The main store near the garden center.

A Kmart soap dispenser in the old bathroom. (UPDATE: From an anonymous comment, not sure if it's true or not but pretty cool: " This Kmart was the inspiration for the Jewel song "Fading." In the original version of the song, the lyrics read: "It's Kmart/The Bathroom" - and she mentions in the live concert that she went into the Braintree Kmart bathroom where she wrote the song.")

Books form a "half-wall" to corral the electronics section

Sunglasses too!

Local gear forms the "wall" that separates electronics from the checkout area.

Looking at the front of the store from near Jewelry.

At home, at Kmart!

Looking back at the main entrance.

A computer for job applications sits by the entrance.

Cashiers

The left side of the store.

The main entrance, looking to the right side. Note the Olan Mills and the merchandise cubby-area (where One Hour Photo used to be)

Furniture

The rear aisle.

Shoes and layaway around the rear left corner.

Hey look, random Kenmore appliances!

The back right corner of the store.

One of the pantry aisles. There were also "Dollar Shop" areas to try to simulate/compete with stores like Dollar General, which are taking a small but growing chunk of sales from Kmart.

Too often, there are empty shelves at Kmart, and in fact, the food/pantry aisles are almost always guaranteed to have a section like this. Target has a new P-Fresh emphasis on fresh/frozen foods, with an expanded selection of perishables and consumables. Walmart, well obviously they have supercenters, and are even experimenting with foods in smaller non-super-sized stores. But Kmart... well, still no improvement on the food section. Foods are risky, though, as they expire, and have lower margins, so maybe Kmart is right not to take the risk.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this Boston Big Kmart store tour, and until next time, work hard and help make our world a better place!

Sears Outlet 100th Store

2010-07-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sears Outlets

In random news, lawsuits have been filed against the chain 99 Cents Only stores, "alleging that the chain's move two years ago to raise its top price to 99.99 cents constituted an unfair and deceptive business practice". Pretty funny...

Anyway, moving on to our main story, the 100th Sears Outlet store has opened. There are (supposedly, according to SHLD) around 300 more of the small-format stores (such as Sears Outlets, Sears Hometown Stores franchises, Sears Hardware, Sears Home Appliance Showrooms, Lands End, The Great Indoors) than the traditional mall-based main Sears stores, which have already dipped below 1,000 in number in the good ol' USA. Not sure if these numbers include things like Sears Auto Center or Sears Optical stores that are basically part of a main Sears, but in general information about the various aspects of Sears family like their commercial or home repair/parts services is kind of vague. It's promising that Sears has an arsenal of smaller formats to try to compete in various niches (and bold online attempts), but also unclear the degree these will succeed, if they actually do.

Press Release Excerpt: For more than 40 years Sears Outlets have been providing customers with unparalleled value and savings on some of the best brands in appliances, home electronics and more. Today, Sears Holdings Outlet store organization announced the opening of its 100th store at 1321 East Golf Rd. in Schaumburg, Ill., in the former The Great Indoors location.
The outlet will feature some of the best names in appliances, tools, fitness equipment, mattress sets, lawn & garden, and more at discounts of up to 60% off. The Schaumburg outlet will also carry Sears apparel at 60-80% off the retail price.

"Sears is the leading retailer for washers, dryers and refrigerators in the country," said Jaime Brooks, vice president and president, Sears Outlet. "Our stores provide a great format for shoppers to buy nationally recognized brands that help improve home and family life at significantly reduced prices while still receiving the customer service, access to the same warranties and credit solutions offered at Sears' full-line stores."
Sears Outlet will also be opening additional locations in Concord, NC and Norfolk, VA throughout the remainder of 2010.

Katella - Anaheim, CA Big Kmart

2010-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Anaheim California Kmart
10870 Katella Ave West
Anaheim, CA 92804
(Katella Ave at Euclid St, aka Disneyland Kmart?)

