More Kmarts To Close . . Several Local Stores Make the List

[sds70]

Hard to believe that the University City BIG KMART is on the list of stores that are going to close (even though on the 6NEWS Report tonight, store managers commented off the air that the store would stay open). I remember when I was working for Kmart in the mid-90's that store replaced the old North Tryon Location; The district & regional managers moved their offices up there from South Blvd. store (if I remember correctly). Worked their in 1995 for a couple of weeks when it was undergoing the PANTRY renovation project.


I'm shocked that store is losing money, with the ever growing University area & UNCC right up the street while Freedom Drive still stays open (I hope the boys at corporate don't think folks in the University Area are going to go to the westside to shop :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ) . . . I guess the corporate bigwigs in Troy, MI want to get out of that lease really bad . . . .



Area BIG KMart Closings (http://www.nbc6.com/news/topstories/nbc6-011403-al-kmart_closings.222038c0.html)

[sds70]

Bump . . . . Last store I worked at before I left Kmart was in Laurinburg (small town on US 74 between Charlotte & Wilmington) . . . I was there from June 1993-March 1997 . . . Lots of stores that had been refurbished twice in a 10 year period (the original referub program that started in the early 90's and then the PANTRY project that started in mid 1990's) are closing. It looks like SUPER WALMART won the war of the mega stores. Though Kmart opened the first one (the original store on Indepdence Blvd. at CROWN POINT was originally named AMERICAN FARE, don't forget :) . . . ) Walmart caught up and passed them by . . . . Their ordering & inventory system was 10x better than what we had from what I heard . . . A lot of stores in Eastern NC are getting the axe too . . . Man, there are going to be quite a few pockets of the state that won't have Kmart's anymore (going down US 74 to Wilmington, Hickory-Lenoir area). Hard to believe that the only Kmart inside the city of Charlotte now will be Freedom Drive !!!!!!


Complete listing of Kmart Stores Closing (http://www.kmartcorp.com/corp/story/pressrelease/news/pr030114a.stm)

[Braves]

You know SDS this has really pissed me off. They have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to figure out what went wrong... then re-establish themselves.

They could have saved themselves a ton of money and addressed their problem quite easily. The problem with Kmart is so simple.....they would have 1 checkout line with 25 people waiting. I found this to be a problem nationally. People aren't going to wait very long, they took their business to Walmart.

The other problem was in their hiring standards...poor quality help, slow reaction to customer service= closing business.

For every 1 person who was a good worker, there were 25 people to makeup for it....oh so sad :mad:

[SandMan]

Does anybody really think that in towns where Wal Mart is "it" that they are going to keep those prices down? :rolleyes:

[Sportsgirl]

Originally posted by Braves
You know SDS this has really pissed me off. They have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to figure out what went wrong... then re-establish themselves.

They could have saved themselves a ton of money and addressed their problem quite easily. The problem with Kmart is so simple.....they would have 1 checkout line with 25 people waiting. I found this to be a problem nationally. People aren't going to wait very long, they took their business to Walmart....

I agree. Another thing K-Mart should've done was extended their hours of operation. Why close at 9:00 p.m.? That's when a lot of people have time to do some shopping.

Some other things they should do:
Have self-serve check out registers like Kroger and Bi-Lo do.
Get a fast-food restaurant franchise to open in front of the store, like McDonald's did with Wal-Mart.
Revamp their automotive department with a bigger staff for faster oil changes, etc.
Have a full grocery section, instead of a few cartons of milk, soda and cookies convenience store type thing.

[HPCatFan]

I've only been to a Wal-Mart two times in the past couple of years, and I've had to wait in line there too, damn long lines as a matter of fact. K-Mart just got passed by Wal-Mart, pure and simple. Wal-Mart are some cutthroat bastards when it comes to pricing. I've known salesmen and clients too that hate Wal-Mart because they are so damn cheap. Food Lion too. I go to Target, won't set foot in a Wal-Mart unless I have to. One K-mart here is going to close, a struggling one. The super-K will stay open.

[sds70]

Originally posted by Sportsgirl


I agree. Another thing K-Mart should've done was extended their hours of operation. Why close at 9:00 p.m.? That's when a lot of people have time to do some shopping.

Some other things they should do:
Have self-serve check out registers like Kroger and Bi-Lo do.
Get a fast-food restaurant franchise to open in front of the store, like McDonald's did with Wal-Mart.
Revamp their automotive department with a bigger staff for faster oil changes, etc.
Have a full grocery section, instead of a few cartons of milk, soda and cookies convenience store type thing.



1)They have self check out in some stores here in Charlotte now . .

2) WHen the original Store Refurb program started in the early 1990's (going from the 70's color scheme to the RED & WHITE one), Little Ceasars were installed in some stores as the restaurant. There was one at Freedom Drive location when I was there in 1993, and it was a pain in my ass :mad: :mad: !!!!!!! Their district manager was a prick . .


3)They sold their auto service bays to PENSKE a few years ago . . . . They were getting back into building them again back in the early 90's, but I don't think they are as good as the quick lube places (WALMART, Jiffy Lube, etc.)


4) Super Kmart is their full grocery store concept . . . BIG Kmarts were conversions of regular Kmarts during the mid-1990's, which was a big mistake.



