Kmart's Time Is Running Out

[mjhale]

I'm curious if any of you live near a Kmart that has no immediate competition from Wal-Mart or Target. I used to shop at the Herndon, VA Kmart for a single HBA item for my Dad that they sold in a bulk size that neither Wal-Mart or Target sold in a bulk size. The Herndon, VA Kmart is 15-20 minutes from the closest Wal-Mart or Target assuming there are no traffic mishaps. The store is old (1970s build I think) and has that Kmart smell. But it is pretty clean and reasonably well merchandised. They get a good bit of business since there is no competition nearby and Herndon has quite a few low income folks.

What made me stop shopping there was the insistence that I join Shop Your Way and their refusal at one point to accept a manufacturers coupon at face value unless I was a Shop Your Way member. I can understand double or triple coupons needing a store card since the store is fronting the extra $$$ but redemption at face value shouldn't be tied to anything except me buying the product. When I contested the manager on the coupon he said that if I didn't like their policies I could go elsewhere which is exactly what I am now doing. Weis Markets sells the same item for a bit more and they are on the way to my parent's place. Difference is there is no hassle, no problems and decent service.

If Kmart goes down it will be interesting to see what happens to the stronger Kmart locations. It doesn't seem like any retailer is expanding en mass right now. Near me the Herndon and Annandale, VA Kmarts are all that are left. I'm not sure that either area would actually want a Wal-Mart or Target to move in if Kmart left. Supposedly the land the Annandale, VA Kmart is on is owned by some Korean investment group who has wanted Kmart out for a while so that they can build one of those Korean focused mini-mall things. Annandale has a huge Korean population. But the Kmart is the only mass merchandiser in the area so they have been to fight off the investment group for a while. I haven't been in the Annandale Kmart in a long time so I have no idea how well it is actually doing.

[storewanderer]

There is a Kmart in South Lake Tahoe, CA where the nearest Wal Mart or Target is about 45 minutes to an hour away down the hill in Carson City, NV.

The store is probably from the late 70's, but seems a lot older. Inside has moss green floor tiles, some white floor tiles, and is dirty, old, and dismal. It got the red wall repaint and a big upgrade to its security cameras a few years ago but that is it. The fixtures, checkstands, etc. are all very old. Also last year there was an issue with the restrooms and they were damaged/destroyed so those were re-done and are very, very nice looking now. The store also has a satellite garden center and storage room a few blocks away due to its small size. The store has many out of stocks, is always very dirty, understaffed, and in general just a terrible place to shop. Merchandising is horrible, messy, and the store underperforms in a big way given its lack of competition.

There is another Kmart I am familiar with in Bishop, CA that is more interesting. This store is many hours from a Wal Mart or Target. It was built during the bankruptcy to replace a smaller store (which was quite a bit like the South Lake Tahoe store mentioned above minus the off site garden center). This store is very nice, typically very well stocked, clean, and well maintained. It is not staffed very well and often has pretty long lines.

[rwsandiego]

There was a K-Mart in Mission Valley, San Diego on Rio San Diego Drive just off Qualcomm Way/Texas Street. Prior to Target's taking over the Ward's store a few blocks away in Mission Valley Center, K-Mart did a decent business. Was never crowded, which was a plus, but they also did not have the same variety as a Target. Still, it was convenient and marked the first time I had been in a K-Mart in at last ten years. Once Target opened, the place was a ghost town. Then it became Sears Essentials and was even more of a ghost town. It was converted BACK to K-Mart and was so devoid of customers it was spooky. It finally closed and was replaced by a Living Spaces. Looks like there are three K-Marts in San Diego county, including one right at the Mexican border in San Ysidro. THAT store was plenty crowded when I stopped in a few years ago. Had not been remodeled in years, but the staff was very friendly and the store was well-stocked.

[Super S]

What made me stop shopping there was the insistence that I join Shop Your Way and their refusal at one point to accept a manufacturers coupon at face value unless I was a Shop Your Way member. I can understand double or triple coupons needing a store card since the store is fronting the extra $$$ but redemption at face value shouldn't be tied to anything except me buying the product. When I contested the manager on the coupon he said that if I didn't like their policies I could go elsewhere which is exactly what I am now doing. Weis Markets sells the same item for a bit more and they are on the way to my parent's place. Difference is there is no hassle, no problems and decent service.

