View Full Version : Your Kmart shopping memories:


Frank Gannucci
10-24-2024, 07:57 PM
Considering that now there is ONE Kmart store now in the USA (in the Miami area and it’s a small one), I think it’s a good idea to make this thread:

When I was employed by Sears, I often used my associate discount to buy things from Kmart like the Family Feud board game since since 2004, Kmart and Sears have been merged in what turned out to be a big mistake (the merger that is.)

When I was living in Northern NJ, me and my family used to frequent the Kmart store on Route 17 in Paramus (a place that’s now called…wait for it…the ARENA.)

One time me and my friend went XMas shopping just a week before XMas. I was instructed to get a certain something for my mother (can’t remember what it was but it was expensive.) The store didn’t have it. I guess being that it was the early years of the Internet and we only had internet access for a month at the time, it didn’t Dawn on me to order it online (did Kmart have a website back then?) I got the next best thing thinking it was that expensive only to be surprised at the checkout with how much cheaper it was AFTER I pulled out large amount of money. When my friend asked why I did that, I said I thought it costed that much.

During two Fridays in October 1993, my mother took me and my sister to the exact Kmart store as above and each time I bought an Apter wrestling magazine. Even though the magazines (at least back then) didn’t break kayfabe, the fact they of course acknowledged US wrestling companies and on rare occasions revealed inside information like WWE house shows results it was like the Internet before the Internet. Due to those magazines, I found out that Vader and Bambam Bigelow were a tag team in Japan.

I also got two WWE home video releases from the same store as above in 1993 (one was WWE Greatest Steel Cage Matches Ever and Wrestling Superheroes (in action). I put the words “in action” in parentheses because on the package (which has the Legion of Doom on the cover) and on the tape, it doesn’t mention those words unless it’s in small print. Considering that WWE already had a home video release called Wrestling Superheroes (with the WARRIAH (hehe) gorilla pressing Savage on the cover) for 31 years I wondered why the WWE had TWO releases with the same name.

I also looked at other tapes in the same store as above.

I have other memories. What are yours?

Hawkee
10-25-2024, 02:08 AM
Like you Frank I loved Kmart and every time my dad had to go to work I always looked forward to shopping at Kmart and every time I went I always came out with some good stuff. But when I had a hobby of collecting WWE wrestling figures for a short time when I was moving to my house I would practically go to Kmart nearly every week to buy the newest WWE wrestling figures and my mom used to take me to Kmart every time I needed cheering up when I would be feeling bored because shopping trips to Kmart always cheered me up. But my dad loved Kmart's nachos and sometimes when my mom and I went Dad would always get himself some nachos there and Kmart had great nachos. My aunt was also Kmart obsessed when she was a teenager and every time when my aunt and dad had to go shopping for back-to school clothes my grandfather would get my aunt's jeans from Kmart and Dad would get new jeans and jackets there too as well as shoes. Mom and I went to a Super Kmart store once and we liked it but the one we visited was confusing because nobody could help us and we liked to read books there but Super Kmart's were super cool because they were big and had a lot of stuff there

Dude111
10-25-2024, 05:04 AM
I remember buying Chips Ahoy there one day and telling the clerk they tasted better before they changed to unbleached flour...... He said it was debatable.... (Thats only his opinion of course)

Dead2009
10-25-2024, 09:37 AM
I never went into Kmart that often when it was around, but when it was, it was usually for something we needed and not wanted lol. Now if it were Ames, that's a different story.

Dr. Jazz
10-25-2024, 02:05 PM
Can’t forget the old Blue Light Specials!

Caroline13
10-25-2024, 03:29 PM
I have no complaints about K Mart. The store served a good purpose in my life.

Bonniegirl
10-25-2024, 08:16 PM
I loved KMart . I really miss it! So said they are all out of business now ! :(

Frank Gannucci
10-25-2024, 08:29 PM
I loved KMart . I really miss it! So said they are all out of business now ! :(

There are a few that are still in business. There’s one in the Miami area and a few in US territories but it may be a very small matter of time before they close down. This is not a case like the Last Blockbuster video in Bend, Oregon (the only reason why that store is still in business is because streaming is hard to come by up there.)

icecream
10-25-2024, 09:01 PM
Good riddance to Kmart. My grandma had her purse stolen by a Kmart employee at one of their stores.

Caroline13
10-25-2024, 10:44 PM
Good riddance to Kmart. My grandma had her purse stolen by a Kmart employee at one of their stores.

Whoa, sounds like you are saying, get rid of K Marts because your grandma's purse loss at one store...ummmmmmmm

Coffeecup
10-27-2024, 05:16 PM
Our last Kmart left this area back early 2000's. Must have been around 2002. I did go in when they had their going out business clearance days. One memory I have is seeing clothes from Jaclyn Smith and Martha Stewart collections. . Close by in the same mall was a Market Basket Supermarket which later took over the old Kmart building. I'm sure I bought something at the Kmart 35 years ago when the store was going strong, but nothing comes to mind of what I bought. I am sure as I age more stores will close. So much different when my grandparents bought items from stores on Main Street instead of big huge store.