This California Big Kmart is less than a mile from the Anaheim Convention Center and Disneyland, a short couple minutes drive or 10 minute walk down Katella Ave or quick OCTA bus ride down Katella Ave away from the magic of the mouse! A nice Californian roof adds to the style of this store, which features a Garden Center, Sears Appliance center, Layaway, and other departments typically found in Big Kmarts, except a pharmacy. (There's still the drugstore section with health products like aspirin and toothpaste, of course. More on a future post about online/hybrid shopping experiences like Kmart's MyGofer and rivals ranging from Rite Aid to Amazon to Soap.com!) This is the first Kmart featured on our SuperKmart blog to have a Sears appliance center inside the store- though there's basically no mention or signage of Sears, so officially (and pricing wise?) it's probably a Kmart appliance center, not sure. Overall, fairly typical of a Kmart - well stocked (except for the food section), improved in being decently clean and tidy, but still obviously not newly remodeled or as trendy as some of the nicer Target stores.

View of the shopping center:
Euclid St sign:

Katella Ave sign:

Main storefront:

Pretty standar main entrance:

The "Thank you for shopping Kmart" does not seem to have been changed to "Big K", and the orange-y color is, IMO, nicer than plain white that most stores have.

Security camera TV welcomes your arrival. The main foyer is rather large and empty, with some appliances celebrating the Kmart (aka Sears) majap (major appliance center).

Cash registers were numbered 1 and 3-7, with 1 (and 2) being the customer service desk. Only one was open on a weekday morning.

This store had relatively nice carts, including the kiddie carts here - are those TV screens in them?

A look from the left side of the store at the main entrance. Again, note the old-style huge round air conditioning vents and harsh parallel fluorescent lighting - the newer Target and Wal-Mart stores have improved lighting patterns that make a more appealing experience.

The (somewhat crowded to navigate) checkout area

Spanish subtitles, a great idea! The pantry/food section was still disappointing, as it is in almost all Kmarts... some of the few perishables were expired.

There is no pharmacy, but drugstore & health & beauty section still available.

A spinning sign with outdoor furniture selections. I'm not sure how one actually buys the product, but presumably it sells since it takes a pretty decent amount of floor space inside the store near the entrance to the Garden Center.

The segregated Garden Center had both the "indoor" and the semi-covered "outdoor" areas with plants:

The indoor section of the Garden Center:

Layaway is hidden behind home improvement/tools in the far left corner by the Garden Center. Not sure if signage was decent enough for people to find it easily. Note the Craftsman tools, in an earlier blog post we reported that Craftsman is going to be sold at ACE Hardware stores... not sure how that will impact Sears store sales. The biggest losers are probably the Sears Hometown (small rural store) franchisee owners.

Electronics! The digital camera setup was very good for a Kmart.

Something new: The Kmart appliance center! Again, not sure how one would actually buy one, since there weren't any salespeople at this time in the morning, so they should install a "push button for assistance" or some other way of getting help.

stoves, ovens, washers, dryers, oh my!

The softlines - clothing, jewelry - are on the right side of the store.

The exterior of the store and the shopping plaza and parking lot were well maintained! The banner describes the "SmartAssist" program offering discounts on generic branded items for the unemployed, although the actual details on the program are sparse and hard to find updated information online. Again, pseudo-creative idea, mediocre execution, so typical of Kmart.

And that's all folks! Well, we'll leave you with one last sign shot. Next time, we'll head back to the South or East coast... or maybe explore more of the retail landscape...

