Small chatter today on 3 Kmart stores in North East being liquidated starting January 1. A Sears store to be announced soon as well. One of the Kmarts is being looked at by competitor wal mart..Fake?
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In Northeastern PA/Lehigh Valley/Poconos, Walmart entered the market aggressively and swept out Laneco and Kmart in the late 90s. The Kmart stragglers are all isolated stores with little competition, which keeps them operating but not at the volumes a Walmart gets.
It seems to be since this store stands alone and is a prime spot for a better retail location. Another stand alone spot is in the small town they call Wind Gap. Prime retail spot there as well according to the map. Wal Mart tried a few years ago there but pulled out.
Walnutport?
Everything and anything is up for grabs now. Anyone notice the sears real estate website with listings of all available space within closed and existing stores is gone....
This store is near Allentown pa and was built in 1996..No other retail box stores around it or no grocery chain.
No, my area (Raleigh, NC) has two Sears stores that were built in 2002. K-Mart, OTOH, yeah, the two remaining stores are from the 70s. It contrasts badly when all of your competitors in the area opened enormous amounts of brand new stores in the 2000s. K-Mart did nothing, despite being in a high growth market.
I can't see Walmart repurposing a Kmart. Not saying that it didn't happen, I just don't know if that's a smart move. Wasn't the "newest" store (in either the Sears or Kmart format) built in 1995? A 20 year old building is certainly viable but not if it's neglected. Things can go downhill really fast.
In the age of tearing down perfectly serviceable 10-year-old fast food joints instead of remodeling to portray an "upscale" look, I can't see someone investing time and money in refurbishing/repairing a neglected former Sears Holdings store.
I've always thought of the real estate "gold mine" as having value in the land/location (how much of that is left though?), while most of the buildings that occupy it are not worth a whole lot or nothing at all.
@1sso I dont work there nomore. Personally i could care less i'm doing alot better since leaving Kmart. But i asked for a few associates in there that I'm actually cool with. In other words you can kiss my A$$ hahaha
A few years ago Walmart took over the Kmart store on Victoria Avenue in Ventura, California, remodeled it, and turned it into a very successful grocery store.
@cnr; You're not talking about Elizabethtown are you? I visited a few times a few years ago, and I recall it being an uncharacteristically busy Kmart, even back then, still having a Little Caesar's. I think it was near a university and had no real competition around, which certainly helped it.
Walmart has also snagged up several former Super Kmart locations here in the Detroit area, added on to them, and they sadly have been thriving. Other Super Kmart locations have been turned into At Home as well.
Must be a Oxon Hill associate on here talking about the store closing. Oxon Hill is on the list of 140 haha
Pennsylvania
Which area is that ? P.G. County M.D. Just asking because a year or two ago Wal-Mart wanted to build a store in a certain part of PG County, but the residences in that community rejected the Wal-Mart proposal. Funny thing is 15 minutes away from that area there is a Wal-Mart, but was also a Kmart until October of this year. Maybe Wal-Mart figured just to buy Kmart out and rent that space. Wal-Mart would make huge money just on the location. Just spit balling though
That's not true. They are remodeling a former super Kmart in Virginia to be a Walmart
Walmart will never reuse a building, cheaper to tear it down and rebuild from scratch. Easy to believe they would be interested in the land.
It was confirmed today that it is a Kmart in North East region that a wal mart is interested in. There is enough land to expand the existing Store.There is no other retail around this Kmart and Wal mart has been trying to get into this area.
Kmart is closing most stores that aren’t in California, those do eclxtremely well. And of course in the Caribbean.
Interesting fact: back in the very early 2000s when sears was serious about making the sears grand concept work, they converted an old Walmart into a Sears grand. The pictures looked like a Walmart with a sears grand logo. lol
Walmart is more than willing to re-purpose SHLD properties if it works for them. They Just converted a closed super-k in Virginia beach.
False on Walmart which is pulling back on store expansion in 2018. They would build their own building anyway, not repurpose a decrepit Kmart.
Aldi is interested in acquiring space in closed Kmarts in upstate New York in select locations. Other closed stores are often repurposed by self-storage companies, dollar stores, bingo, furniture liquidators, call centers, etc.