MY .02 on WHY KMART WENT DOWN THE TUBES:

1) Original store refurb program which was started in the early 1990's was never finished!!!!!!!!! About 50-60% of the stores that had been renovated/expaned/replace with a new location when in the mid 1990's, then new CEO Floyd Hall said 'Hey, I think we should have grocery counters in all of our stores!!!!' Thus the company spent millions of dollars again to add grocery counters to stores they just spent millions of dollars renovating just a couple of years before :rolleyes: :rolleyes: !!!!!!


2) Bad business decision on which stores stayed opened/renovated/replaced: just speaking from Charlotte's P.O.V 1) South Blvd. should've been closed and moved to somewhere closer to the SOuthpark Area, where the money went. 2) They had no business renovating that piece of crap Freedome Drive location, same thing for the Rock Hill location. New stores should've been built instead.


First store I worked at was in Rockingham (90 mins. east of CLT on US 74) in 1992. It was an old takeover store in a piece of crap shopping center; the landlord was too lazy to even fix his street sweaper (this was the first thing I saw on the first day I went to work there). This store was a 9XXX location; it was Kmart's shoebox store. This store was originally on the replacement list back at the start of the 1990s'; Real Estate folks from Troy, MI (Kmart's World HQ) came down once to look at sites for a new store and that was it :mad: :mad: !!!!!!!!!! Store was never replaced and eventually it closed a few years ago and was torn down for a new & improved LOWE'S (geeez, you would think Kmart could just reopen in the old Lowe's location downt the street on US 74 :rolleyes: :rolleyes: . . . .)


3) Inventory System: Ours sucked, Walmart's was 10x better from what I heard. If something hadn't been ordered in XX days, it would automatically be shipped. Yesssss, you have department managers who are supposed to order every day, but this is a human process and things will be missed when it came time to 'zero out' stuff (i.e. if something was empty on the shelve and there was none of it in the stock room, the inventory count would be adjusted to order the item).


4) Staffing Issues: Kmart started getting penny conscious when they started cutting back on departement help & cashieres somewhere in the mid-late 1980's (folks I worked with who had been there for awhile said they use to have tons of help in the store). The bean counters felt 'Hey, we cut back expenses here, then we will make more money!!!!' But they forgot this effects customer service; If customer service goes down, then people will take their businees elsewhere (Walmart, Target).


5) Corporate Strategy: One year, they felt they had to be a diverse company (at one point, they owned BORDERS/WALDENBOOKS, BUILDERS SQUARE, SPORTS AUTHORITY, PACE WAREHOUSE, and some Drug Store Chain Out West). They next, they want to be a semi-grocery chain (renovating their regular Kmart's to the BIG KMART setup in the mid 1990's). This company never had a good, solid plan of what it should be. They should've 1) replace/renovate/expanded every single store under the original plan started in the early 1990's 2) Build Super Kmart's in select locations like it was doing, having their own district & regional supervisors (which they did at one point, but then they got away from that . . . Super Kmarts require much more time in store visits vs. a regular store, which only took half a day if the DM/RM was in a good mood :) . . . .).

[Braves]

Originally posted by sds70
4) Staffing Issues: Kmart started getting penny conscious when they started cutting back on departement help & cashieres somewhere in the mid-late 1980's (folks I worked with who had been there for awhile said they use to have tons of help in the store). The bean counters felt 'Hey, we cut back expenses here, then we will make more money!!!!' But they forgot this effects customer service; If customer service goes down, then people will take their businees elsewhere (Walmart, Target).

Bingo...I bet you can trace the problems just before this time.

BAD MANAGEMENT!!!!!

They should be sued for incompetence. I never worked for KMart or the service business, but I followed their incompetence sine mid 80's and kept shaking my head at their decisions.

[Rumpeltiltspin]

K-mart did the same to Roses around here, just like Walmarts doing to K-mart here. Beside, and including, the things listed above.

Small town here. One Big-k, one Walmart, one Lowes Home Improvement.

The diffs b/w Big K and Walmart I see when just shopping:

The prices aren't all that different, if any.
Big K was remodelled AFTER the Walmart was built, both equal size.

Big K-- parking lot always empty, actually a better location than Walmart (and note it's not even a Super Walmart, and has no groceries, or automotive service), big K has automotive service.
Problem there: Have to have an appt for oil chge, must leave car there 1/2 day. Jiffy Lube next door, cheaper, drive up, oil changed 10 mins, tops.

Walmart--parking lot packed. Both parking lots comparable.



Big-k-- stands alone, with an Arbys in front.

Walmart--Has about 4 buisnesses next door to it, they aren't very full much, and have a high turnover. Hardees out front.



Big-k-- always dirty, never see more than 2 empoyees in whole store. Wouldn't let my dog shit in their bathroom.

Walmart-- always clean, as many employees as customers (packed with both, actually not same #, just seems that way-an employee every other aisle, asking if you need help.) Bathrooms always spotless, cleaner than my house, look for a tip cup after shitting, but they have none.



Big-k--shitty selection, one maybe of what u r looking for, no name brands, it doesn't seem that way anyway.

Walmart-- shitload of selections, 4,5,6 of different brands of what u r looking for, mostly name brands. If they ain't got it, you really don't need it.



Big-k--never can find decent product that I'm looking for (leave emptyhanded more than I leave with purchase), have to go to Walmart to get it. Don't even know why I go there in the fist place, 'cept maybe feel like I'd give it another shot to help them out, but usually a waste of time.

Walmart--find what I'm looking for most always. If they ain't got it, I go to Super Walmart, 20 mins away in next town. If they ain't got it, I tell my wife/kids they don't need it.



Which one would you go to?