Paintsville, KY Big Kmart

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

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

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