The rise and fall of Kmart

Comments · 741

• MI

  @Michael-Girdley · 6 months ago · pinned

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• MI

  @MisterConstitution · 6 months ago

  <b>The Little Ceasars inside of Kmarts just hit different back in the day.</b> 😢 🍕

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• RA

  @RAEckart22 · 6 months ago

  As a kid, we loved Kmart for the ICEE frozen drink

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• TH

  @TheOtherPhotoGuy · 6 months ago (edited)

  Was at Kmart last week - Porirua NZ. There are in fact more than 300 Kmart stores across New Zealand and Australia.

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• DA

  @daddoo5268 · 4 months ago

  I worked for KMart back in the early 1990s as a department manager. &nbsp;It was pretty obvious then that they were not running a successful business model. &nbsp;Buyers dictated everything that went on a shelf, where it went, etc. with no deviation based on local needs. &nbsp;For example, one of the stores I was at was in a cold Rocky Mountain town that had lots of mosquitoes in the summer and a large tourist influx. &nbsp;Corporate dictated that we dedicated prime shelf space to a large array of insect repellents/traps for roaches, which did not exist in the area. &nbsp;The space for mosquito repellent was also fixed and fairly small. &nbsp;We would sell out of our summer supply of mosquito spray within a week or two at the beginning of summer, then never have any more shipped in. &nbsp;The roach traps sat untouched. &nbsp;We had the same issue with tire chains. &nbsp;Since we were on a section of highway traveled by tourists and frequently closed by winter storms, we were always out of common tire chain sizes. &nbsp;We would get one pallet at the beginning of the season with an equal number of chains of all sizes, despite the fact that only a few of those sizes fit common vehicles. &nbsp;We would quickly sell out of those few sizes and then the rest of the pallet would sit around taking up space for years until the boxes fell apart.

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• BL

  @BlinkyBilllz · 6 months ago (edited)

  I have 3 kmarts in a 5km radius here in Australia

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• GR

  @grandinosour · 6 months ago

  As a retired trucker, I have made deliveries to both K-mart an Walmart distribution centers all through the 1990&quot;s. &nbsp;The K-mart DC&apos;s were always in a dingy 1950&apos;s era warehouse; whereas Walmart was newly constructed buildings, built for that purpose.<br><br>I had a DC manager once tell me that K-mart &quot;pushes&quot; merchandise to the store on the expectation that the store can sell it, resulting in product piling up in the backroom never to sold with empty shelves of popular products. &nbsp;Walmart, on the other hand allowed the store to &quot;pull&quot; merchandise from the warehouse as needed to keep the shelves stocked.<br><br>When I retired in 2023, Walmart was experimenting with some wild ideas to speed up the process at the DC&apos;s: &nbsp;for example, simply driving your truck through a tunnel to allow sensors to pickup every item on your truck though RFID chips embedded on every piece of merchandise eliminating the need to count the product while unloading.

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• KI

  @King_Jerry · 6 months ago

  Currently reading Sam Walton&apos;s book, honestly never would have expected kmart to be in this position

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• RO

  @Rob-Cat67 · 6 months ago

  Another great video. &nbsp;Thank you for not using AI narration! (It&apos;s a plague on YouTube &amp; I generally hate it.)

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• MA

  @maxfaxdude · 6 months ago (edited)

  In the mid 1980s, my friend Arthur moved into an apartment complex right behind the Kmart on East Sahara next to Cashman Cadillac in Las Vegas. &nbsp;At that time, Kmart was like Walmart and sold everything from baby clothes to big screen TVs. &nbsp;His family had just immigrated from the U.S.S.R. and they had little money and consequently their apartment was bare with almost nothing in it. &nbsp; That all changed when he discovered that Kmart employees would take supposedly blemished, damaged or broken merchandise (in reality it was in perfect condition) out the back to the big walk-in orange dumpsters to &quot;throw it out&quot; only to return after hours or at the end of their shift to take it home -- aka stealing. &nbsp;Watching from his 2nd story apartment window, my friend caught on pretty quickly and when he saw an employee go to discard perfectly good stock into the dumpster, he would pick it out of the &quot;trash&quot; and take it home. &nbsp;Fast forward 2 years later and I remember walking into his place and seeing multiple gaming consoles, TVs, boom boxes, sofas, chairs, vacuum cleaners, clothes, etc. So much stuff -- it was unreal! &nbsp;He started selling the stuff at school and also gave some of it away to his friends. &nbsp;I&apos;m sure theft happens in all retail outlets but to see it happen to that degree was a real eye-opener for me. &nbsp;And Arthur, if you&apos;re out there reading this...those were good times!

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• MI

  @Mitch-Lifestyle · 6 months ago

  In my town there&apos;s a Kmart.....that has been closed for decade(s?). It&apos;s been empty and still has the signage on the building.<br>....it was one of the Kmarts that had the cafeteria in the center of the store (as in real cafeteria...walk through with your plastic tray). I actually miss eating there !

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• HI

  @hiimmidas · 6 months ago

  Great video. This is one of my favorite YouTube channels. High quality and interesting.

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