Big Kmart Remodels

[Alpha8472]

I walked into my local Big Kmart in Pleasant Hill, California. I was surprised that they were in the middle of a remodel. Or in this case a seemingly useless remodel. The store was one of the cleanest and best kept of the Kmarts in the area. It had the Big Kmart decor with bright colors and colorful signs. Now they are repainting the walls with orange and brown. It looks like a downgrade to ugly 70s era colors. They also ripped out the closed K-Cafe and the seating area. Maybe they are going to put in an internet cafe like at some of the other remodeled Kmart stores.

I noticed that there were only a handful of customers in the entire store. In fact, there were quite a few more employees than customers. From what I saw, the prices at the store were absurd. Everything looked high priced. You could find everything for much less at other stores.

I had heard that some regular Kmart stores were stocking produce. This store obviously was not. In fact, the food selection was limited to a few refrigerator cases of milk, eggs, and drinks. Those items were so high priced that it looks like they will all expire before anyone will ever buy them.

Kmart needs to stop these useless remodels and drastically cut their prices. Offering low prices is the only way that Kmart can possibly compete against Target and Walmart right now. If the prices don't change soon, Kmart will be dead meat.

[storewanderer]

Yes, they have remodeled a few stores around NorCal like you describe. This is the Sears low budget remodel to a Kmart Store. Paint the walls orange and brown and put up new cheap looking orange and brown department signs. This is the worst looking Kmart interior I have ever seen. Not all stores are being remodeled in this manner. For example, In the case of the Sparks, NV Store they repainted all of the walls red but did not install new department signage (it still has the old Big K department signage, minus aisle hangers in pantry). This really looks bad. Plus red as a color typically signifies things that aren't overly positive, like anger. I'd hate to work in a store where the walls from floor to celing were painted red.

Kmart's prices are absolutely too high. They are barely competitive with drug stores and overpriced grocery stores on consumable and drug items. These items need to be at lower prices to drive volume and try to get customers into the store. The product mix in many of the general merchandise categories like toys, automotive, hardware (Craftsman appears to be gone), etc. is terrible and the stores continue to struggle with a poor in-stock condition, lack of organization, and poor (no) customer service. Oddly I think Kmart's soft categories, such as clothing, kitchen, and home fashion, look okay; in some cases if you look specifically at the products they look better than Wal Mart or Target in terms of the product being offered and price, but again there are issues with presentation, pricing, and in-stock condition in these categories.

Kmart has just systematically kept increasing prices. As they continue to lose business their only perceived means to be profitable is to increase prices so they make more money off of lower customer traffic. They have engaged in zone pricing that has prices higher in some stores than others, especially the rural stores like South Lake Tahoe or Grass Valley that lack competition. This reminds me of how many of the grocers have handled discount competition, and it is a real disaster to do this. But at least some of those grocers differentiate by having a nicer store, better service, convenience, and perceived better quality than the discount grocers. However Kmart fails on all fronts. They have older stores, a mix that is on a whole not as good, even less customer service, and a thinly spread base of stores so they are not very convenient to many customers.

I am not a fan of Target and Wal Mart. However, when I go to Kmart, I really am disappointed at what I see. The only Kmarts within reasonable distance of me are Sparks in a real rough area that is dangerous to patronize after dark (there have been shootings in the parking lot, and there are still no cameras) and a smaller unit in South Lake Tahoe which is a smaller store that is a mess due to having no stock room (they have an off-site stock room and a small truck to move goods).

[Super S]

The only Big Kmart remodel that I have seen that actually looks nice is the Chehalis, WA location. This one actually was redone after the store was flooded a couple years ago. The layout and everything except the lighting and the big A/C vents was rearranged, and this one even got new checkstands with conveyor belts and added a drive-thru pharmacy. However, it still retains the Big Kmart signage, despite the fact the outside was repainted. It is also almost right next door to a Walmart Supercenter, and oddly enough, there is no Fred Meyer in Chehalis/Centralia, even though there is a Fred Meyer distribution center there.