Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

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TenPoundHammer
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Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

Digging in Google News archives, I found that the first major round of Kmart closings came in 1994 with another in 1995. However, I have found a smattering of closures that predate the 1994 wave. I'm trying to find any Kmart stores that would have closed before that point and were not replaced by a newer store.

*Peach Tree Mall in Marysville, CA. An odd one, it closed in 1986 due to the mall flooding out and just never reopened. The mall is now offices.

*Norwalk, CT lost one on Connecticut Ave ca. 1983. It was later a Channel Home Center. The store was split between TJ Maxx and The Wiz. Wiz cut their store in half, which is now a Best Buy; the other half of the old Wiz is still vacant, still sporting a Kmart front. You can see a bird's-eye here and more info here.

*2425 Gresham Rd., SE in Atlanta closed in 1992 and I don't think it was relocated. It was later a Super Valu, now torn down for a Walmart.

*Mystic Mall and Harborlight Mall, in Chelsea and Weymouth, MA, respectively, both lost their Kmarts in the early 1980s, apparently without replacements. The latter was only open for three years! They both became Stuart's; Mystic's was later Adam's and is now vacant, while Weymouth's later became Building #19 and is now Lowe's.

*Similarly, Woburn Mall in Woburn, MA lost its Kmart in the 1980s. It was later a Lechmere (!), then split among AJ Wright (now TJ Maxx), HomeGoods and Sports Authority.

*25201 Outer Dr. in Melvindale apparently closed in the 1980s; it's not in a 1991 phone book of the area, and a Storetrax listing from 2000 just says it's a "former Kmart" built in 1967. It's now a megachurch.

*Garden City, KS lost a Kmart in 1990. It was never replaced. I have no idea where it was, though.

*Hazelwood and Maryland Heights, MO both lost them in 1991, without replacements.

*Cortlandville Mall in Cortland, NY. As far as I can tell, it closed ca. 1991.

*Centerville and Moraine, Ohio each lost one in 1992.

*1520 Wooster in Akron was converted to a Builders Square in 1986. It's now a vacant Tops Market.

*300 E. Ledbetter, Dallas TX is now Plaza de las Americas.

Are there any other early-dead Kmarts that never got replaced?
Jeff
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Re: Early Kmart closures

Post by Jeff »

Kmart Rosemead was located at the corner of San Gabriel Blvd and Garvey Ave.
It opened in the late 70's, and closed in the late 80's maybe early 90's. A very short life for the store.

It was converted to a Builders Square which only lasted a few years. It sat empty for years and then was converted to a Chinese Supermarket and mini-mall. Its that way still.
wnetmacman
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Re: Early Kmart closures

Post by wnetmacman »

Several stores come to mind:

Marshall, TX: In the Marshall Mall (though its definition as a mall is pretty loose). Closed just after Christmas 1990. This store never did well. It was only about 50,000 Sq. Ft. It is now a call center.

Henderson, TX: S. Van Buren Dr. This was a standalone store. It was 40,000 Sq. Ft., and even had an auto center, but no garden center. It closed around 1993 or 1994. It is now a Brookshire Bros. Food Store.

DeRidder, LA: US 171 North. Quite similar to Henderson, except with a garden center. It's still abandoned. It closed before 1993.

Palestine, TX: Palestine Mall (similar to the Marshall Mall). This store was converted to the ill-fated Wonder World chain that then-Kmart owned Thrifty Payless tried to develop in failed Kmart stores. Wonder World was closed by 1987, and the building is currently a Hobby Lobby.

Nacogdoches, TX: Univeristy Dr. Standalone, similar to DeRidder, but larger at 60,000 sq. ft. Closed before 1990; became a local warehouse store called U-Save Foods, who sold out to Brookshire Brothers, which the store remains today.

