Hummelstown Big Kmart

Hummelstown PA Big Kmart
Store 7470
1170 Mae St, Hummelstown PA 17036

Wow, a Kmart that doesn't have the 1970's facade! Well... according to a Flickr caption by "joshaustin610" (I'll just assume it's accurate), the Kmart was built in 1970's, but moved to this new shopping center in 1994, hence this 1990's style that we've seen in previous posts such as the one in Franklin Tennessee . This relatively large (for a Kmart, at 108,600 square feet) store is in the Hershey Square shopping plaza in a small town environment, in between Harrisburg and Hershey Pennsylvania. It's a middle income community, near the Pennsylvania State University Hershey School of Medicine, surrounded by your standard suburban shopping center area mix of fast food and quick-serve food places, pizza joint, Americanized Chinese restaurants, chain supermarket, gas stations, EconoLodge, etc...

So nothing too surprising here. The interior looks like the style of the 1990's Kmart, and I'm not entirely sure but I believe the "BIG" in the Big-K on the exterior was added a few years after the store opened. There is still an Olan Mills Portrait Studio, pharmacy, and garden center at this store as of 2012.

The layout: the entrance is on the left side (not the middle of the store), with soft lines (clothing) on the left, electronics and toys on the right, the garden center on the far right, and pharmacy at the front.

View from the main entrance of the store looking right. Somehow the cart location at Kmarts are never quite right... either too few or too many making it not "ease of flow" to get one.

View upon entering the store

Customer service is to the left of the entrance

Seasonals by the entrance. Note the 1990's style logo above the doors.

But wait! There's more! Buy now and we'll DOUBLE your offer! Cheaply made plastic for just three easy payments of $9.99!

Snow-blowers. brrrrrrrr!

1990's style ELECTRONICS lettering

Post-Sears merger: the random appliance section, including KENMORE washing machines and refridgerators. It'd be curious to find out how many are sold per store. I guess the shelf life of the appliances is non-perishable, so they could just sit there for a while?

Garden center. The problem with most Kmarts is there is not enough space at the front of the store for promotional and seasonal items, especially large ones like Christmas trees, so they are off to the back.

the garden center exit

Look familiar? The too-sad Kmart fridge case.

Pharmacy. The signage style is not consistent across the chain, reflecting the different times of store construction (or rarely, remodeling).

Wonder why the "g" in FittinG is capitalized...

That's all, folks. Until next time, peace on earth! Thank you for reading Super Kmart Blogspot.

Winter Springs Big Kmart

Winter Springs, FL Big Kmart
1425 Tuskawilla Road at Red Bug Lake Rd, Winter Springs FL 32708

Winter Springs, Florida Big Kmart - a typical suburban sprawl story. This store was rumored to be on its death bed by the Orlando Sentinel newspaper in 2005 but remains open as of 2012. At 86,479 square feet, it is a medium-sized Big-Kmart, and opened in 1990 with the shopping center as one of the two anchors (Albertsons supermarket was on the other end) on what used to be cow pastures. In 2010, around 80,000 people (~85% white) lived within a 3-mile radius with a median household income of nearly $85,000 - seems to be a more affluent area for a Kmart store. The nearest direct mass-merchant competitors are a Target store near the Oviedo Marketplace around a 3 mile drive away, and a Walmart Supercenter on Semoran almost a 4 mile drive away, so the Kmart has got itself a small niche location-wise, although of course brand-wise that may be another story. In spring 2012, the Albertsons supermarket closed (largely due to the opening of a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market a handful of years ago), and the rest of the plaza has been sleepy as well, with several stores coming and going.
On several occasions the Kmart had buckets placed around the stores where leaks were coming through from the ceiling, and in general, has not seen much of a remodel since it's opening over twenty years ago.

The road sign (but not the store sign) has been updated to the "new" (already a decade old) logo in 2011 (see below for photo)

Side view of Garden Center. Photos 2007-2009.




The following photos are from 2011:

Softlines (clothing, baby supplies, fitting rooms) and the Olan Mills are on the left side of the store from entry.

View from the left toward the entrance.

Rear-left corner of the store includes luggage and sporting goods. Sometimes the  items seem cluttered.

Stockroom

Electronics is sequested in the rear-center of the store

The impact of the Sears merger: a few random appliances. Most definitely not the "magic bullet" to take on Wal-Mart!

The electronics counter. Wonder how long it takes to get help here?

The furniture section in the center of the store looked decent!

Empty shelves on the main aisle!

Does this still work?

Home improvement and auto and layaway in the rear-right of the store

The lettering of Layaway looks slightly off...

There are two entrances to the garden shop on the right of the store, this is the rear one. The garden shop is in  a more "warehouse" feel as well as an outdoor section fenced in.

The garden shop inside part, with the door on the left leading to the plants and soil outside.

The garden center entrance/exit.

Pharmacy is in the front-right of the store

Random buckets. Catching leaks?

Oh, the typical "Cold Milk" fridge found at so many Kmarts... seems rather well stocked for a Kmart actually!

Checkouts. It appears there used to be more. The area between the checkout and exit used to hold a One Hour Photo Shop, but now just has some clearance merchandise since the photo center got dismantled a few years ago.

Area where Kmart Photo Center used to be. Not much remains.

This map looks to be from circa 2004-2007ish? The Goldenrod location is whited out, having closed in 2009. The Semoran Orlando and Lake Mary locations  also closed in 2011. 

http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2009/07/former-goldenrod-big-kmart.html

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

The updated road sign, 2011

That's all for now, folks! Hope you enjoyed the look at this typical Big Kmart store!