Aaron Miller
The last full-sized Kmart store in the continental United States will close later this month. The closure of the last Kmart, located in Bridgehampton, New York, marks the end of a sad, slow decline for a once venerable American institution. Our own Kmart in Columbus closed its doors in 2014.
Sebastian Kresge started the S. S. Kresge Co., forerunner to Kmart in 1899. The first store with the Kmart name opened in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962. By the time he died in 1966, Kresge had made a fortune. At its height in 1994, Kmart operated more than 2,000 stores in the United States. At that time, more than 300,000 people worked for Kmart. It was a dominant discount retail chain.
In the long run, Kmart could not compete with Walmart, Amazon, and Target. But that’s only part of the story. A merger with Sears in 2004 failed to revitalize either company. Greed and mismanagement accelerated Kmart’s downfall. Private equity firms and hedge funds saddled Kmart with more debt and then liquidated or sold off anything that remained of value. This is a familiar strain when it comes to the failure of many once-prominent American brands.
I have fond memories of Kmart. My mother would load my brothers and me into the back of our Buick to run errands on weekends. Kmart had just about everything except fresh food. You could buy all that you needed from toothpaste to tires at our local store. Mom would be sure to pick up some pipe tobacco for my father each weekend. If we were well behaved, our mom would buy us Icee Cokes and soft pretzels at the snack bar. If she was in a hurry, she would get us subs there for lunch, too.
It was a yearly ritual to visit the toy aisle before Christmas. My brothers and I would hope that Santa Claus might bring us some of the new Legos or Star Wars action figures.
Kmart wasn’t for the snobs in town who were concerned with having the latest name brands like Calvin Klein or Guess. They’d look down at you for shopping at Kmart or wearing Kmart clothes. But that gave Kmart a bit of a rough around the edges, outlaw image. Kmart was affordable. That was its appeal.
Like many of their other stores, the Kmart in West Lafayette boasted a garage that could fix your car while you shopped. It also featured a full-service restaurant. Most meals cost less than three dollars. Dinners included standard American fare like hamburgers and hot dogs. But they also served spaghetti, fish, and shrimp dinners.
But the diner was really known for its cheap but good breakfast. Believe it or not, the Kmart diner was a local hangout on Saturday mornings. This was a tradition that pre-dated the ugly and ridiculous “Breakfast Club” that took place before Purdue home football games.
Of course, a walk down memory lane would not be complete without recalling Kmart’s blue light specials. If you were very lucky and in the right place at the right time, you could hear, “Attention Kmart shoppers!” This was followed by an announcement that some item, usually overstocked, like light bulbs or socks, would be deeply discounted for the next 15 minutes. Store employees would then place a cart with a flashing blue light in front of the item. Shoppers would scurry to stock up on the goodies…whether they needed them or not.
Times change. Change is the only constant in the universe. I know that. But I just don’t seem to have the same fondness for my boxes from Amazon as I do for those weekend trips to Kmart.
Aaron Miller is one of The Republic’s community columnists and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. He has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor of history at Ivy Tech Community College-Columbus. Send comments to [email protected].
