Fremont, Ohio Super Kmart Center

Fremont Super Kmart Center

Store # 3784

1825 N STATE RTE 19
Fremont, OH - 43420

In a small "average middle-class American" Ohio city, this almost 17 year old Kmart Supercenter remains in business, one of the few dozen surviving Kmart Supercenters left in 2010 after hundreds (well, maybe there were once that many, but Kmart never did successfully exploit the hypermarket grocery superstore concept) have been closed this past decade. On a visit, this Super Kmart had several cashiers open and was doing brisk business for a Kmart - though significantly less than a Walmart. However, the volume of traffic is still much less than the peak of Kmart in the early 1990s - indeed, back then Kmart was a retail force as this Kmart opened 3 years after a Walmart opened in Fremont. Now the Walmart has become a supercenter and draws a lot more crowds.

The layout involves the electronics, garden center, sporting goods, and apparel on the right side of the store, with the pharmacy and health section in the front left, bakery/deli and groceries in the middle left, and meats/seafood/produce in the back left. The other departments fill the rest of the store. There are two main customer entrances, one on either side of the row of cashiers in the middle. In front of the cashiers include customer service, Olan Mills portrait studio, Coinstar and Lotto machines, Western Union money orders, video rentals, etc.

Note: store right/left side is defined here as seen when standing in the parking lot and looking at the store. All pictures in this post copyright owners of SuperKmart blog.

View from the air. Copyright owners of SuperKmart blog 2009.

Sign from the main highway (20/6/53 Grand Army of the Republic)


View of the back of the store from the highway exit onto Route 19 N Oak Harbor Rd


View from State Route 19, the only entrance into the Super K Center. Note the garden center overflow in the parking lot.


The sign says Open 24 Hours.


The main store front.



The right entrance leads to apparel/electronics.



View facing the middle of the store from the right entrance. 16 cashier lanes!


The right entrance.



Kmart's expanding apparel lineup.


Toys in the main back aisleway.


Looking toward the front of the store. Super Kmart Center salutes our Ohio vendors.


The left side of the store with the perishable foods in the corner.



The produce selection isn't the best, but not bad for a Kmart.


Refridgerated/freezer cases



One can order cakes online at SuperKmart.com


There were freshly baked products available.


Looking toward the front of the store from the left side.


Wow, more than 4 cashier lanes were open midday weekend!


The Shop Your Way program has promotional signage.


The Customer Service "Super Stars of Super K" at the front of the store.









From a 2010 visit


Here's an interesting archive article about the opening of this store.

Nowadays, the major direct competition nearby is a Walmart that became "supercenter-ized" in 2005 - quite surprising that the Kmart is still open 5 years later. There are, to the best of our knowledge, no Targets, Costcos, Sears, or BJ's nearby, so there's only the Walmart, some Krogers and a handful of small independent grocers, and the ubiquitous drugstores. Still surprising the Kmart is surviving the many rounds of cuts that have winnowed down the Super K ranks.

A quick Comparison:

Fremont Wal-Mart Supercenter

2052 state Route 53, Fremont, Ohio

Open: 1990 as 130,152 sq ft Store, Re-opened April 2005 as 211,350 Supercenter

Features include (as of 2005): Portrait studio, Garden Center, Auto Service, Hair salon, pizza store, vision center, drive thru pharmacy

Employment (as 2005): Around 320 Full time jobs and 80 part time jobs

Check-out lanes: 20 cashiers, 8 express lane cashiers, and 8 self-checkout lanes (36 total)

The 47^th Walmart Supercenter in Ohio (not including 69 discount stores and 27 Sam’s Clubs in OH as of 2005)

Open 24 hrs

Fremont Super Kmart Center

Store # 3784

1825 N STATE RTE 19
Fremont, OH 43420

Open: Aug 1993 as 173,046 sq ft Kmart Supercenter (8^th Super K in the USA)

Features include (as of 2010): Garden Shop, Pharmacy, Olan Mills Portrait Studio, Video Center, Lotto, Western Union Money, Deli/Bakery

Employment: estimated 100-190 (My guess is 184)

Check-out lanes: 16

Open 24 hrs

# of Kmart Supercenters in the USA: 47 in 2009, 32 in 2010 (estimate)

www.superkmart.com

Cool Walmart Growth Visualization

http://flowingdata.com/2010/04/07/watching-the-growth-of-walmart-now-with-100-more-sams-club/

The success of a well-run (and by some measures, the world's largest) company.

Walmart facts as of Feb 2010

Retail Units Worldwide 8,423

US Retail Units 4,361:
Walmart U.S. stores 810
Supercenters 2,756
Sam’s Clubs 605
Neighborhood Market 184
Marketside 4
Supermercado 2

International Retail Units 4,062

Company History
First Walmart opened in 1962 (Rogers, AR)
First Sam’s Club opened in 1983 (Midwest City, OK)
First Supercenter opened in 1988 (Washington, MO)
First International unit opened in 1991 (Mexico City)
First Neighborhood Market opened in 1998 (Bentonville, AR)
First Marketside stores opened in 2008 (Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe, AZ)
First Supermercado store opened in 2009 (Houston, Texas)

and back to Kmart.
In other news... the first Sears Fashion Outlet has opened at the Discovery Mills Mall in Lawrenceville, GA. Discount/out of season/overstock brands include Sears Holdings exclusives Lands' End, Dockers, Apostrophe, Country Living and Cannon at bargain hunter prices.

