KMART STORE CLOSINGS

[Super S]

The Kmart in Albany, Oregon is closing:

http://www.kval.com/news/local/Kmart-to ... 56641.html

The article doesn't mention anything about a lease, but it would not surprise me if they didn't renew a lease here. The store is old enough to be at the end of a lease. This is the reason given for a majority of the recent Kmart/Sears closings.

I will also add that Sears was in the process of closing its parts & service center in Portland near 122nd & Division last month. The location still had the older signage in place, and bears resemblance of an old Marina Safeway from the outside.

[kr.abs.swy]

I was coincidentally in the Albany Kmart a day or two before the closing was announced. This is an older store, located essentially kitty corner between a new Kohl's and a Costco near Interstate 5. There is a Sears store in a mall about a mile away.

This store is everything that's wrong with Kmart. Customer count was low. Customers did outnumber employees, but probably by only a factor of two. The ceiling was on the low side, making the store feel tight. The floor tiles had, as seems to be standard with decades old Kmart stores, at least a half dozen generations of patterns. The "Kmart scent" was present. The photo studio in the back was vacant and was simply holding boxes (in full view of shoppers); the paint job from the photo studio was still there. Shelves in the electronics section were sparsely stocked. The former auto service bays had been walled in from the exterior. Some of the lights above the bays had been removed, and no one had bothered to paint over the places where the lights were so that they would match the rest of the building. The exterior needed a good power washing. In at least one place, part of a floor tile was missing. I have driven by at night and there were virtually no lights on in the parking lot. The interior was probably 20 years old (the 90s-ish décor with reds with blue arrows). Overall, the store is an eyesore in every regard. Why anyone would shop at this store instead of the Fred Meyer or Target that are about a mile away is completely beyond me, unless they lived very close by and had no way to travel. There is also a Walmart Supercenter one exit down on I-5.

Between Kmart closings in Albany, the Portland area and Coos Bay, and the Sears closure in Bend, it seems like Oregon is the epicenter of Eddie Lampert's slow-motion liquidation strategy.

Of course, there's nothing to worry about, because the Shop Your Way program is going to save this company ...

[Super S]

Of course, there's nothing to worry about, because the Shop Your Way program is going to save this company ...

The Shop Your Way program is alienating the few customers Sears and Kmart still have. When I have to go 30-40 miles to visit the nearest Sears or Kmart, when competitors all have stores much closer, I am not interested in signing up for what is basically a loyalty card. yet, depending on the store, some cashiers are arrogant and pushy about the program, going so far as to demand a phone number at the start of a transaction, and then not shutting up about it through the whole transaction. I have come very close to throwing down my purchase and walking out a few times. Once they even demanded a card during a Craftsman tool warranty exchange!

I really get tired of Lampert referring to customers as "members" also. This isn't Costco. You don't have to be a member to shop Sears or Kmart. Is this what they have up their sleeve next? At their prices, it wouldn't be worth the money to pay for a membership at either store. Not even if they offered a $5 lifetime membership like Bi-Mart does.

If they are serious about operating stores (which they aren't at this point) they would cut out the Shop Your Way program and lower their prices.