We're losing our Mart of K later this month

[RCMerchant]

^ It closed yesterday.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2021/09/27/last-kmart-michigan-close/5882648001/

[WingedSerpent]

I heard either today or yesterday there's only 6 left in the entire USA.

[FatFreddysCat]

I heard either today or yesterday there's only 6 left in the entire USA.

...and oddly, two are in New Jersey.

One of them (Westwood, NJ) was our "rival" store when I worked at the now-defunct Paramus, NJ KMart in the 80s/90s. Our store would play a softball game against them every summer and they'd always kick our ass.  

A good friend from the KMart days and I are fascinated by the Westwood store's continued survival. Every time Sears/KMart announces more closures, we always scan the list, wondering if their number is finally up, but they keep dodging the bullet again and again.
We joke that Westwood must be the Highlander (or maybe the Betty White) of KMart. "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"

[sprite75]

Our former ShopKo building is going to be torn down sometime in the near future.

A Dubuque property that formerly housed a big-box retailer soon will be leveled to make way for future development.

The former Shopko building, located at 255 John F. Kennedy Road, will be demolished this winter, confirmed Cafaro Co. spokesman Joe Bell.

"We will probably proceed with demolition within the next month," he said. "It is a very good location, and, from a real estate development standpoint, the land itself is more valuable at this point than the building."

The structure largely has been vacant since Shopko closed its doors in the summer of 2019. Shopko Optical also operated within that structure and moved out later in the same year.

That building's been there as long as I've been alive.  It was expanded to its current size back in the late 1980s.  So it'll be different to have it gone.

[pacman000]

That's kinda sad; still looks like a decent building.

[sprite75]

That's kinda sad; still looks like a decent building.

Yeah it still looked to be in decent enough shape even though it's been empty for over two years now.  I'm guessing what's going on is that the new business that wants to move in looked at renovating and it turned out that it would be more cost effective to tear down and put up one or more new buildings instead.  We were all joking that we hoped it wasn't a new car wash or fast food joint. 

[sprite75]

The Mart of K is going to be down to its last three stores pretty soon

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 last holdouts, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.

[FatFreddysCat]

A good friend from the KMart days and I are fascinated by the Westwood store's continued survival. Every time Sears/KMart announces more closures, we always scan the list, wondering if their number is finally up, but they keep dodging the bullet again and again.
We joke that Westwood must be the Highlander (or maybe the Betty White) of KMart. "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"

I guess my old co-worker and I were right. Avenel NJ store is closing, Westwood is the Last KMart Standing in the Garden State.

(William Shatner voice) but... for... HOW... LONG?