Kmart, once a popular discount chain with more than 2,000 stores in the United States, has become the latest victim of the apocalypse of retail, with only four stores still operating.
The former retail giant recently announced that it is closing two more of its locations – only two remain New Jerseyone on Long Island, New York, and one in Miami, FloridaAccording to Oregon.
The announcement came after decades at the retail rebate chain failed to deal with them Walmart and Target’s low prices, a problem only exacerbated by the rise of the Internet and the inability of the store to be properly branded.
It was supposed to be “so soft that no one felt uncomfortable,” said Ben Schultz, a graduate in public history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who is studying the decline of the retail chain. It was a place that could be shared by anyone.
But “when they tried to change their image, they had no image.”
Kmart, once a popular discount chain across America, recently announced it was closing two more of its stores, leaving only four in the United States.
In their heyday, customers line up for hours to figure out what’s on sale
Over the past 20 years, Kmarts’ global profit margins have fallen from $ 49 billion to just $ 3.26 billion
Kmart has filed for bankruptcy twice since the turn of the century, as its global profit margins fell from $ 49 billion in 2005 to just $ 3.26 billion in 2020. It continues to perform well in Australia.
And shares of Kmart – which merged with the now defunct Sears department store in 2005 under the Sears Holdings conglomerate – have been stagnant since October 2021 for less than a cent.
Meanwhile, the stock price of Target was $ 194 on Wednesday, and Walmart was $ 136.
Kmart shares have been stagnant since October 2021 for less than a cent
Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, Target’s stock price was $ 194 and Walmart’s was $ 136
Kmart was founded by Sebastian Spering Kresge as SS Krege in 1899 in the Detroit suburbs of Garden City, as a securities store where shoppers can find everyday necessities such as household items, clothing and toys.
Kresge resigned as president in 1925 and the company was handed over to Henry Cunningham.
By the 1960s, the company was transforming into Kmart, striving to dominate the low-priced retail sector of national brands – a feat that succeeded.
The retail apocalypse is coming for your favorite stores
The apocalypse in retail is the closure of many ordinary stores, especially those of large chains around the world, starting around 2010, when customers began to turn in greater numbers to Amazon and other online retailers.
The sharp decline in sales of ordinary stores across the country has accelerated in recent years, but the pandemic has exaggerated.
The big retailers closed 12,000 stores in 2020, after the already devastating 2019, when more than 9,300 stores closed.
Another 80,000 stores – 9 percent of the nation’s total – will close in this “retail apocalypse” over the next five years as e-commerce sales grow, according to a report by financial services company UBS.
Source: The Week
Buyers often waited for Kmart employees to announce a special offer for Bluelight – or daily deals in certain departments – and hurried to see what they were like before enjoying food at the café.
In 1977 he changed his name to Kmart.
“Kmart absolutely dominates the retail discount market,” said Schultz.
“Their focus was to be the discount store in America,” he said. “They basically wanted to have a monopoly on the industry, and it seemed to be within their reach.”
The chain peaked in the early 1990s, running nearly 2,400 stores and employing about 3,500 people in the United States and Canada – and even acquired other stores such as Payless Drug Stores, the Borders bookstore chain and the Sports Authority, all of which also have has already gone out of business.
In 1991, he raised $ 1 billion in capital by offering convertible preferred shares, according to his website, and by 1993 had revenues of about $ 37 billion.
But the following year it began closing hundreds of its stores, a process that accelerated over the next decade. 24/7 Wall Street reports as management failed to accelerate the money to modernize stores and upgrade technology that would allow them to more closely track inventory and retail sales.
“Kmart is lagging behind in technology and logistics,” said Ken Nisch, chairman of brand strategy and retail design firm JGA. Detroit News in 2019. “They lost their price advantage over Walmart.
They were at a time when they could never catch up with him again.
By 2002, the company had lost its position as the second largest retailer after Sears to Walmart. Mass Live reports and declares insolvency under Chapter 11.
His debt was eventually bought by hedge fund operator Eddie Lampert, who combined the merged Kmart with Sears in a $ 11 billion deal.
But Lampert, who still owns the company, failed to revive it, and Sears and Kmart filed for bankruptcy again in 2018.
Kmart once operated nearly 2,400 stores in the United States. Here are managers celebrating the opening of a new Kmart in New York in 1974.
Now fans of the almost non-existent store have turned to social media to remember Kmart’s golden age, sharing photos of the crowds the store once attracted and old circulars as they mourned the closure of their local stores.
Some will now be developed at Targets and Walmart to continue to provide a wide range of supplies to middle-class families, while others are turning into malls and other retail stores.
However, Kmart continues to survive online, selling washing machines and dryers for only a few thousand dollars, as well as Route 66 jeans and Disney clothing.