Kmart, doing its best Blockbuster impersonation, only has three stores left

Doesn't conjure quite the same kind of nostalgia, does it?

By Andrew Paul  |  April 12, 2022 | 6:06pm
Aux Features Kmart
Kmart, doing its best Blockbuster impersonation, only has three stores left
Photo: Tim Boyle

Blockbuster—like so many of the horror slasher VHS tapes it peddled to teens throughout the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s—refuses to die. In fact, it’s resisted its well-earned, long overdue entrance into the Great Video Tape Return Box in the Sky for so long that pop culture has finally entered the franchise’s inevitable“questionably self-aware reboot” era…

So how are things faring for one of its many generational counterparts, Kmart? Not… uh… quite so good, if you can believe it.

According to yesterday’s surprisingly forlorn dispatch from the Associated Press, this weekend will see the permanent closing of Avenel, New Jersey’s Kmart, thus reducing the remaining national Kmart count to just three locations.

“You’re always thinking about it because stores are closing all over, but it’s still sad. I’ll miss the place. A lot of people shopped here,” cashier Michelle Yavorsky told the AP, with U.S. retail historian Michael Lisicky adding more ominously, “Everybody went to Kmart, whether you liked it or not.”

Founded in 1962, Kmart rose to prominence over the ensuing decades as one of the country’s most recognizable big box retailers, with solidly over 2,000 stores during its prime…

Speaking of which, you can mostly blame services like Amazon Prime for hastening the corporation’s death knell. With other competitors like Walmart nabbing the “cheap” niche as Target focused on offering more quality, stylish wares, Kmart just couldn’t find its place among the changing economy. Throw in a Great Recession, corporate changing of hands, and a once-in-a-century pandemic, and that was about it for the Blue Light Specials.

After April 16, just three locations will remain: Westwood, New Jersey; Long Island, New York; and Miami, Florida. We will refrain from making any tired, lazy “that sounds about right” jokes, and instead eagerly await the husk’s inevitable mutation into a Spirit Halloween store.

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