And another Kmart bites the dust....

[TheOrcKing]

Around the end of yesterday on my way home, I perchance spotting a big "STORE CLOSING" banner on the side of my Kmart. Dang it. I know I barely went there much at all but I was actually looking forward on trying to catch next year's clearance sales and the next nearest one is a good half hour away from where I typically shop (assuming that one is not also being closed). I am not surprised about the closure honestly but it still is a little disappointing.

Anyway, I went in and sure enough there were signs everwhere stating "Store Closeout Sale, All Sales Final" and a few with "10%-30% of lowest sticker price". It wasn't half off which I would think a store needing to liquidate everything would do but it still was worth a shot I thought. Well, here's the kicker. All the Lego was at full price and just 25% off. (Only somewhat redeeming part was there were some brand new sets around if you could find them under all the mess.)

How ridiculous; I almost didn't buy anything 'cause I can get better deals price matching at Target with Amazon right now. I ended up buying a couple Hero Factory guys I wanted, Gorzan's Gorilla Striker seeing how Amazon has it for just 20% off currently meaning I saved an extra couple of bucks here, Stagecoach Escape (the store was absolutely stuffed with this set as well as Black Zero Escape), a single Coast Guard 4 x 4 with Diving Boat (probably the 'best' of the bunch far as sales go), and one Fire Chief Car....just cause.

Somewhere my Kmart found a few of the City The Mine but those few boxes were kind of trashed and I wasn't going to buy it for only $25 off. Plus I just did a few major price matches at Target and was totally not expecting to see this. I can only figure the timing of this closure and the low discounts are due to Black Friday right around the corner next week by which then I would have to assume they will go down to half off (maybe). Well, I already said before; there is no way in hell I am going out on any Black Friday again and if what I saw available then is going to be around for the event it simply is not worth it.

Moving along, my rant (which I thank you for reading) got me thinking into doing a little search and here I found an article or two about more Kmarts being closed all around the country as well as some other stores.

HuffingtonPost - Sears Kmart stores closing: At least 100 stores to shut down retailer says

Retail Industry - Complete list of all 2013 store closings in the U.S.

[Huskers1236]

Not surprising.  All the KMarts in Lincoln closed years ago.  The nearest to me is Omaha, and it's not worth it to drive up there to find deals, and honestly, they generally make Walmart look good as far as cleanliness.

[krayzie]

Not surprising.  All the KMarts in Lincoln closed years ago.  The nearest to me is Omaha, and it's not worth it to drive up there to find deals, and honestly, they generally make Walmart look good as far as cleanliness.

The kmarts near me actually make walmart look nice.

[gregpj]

We had a Kmart close around in Jan/Feb last year. The clearance sales went from 10%, 25%, 50%, to 75%. Sounds good, except that what they did starting at the 25% sale was move in all the crap they obviously couldn't sell. By the 50% I didn't recognize any of the toy brands on the shelf. My sons are 3 and 6. I should have recognized something more than a couple hot wheel cars. I am not exaggerating.

 

I figure they probably worked with a local liquidator who moved out the good stuff and exchanged it for the crap in their warehouse.

 

Kmart can kiss my ass.

[brickinfinite]

It's sad to think that those K-Mart employees may not have a job over this Christmas Season 

[sadowsk1]

My local Kmart is packing up too.  Such a shame.  They have always been good with their deals and never went above msrp the rest of the time.  Oh well.

[@rtisan]

No surprise based on the deals many have reported. You can only offer cheap product for so long, with minimal margins. Sad for those who have capitalized on it though. I have been in several Kmarts whilst in the states though. All of them have been very dirty, dingy places. 

[justafrog]

We have several in striking distance, and they're all gross and dismal. There was NOBODY in them when we were hitting the 50% off sales in September (and nobody in them when we visited each of them to scope them out a few days before the September sale).

 

I know when I order from Kmart.com, they sometimes fulfill my order from an actual Kmart store - that may be what keeps some of these stores hanging on by a thread, if they're being used as fulfillment centers for the website.

[jaredseiders]

We have several in striking distance, and they're all gross and dismal. There was NOBODY in them when we were hitting the 50% off sales in September (and nobody in them when we visited each of them to scope them out a few days before the September sale).