.

The arrogance Lampert has displayed regarding the Shop Your Way program, along with his belief that the program somehow qualifies Sears and Kmart as membership stores, has upset a lot of people and sent them elsewhere, including myself. He just doesn't get it. I have, on several occasions now, put down my purchase and walked out of Sears after they kept pushing me to join the program after I repeatedly said no. It is not worth my time when I am about an hours drive from the nearest Kmart or Sears with the exception of a Sears Hometown store.

The most successful retailers do not use gimmicky pricing programs.

[kr.abs.swy]

I visited a Kmart today, purely out of curiosity to see the store conditions (I seriously drove 35 minutes to see Kmart store conditions -- who does this??). As has been discussed previously, there are material inventory issues. The electronics department was particularly bare (on one aisle, there was at least 10 feet of shelving with absolutely nothing on it, on all levels), many of the displays in the rest of the department were quite sparse, and there were lots of empty spots on the TV wall. There were some empty shelves in the food department (I would say more than usual). It was pretty clear that the paperback section hadn't been replenished in several weeks (I would assume that this vendor is one of those that has chosen to stop doing business with Sears Holdings, but that is purely speculation). There was a large section outside of the pharmacy that was lightly (and unimaginatively) stocked with some pallets (this probably was part of the Christmas area previously). Some empty shelves in toys. Health and beauty felt reasonably normal. The Valentine's Department had lots of plush toys but not very much candy (surprisingly little). The snow shovel and snow melt aisle had been picked clean (this was due to a series of storms that had finally tapered off a week prior, although they should have had enough time to get some more on the shelves). The men's department was reasonably fully stocked but definitely did not give the impression of being packed. At the same time, there was a surprising amount of Christmas stuff remaining. Some of it was fairly ridiculous -- there was one $49 artificial tree that they had probably about 50 of sitting on a pallet. Did someone just overestimate by a factor of about five how many of those trees they would sell?

To what extent the shortages are due to internal inventory allocation vs. vendors refusing to ship, I couldn't say.

This was the store in Nampa, Idaho. I went in the Shopko across the street next. I seriously would guess that there was close to double the amount of inventory in the Shopko store. It was kind of jarring to go from the Kmart to the Shopko, actually. The Shopko certainly wasn't aging exceptionally well, but it felt posh compared to the Kmart.

There were several promos throughout the store where you would get 100% back in Shop Your Way points if you bought certain items (SmartSense, Duracell cellphone accessories). That seems like a very desperate promotion to me.

From a financial standpoint, I remember reading that Kmart same-store sales were down materially in the most recent quarter (I'm thinking 11%, but could be remembering wrong). While I have no doubt that this partially reflects shoppers speaking with their wallets (why anyone would shop in the store I was in today when there is a Shopko across the street, a Target across the freeway and a Walmart and Fred Meyer within 10 minutes is absolutely beyond me), it also reflects that the stores are starting to simply not have the merchandise that people are trying to buy. If you had an electronics purchase in mind, there is a good chance that this store would not have had what you were looking for or would only have one or two items to choose from.

From a physical conditions standpoint, this is an older store and was exactly what you would expect (about a dozen generations of floor tiles scattered throughout the store, low ceiling, unfortunate lighting, no unnecessary capex for probably about 15 years, walled off auto center, etc.).

I bought a box of Raisinets. The cashier asked for my phone number for "rewards" but didn't push back when I didn't want to give her one.

In the 90s Southern Idaho had nine Kmart stores (Rexburg, Idaho Falls/Ammon, Pocatello, Burley, Twin Falls, Mountain Home, two in Boise, Nampa) (plus one more in Ontario, Oregon). By my count, this is one of three (Ammon, Twin Falls, Nampa) that remain.

