Only 3 Kmarts remaining in the USA and I visited a store last week

My grandma worked for Kmart for as long as I could remember. Usually the night shift but occasionally in days at a cash register. The one in my town closed 10 plus years ago. I remember that they had Mobil 5000 on clearance for $1 a quart. I bought all 40 quarts. The lady at the register gave me the strangest look.
 
Thinking, about the only thing Kmart did better than a Wal-Mart SuperCenter was: Better toy selection, way more board games, and better men's cologne.(brand and price)
 
Thinking, about the only thing Kmart did better than a Wal-Mart SuperCenter was: Better toy selection, way more board games, and better men's cologne.(brand and price)
They opened a Walmart literally across the street from where the K-mart had been operating for the last 20+ years. From day 1 the Walmart was a sty. Disorganized, poorly lit, long checkout lines.

Walmart did have a better oil selection and magazines. Hated shopping there. Preferred k-mart. The K-mart held in there until maybe three or four years ago.
 
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Kmarts vanished from Canada over 25 years ago. A lot of locations were replaced by Zellers; which honestly looked and ran the same, then they vanished a few years ago.
My parents were snobby, and refused to shop there; even though there was a big one in the area I grew up in, so I never spent much time in one.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s the one where I lived was big, and had a big garage that did lots of work on cars, always cars outside it. It is an empty building now, but still looks the same.
 
I liked going there as a kid in the 90s. Seemed more interesting/better toy and auto sections than Walmart. It has probably been at least 20 years since I have been to one. Where I lived the Walmart explosion started happening around 1996. We had a Walmart before that, but it was certainly no better (probably worse) than KMart and the Walmart Supercenter that was built in 1996 was different from anything that was in the area before. I remember the opening of the Supercenter being a big deal and it brought along an entire shopping center with Barnes & Noble, Staples, Linens N Things, etc.

Now I just prefer the internet. In store shopping is mostly disappointment.
 
One of Zayre's spinoffs was BJs Wholesale club and that's still going strong.
atleast in the Cleveland area was another store that was popular...Uncle Bills and Giant Tiger...both were discount type stores..
 
A good video on them.


My local Kmart is a church and the auto section is a Line-X franchise.

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As soon as I saw the picture I recognized the K-Mart on Andresen, (then I saw the address below 😄), I didn't realize it had turned into a church. I grew up on a farm in Battle Ground in the late 80's/90's, before we had ever even heard of Walmart (they built the first Walmart on Mill Plain in about 1998 or so, then a few years later expanded it to be a Super Walmart). I remember my dad buying oil filters there or at Bi-Mart, and Havoline cases were always really cheap at Bi-Mart, so he'd get it there, but sometimes K-Mart had a good deal too. We always got our shoes at K-Mart. I loved the smell of popcorn when we walked in, and I always held out hope that dad would spring for an Icee. Back before Vancouver turned into California.
 
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As soon as I saw the picture I recognized the K-Mart on Andresen, (then I saw the address below 😄), I didn't realize it had turned into a church. I grew up on a farm in Battle Ground in the late 80's/90's, before we had ever even heard of Walmart (they built the first Walmart on Mill Plain in about 1998 or so, then a few years later expanded it to be a Super Walmart). I remember my dad buying oil filters there or at Bi-Mart, and Havoline cases were always really cheap at Bi-Mart, so he'd get it there, but sometimes K-Mart had a good deal too. We always got our shoes at K-Mart. I loved the smell of popcorn when we walked in, and I always held out hope that dad would spring for an Icee. Back before Vancouver turned into California.
It's too bad no one ever came up with S-mart. Or it was just too cheesy.

 
One thing Kmart once sold was the Mobil 1 oil filters, and usually it was cheaper than other stores that carried those. Made it fun to poke around the automotive section.

Some of the Kmart stores closed so quickly the signage remained on the buildings for a good while. A few years ago I was fooled by seeing one like that on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, because I thought that location might still be operating. No, it had closed leaving all the Kmart signage in place. I think the signage was finally removed recently.

Sister outlet Sears is down to 16 full-line stores in the US plus a few others that sell appliances and other specialties. This might be the year both chains finally call it quits. Last year Sears closed more stores than it left open.
 
I remember getting a pair of Mura headphones from Kmart that I loved. Had a pair of imitation Tuff Wheels (I think they were called Empire) that were total junk. I remember riding down the street and seeing all the ball bearings rolling past me on the ground haha! I had them on my Schwinn Stingray:D
Yeah man those mags were a total joke! :ROFLMAO: My dad wouldn't fork over the big bucks for Skyway Tuff Wheels haha he forced those Empire mags on me!!:ROFLMAO:
 
Kmart even had their own branded oil filters. Some people sell them on eBay.

I don‘t know who made Kmart oil filters.

This last Kmart I visited only had a few automotive items not even worth taking a photo of.
I think the name was "Motorvator" and it was a copy of/made by Purolator.
 
Kmart was THE store in the small town I grew up in. Pamida was just down the road, and we went there a lot too in Thief River Falls, MN. Neither exist anymore, at least in MN. Sad to see, but not new. Lot of great stores back in the day no longer exist.
 
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I still remember being behind a teacher ( I assume) once who was buying 24 notebooks. Only problem was that they had a limit of two per person. So, the cashier rang up 2, take the cash, give the change and the receipt, ring up 2 more, take the cash and give the change and the receipt, ring up 2 more......ah well, you know the rest of the story. Of course, being K-mart, they only had one register open so I, and the growing line of people behind me, either waited our turn or left. Lots of ticked off folks that day.
Still kind of sad to think of all the stores that I frequented growing up that just don't exist anymore. Sears, K-Mart, Rickel, Channel, Jamesway, Two Guys from Harrison, EJ Korvette and the list goes on...........
 
When I was young we shopped at Kmart, had one a few miles down the road from home. The very first Kmart store was not too far away on the corner of Ford Rd. and Middlebelt in Garden City, MI.

The first Little Caesar's was just a little SW of there on Venoy and Cherry Hill also in Garden City.
 
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