 

I know when I order from Kmart.com, they sometimes fulfill my order from an actual Kmart store - that may be what keeps some of these stores hanging on by a thread, if they're being used as fulfillment centers for the website.

 

Yea, during the last year and a half of my Kmart career I was responsible for a lot of the online orders that got distributed to store level. It does increase the sales of the chosen stores by a good bit.

 

What I find odd is that they chose NOW to close up shop. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait until after the holidays? I mean, that Kmart would probably do a lot in terms of layways of toys and clothing. Kmart's layaway beats Walmart's and Toys R Us's in that you can do a lot of your holiday shopping on layaway. Walmart has so many restrictions, its a joke. Only certain departments. $15 minimum price point for each item.... It's silly.

 

You would think they would close out the year and then close up shop. I wonder if they had a weird lease period on their store. However, most Kmarts own the ground underneath them and don't lease, not saying that's the case for this store though.

[willy431]

And that is lampert's only hope of ever seeing some of his money again.  Sears also owns most of the land they are sitting on as well.  He really needs to just liquidate both sears and kmart.  They are done--everyone knows it.  Even him,

[Darth_Raichu]

 

You would think they would close out the year and then close up shop. I wonder if they had a weird lease period on their store. However, most Kmarts own the ground underneath them and don't lease, not saying that's the case for this store though.

This is about how quick the store can liquidate their remaining inventory.  Before holidays more people are shopping and they are more inclined to buy items at 20-30% off.  Post holidays, they have to mark the items down even further to achieve the same number of items sold over time.

 

 

And that is lampert's only hope of ever seeing some of his money again.  Sears also owns most of the land they are sitting on as well.  He really needs to just liquidate both sears and kmart.  They are done--everyone knows it.  Even him,

This explains why some kmart locations become a sears or smaller K-marts after a few months to be shut down yet again the next year.

[Achilles]

One of my area K-Marts is in the process of closing now. It started right around 10/1. These things are usually handled through a third party liquidiator, so some of the pricing doesn't always match up since they have their own systems. For example, The Toys started at 25% off, the Clearance toys started at 20% off. By the time Clearance toys (Which at Kmart are typically knocked down 5%) went down to 25%, REGULAR toys had been dropped to 40%. For the original poster, expect every week or so, probably on Saturday, they will lower the prices of some stuff in store. Mine went from 25%, to 30%, to 40% (which is where they are at now). In addition, ours offered an addition 5% off purchases of 50% or more - though that went away midway through the Toys at 30% phase. Interesting to note they won't ACCEPT coupons (and do not participate in the normal K-Mart store clearance markdowns), but if you have Shop Your Way coupons loaded, those will apply just fine. I basically used the 30% + 5% + SYWR coupons to clear out the remaining "New" stock at more or less 50% off after coupon. Being that it is holiday shopping season, I suspect there'll be a run on most everything once it hits 30%.

 

Interesting to note, make sure you pop in every so often. It seemed like some toys got mysteriously found in the back of the store every couple days, and I was able to snag a few Ghost Trains this way. 

 

As I've already mentioned in a previous post, I obviously don't want to see then go for Lego investing purposes, but I've wondered for years how K-Mart has stayed in business at all. Their prices are consistently higher than Walmart, and the stores are horribly outdated and usually dirty. The only places I see them thrive is areas that are too small to attract a Walmart/Target. 

 

Someone mentioned jobs - At the one closing near me, all employees will be offered positions within the company. 

 

I will say this though, in my experience, the help at K-mart is far and away more pleasant to deal with than your average Wally world employee. 

 

This particular location is being turned into a car dealership. On a road where there's already a zillion car dealerships. Woot. The auto industry baffles me. Who is buying all these new cars?

[Achilles]

Two more of my area K-marts announced they are closing in the spring. So that will be 3 closings within 6 months. Down to 3 within reasonable driving distance, a couple more outliers. Stings.

[Migration]

A stellar example of how NOT to run a retail store. I went into a K-Mart for the first time in years the other day, what a mess. It's almost sad how badly they are run.

Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.