[storewanderer]

I went to the Sparks, NV Kmart today around 3 PM. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was a crowd of five people at the customer service area. Upon walking more, I found the reason for this was because there were NO checkstands open. All transactions were being processed through customer service. I walked through the store, and then started to notice half, or more, of the lights were shut off (the first time I have ever seen this at this location which as recently as two weeks ago was still fully lit inside). I walked all around the store and did not see any employees. I saw a lot of "buckets" spread around the sales floor and debris from deteriorating fallen ceiling tiles on the floors in a few places that nobody had swept up.

Christmas items were marked at 70% off but actually scanned 90% off. I was able to determine this by making my way 3 minutes across the store to the one functioning customer price scanner that is located in the bedding department. Quite a bit was left (three aisles and part of a side wall) and some of what remained was very nice decor items and such; far nicer than anything that Wal Mart or Target ever offered.

I do not think the food/drug/cleaning area has been restocked in at least a month. There are literally thousands of out of stocks; the pet area was particularly short stocked.

After spending close to an hour in the store I went up to pay and there was now one checkstand open, with a line of 4-5 people.

I have seen bad but this tops bad. It is almost comically bad like how can you run a store in this condition with so many lights off, busted ceiling all over, so many out of stocks, virtually no employees? Is this for real or is this some kind of joke?

[kr.abs.swy]

This is not dissimilar from what I saw (minus the soggy ceiling tiles). There have been reports that some suppliers are getting nervous about shipping to Sears Holdings. Based on what we both saw, I would guess that food and pet food suppliers (and electronics suppliers) are high on the list of companies that are getting nervous.

Christmas was marked 70% in Nampa.

I went to the Sparks, NV Kmart today around 3 PM. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was a crowd of five people at the customer service area. Upon walking more, I found the reason for this was because there were NO checkstands open. All transactions were being processed through customer service. I walked through the store, and then started to notice half, or more, of the lights were shut off (the first time I have ever seen this at this location which as recently as two weeks ago was still fully lit inside). I walked all around the store and did not see any employees. I saw a lot of "buckets" spread around the sales floor and debris from deteriorating fallen ceiling tiles on the floors in a few places that nobody had swept up.

Christmas items were marked at 70% off but actually scanned 90% off. I was able to determine this by making my way 3 minutes across the store to the one functioning customer price scanner that is located in the bedding department. Quite a bit was left (three aisles and part of a side wall) and some of what remained was very nice decor items and such; far nicer than anything that Wal Mart or Target ever offered.

I do not think the food/drug/cleaning area has been restocked in at least a month. There are literally thousands of out of stocks; the pet area was particularly short stocked.

After spending close to an hour in the store I went up to pay and there was now one checkstand open, with a line of 4-5 people.

I have seen bad but this tops bad. It is almost comically bad like how can you run a store in this condition with so many lights off, busted ceiling all over, so many out of stocks, virtually no employees? Is this for real or is this some kind of joke?

[SamSpade]

In the 90s Southern Idaho had nine Kmart stores (Rexburg, Idaho Falls/Ammon, Pocatello, Burley, Twin Falls, Mountain Home, two in Boise, Nampa) (plus one more in Ontario, Oregon). By my count, this is one of three (Ammon, Twin Falls, Nampa) that remain.

First, I admire you going from Boise (or Mtn. Home) to check out the Nampa KMart. There really is a lot of 'discount department store' competition in that area with the Shopko directly across, the late 2000's Target nearby, Fred Meyer to the southeast and the since 2000 Walmart Supercenter up Nampa-Caldwell Blvd.

I am not sure why, but the Ammon KMart is still in great condition. It must have opened around 1995 or so because it was before Ernst went bankrupt, as they took over the former Kmart in Idaho Falls. It never had space for an auto center but has a full garden center area and adjacent entrance. At the time, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, since even the Grand Teton Mall (regional shopping mall for several counties) was at least half a mile up 17th Street. Now, Ammon is one of Idaho's fastest-growing communities.