Fall Fashion Lineup

2010-06-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well, the new "lookbooks" for fall apparel is here - Kmart's apparel division is showing some relative strength ( http://www.kmartdesign.com/category/apparel_design/ ) with renewed vigor in brands like Jacyln Smith. Meanwhile, Sears apparel and "softlines" side still has very weak sales, despite stronger sales in the appliance/hardline side - it seems like people will just buy a fridge or stove without buying the other stuff at Sears, and who can blame them when some of the stores are in need of some renovation... though the small number of Lands End kiosks inside Sears are doing OK, from hearsay. However, instead of renovating stores, SHLD is looking to make some short-term cash by renting out spaces in stores (example: Edwin Watts golf shops "store-inside-a-store")... we'll see how that pans out. Maybe Sears can turn into an appliance & tools only store and all the apparel space becomes rented out... but then again, how many other companies are looking at mall based locations now??

Click to see:

and Kmart:

Smallest Kmarts and Iowa Spotlight!

2010-06-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

So most Kmart stores are 1 story (and aging...) - but there are some, like 2 in New York City, one in Philadelphia, one in Southbury CT, and one in Los Angeles, that are 2+ floors.

The average sales per square foot in 2009 at Sears stores was $111 and at Kmart stores $107, compared with $280 at Target and $416 at Wal-Mart, according to retail research firm Kantar Retail. So that got us thinking, where are the smallest Kmart stores?

We compiled a list of what we think are the smallest Kmart stores by area! This is probably quite accurate - if anyone who works at Sears Holdings has the list, feel free to comment. Here are the smallest 25 Kmart stores by square foot. The "average" Big Kmart store size is 90,000 ish square feet, with a range of probably 80,000 - 125,000. (Walmart Supercenters range almost 200,000 square feet.) Some former Super Kmarts now without groceries stand at around 180,000+ square feet. Probably one of the biggest that was not formerly a Super K is the 143,471 sqft Manhattan NY store - the only 3 story Kmart, we think! (And it has nearly 2.5 million people living in a 5 mile radius!) These smallest ones are all under 60,000 square feet (even some big supermarkets are larger than them!) and most are in rural areas where Wal-Mart is not in town.

Unofficial Rank - Store Number - City - Square Feet - Population (5 mile radius) - Address

1. 9243 Red Oak, Iowa - 39798 - 6,157
2501 N Broadway, Red Oak IA 51566

The store seems to be in a somewhat random location, and lacks much signage/visibility from the highways. It survives probably because the nearest Walmart is in the next town over. The only Kmart under 40,000 square feet.

2. 9233 Oelwein, IA - 40007 - 8,328
2105 S Frederick Ave, Oelwein IA 50662

3. 9030 Peru IN - 40165 - 20,022
11 Sherwood Square, Peru IN 46970

4. 9222 Cherokee IA - 40312 - 5,487
1111 N 2nd St, Cherokee IA 51012

5. 9261 - Glenwood Springs, CO - 40318 - 8,571
51027 US 6, Glenwood Springs CO 81601

(photo taken 2004 from Flickr user phuzz_ott)

(SHC)
Wow, the signage hasn't been updated in what, 30 years?

6. 9238 - Raton NM - 40327 - 5,193
1235 S 2nd St, Raton NM 87740

(SHC)

7. 9264 - Tucumcari NM - 40334 - 5,598
2100 E Tucumcari Blvd, Tucumcari NM 88401

(from Marik_8705 Photobucket)

(older photo from Flickr user ukslim)

7. 9237 - Smithfield NC - 40334 - 25,440
950 W Market St, Smithfield NC 27577

(SHC)

9. 9274 - Greenwich NY - 40537 - 8,423
1251 State Rte 29, Glens Falls NY 12834

10. 9306 - Glendive MT - 40800 - 6,806
1515 W Bell St, Glendive MT 59330

This store was built in 1980 and reports sales of around $200/sq ft in 2006. (That's around double the national Kmart average, but then again, this store is half the size. An estimated $10 million annually in sales)

10. 9309 - Webster City IA - 40800 - 8,192
2307 Superior St, Webster City IA 50595

10. 9319 - Alliance NE - 40800 - 7,464
1515 W 3rd St, Alliance NE 69301

(SHC)

13. 7109 - Watertown CT - 45466 - 119,611
595 Straits Tpke, Torrington CT 06795

(from Flickr user XISMZERO)
At last check, this Kmart still has the 1970's retro design - well not retro, but just original, non-updated!

