What s up guys! It s Jason here and welcome back to my YouTube channel, Blue light Kmart Special.
In our video today, we are going to head towards the light. Not to disappoint you, but not the
light at the end of the tunnel or some heavenly light leading us to illumination, but the blue
shopping light of Kmart. This famous light, in its day, was the blue light special and was one of the
major innovative ideas that distinguished Kmart from the others in the commercial shopping pack.
Today we re going to bring back the memories of where Martha Stewart used to live. The
giant powerful mass market retail chain which was brought down to its knees by Target and Walmart.
Is Kmart still around today? You might not have seen the big K in your local neighborhood.
So today I ll also be giving you the update on what s going on with Kmart in 2021 and 2022. I
guarantee you ll learn something new that you didn t know before and bring you down memory lane.
Before we begin If you wouldn t mind just tapping that LIKE button for the YouTube algorithm,
I would really appreciate it as this is a brand new channel I started this year.
If you ve ever been to Kmart before back in the day be sure to subscribe
and hit that notification bell for new videos each week. Thanks for doing that
and now let us continue on with the Rise and Fall of does Kmart still exist?
Kmart Company Man Summary There s plenty of Kmart history
videos so I m not going to reinvite the wheel with Kmart s history. Rather I ll
keep it short with what s already been made and then update you what s going on in the current
day and future. Just about three years ago Company Man, one of my favorite YouTubers, produced a
YouTube video walking us down the retail aisles of Kmart. The genesis of this company and its founder
were spotlighted, along with its rise as a major shopping experience for customers. Added to the
video presentation were the impressive facts that at one time Kmart was second in retail sales with
Sears being number 1. Along with an education of debt to equity 101, we learned that Kmart
eventually plodded down the path of the dinosaurs due to competition and its choice or inability
to keep up with evolutionary retail dynamics. As we continue following the radiance of the blue
light it is always interesting to note and pause in the glow of memories that viewers experienced
with Kmart. One specific memory was in relation to the blue light specials at Kmart. This innovative
marketing technique would alert on-site customers, who would purposely extend their shopping time,
just to see what would be on sale. One such family kiddingly told their child,
when they asked where they came from, would respond that he/she was a blue light special.
[Kev pls read the comments below]
Kmart Bankruptcy Again So what has been happening with Big K
these last three years? In a simple word decline. Business had become so bleak that Sears Holdings,
Sears had merged with Kmart back in 2004 to become a new retail company and announced the grim news
of 142 store closures in October 2018. 63 of those stores were Kmart retail operations with
the remainder being Sears's department stores. In addition to this bleak announcement of additional
store closures, Sears Holdings announced that they would be filing for protection under
Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 2018. The following month, 80 additional stores,
37 being Kmart stores, were identified for closure. One by one remaining stores, lined up
like dominoes ready to fall, met their demise in a number of states. When it was all said and done,
in 2018, there was only one store in the states of Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Louisiana
and Mississippi. Perhaps a TV series could have emerged entitled the "Last Store Standing."
Kmart in 2019 more closures and bankruptcy round 2
After this wave of closures and when the carnage dust settled in early January of 2019,
only 202 Kmart's remained and only 223 Sears's stores were open for business.
The majority of these stores remained open in highly populated cities along the two
coastlines of the continental United States. An added dramatic event happened in mid-January
of 2019 as Sears Holdings saw the writing on the wall and began the process of filing for Chapter
7. Remember, there us a HUGE difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 banktupcy - Chapter 11
is a reorganization so you plan on coming back. On the other hand, Chapter 7 is a liquidation
bankruptcy. That means gameover. So if the company decides to file for a Chapter 7,
they ll have to sell their assets to pay as many creditors as possible
and then shut down for good. In bankruptcy court, the presiding judge ruled that the company needed
to try and work out a fresh deal with Eddie Lampert to avert the liquidation from happening.
In true dramatic style, a deal was reached at the last-minute business bewitching
hour that reflected a total of 400 Sears and Kmart's still in business. Billionaire
Eddie Lampert was the former Chief Executive Officer and board chair of Sears Holdings.