One item of note: all these stores were 9xxx stores. After the experiment during the Robert Dewar era where the store was sized to the town, the majority of his experimental stores were gone.
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by submariner »

TenPoundHammer wrote: *25201 Outer Dr. in Melvindale apparently closed in the 1980s; it's not in a 1991 phone book of the area, and a Storetrax listing from 2000 just says it's a "former Kmart" built in 1967. It's now a megachurch.
In between the Kmart and megachurch phase, this was a temporary location for the Detroit St. Vincent DePaul store after the Detroit location had a major fire in the mid 90's.

When I worked at the Kmart on Van Born in Taylor, during its conversion to a Super K, we located several tax and other records from the Melvindale store in the old layaway loft (I also have two 8" floppy disks for the store's POS systems) For records purposes, the Melvindale and Van Born stores were "sister" stores.
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Super S
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by Super S »

One location comes to mind, the Kmart in McMinnville, Oregon. Around 1989 or 1990 I remember visiting this location, the first Kmart I remember having scanners. This strip mall also has a JCPenney (still open) whose architecture very closely resembles that of the store at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, WA which opened in 1987. I would assume the Kmart probably opened close to the same time as the JCPenney. I want to say it was the mid-90s, possibly as early as 1993, but I remember a news report saying that the North Salem and McMinnville stores were closing. The McMinnville store is currently a Safeway, but I have no information whatsoever on the North Salem store.
robdude
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by robdude »

1. Ypsilanti, MI, Grove at Emerick...visible from I94, I think this closed before 1994. Shopping center interesting also because the Farmer Jack had one of those tall yellow signs. Store has never reopened as anything else.
2. I remember seeing one in Adrian, MI, probably 1991 or so. Don't know if it was ever replaced.
TenPoundHammer
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

robdude wrote:1. Ypsilanti, MI, Grove at Emerick...visible from I94, I think this closed before 1994. Shopping center interesting also because the Farmer Jack had one of those tall yellow signs. Store has never reopened as anything else.
2. I remember seeing one in Adrian, MI, probably 1991 or so. Don't know if it was ever replaced.
I'm not counting those two since they were both relocated. Ypsi's store moved out to Belleville, and Adrian's moved to a new store across from Adrian Mall in 1991 (according to Toledo Blade archives). The former Adrian store, which was west of town, is now a grocery store. I'm interested in stores that closed early on and were never replaced. As I said, it seems Kmart went on a major renovation/expansion spree in 1991, as nearly half of the Kmart relocations/expansions I've found are from that era. For instance, I distinctly recall my local store (Oscoda, #9593) being expanded in 1991.

What exactly was the Wonder World chain anyway?
wnetmacman
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by wnetmacman »

Wonder World was created by Payless as directed by Kmart to try to use up the real estate that Kmart had begun vacating. It was a highly promotional chain, with quality somewhat lesser than Kmart. It didn't last long. They started around 1983-84, and were gone by 1987.
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by StoreLiker2006 »

Any K-Marts in the Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA area that had been shut down prior to 1994?

I can think of one: 2315 S.E. 82nd Ave. in Portland, OR, which briefly operated as a Builders Square (a K-Mart subsidiary), until BS itself went under, it being the victim of the home improvement store wars in which The Home Depot was the winner. Today, it is now the site of a Portland Community College branch.

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Dean
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by Dean »

Not sure when this one closed...yet, noticed it recently:

11060 Magnolia, Riverside CA

It was obviously a KMart. It is now the County of Riverside Department of Social Services building.

They left the upper edge roofing around the perimeter the same. They even left the brackets that had spelled out K M A R T. The garden center is now the outside eating area for employees. They left what was obviously the main entrance. Huge overhang. Yet, there was also a smaller overhang, on the opposite side of the garden center. So, not the garden center entrance. Wondering if it had been the KMart Foods entrance?