14. 9521 - Madawaska ME - 49650 - 4,123
417 Main St, Madawaska ME 04756

(from user ArmandC on Panoramio)

15. 9255 - Palmer MA - 50479 - 28,112
Wilbraham St, Palmer MA 01069

(photos from Flickr user KaizenVerdant)

16. 9147 - Newburyport MA - 50677 - 54,973
45 Storey Ave, Newburyport MA 01950

From the aerial photo, this Kmart has new signage and a lot of cars - both generally signs of a prosperous store!

(SHC)

17. 9146 - Great Barrington MA - 50730 - 8,447
546 Stockbridge Rd, Pittsfield MA

(from Flickr user KaizenVerdant)

18. 9121 - Madisonville KY - 52278 - 21,923
50 Madison Square Dr, Madisonville KY 42431

(SHC)

19. 9557 - Grayling MI - 52504 - 5,519
2425 S I-75 Business Loop, Grayling MI 49738

20. 9124 - Elwood IN - 52579 - 15,236
1519 State Rd 37 S Anderson IN 46036

21. 9186 - Grand Blanc, MI - 52996 - 65,757
12730 S Saginaw St, Flint MI 48439

(SHC)

22. 7916 - Eureka CA - 55238 - 42,557
4325 Broadway, Eureka CA 95503

(from Flickr user Romleys)

22. 9797 - Scotts Valley CA - 55238 - 60,716
270 Mount Hermon Rd, Scotts Valley CA 95066

A new facade and a relatively busy store in a relatively populous area - wonder why it's so small...

24. 9532 - Effingham IL - 55552 - 17,908
1006 N Keller Dr, Effingham IL 62401

(by Spiderweb24 on Panoramio)

(SHC)

24. 9680 - West Frankfort IL - 55552 - 13,895
3 West Frankfort Plaza, West Frankfort IL 62896

(SHC)

Unofficial Rank - Store Number - City - Square Feet - Population (5 mile radius) - Address

And to wrap it up, some links to good photos by FourStarCashierNathan of Iowa!

Ames, IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157622472682985/

Carroll IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157623359798679/

Cedar Rapids, IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157622575169169

Marshalltown, IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157619427908590/

Mason City IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157624156230478/

Webster City IA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourstarcashiernathan/sets/72157622607533438/

Thanks for reading!
*many photos taken from Microsoft Bing Maps and websites by Fourstarcashiernathan (links provided above)

Kwash

2010-05-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Iowa City, Iowa

The laundromat, part of what parent company Sears Holdings Corp. calls its "test-and-learn philosophy," will have 31 washers and 30 dryers, free high-speed wireless Internet access, a wash-and-fold drop-off service, and a rewards system for frequent users. The laundromat also has a full-service Kmart register.
(Photo from the SunTimes)

Kwash will have the largest loaders in the area, ranging in size from 18 pounds, to 30, 40, 60, and 80-pound washers, and prices will vary accordingly. For instance, the 30-pound washer will cost $2.97 a load, while the 60-pound washer will be $5.97. He said the rates are competitive, but no one will be able to match the convenience of shopping and getting the laundry done simultaneously. Time is money. (And MyGofer.com service in-store)

See full article from WalletPop: http://srph.it/bB1V78

Interesting concept... small steps, but still not going to be a "big hit" companywide though.

Also, SHLD reports Q1 2010 results. Kmart gross margins 24.3% with SG&A 21.8% (Selling/General Admin Expenses) with 1,320 stores as of May 1 2010, down from 1,364 a year ago. (comparison, Sears US is 30.3% gross margin 27.1% SG&A and down to 907 from 926 stores)

Anyway, next time, we'll spotlight the top 10 smallest Kmarts, coincidentally many of which are in Iowa.