Kmart’s decline has been slow but steady, brought about by years of falling sales, changes in shopping habits and the looming shadow of Walmart.
Highlights
- The number of Kmarts in the U.S.
- will be down to three in the continental U.s.
- and a handful of stores elsewhere.
- Kmart cemented a place in American culture with its Blue Light Specials, a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole that would beckon shoppers to a flash sale in progress.
- The chain’s decline has been slow but steady, brought about by years of falling sales, changes in shopping habits and the looming shadow of Walmart.
- The demise of the the the store in the middle-class suburb, 15 miles south of New York City, is the tale of the death of the discount department store writ small.