Joined: 27 Feb 2009
Posts: 47
| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:58 am Post subject: Johnson City and Kingsport TN Kmarts dropping the Super | |
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Must have slipped Eddie's mind to mention this in the last Quarterly report
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9016859 Don't know how many workers will lose their jobs, at other SuperKs that have been converted, more than half the workers lost their jobs. The SuperKs have been disappearing at a pretty rapid rate, pretty much only left in the Great Lakes states. If there's another round of store closings coming up for after Christmas, you can expect to see new stories of store closings to start popping up in late October. |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2007
Posts: 525
| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:10 pm Post subject: | |
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Well I'm not sure how true this is around where I work. One of my co workers came up to me and wanted to know if he should be looking for another job. He was told by one of his friends( that work at our store) that our store was closing and some of us were going to be transfered to other stores. I told the co worker I have no clue wasn't told anything at this point. We are in one the the stores that is an anchor to a mall that is dead so it wouldn't be surprising to me if this was true.
I also hear from the grape vine that they are going to take the Kmart store (only one in our area.)change the name to Sears and close the Sears store (that is right across the street from it.) that is an anchor to another mall that is closing. I'm sure this will come to life in the next go around of store closings. |
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Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Posts: 6309
| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:41 pm Post subject: change clothes on the cheap | |
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rat - I guess a question to ask would be which store has the cheaper lease or an expiring lease. But a closing mall is the samething. I'm not as familiar with consumables but it does seem many of Kmarts prices have significantly higher over the years.
In the past I've found deals on stuff like laundry detergent or some American Fare product on sundries like rubbing alcohol but most other consumable/food are competitive. This could've been avoided if Sears and Kmart truely merged from day one because of the buying power/$$$ involved in supplying 2 companies. Was the SuperK designed to compete with Walmart or was it a natural evolution of Kmart ? |
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Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Posts: 87
| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:26 am Post subject: | |
| If memory serves, the SuperK's took off a bit before Wal-Mart's supercenters got off the ground... Kmart had the opportunity to seize the market and expand across the country ahead of Walmart, who was taking their time building an internal grocery distribution network along the way... but as with everything else Kmart did in the late 80s - early 90s, they didn't put their money where their mouth was and Walmart sped ahead. | |
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 1646
Location: Michigan
| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:04 pm Post subject: | |
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The SuperK format came about during the conglomoration of Kmart in the 80s, when they owned PACE Warehouse, Borders, Builder's Square and OfficeMax. The first one was either Lorain or Medina, OH (can't remember which), but it was a big success from the get-go. They were built up in pockets, spread around the country eventually. They were getting supplied by SuperValu at first, then Fleming got the sole contract (and was led to its demise by the bankruptcy).
I don't know how many Kmart "megamalls" were built with all of their store brand offerings, but in metro Detroit they built the Dearborn complex (along Ford Road) as one of the first, with Utica Park (at the beginning of expanding suburbia in north-of-M59 Macomb County) and Sterling Heights (14 Mile) similarly. The Dearborn location was a smash from the start and kept the number one spot in the entire chain (of ALL Kmart store types) up until the time they closed it. That store was paying a hefty $1M per month in rent, plus they had serious loss issues. BUT, in the time before bankruptcy, they were doing over $300,000 per day on average in sales; even after declaration of bankruptcy, that store was not as heavily-hit as most of the chain by that stigma. Most of the SuperKs were not simple conversions of regular Kmarts. They were built on a separate site, and were actually smartly located. Quite a few were noted as serving urban locations where other grocery retailers were reluctant to be. The key to the downfall is similar to other operations within the Kmart structure, the same ones which plague SHC today: those in "control" are not people well-versed in that specialty. There has never been someone who was specifically trained, successful, and visionary in the grocery store trade in charge of the SuperK format. Similarly, look at your area Kmarts for the restaurant offerings -- some have the old-style K Cafe, while others have Little Caesar's, and the last concept was their "higher-end" conception of Famous Eddie's [completely fictional]. Each time, someone had "a better idea", so they simply said OK to them -- just on that "idea" -- whether they actually knew what they were doing or not. And that continues today, from the top person on down. It is true that this was another idea that they taught WalMart how to do and run with it. They lost the discount business (which they created themselves) the same way -- by being complacent due to their success, thinking they were the king of the roost and would be forever, and let a competitor exploit their weaknesses (and earlier strengths) caused by those attitudes. And so it goes with the Sears entity as well. Why learn from history, when you live behind Castle walls? 
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Joined: 15 Feb 2009
Posts: 381
| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:17 pm Post subject: | |
| The problem as I see it with the grocery concept at any of the Kmarts was the negligence of having enough help to actually do the work needing to be done. I remember one occassion,employees were sent to our Kmarts pantry section to remove out of date product. There were lines of shopping carts filled to the brim from 605 half way across the sales floor and more coming. There were jars of pickles covered with mold, bulging cans, a botulism delight. I think they also had customers who gotsick from using some of the products which had been on the shelf for several years. After that I refused o buy anything from the pantry or any where else in this store. | |
Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 2174
| Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:16 pm Post subject: | |||
Yeah the grocery business is far too labor intensive for Kmart/SHC to run properly. They try to handle it the same way they do non perishable stuff, and it doesn't work. I've seen outdated cans on the shelves at the Essentials store and employees dusting the groceries. If they have to dust food, something is definitely wrong with corporate strategy. They seem to think the customers won't notice prices are 50% higher than the grocery store across the street.
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Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Posts: 6309
| Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:40 am Post subject: Politician's Nightmare | |
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It sounds like the SuperK's fell victim to the same financial and political BS as many a Sears project. It seems looking at it from the outside that there was no commitment in dollars or strategy for mass deployment and staffing. Just like the Grands or TGIs that never really got the full support it needed.
Kmart lost the pantry game with price as are the Grands/Essentials. It seems like unless they can advertise and sign it they don't care. Nor do they realize the labor involved in just maintaining it. But if you maintain it you get return customers. But Kmart is the same company that got smoked for EPA violations several times in one decade so I don't think they care or even know about outdated food. Sidenote if you look at the ages of the execs & board of bankrupt Kmart(and Sears) you had a bunch of old farts. It's not about senility but about a bunch of politicians who just want to maintain the status quo for their pockets which means ' play it safe '. |
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Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 1646
Location: Michigan
| Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:34 am Post subject: Re: Politician's Nightmare | |||
That pretty much sums it up -- in all of the areas that have been covered. And WHO would it be that market was seceded to? Why none other than WalMart, once again. (Oh yeah, ...... wasn't that the company that took Kmart's success and used it for its own gain..... sounds like a familiar theme.....hmmm, who could be next?...Maybe, oh I don't know .... SEARS .... by Home Depot and Lowe's ............ pssshhhhh, naaahhh, couldn't happen, right?) In the Midwest, at least, the "hypermarket" (which is the industry jargon description of a "SuperXXX", whatever brand it is) was pretty much pioneered by Meijer, in the original stomping-grounds of Kmart. However, Kmart actually was before THEM, back in the early days of "Kmart" as the Kmart Food Center: a combo of food and discount merchandise, in the early 1960s during their founding days. BUT ........... (pffffffffttttttttt) who cares about history, anyways????? |
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