An interesting diversion that could be successful, but probably not completely essential/relevant to the core business or need to improve Sears Holdings often mysterious or poorly planned/executed ideas...

Kmart merchandising

As you can see, the number of full-line (normal) Sears stores, Kmart stores, Super Kmart Centers, and some other minor brands (Sears Grand/Essentials, Sears Hardware, Great Indoors) have decreased. The number of franchisee-type Sears Hometown stores has increased, as has Lands' End kiosks inside Sears. We will see how the decision to make exclusive brands such as Craftsman available to other retailers will bode for Sears.

The exclusive Country Living home collection has replaced Martha Stewart Everyday lineup in Kmart stores. It's tough being in the shadows of Walmart and Target, especially when it comes to dealing with suppliers (for example, Walmart accounts for over 21% of sales for some consumable companies like Kelloggs), but Kmart does still have around 1,300 stores and $16 billion in sales a year. Indeed, Kmart is over a third of Sears Holdings and while Sears Holdings has lost almost a third of its share in the $2.99 trillion retail market to 1.4% last year from 2.1% before Kmart and Sears merged, it is still big. (For comparison, Wal-Mart's share jumped to 10.2% from 8.7%)

Kmart is launching an exclusive apparel line with Disney Channel teen star Selena Gomez - trying to raise the coolness factor of its clothing lineup to be more in line with popular Target or even the Miley Cyrus line at Walmart. In fact, the Gomez/ Dream Out Loud line sales are hoped to be around $100 million for the launch year!

For its exclusive adult clothing line-up, Kmart is pushing a relaunched classy Jaclyn Smith brand for women, described as “classic feminine styling, quality fabrics and ease of fit". The attention brand is for sophisticated, contemporary looks. The Route 66 brand is for jeans and vintage looks. For men, exclusive brands include golf-style Top Flite and Piper and Blue casualwear.

All in all, Kmart's clothing department seems to be getting more souped up, trying to be as "cool" as Target while boasting "Everyday Great Prices". A dedicated website, Kmartdesign.com , shows off Kmart's 250+ design team. It seems this part is working... nicer clothes at affordable prices, and for stores that are nice inside, it should be a success. The only issue would be if aging stores still remain off-putting for people to venture inside - something management does not think is a problem but most Wall Street analysts deride (lack of capital reinvestment in store remodelings). We'll see who is right...


Sources:
http://industry.bnet.com/retail/10008505/why-selena-gomez-may-not-be-kmarts-next-cash-cow/
http://industry.bnet.com/retail/10008566/kmart-bets-that-jaclyn-smith-can-kick-martha-stewart%E2%80%99s-posterity/
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kmart-counts-on-rebuilding-consumer-demand-2010-04-15

Bigg's to close

Market Watch:
Cincinnati based Bigg's will close 5 hypermarkets and sell the remaining 6 large supermarkets to local Remke Markets. Bigg's, which some have described as a more upscale Walmart Supercenter selling everything from fresh produce to apparel, had around a 5% grocery market share in 2009 in the Cincy area, falling behind hometown giant Kroger and WM. Supervalu Corp, which owns biggs, ostensibly is selling the chain for cash given their relatively large debt ever since the Albertsons acquisition, but this also signifies that the Biggs supercenters were probably not as competitive with Walmarts and the like...
I'm sure many will miss you, bigg's!

Comparisons against Walmart

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, now accounts for 21% of the grocery/foods market share in the US, larger than the next 3 largest competitors (such as Kroger, Costco, and Safeway) combined. Almost 90% of Americans have shopped in a Walmart in the past year, an astoundingly high (and inspiring for any business) number. What about regular weekly customers? Here's something from Supermarket News:

	PERCENTAGE OF WEEKLY SHOPPERS 2009	% CHANGE 2008-09
Conventional supermarkets	43.5%	+2.4
Warehouse clubs	9.2%	+1.1
Target general merchandise stores	8.8%	+1.1
Kmart/Big Kmart/Kmart Super Center	4.7%	+1.0
Walmart Supercenter	28.7%	+0.8
SuperTarget	5.4%	+0.5
Walmart discount stores	10.5%	+0.5
Dollar stores/small-format value retailers	14.8%	+0.4
Extreme-value/price-impact supermarkets	9.3%	+0.3
Health/natural supermarkets	4.9%	+0.2
Drug stores	20.6%	-0.6
Specialty food stores/neighborhood specialty markets	6.9%	-1.1
Convenience stores — gasoline purchase	41.1%	-2.2
Convenience stores — merchandise purchase	16.4%	-2.3

SOURCE: Retail Forward ShopperScape (survey of 4,000 consumers who are primary shoppers for their households)

