Super Kmart Center (1991-2017?)

[Scoot79]

http://triptothemall.blogspot.com/20...-illinois.html

Anybody here ever been in a Super Kmart Center (aka Super Kmart, Super K, and Kmart Supercenter)? The first one opened in Medina, Ohio in 1991 and it seems like the last one may be closing within the next year or so. At its peak in early 2002, there were 130 Super Kmart Centers in the U.S., but after two big rounds of bankruptcy closures in 2002 and 2003, the number of Super Kmart Centers has been dwindling over the last 13 to 14 years.

We had a Super Kmart Center (# 4904) in Victoria, Texas from October 1993 to June 2002. It was a really nice store and I hate that it's gone. As of 4/30/2016, there are only six Super Kmart Centers operating in the U.S. (Lorain, Ohio; Mentor, Ohio; Warren, Ohio; Ashtabula, Ohio; Taylor, Michigan; and Bradley, Illinois) However, four of them will be closing this year. The Bradley, Illinois store will close in May 2016. The Ashtabula, Ohio store will close in late July 2016. The Lorain, Ohio and Taylor, Michigan stores will both close in mid September 2016. That means, by mid September 2016, there will be only two Super Kmart Centers open in the U.S. (Mentor, Ohio and Warren, Ohio). I wouldn't be surprised if both of those locations close at some point in 2017.

I don't understand why Kmart (Sears Holding) gave up on the Supercenter concept. I would have thought that their Super Kmart Centers would have been their most lucrative asset and I fail to see how they can see a future ahead with only small Kmart discount stores (which are mostly cluttered, messy, disorganized, and feature no groceries) and Sears stores. I guess the Walmart Supercenters just proved to be too much for them to compete with. Sad, as I like shopping at both.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Interesting thread. I don't ever remember seeing a Super K-mart in my area. I would have remembered the elaborate grocery store section(s).

I do remember a regular K-mart that was always junky/disorganized. It closed around 2002-ish, and I haven't seen any K-marts around since then.

For years, I thought the company had gone out of business - until I saw a K-mart several states away.

Unfortunately, K-marts always seem to be in sketchy areas...

My fondest K-mart memory was summer days in the late '90's, my local one sometimes had a grill outside which sold hamburgers/hot dogs. Good memories....

[West E]

I think we have a "Big-K" Kmart. Unfortunately it's awful. It's the most rundown store in town. Growing up KMart was awesome. We started to get Walmart and Target in the early 90s and everything went downhill from there.

[BizCat]

There's a Super K still open in Niles, OH.

[Rblu-Dblu]

I remember having a Super K Mart in my area a few years ago. It was never as clean as the pictures posted above. I believe that was part of the issue, you could never find anything because it looked like a 4 year olds bedroom.

[BluRayTim]

King Kullen is going out of business, too. I won't miss it. Shop Rite and Stop & Shop are just as good as or better (but never inferior) for much less money.

A&P, PathMark and Waldbaums are also gone. I don't miss them either. Shop Rite and Stop & Shop are much better in every way for much less money.

[D00mM4r1n3]

There was a Super K-Mart just down the road from me. I did all my clothes and grocery shopping there. K-Mart was the only major retailer to carry clothes in sizes over 3X thanks to the "Basic Editions" line of clothing. Their grocery section was also the only store that had pork shoulder in a small enough size to fit a 3 quart slow cooker. Unfortunately, the rest of the store was filthy and carried a limited selection of crap that made Wal-Mart look like a luxury retailer. Their movie & video game section was a joke, at least the one near me, games would just be dumped in piles inside of the locked displays making it impossible to read spines and no pricing information visible.

Back in the 1980's K-Mart was what Target is today, the #1 place for middle-class families to go for low prices. It was sad seeing the downward slide which started with reducing the workforce and immediately became noticeable due to filthy floors and shelves with products out of place throughout the store. I still don't know how Toys R Us ever survived their restructuring and attempt to reduce inventory to drive prices up: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/nyregion/for-toys-r-us-a-time-to-rebuild.html. They should all realize the success of Amazon is the huge selection of items to choose from allowing people to select between quality vs price.