[Soadfan4ever]

Two more of my area K-marts announced they are closing in the spring. So that will be 3 closings within 6 months. Down to 3 within reasonable driving distance, a couple more outliers. Stings.

The deals you must be finding with all those closing sales might help you get over the pain of not having as many around. They are so terribly run, but man are they a great source of cheap inventory for a reseller/investor. The most organized over I've seen my closest store was the other day when I stopped by and about 80% of the sets have clearance tags on them. You'd think they would have straightened up a bit when they got all the new sets in the fall, but I guess that doesn't make sense to them.

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[Fcbarcelona101]

That store just needs to disappear. They had their chance a long time ago and blew it, now they are just gliding towards the ground.

[kenchu2000]

Wow, that's not good.  I know Kmart stores look dirty, but when they have good clearance sales, no one can beat them.

I wish the Kmart stores around me can survive.  (I did go there yesterday but did not see any Store Closing sign, or may be I didn't pay attention) 

[exciter1]

We still have 3 Wal-Marts and 3 KMarts.  I wouldn't mind the KMarts closing, if that would open the door for at least one Target to move to our area.

[Anakinisvader]

No more K-mart means no more K Caf

[junkrigger]

Kmart has had some of the best deals of the year, and years past, all those surprise points.  $34 unexpected gatherings, $16 stagecoaches, $42 bat caves, $42 olivia's house. They will be sadly missed by me.

[Achilles]

The deals you must be finding with all those closing sales might help you get over the pain of not having as many around. They are so terribly run, but man are they a great source of cheap inventory for a reseller/investor. The most organized over I've seen my closest store was the other day when I stopped by and about 80% of the sets have clearance tags on them. You'd think they would have straightened up a bit when they got all the new sets in the fall, but I guess that doesn't make sense to them.

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While I am sure I will make out during the GOB sales, losing them as long term sources will hurt more.

[Alpinemaps]

The deals you must be finding with all those closing sales might help you get over the pain of not having as many around. They are so terribly run, but man are they a great source of cheap inventory for a reseller/investor. The most organized over I've seen my closest store was the other day when I stopped by and about 80% of the sets have clearance tags on them. You'd think they would have straightened up a bit when they got all the new sets in the fall, but I guess that doesn't make sense to them.

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My local Kmart closed a couple months ago.  The deals weren't really as good as you hoped.

 

I'd stop in their weekly.  Lego stock was, at times, just destroyed - as in boxes upon boxes that were have open, and still sitting there at only 10% off.  The highlights at my local Kmart were LOTR Pirate Ship Ambush and LR Stagecoach.  They had tons of the stagcoach.  I picked up one for myself, once it finally hit 30% off.  It was for a personal build, so I didn't mind the pretty messed up box.

 

I think most everyone around is content with a minimum discount, because most everything was cleared out before the store hit 30% off MSRP.

 

I did luck and get a few Pirate Ship Ambushs at 40% off before someone else cleared them out.  But, really, there was little to be had at any discount.

[MillerTime]

It's sad to think that those K-Mart employees may not have a job over this Christmas Season 

 

Maybe the timing wasn't perfect, but keep in mind if one business closes down and those employees lose their jobs, demand for kmart's competitors (Walmart/Amazon/Target) goes up, which means more employment for those competitors.

 

This is why the argument that "they're taking away jobs by competing with other businesses that are now shutting down" doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[jal4u2c]

I just found out that our Kmart is closing as well. They have some sets on clearance. Their take on clearance is much different than mine though. They think clearance means mark prices up instead of down. I also  asked if they were having anymore of the yellow-tag clearance sales coming and was specifically told no. Yet i see another clearance is supposed to have started today. 

[Achilles]

In my experience with Kmart closings, their liquidation sales are handled by a third party. This means they won't participate in any Kmart specific promotions, such as the 50% off clearance toys or whatever - nor will they accept coupons. (However, for a while online Shopyourway stuff will still work)  Also, this meant with the last sale that they mark down clearance items SLOWER than regular items. So when regular items were 30-40% off, clearance items were only 20%-25% off. The clearance items were one of the last things they marked down for blowout purposes.

 

You say a sale was supposed to have started today, did you see that at a different K-Mart? Wast that 20-30% off Clearance toys or something?