Attention Kmart Shoppers – IOTW Report

Attention Kmart Shoppers

Tuesday, 12 April 2022, 17:00 BFH Uncategorized 42

AVENEL, N.J. (AP) — The familiar sights and sounds are still there: the scuffed and faded floor tiles, the relentless beige-on-beige color scheme, the toddlers’ clothes and refrigerators and pretty much everything in between.

There’s even a canned recording that begins, “Attention, Kmart shoppers” — except it’s to remind folks about COVID-19 precautions, not to alert them to a flash sale over in ladies’ lingerie like days of old.

Many of the shelves are bare, though, at the Kmart in Avenel, New Jersey, picked over by bargain hunters as the store prepares to close its doors for good April 16.

Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the U.S. — once well over 2,000 — will be down to three in the continental U.S. and a handful of stores elsewhere, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.

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42 Comments on Attention Kmart Shoppers

  2. Going the way of Montgomery-Wards.

    I have an enduring vision of some old coot back in the 1970’s hitching up his baggy pants one morning and telling the old woman: “Well, I best be headin’ down to Monkey-Wards to buy that monkey-wrench I’ve been ‘ramblin on about”.

    OLd Woman: Whatcha need that for?

    Old Coot: ….uh….I don’t know, I plumb forgot.

    Old Woman: Well, get goin’ then ya smelly old fool. An don’t come back for awhile, y’hear?.

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  6. I found an out of print Beefheart album…..”Strictly Personal” on the 76 cent “cut out” table back in the 70’s…way before they were known as Kmart…..the stores were called Kresge.
    I’d have paid 76 dollars at that point

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  7. I worked for K-Mart in the 80s before Sears bought them (worked for Sears later, but also started before they merged). It wasn’t a bad gig for a young boy getting his first job working on cars after vocational school, but they sure weren’t big on wages. They DID send me on my first “business trip”, to Detroit where they had an Auto Training Center at the time, rode up with a bunch of guys, one of which had a .357 that proved to be comforting in the hotel on 8 mile road they put us up in. Place had jimmy marks on every room door and there was always one getting kicked in somewhere, sometimes by cops, other times by apparently jealous lovers, but never a dull moment. There was a gay bar across the street from it but WE didn’t know that, it was “Paddy O’Shea’s” or some such, so we young dudes just went for the closest watering hole on our first night in Detroit, got some drinks, looked atound, and it went like this:

    “Place is OK. Music kinda disco for an Irish joint tho.”

    “No chicks! It’s all dudes! I wanted to meet chicks!”

    “Well, look, there must be, there’s some folks kissing over there!”

    (Everyone looks closer)

    “…STILL no chicks!”

    “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

    …like that.

    …we found a place called the Zoo at some point where there were mostly nsked chicks dancing in cages, but they would beat the hell out of you if you actually tried to touch one. They threw one guy into a fire plug outside, never saw him move again. To this day I don’t know if they killed him or not.

    Good times, good times.

    I had bought a pound of baloney and a loaf of bread, that’s just about all I ate there because I didn’t find out about the concept of a “food allowance” until later when my BOSS actually padded my expense account before turning it in because he said it would make the other guys look bad and reduce the amount the Company would give next time.

    Canada was close by and you didn’t need a passport at the time to go there, but the company had warned us that “Windsor is in a foreign country, and if you get in trouble there, we are NOT going to try to get you back!” Guess there was some previous incident that inspired that rather specific warning. In any case, we passed.

    …oh yeah, also learned how to better do alignments and brakes too. Details, details. I spent the next 20 years using and expanding on that learning.

    I liked the cafeteria too. My store had a full-service cafeteria that had a pretty wide variety of American comfort food, most of which seemed pretty good to young, unsophisticated me. I probably miss THAT more than anything else.

    I shlepped tires between stores and occasionally worked in differet ones when they were short. Saw how similar such places could be, yet hiw varied the clientele was. I also saw a lot of different cars for the first time, including what some guy claimed was President Ford’s limo. He pointed out the handholds for the Secret Service, and the thing was definitely armored and ungodly heavy.

    I thank K-Mart for the education they gave me.

    ALL the education.

    It’s too bad that the guy who wrecked Sears also had to wreck them.

    …I had some similar experiences when I went to work for Sears, but that’s a different subject for another day…

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  8. Our K-Mart’s around here closed years ago.
    Now our local Walmart is remodeling,yet again.
    For some reason they have decided that “Prison Decor” is the look to go with.

    7

  10. Ray
    APRIL 12, 2022 AT 5:29 PM
    “Yeah. I get my underwear at KMart. 400 Oak Street, Cincinatti, Ohio.”

    …the store I worked in was 3426, 12035 Lebanon Road, Sharonville, OH. It’s mostly a Gabe’s now. The attached 6 bay garage is shuttered and has been for years. You may have seen me if you came there in the mid-80s.
    I still have the mirror tags, I’ll send a pic to BFH that would make a GREAT thumbnail, but probably won’t, it’s up to him…

    2

  11. We had a Super KMart here sharing a parking lot with a Sams Club.
    Was also a major local bus tranfer stop so all the section 8 folk shopped there.
    Once KMart closed those folks started shopping at the nearby Krogers.
    They ran that store into a crap hole in less than a year. It’s filthy, always low on stock and now they have to employ security due to the theft.
    Don’t even go there anymore. Now I’ll drive 7 miles away from my home to shop at the one on the other end of town.
    Lowlifes Suck!

