Kmart, one of America's best-known department store chains, will close its last full-size stores in the United States this fall.
The store, located in Bridgehampton, New York, on the South Fork of Long Island, will close on Oct. 20, employees confirmed. Widger.
Kimco Realty Corp., the real estate investment trust that owns the shopping center housing the chain, also reportedly confirmed the store would close. Newsday.
Kimco Realty did not provide details about why the stores are closing.
A smaller Kmart in Miami, Florida, remains open, but it pales in comparison to the stores the big-box chain operated in its heyday.
The Miami store will be similar in size to CVS and other convenience stores, the August report said. Miami Herald.
However, Kmart has several stores outside the 50 states and plans to remain open in the US Virgin Islands and Guam, WJAR reported.
Kmart's origins date back to 1899, when Sebastian Spelling Kresge opened his first store, a $5.10 store, in Detroit. Transform Co.The investment holding company that currently owns Kmart.
Kresge, under the name S.S. Kresge Company, rapidly expanded its reach over the next decade, and by 1912 it had 85 stores across the United States.
The first official Kmart opened in Garden City, Michigan in 1962. 17 more stores opened across the United States that same year.
Just four years later, in 1966, Kmart had 162 stores in towns and cities across the country, quickly becoming one of the largest discount retailers in the country.
In 1977, the S.S. Kresge Company officially changed its name to K Mart Corporation.
By the 1990s, Kmart had 2,300 stores across the United States and employed 350,000 people.
However, Kmart Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and merged with Sears Holdings in 2005.
Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018.
Illinois-based investment holding company Transform Holdco LLC, also known as Transformco, owns Kmart and Sears since acquiring Sears Holdings' assets in 2019.
