Friday, November 16, 2012

PA: Pittsburgh - McIntyre Square Big Kmart

Big Kmart #3895
7900 McKnight Rd
McIntyre Square
Pittsburgh PA

This 87,000 square foot Big Kmart store is in a large shopping strip mall along with Giant Eagle, Office Max, Stein Mart, Chuck E Cheeses, and other typical stores at the top of a hill in a busy Pittsburgh suburban environment, just 3.2 miles down the street from a Target. (Although, there is no Wal-Mart within a few miles, at least.) The signage is large and visible on top of the hill from busy McKnight Road, although the plaza itself is not visible as cars must turn onto the plaza entrance via a side street to go up the hill. It appears there also used to be an Auto Center at this Kmart. The signage remains old, with the street sign being the pre-2000's Kmart logo, and the main facade being the early 2000's "Big-Kmart" logo. You will see in the photos below the layout of the shopping plaza, the traditional signage inside the store, the appliance section, and most excitingly, the cool dedicated Pet Foods / pet supplies section (not an aisle, but an action mini-store!). I thought that was nice. The store overall is pretty average (meaning nice for a Kmart, but not anything like a Target) and representative of a suburban Big Kmart. Hope you enjoy the photos!
The largely deserted and vast store parking lot on a weekday night before store closing. Too much of America has been paved over due to unnecessarily large parking lots...

An interesting (but dated) Big-Kmart facade, and the rest is the typical Kmart store look.

Olan Mills portrait studio - not sure how these make profit?

Some attempts with fresh signage in the clothing section, but mostly the old sale signs and carousels.





Very interesting - a pet section!



Post-Sears merger: appliances. Not quite the vast synergies from the merger, but just a meager step.



More of the cool pet section!




Old-school traditional font for the Layaway.


Not quite a Target: empty or poorly covered shelving.



a fairly typical Kmart electronics section




Oh the infamous fridge. Lots of milk in this one though!




Same old (and old) cash registers...


A typical Big-Kmart pharmacy

Target and Wal-Mart do a much better job of reducing that awkward area behind the cash registers...

Note the "Thank you for shopping Big Kmart" lettering.


The garden shop is pretty quiet in the winter.

Old-school logo on the street sign, which is on top of a hill.


No store directory here, rather, just urging you to check out the Pantry, which still pales in comparison to Target's P-Fresh foods, much less Wal-Mart supercenters.

The view upon entering the store. Not bad!


You can see how the street sign is on top of the hill and the plaza itself is not visible.

A random Pittsburgh photo - a Taiwanese restaurant! On Forbes Ave.
Layout of the strip mall (shopping plaza) - the Kmart is one of the corner anchors.
Please consider donating to charities such as Tzu Chi Compassion Relief USA. (www.us.tzuchi.org )