Parsippany NJ Kmart/Sears

Big Kmart, erm, Sears Essentials, erm soon to be kmart
808 US 46, Parsippany NJ

Well, it seems like perhaps the first new Kmart will be opened in almost a decade. Oh wait, it was a Kmart. Never mind, just converting a Sears Essentials (that was itself converted from a Big Kmart) back to the Kmart banner. (See our previous blog post on the miserable failure that Sears Essentials is/was. Great potential, terrible execution...) I wonder if this "conversion" will involve a major makeover, or just some cheap new signage. Hopefully, they will use this opportunity to explore with fresh & appealing designs (aka Walmart's "Project Impact") and add an expanded grocery section (aka Target's "pFresh"), but cross your fingers, for Sears management isn't particularly known for retail ingenuity in the 21st century. In other random news, a newspaper article from Columbia, TN states that Sears is replacing its closing mall store... with a Hometown franchisee a couple blocks away. Uh, sure a Sears Hometown store is better than no Sears, but a Hometown store is a fraction of the size...


From the Dailyrecord.com:
PARSIPPANY — Sears Holdings Corp. confirmed on Thursday that it was converting its Sears Essentials store in Parsippany back to a Kmart. The building at Arlington Plaza on Route 46 West was built and opened in 1998 as a flagship Kmart store, which was featured in a high-profile national advertisement that also included a staged parade in Boonton led by Penny Marshall and Rosie O'Donnell. It was rebranded as a Sears Essentials store after Kmart Holdings Corp. purchased Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 2005, creating the company known as Sears Holdings Corp.

"We found that the popularity of Kmart resonated better with the customers, so we are changing it back," said Sears Holdings Corp. spokesperson Kim Freely.

Freely said the store will close for two days following the liquidation sale that began on Sunday. It will then soft-open as a Kmart on March 24, with the grand opening scheduled for May 28.

"And we'll be adding a layaway program, sporting goods, hosiery and jewelry," Freely said

Nashville, TN: Nolensville Big Kmart

4095 Nolensville Pike at Harding Rd
Nashville, TN 37211

92,770 Sq Ft





This store is directly across from a Wal-Mart Supercenter (which replaced the defunct and razed-over former Harding Mall) that opened in 2006... good luck surviving! (Note: from multiple parking lot counts, obviously the Wal-Mart parking lot is almost always crowded, but the Kmart one still has quite a few cars, a good sign.) There are remnants left over from other now-closed Kmart stores here - like Super Kmart shopping carts.

I added a nearby Food Lion picture because I thought it looked neat and sort of retro.
Edit: The Walmart Supercenter effect (a killing zone for traditional supermarkets nearby) has come. The Food Lion closed in Feb 2010. (Note: we'll post Food Lion store closing pictures in another update in the next month)


The Layaway (one of the few areas Kmart offers that Walmart doesn't currently) is in the posterior right corner of the store.

A view from the front right of the store.

This is the front right corner. Looks like a former Kmart Cafe or Little Caesars area, now holds infants' supplies (strollers) and clearance items. Some of the far cashiers lanes look rather lonely.

The Pharmacy. It looked crowded with several people standing in the small aisles waiting - if there is any room to spare (probably not), it may be worth it to add a bench area. Or perhaps this way people will go shopping while waiting.

The Garden Shop in January was closed. They should spruce up the looks and add new signage, as this is the most visible corner of the store from Harding Road, and it doesn't look that appealing to non-Kmart fans.

Some stylish (for Kmart) clothing!

Looking from the middle back of the store towards the entrance.

Kmart now owns and operates its own shoe department. Previously, Footstar Corp owned the inventory but they went bankrupt.

The restrooms in the back. Some old signs!

Furniture!

More furniture!

There are new signs on the walls of the electronics department - a nice touch. A helpful salesperson was also hanging around on this visit - great job! Granted, Kmart's electronics department still has a ways to go, especially with Walmart devoting more and more space and promotions to this category.

The Craftsman tools aisle. Some empty spots, but pretty decent overall.

Note the linear fluorescent lighting and white linoleum (?) tiles. Target does a much better job with ambience by having "splotchy" lights on the ceiling instead of long straight lines.

Note the new signage on the top of the walls with national brands. I wonder if the brands had to pay for the pseudo-ads, or if Kmart is just happy to be able to carry them.

Kmart is doing a decent job in stocking the shelves and uncluttering, but somehow the vintage 1970's store feel still hangs over it sometimes. Not that it's a bad thing, but Walmarts are generally moving toward a more "upscale" wooden-floor-type airy feel.

Please don't do drugs, people!

The very first thing to welcome shoppers is a sign-up table for the loyalty card program Shop-Your-Way rewards.

That's all for now!

A view from the air of Harding Rd at Nolensville Pike. The Kmart is on the left, with decent number of cars, while the Walmart supercenter (formerly Harding Mall) is on the right.


Competition: Directly across the street, a 192,968 sq ft Walmart Supercenter opened January 2007, replacing Harding Mall. It was the 91st WM Supercenter in TN, not including 16 regular stores, a handful of Neighborhood Markets, and 16 Sam's Clubs.

Update: The Nolensville Pike Kmart was partially damaged by floods in Nashville in May 2010.

Photos taken 2009 and 2010

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