    8

  12. Oh yeah, they also had to retrofit all the carts so the wheels lock up if you try to leave the property.
    I drive by there alot and see people trying to figure out why the cart won’t roll anymore.
    There’s a silver lining in every cloud.

    4

  14. @ Tim Buktu, when I was 12 my father got me a single shot shotgun mail order from Monkey-Wards. My mother was horrified. ‘You’ll shoot your eye out!’ Yeah she said it. It cost $15 if i remember and it’s still in great working order. Good enough to win ham and turkey shoots against the jokers with fancy gear and scopes.

    As for K-Mart, The closest one was clean, had helpful staff and efficient courteous cashiers. I usually shopped for toiletries there and found the cost slightly less than Wally World.

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  20. Fond memories of these passing institutions. Mostly. K-mart was lower-tier among all the others, but served a purpose I guess.

    Still have the only baseball glove I’ve ever owned, got it when I was about 6; a Stan Musial from Montgomery Wards. Always loved sifting through record albums at the dept. stores. The Christmas catalogues – you could look at those for hours as a kid. When I worked as a mechanic in my early 20’s, I had all Craftsman gear. If a tool broke I could go to the Sears down the road from the shop and get a new one, no questions asked. We had Zayre and Venture Dept. Stores where I grew up. My first “real” job in high school was at Venture. Started as “cart boy” and worked my way into Sight and Sound. I still remember the foxy older gal who worked in jewelry. What a babe.

    6

  21. efemdy & Ted, what would you give to visit these stores in their 1967-1977 heyday?
    Imagine the toy sections?!
    Hot Wheels, GI Joe, Captain Action, Creepy Crawlers, Strange Change, Barbie & Ken, Marx Toy Sets, all the board games, toy guns, science kits with radioactive isotopes…

    Damn!!!, I wish I had a time machine!

    4

  22. Kmart had the best T shirts with sparkly iron on transfer designs back in the 70’s and 80’s. “Keep on Truckin’, Awesome, Gnarly” etc…in a fat curvy font. I had a great collection. 😆

    My Mom and Aunt would buy drapes from Kmart when Sears didn’t have what they wanted.

    Kmart had icee machines too.

    5

  23. K-Mart had a great tool brand called Benchtop. The ratchets sucked ass, but the socket sets were astoundingly good. I still have my big set… missing the 3/8ths, of course.

    4

  25. Kmart, Sears, JC Pennys were all my go to stores growing up and through my thirties. Miss them all. Despite some of the locations and building conditions, the service, prices and product quality was great in my experience.
    Lots of memories buying gifts, school clothes etc. So sad corporate management of these stores were so inferior and had no vision for the future.
    BTW, “Monkey Wards” LOL! Exactly what our family called Montgomery Wards-thanks, Eugenia and Tim Butku.

    9

  27. I used to work for Montgomery Wards. It was run by a bunch of idiots. Evan as a college kid who needed a job that could work around his schedule, I knew they were headed for bankruptcy. I recently found out someone bought the name and reopened it as an online store. Good luck competing with Amazon. Bankruptcy round 2 approaching…

    1

  28. Hey Loco Blanco Saltine ! You must be from Indianapolis or at least Indiana if you know about Ayr-Way! I live in Arizona and no one has ever heard of that store . I was spawned and raised in Indianapolis until I left for the Navy in 1981 at the age of 18 .

    1

  29. Nitetrain, I grew up in Louisville, KY.
    I believe we had 3 Ayr-Ways in Louisville.

    The one at Bashford-Manor Mall was closest and I hung out there a lot.
    That mall had a great pinball place, a Ben Snyders, a Bacons and the Ayr-Way as anchors.
    The pet store was fantastic.
    Good times!

    Look like we are near the same age, you born in 63?
    I was born May 20, 1964
    I crossed the river a ton to hang out in Indiana.
    They had riverboat gaming and we had the horses…

  34. Kinda sad really. The last of the stores from my childhood. Loved going to Zayre, The Treasury, Woolworth, Woolco and Kmart, of course, to head straight to the toy and pet sections. And don’t think for one minute, if those stores were still around that I wouldn’t head over to the toy section now…always like to see what the current cool toys/games are. The kid in me I guess.

    1

  36. Anybody remember Gemco? Might have been a west coast thing. But probably the original Big Box Store. I loved going there with mom. She’d shop and I druel over the Remington Nylon 66’s in the gun department.
    I think it was for my 12th birthday pops took me down to the local sporting good store and bought me a Ruger Single Six Convertible. Still have it. We walked out with it back then. Ahh, ow times of changed. A none for the better.

    1

  37. Loco – Not that I recall. In fact, I just wonder if it might have been a more northern chain?

    Brad – I have a stainless Single Six, bought used, but no .22 Mag cylinder…still irks me that the seller didn’t have it. That and my .30 carbine Blackhawk my favorite of the Rugers I own.

    1

  40. Loco – not when I was a kid, but there is one in the closest big town about 20 miles away from me.

    Brad – I will look them up this week, out of curiosity. So glad I got most all of my guns when I did because some of stuff I wouldn’t be able to afford now.

    1

  41. Loco Blanco Saltine , I’m a 63 baby boomer 😂 . Ayr-Way was a discount chain of the LS Ayres stores , defunct since the 90’s now , they were a local equivalent of Macys for us Midwest folk at least that’s what I surmised . When I came home on leave after 2 years overseas, our Ary-Way was now a Target which I had never heard of . What state do you reside in now sir ?

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