On ShopYourWay, you can really see the difference in these stores' activity and number of "followers." Ammon does pretty well for a commuity of its size.
K-Mart in Ammon on SYW I link even though they haven't posted for around a year, just so people can see what a modern KMart interior looked like - of course most stores are still of the earlier era with the giant HVAC systems and long running florescent tube lighting, rather than the recessed fixtures and clean ceilings and floors this store continues with. I think KMart would be a better competitor if more of their stores looked like this.

For comparison, here are the other Idaho stores on SYW:
Nampa KMart - SYW
Sears Boise - SYW

[kr.abs.swy]

SamSpade, I absolutely agree with you that the Kmarts of relatively newer vintage can be decent places to shop. Things don't have to be brand new, but when you're walking on a dozen vintages of floor tiles, some in the neighborhood of 50 years old, it feels like your head is about to bash into the fluorescent tubes because the ceiling is so low, and you're afraid you're getting cancer from the possibly carcinogenic Kmart smell (obviously I exaggerate) you just don't want to linger and browse. At its prime, the Ammon store felt similar to the Walmart down the street (the old one before they moved into the new Supercenter). The size was similar, the lighting was similar, and some elements of the layout were similar. Of course, over the past 15 years Walmart has continued to invest in its stores while Eddie Lampert has refused to spend a penny more than necessary to simply keep the lights on. The Jackson, Wyoming, store, although smaller, feels relatively similar to the Idaho Falls store (it opened within a few years of the new Idaho Falls store) and, again, is not an inherently unpleasant place to shop.

Unfortunately, it seems like these newer stores have been more likely to close than the older stores. Of the nine stores that were operating in southern Idaho in the late 90s, four were relatively new (Ammon, Burley, Mountain Home and ParkCenter in Boise). Of these, only Ammon is still open.

For what it's worth, I think the Ammon store opened closer to 1990 than 1995. I don't know the exact year, but we moved in 1988 and I seem to recall that the Broadway store was only open for a relatively short time before they moved across town to Ammon.

In the 90s Southern Idaho had nine Kmart stores (Rexburg, Idaho Falls/Ammon, Pocatello, Burley, Twin Falls, Mountain Home, two in Boise, Nampa) (plus one more in Ontario, Oregon). By my count, this is one of three (Ammon, Twin Falls, Nampa) that remain.

First, I admire you going from Boise (or Mtn. Home) to check out the Nampa KMart. There really is a lot of 'discount department store' competition in that area with the Shopko directly across, the late 2000's Target nearby, Fred Meyer to the southeast and the since 2000 Walmart Supercenter up Nampa-Caldwell Blvd.

I am not sure why, but the Ammon KMart is still in great condition. It must have opened around 1995 or so because it was before Ernst went bankrupt, as they took over the former Kmart in Idaho Falls. It never had space for an auto center but has a full garden center area and adjacent entrance. At the time, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, since even the Grand Teton Mall (regional shopping mall for several counties) was at least half a mile up 17th Street. Now, Ammon is one of Idaho's fastest-growing communities.

On ShopYourWay, you can really see the difference in these stores' activity and number of "followers." Ammon does pretty well for a commuity of its size.
K-Mart in Ammon on SYW I link even though they haven't posted for around a year, just so people can see what a modern KMart interior looked like - of course most stores are still of the earlier era with the giant HVAC systems and long running florescent tube lighting, rather than the recessed fixtures and clean ceilings and floors this store continues with. I think KMart would be a better competitor if more of their stores looked like this.

For comparison, here are the other Idaho stores on SYW:
Nampa KMart - SYW
Sears Boise - SYW

[Super S]

Regarding snow shovels etc. This problem has affected many retailers this month. In Longview, WA where I live, we have had an unusually long and cold weather period that also affected Idaho and most of the Northwest. There is no Kmart nearby, but EVERY local store including Walmart, Fred Meyer, Lowe's, Home Depot, WinCo, Ace, and others, have been completely out of things like salt and deicer for 3 weeks. I'm not sure if this is just local management not ordering things that are needed, or if warehouses and suppliers are out, but I had no problem finding this stuff during the last big snowstorm we had in 2008. My work had to resort to using bags of play sand to deal with ice. I am a bit surprised that even Walmart, which sometimes sources stuff from their warehouses in other areas, hasn't restocked though.