Dude111
10-27-2024, 06:19 PM
Good riddance to Kmart. My grandma had her purse stolen by a Kmart employee at one of their stores.My God thats horrible..... Im sorry icecream...... I hope she got it back!!

PS: Do you have any soft chocolate w/sprinkles (chocolate) I could have honey right now??

icecream
10-27-2024, 07:47 PM
I think she got her purse back but not the stolen money from it.

Dude111
10-27-2024, 07:50 PM
Thats horrible..... People are so mean!!

That employee should have been fired!!!

Hawkee
02-02-2025, 06:13 AM
Another Kmart shopping memory I have was when my mother went shopping in one department and she used to let Dad and me look at electronics and the movies and music sections and Mom decided to let us go look at the music and movies section and we didn't know that the Super Bowl was airing at the time and we decided to watch some of it and the sales clerks went crazy each time there was a touchdown and we stood in front of the TVs and watched the game and the halftime show until we finally went to look at the movies and music and then Mom came over and asked us if we looked at music and movies and I said yes but Dad lied to Mom and said that we watched the Super Bowl and she laughed. My dad and I would spend father/daughter time in Kmart's toy aisle when I was a little girl and he would buy me a doll as a reward for helping him buy things in the sporting goods aisle next door

Dude111
02-02-2025, 07:02 AM
I mi$$ going to Kmart!!

TheLittleFaerie
02-02-2025, 08:29 AM
Looking at movies, going there with my grandmother, eating at the cafe in the back of the store. I loved KMart

Dude111
02-02-2025, 04:46 PM
I miss the good days dues!!!

JamesG
02-02-2025, 08:20 PM
My mother used to take me there with her during the mid-1990s. There was only one Kmart around where we were and it closed sometime in the mid-2000s.

It was right next to a Toys R'Us so she used to take me there as a "reward" for going to Kmart. The Kmart we went to had 2 floors and there used to be a Little Caesars inside the Kmart on the second floor. We used to eat there all the time.

stevea
02-02-2025, 10:49 PM
The last one in the Indianapolis area, in Brownsburg, closed a couple of years ago. It was razed relatively quickly, and replaced by a still larger Kroger (the "old" Kroger at the other end of the center had been added onto a few years back, but still not enough, I guess). Kroger is doing what Wal-Mart used to do--build progressively larger stores, leaving empty buildings nearby. I'll never understand the popularity of Kroger.

K Mart had a reasonably priced line of men's casual shirts.

JamesG
02-02-2025, 10:55 PM
The last one in the Indianapolis area, in Brownsburg, closed a couple of years ago. It was razed relatively quickly, and replaced by a still larger Kroger (the "old" Kroger at the other end of the center had been added onto a few years back, but still not enough, I guess). Kroger is doing what Wal-Mart used to do--build progressively larger stores, leaving empty buildings nearby. I'll never understand the popularity of Kroger.

Those stores, Wal-Mart and Kroger, are not around NYC because they would kill the small businesses. Wal-Mart's are up in Long Island and Kroger's are not in NY State.

I haven't been to either store.

Bonniegirl
02-02-2025, 11:55 PM
Those stores, Wal-Mart and Kroger, are not around NYC because they would kill the small businesses. Wal-Mart's are up in Long Island and Kroger's are not in NY State.

I haven't been to either store.

Kroger is called Ralph's in California and they are all over the place. I like Ralph's. They have pretty good prices and selection. They tend to be a no frills grocery store , kinda on the ghetto side, not fancy at all which is fine. We barely have any WalMarts in LA , tons of Targets .

TheLittleFaerie
02-03-2025, 06:11 AM
Kroger is called Ralph's in California and they are all over the place. I like Ralph's. They have pretty good prices and selection. They tend to be a no frills grocery store , kinda on the ghetto side, not fancy at all which is fine. We barely have any WalMarts in LA , tons of Targets .


I love Kroger, and usually always grocery shop there. I had now idea Kroger also has a department store in some places! I also like Fred's Super Dollar, which closed here

Bonniegirl
02-03-2025, 12:21 PM
I love Kroger, and usually always grocery shop there. I had now idea Kroger also has a department store in some places! I also like Fred's Super Dollar, which closed here

Oh wow. I wish Ralph's would have dept. stores! Also we have Food 4 Less , which is also Kroger. They are like huge wearhouse type Ralph's. Also only food and groceries , but great prices . The one nearest to me closed down though. Stupid reason, they were so busy, everyone loved it , we were all so upset when they closed , but gentrification. Trying to make a poor area trendy. A big condo is going up in the lot where Food 4 Less was! :(

Our 99c only stores all closed as did many of the Dollar Trees! :( But we have some really cool independently owned dollar stores in the Latino neighborhoods . :)

biffbronson
02-03-2025, 01:39 PM
The Kroger store I go to regularly oftentimes has great unadvertised deals. Most recently I bought 12-oz. Honey Nut Cheerios boxes at 44 cents -- with nearly half-a-year left on the expiration dates. Their store-brand products are comparable in quality to name brands, and deals on those aren't uncommon too.