The new deal was announced on January 19, 2019 and five days later a group of unsecured creditors
including Simon Property Group submitted a legal motion with the bankruptcy court to negate or
basically cancel the deal reached with Eddie Lambert. The motion asserted that Lampert was
actively participating in serial asset stripping to the detriment of landlords and suppliers.
The motion further asked the court that the liquidation be allowed so that the
existing creditors would be able to recoup their losses and the money that was owed.
There was a lot of drama back and forth. Finally, in early 2019 a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled in
favor of the sale of Sears Holdings to Edward Lampert. This allowed for the remaining stores
to continue business operations and of course the losers in the deal were the suppliers, pensioners,
employees', landlords, the U.S. Government and other creditors.
Kmart Under New Management in 2021 and 2022 Well, Kinda
Alright, get your scorecard ready cause we have a new player coming in. Following the
financial deal struck with Lambert, a new company emerged and was legally named Transform Holdco or,
wait for it the New Sears. Very original, right? This new company obtained some of the assets
of Sears Holdings Corporation. The chairman of Transform Holdco? Meet Mr. Eddie Lambert again,
yes, the same Edward S. Lambert from before. And so it seems that the survival of 202
remaining Kmart's and its assets, on the surface, occurred when Sears Holding Company was purchased
by the New Sears or Transform Holdco. When the smoke and mirrors were put down
all of this did not stop the financial bleeding and further Kmart store closures were announced
in August 2019. Four stores were slated to be shuttered over the next three months. At the
end of August, the explosion of store closures went from four to the announcement of 77 Kmart's
identified as being put on the chopping block. Rounding out the carnage of the Kmart brand was
the expectation that by January 2020 there would be an approximately 100 additional stores closed.
One by one all across the nation, Kmart continued to decrease
its presence in a variety of communities. So is Kmart still in business today? Is there
any Kmarts left in the United States? Sadly, the blue light has significantly dimmed. There are
conflicting reports and one major business magazine re-estimates the correct number of
Kmart stores in 2021 located in the continental United States earlier this year to hover around 43
stores. An expert in bankruptcies described Kmart as a slow motion liquidation. In August 2021,
the New York Times listed the number of Kmart stores at only 17, with 6 left as of December
2021. How many Kmarts are there in 2022? Well, you can probably count that on one hand at this point.
Talk about dying from a million cuts. Btw if you ve been to Australia,
you might have seen Kmarts around. Just so you know, it s completely unrelated to
the company in the United States. Although the two have the same name and very very similar branding,
the two Kmarts have nothing to do with each other! Did you know that?
Retail Lessons for Kmart in 2022. What happened?
At one time, Kmart operated proudly and successfully in over 2,100
markets across the 50 states in the US. There are a variety of reasons as to what
can be written on the tombstone preparation of Kmart. Recorded would be its birth in 1962
and its gradual death beginning in 1990. It was at this time that Walmart began to surge
and overtake Kmart in profitability and total sales. As much as it may seem hard to believe,
Walmart was able to provide quality services and products to its customers at a lower
price than which Kmart was able to offer. Also, Kmart did not reinvest in itself or its
physical appearance. Their "business treadmill" was collecting dust and their "stationary bicycle"
was only used to hang clothes on. The store floors were neglected and became dirtier, the product
shelves became empty and their customer service was extremely poor. They had neglected themselves
so much that even the registers glowed green because they were outdated. Kmart had gone from
blue in innovation to ugly green in infrastructure to red in the accounting ledgers.
Eventually, "Good afternoon Kmart shoppers" became "Good bye Kmart
shoppers" as consumers began to migrate to Target and Walmart for their purchases.
The bottom retail lessons to learn from the rise and decline of Kmart and its infamous blue light
is that it is all about the customer. As the saying goes, "if the customer ain't happy then
nobody is happy." Perhaps, the anticipated graveside marker could also read, "Kmart is
remembered for not remembering its customers." And so, it would appear that Kmart is on life
support. Would the last Kmart remaining please turn off the blue light when leaving.
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video. There was a significant
amount of shopping that went into making this video possible. If you haven t seen already,
check out my Hamburger Insight YouTube Series or the Rise and Fall of Zillow. As always,
stay happy and healthy and stay tuned for another episode of Company Insight next week.