Any info on this site anyone?
robdude
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by robdude »

Back to Michigan...
The Belleville store and the Ypsilanti store definitely coexisted. The Belleville store was more than likely built at KM's peak. It did not have a KM Foods that I know of, but it had a supermarket-sized space at the other end of the plaza (last time I went by it was a Dunham's Sporting Goods, but I have no memory of a supermarket). Similar to this is the KM in Shelby Township (Macomb County) at 23 Mile and Van Dyke Avenue, where there is a supermarket-sized space that still has a 70s KM arched facade that was I'm pretty sure (though not positive) was a Chatham (it probably wasn't Great Scott like a number of SE MI KMFs because there was also a GS at that intersection). It was later used by Farmer Jack but I don't remember it ever being a store (I remember seeing an ad once mentioning that space was used to put together party trays) and is now a Big Lots.

I forgot to mention another long-closed KM. It was in Sterling Heights at Hall and Delco, a mile west of Lakeside Mall. It was a 70s shopping center that never quite took off with a Farmer Jack (now also Dunham's) and a Perry Drug (possibly still Las Vegas Golf and Tennis, possibly empty). KM closed about 1985 or so and became an early Builder's Square, which later moved to the Utica Park power center across the street in '93 as BSII. The KM space is now Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Babies "R" Us. (Another KM opened up in Utica Park in '93 as well; it was later converted into a small Super K (but not expanded in terms of SF) and closed not too long after.
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by Ephrata1966 »

I was absolutely SHOCKED to learn recently that the former Grant City in Paulsboro, NJ became a Kmart (which had to have been in 1976 or 1977) but apparently the store closed sometime well before 1984 (no I did NOT mean 1994 here), because it was later a King's store bought by Ames that year. And the Ames was also relatively short lived, closing in 1992, a full decade before the rest of the chain shut down in 2002. Ironically, the biggest wave of King's expansion was circa 1964, around the time Kmart was also becoming a household name in much of the USA, but awhile before Kmart entered Greater Philadelphia, which was around 1972. I guess there were too many smaller (and now long gone) chains such as Ames, Jamesway, Woolco, Grant City, JM Fields, Two Guys, and Nichols for Kresge to ditch their traditional stores in this area in the 60's. But once Grant City shut down, Kmart scrambled to buy as many former locations as possible, and closed their Kresge stores in a hurry.

Also, I was wondering... could the former Grant City in York PA (which now appears abandoned but is perhaps used for industrial purposes) have been a Kmart at some point, perhaps closing in 1994?
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by winndixiepublix »

Digging in Google News archives, I found that the first major round of Kmart closings came in 1994 with another in 1995. However, I have found a smattering of closures that predate the 1994 wave. I'm trying to find any Kmart stores that would have closed before that point and were not replaced by a newer store.

Delray Beach/Boca Raton, FL 7887 federal highway lost one in 1983 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 01,4874982
the reason that happen they opened up a newer location and Boca Raton, FL were making money one weren't
that's why they closed Later the old Kmart was later a Levitz
RPAmesandKmartan26
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by RPAmesandKmartan26 »

I decided to bring some up here as well:

There was apparently one in Dartmouth MA on 27 Fauance Corner Rd which was an Early 70's store and it closed in 1993. It was demolished for Stop & Shop and Best Buy 7 years after closure in 2000. Also a Houston store from the 1960's closed in the 190's I think. A Saginaw MI location that opened in the late 1960's closed in 1991 and is now a Conference Center and relocated to a newer store. There were also 2 Cincinatti area stores that closed in 1984 that opened in 1967, One was demolished for Target and another was demolished for Housing. There was also 2 Pontiac MI stores closing sometime before 1987, one is offices and the other is still empty. They also closed 2 Houston TX stores sometime before 1993. One got demolished for housing in 2000-2005 (8303 Long Point), and another became Trading Fair IV and was finally demolished for an empty plot of land in 2014 (630 West Little York Road).
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Re: Early Kmart closures (PRE-1994)

Post by storewanderer »

There was a very short lived one in the 6500 block of Coal Mine in Littleton, CO. Gone by the early 90's.
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