[lostinva]

The Kmart in my town is closing this month. I've only been in there once, and that was maybe 6 months ago. It seemed like there was one cashier and one floor associate in the whole store, and I didn't see any other shoppers. I might check out the liquidation sale, but I have low expectations.

[segagamer12]

I haven't seen a K mart in years. Sad too as I used to work for one back in 2002 around the time they first went into decline.

[jc54]

Most of the ones in my area have closed or are closing in the near future. Leaves just one Big K in our area compared to several Target's and Wal-Mart's. The one's that are still open have looked like they are in need of a lot of attention for years so it seems like its really no surprise that they are shutting their doors. We never had a Super KMart in the area's I lived in so that is a new but unique idea shame they didn't expand on it.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

It is kind of telling why they are closing when you look at the pictures. There are almost no people in those pictures. I can go to Walmart at 2am and see more people. I've never shopped a Super K Mart, but the normal K Mart me is kind of run down with dim lighting. However i actually shop there a decent amount because their clearance is good and sometimes people don't even think of them as having something when they actually do. I got my Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii all there on launch day easily because nobody thinks about K Mart for those things.

[Scoot79]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfDarknessAW

It is kind of telling why they are closing when you look at the pictures. There are almost no people in those pictures. I can go to Walmart at 2am and see more people. I've never shopped a Super K Mart, but the normal K Mart me is kind of run down with dim lighting. However i actually shop there a decent amount because their clearance is good and sometimes people don't even think of them as having something when they actually do. I got my Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii all there on launch day easily because nobody thinks about K Mart for those things.

Super Kmart Centers are/were a lot different than traditional Kmart discount stores. While most Kmarts that I have visited are run down, cluttered, and messy with dim lighting and outdated signage and colors, Super Kmart Centers were very bright, clean, organized, pleasing to the eye, and very, very big! You could tell that the Super Kmart Centers were Kmart's bread and butter (at one time anyway, before the 2005 Sears merger and Eddie Lampert). It's a damn shame. How I would love to still have a 24 hour Super Kmart Center here. Their sub sandwiches were delicious.

There is now only one surviving Super Kmart Center. It's in Warren, Ohio and is no longer 24 hours. Current hours are 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

(The Mentor, Ohio Super Kmart Center closed on December 11, 2016.)

[BizCat]

Yup, right by me.

[Scoot79]

Originally Posted by BizCat

Yup, right by me.

Enjoy it while you can. Sadly, it probably won't be around too much longer.

[BizCat]

Originally Posted by Scoot79

Enjoy it while you can. Sadly, it probably won't be around too much longer.

I never go there, lol

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Never heard of a Super K-mart center before this thread. I used to have a regular K-mart in my area until around 2002, and then it closed. I was never even aware the chain still existed until I went to another part of the country & noticed one there.

Overall, I never liked K-mart. Poor selection & aisles with crap strewn all over the place. The only thing I did like about K-mart was that, during the summers, they had a grill outside where they had a decent selection of hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.

[Scoot79]

It was announced today that the last Super Kmart Center (Warren, Ohio) will be closed by early April 2018.

No more Supercenters for Kmart.

[BizCat]

At this point the entire company needs to be done.

[Scoot79]

Originally Posted by BizCat

At this point the entire company needs to be done.

I agree. Sears aside, without any Super Kmart Centers, what's the point of having tiny, outdated Kmart stores (which there will be less than 500 by April) with limited food items? Who the hell is going to shop them when there are Walmart Supercenters everywhere (3,500+), most open 24 hours. It's sad, but they need to just fold.

I miss our Super Kmart Center terribly. We were lucky to have it the 8.5 years we did. (October 1993 - June 2002)

[MazeRunner]

Originally Posted by Scoot79

I agree. Sears aside, without any Super Kmart Centers, what's the point of having tiny, outdated Kmart stores (which there will be less than 500 by April) with limited food items? Who the hell is going to shop them when there are Walmart Supercenters everywhere (3,500+), most open 24 hours. It's sad, but they need to just fold.

I miss our Super Kmart Center terribly. We were lucky to have it the 8.5 years we did. (October 1993 - June 2002)

K-mart is on the level of Shopko now. There's one across my movie theatre that seems to still get a decent amount of shoppers. The clientele appears to be older people, and weird people with social anxiety who hate the Wal-mart crowds.