bryceleinan wrote: ↑January 9th, 2022, 8:05 pm
My nephew works in St Croix right now, and he said that Kmart is pretty much where he does all his grocery and regular shopping... there isn't much else on the island where he can go. I imagine that these stores will be the last ones go to, and not sure how a replacement would get coordinated since there isn't anything else.
Looks like there are two full size Kmarts in St. Croix? Also I see a third location that appears to be an appliances store, branded as Kmart.
These stores look like a disaster, and in poor condition with many missing ceiling tiles. I see what looks like a checkstand in one where the top/counter space of the checkstand appears to be covered with linoleum. Guessing the surface wore so bad this was their quick fix.
I am sure Target will take a hard pass at these stores. Maybe they can get Wal Mart to take one of them over but something tells me these stores may not be lucrative enough for even that.
Well, there is one chain who you could say may have a similar geographic strategy. This used to be a publicly traded company but it is owned by a Canadian group now.
https://www.costuless.com/store-locator
They too used to have stores in the mainland, the final one in Sonora, CA closed a couple years ago. They also had a store in Davis and a store in San Jose in the mid-late 90's. I think the HQ for the publicly traded Cost U Less was in CA.
Actually think this ownership group, The NorthWest Companies, may be a good final home for the last of Kmart- those USVI Stores, the one PR Store, and Guam. I had been really wondering what may happen to those stores, and wasn't coming up with many options. The Kmarts are basically already getting most of their products from C&S and other odd means and the only items that appear to still be sourced from Sears are clothing items. It looks like this NorthWest Companies has a softlines program in Canada already and I think softlines, you could easily sell the same softlines in these islands, as you sell in Canada (unlike food with the different labeling requirements).