U.S. News
Retail Giant Ends Era as Last Full-Size Store in Continental U.S. Shuts Down
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Clear Facts
- The last full-size Kmart store in the continental U.S. will close on October 20 in Bridgehampton, New York.
- After this closure, the only remaining Kmart in the continental U.S. will be a downsized location in Miami, Florida.
- Kmart, once a retail giant with around 2,300 stores in the 1990s, has faced multiple bankruptcies and significant downsizing over the years.
The last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is set to close its doors on October 20, marking the end of an era for the iconic retail chain.
This closure will leave only a smaller Kmart location in Miami, Florida, as the last remaining store in the continental U.S.
Reports indicate that the Bridgehampton, New York, store will be the one to close, citing information from an employee.
Once a retail powerhouse with approximately 2,300 locations in the early 1990s, Kmart has seen a dramatic decline over the years.
The Bridgehampton store has been in operation for 25 years, making its closure a significant moment for the community.
Transformco, the current owner of Kmart, did not respond to requests for comment.
However, a spokesperson for Kimco Realty Corp., which owns the shopping centers where both the New York and Florida Kmarts are located, confirmed the closure.
The Miami Kmart, situated at Kendale Lakes Plaza, has significantly downsized.
“Nearly all of its former space” has been leased out to the home goods store At Home.
The remaining Kmart now occupies what used to be the garden department of the original store.
Transformco’s website notes that the first Kmart discount department store opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and again in 2018 after merging with Sears.
Despite these challenges, the Miami location has a “long-term lease” at Kendale Lakes, according to a Kimco Realty Corp. leasing representative.
While Kmart still operates three stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the closure of the Bridgehampton location signifies the near-complete disappearance of this once-dominant retail chain from the American mainland.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
MikefromTexas
September 29, 2024 at 11:43 am
What a shame, I shopped at K-Mart, also Gibsons. When Sam Walton died I quit Walmart.
C. Griffith
September 30, 2024 at 2:34 am
It’s no wonder they’ve gone down the tubes. When they got going in the 60s, I shopped there all the time. Even got a store credit card. BIG MISTAKE! Their head office, SS Kresge, was in Detroit. If you paid your CC bill at the store and they didn’t get it sent to Detroit before your due date, you were charged interest. I had to complain to the store nearly every month and jump through hoops to get the interest refunded. I finally got tired of dealing with them so I wrote to FL AG Bob Shevin. My premise was that there were 8 million people in FL and if only 1 mil had KM credit cards and got charged an extra $1 every month, that was 12 million dollars, yearly, they weren’t entitled to since customers frequently pd their payments in the store. That was spring of 1971. I was asked to send any receipts I had showing the dates I had paid and interest charged on the next bill. So, off went a boxful to the AG’s office. Didn’t hear anything more until Spring 1974 when I got a Visa card from KM, to replace the store card. I called Tallahassee to learn what happened. Turns out, KM had tried to paint me as a deadbeat who never got a payment in on time. Of course, the AG’s office knew that was a lie since I am a packrat and had every bill and receipt for every payment made at the store. The AG’s response was that unless KM changed their policy and credited people as of the day they made a payment to the store, they would cease to do any credit card business in the state of FL. Obviously, this applied only to FL so heaven only knows how much money they siphoned out of other states. Once computers came into being, they couldn’t pull a scam like this anymore in any state and they started going downhill rapidly.