Kmart set to close final full-size store in the U.S. next month

Attention Kmart shoppers, the last big-box store in the contiguous U.S. will be closing at the end of October.

The discount retailer that once dominated America’s retail scene will cease to exist as a full-size store beginning October 20, 2024. Although the department store will close its location in Bridgehampton, New York, a smaller location in Miami, Florida will remain open as will locations in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The iconic retail chain opened its doors for the first time in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962. That year nearly two dozen stores opened across the U.S. and within the next four years more than 150 Kmarts had opened nationwide.

The retailer quickly became known for its Blue Light Special. A blue light would go off in the store alerting customers to a limited time deal.

“It would get your heart racing,” Pete Fader, a marketing professor at Wharton, told Marketplace. “It was, ‘OK, what’s it going to be?’”

By the 1990s, Kmart operated more than 2,300 stores and employed roughly 350,000 people. However, as other retailers became more popular Kmart found it difficult to stand out and sales suffered.

K Mart Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and immediately began closing locations around the U.S. In 2005, the company merged with Sears.

The merger did little to help the company, and despite Kmart’s efforts to keep its brick and mortar business as well as its e-commerce business afloat, their only solution was to continue closing locations.

On October 20, the last remaining full-size store will shut its doors for the last time after 25 years in business.

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