Introduced by the Michigan-based S.S. Kresge Company in 1962, Kmart had become the preeminent discount department store chain in the United States by the mid-1970s. Stores spanned between 40,000 and 110,000 square feet. Each had either a Kmart Restaurant, Coffee Shop, Snack Bar or Cafeteria. Some also had a Kmart Food supermarket.
The very first Kmart-branded store opened, in San Fernando, California, on January 25, 1962. This 24,000 square foot "bantam store" was something of a retail experiment. The first full fledged Kmart was dedicated, in Garden City, Michigan, on March 1, 1962. It encompassed 80,000 square feet.
In late 1963, there were fifty-three Kmart stores operating in the United States. By late 1973, 673 stores were in business in the United States, Canada and Australia. Kmart was such a success that its stores had quickly eclipsed the 5 & 10s of the Kresge Company. This resulted in the corporate moniker being changed to the K Mart Corporation in January 1977.
The combined Kmart store count in 1983 was 2,160 units. At the peak of the Kmart endeavor in 1993, there were 2,486. By the late 1990s, the Kmart star was being eclipsed by Arkansas-based Wal-Mart and Minnesota's Target. Kmart went through bankruptcy proceedings between January 2002 and May 2003; this as a result of some creative accounting and misappropriation of funds by two corporate heads.
The concern, now officially written as the Kmart Corporation, merged with Chicago-based Sears & Roebuck in November 2004, with the new entity assuming the heading of Sears Holdings Corporation. Massive campaigns of store closings followed. As of early 2024, there were eight operational Kmart stores.
*SOUTH FORKS CENTER, Grand Forks, ND (1964)
*PYRAMID MALL, Plattsburgh, NY (1975)
*CRYSTAL POINT MALL, Crystal Lake, IL (1978) [Kmart assumed vacant Robert Hall Village]
*PYRAMID MALL, Plattsburgh, NY (1975)
*CRYSTAL POINT MALL, Crystal Lake, IL (1978) [Kmart assumed vacant Robert Hall Village]