Post
by storewanderer » January 13th, 2019, 12:12 am
I decided to drive down to Bishop, CA today to take a look at the Kmart there. This was one of the last new build Kmarts to open, right before the first bankruptcy.
Walking in the place it looks fine. All of the lights are on, clean entryway, no homeless people loitering in front of it (they seem to hang out in front of the Vons next door instead). Lots of clothes racks. Little Caesars is even still open inside.
Moving around the store as you go around the center aisles there are 4-way displays along the entire back center aisle but those are mostly filled with large plastic objects not actual merchandise (would be better off just removing them). Areas like tools and automotive are about 50% stocked at best. The drugstore type area was probably 80% stocked. The grocery area is interesting with NO name brand soda (they do have some Smart Sense Diet Root Beer) of any kind. Ouch. They did have Lay's products in the chip area though, and a ton of Gatorade and water spread around the food area in an odd manner on multiple aisles. Looking at the back walls with high shelves, a lot of those shelves are either empty or lightly stocked. The garden area still had a lot of Christmas items available. The entire store was clean and neat. Shelves were organized, etc.
What really struck me was when I went up to pay. It was a Saturday afternoon and at the moment I went up to pay, no other customers were up there paying at all. Some additional activity started happening at the registers a few minutes later, but it was odd to see them idle at all during this time. I recall walking out of this store a couple years ago on a Saturday afternoon without buying anything due to seeing such long lines at the 3 or so open registers. I thought maybe this was a quiet shopping day in Bishop. But after Kmart I went to the Vons next door and it was quite busy with 4-5 registers open and steady traffic the whole time I was in there, which was a while, looking at its eye dropping prices like $7.99 Dial Body Wash, 3.99 dozen store brand Large standard eggs (on sale at 2.99), and 0.89 Friskies Cat Food. The Smart & Final in front of the Kmart and Vons was also very crowded and busy (though, a very small store).
When paying, the register generated a "HAPPY NEW YEAR $5 off $10 PURCHASE VALID NEXT 2 DAYS" coupon. This is the first coupon I've seen since the bankruptcy filing.
I am sure this is one of Kmart's best performing stores and to me this store looks finished due to the merchandise situation.
This is a bit of an odd situation. Since the JC Penney in Bishop closed last year, Kmart is really the only major store in Bishop with clothing or home products available. Wal Marts are 2.5 hours in either direction. There isn't even a Dollar General or Family Dollar there. There are two empty large retail buildings in Bishop (the old 70's Group 9 Kmart of about 65k square feet in a great location which last I heard Vons was paying the rent on to keep a competitor out and has been vacant ever since the new Kmart opened, and the former Vons on the northeast side of Bishop which closed when the new Vons opened; not sure what the status on that building is but it is a lousy location).