Say Good-Bye to Yesterday - Again

 

Here is another sign of the times we live in. K-Mart, once one of America's leading discount retailers, is closing its last full-size store in the mainland United States.

 According to ABC12 and CNN, the store, in Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is due to close October 20,  said an employee who answered the phone at the store Monday morning  but who did not want to give her name. Once this store closes, only the small store in Miami will be left on the mainland of the United States.

 The remaining stores outside the mainland will be located in the US Virgin Islands and Guam. They face no big-box competition. This latest closing is just the latest chapter of the disastrous 2005 merger of K-Mart and Sears.

 But this closure is also affected by the wild successes enjoyed by Walmart and Target over the same period. Both these big-box stores sell groceries and household items, as well as tools and clothing, both of which were staples in Sears and K-Mart’s existence. And of course, online shopping did not help K-Mart or Sears’ fortunes.

 Eddie Lambert, the CEO of the merged company, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018  because he was more interested in divesting his real estate holdings than to promote the goods and services sold in the merged company. Due to his mismanagement of the bankruptcy, he was forced to sell off key assets, including the respected and iconic Craftsman brand of tools to satisfy debt.

 When it recovered from bankruptcy, there were only 231 Sears stores and 191 K-Mart stores out of the 2,500 stores in existence in 2005. And as of October 20, there will be only the Miami store left which is the size of a CVS, along with eleven smaller Sears locations.

 Sad to see it go. Another piece of American enterprise is gone forever.