Last Full-Sized Kmart Store In US Is Closing

Kmart's last standing big-box store in the US will close its doors next month, marking the end of a retail empire.

The last full-size Kmart store in Bridgehampton, N.Y., will close its doors on Oct. 20, according to CNN. A smaller, "convenience store version of itself" located in Kendall, Fla., is now the last-standing brick-and-mortar Kmart store on the US mainland.

Big-box stores in Guam and the US Virgin Islands will remain open since they don't "face competition from more successful big-box stores," the company said in announcing the move.

Kmart was one of the first retailers to open a big-box store in 1962 along with Walmart, Meijer, Target, Woolco, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

Despite reigning as the second-largest retail store after Sears until 1990, when it was surpassed by Walmart, it filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Three years and $11 billion later, Kmart underwent a "disastrous" merger with Sears in 2005, ringing the death knell for both retailers.

Hedge fund operator Eddie Lampert brokered the deal, but "appeared more focused on selling off real estate the two companies had along with other assets such as the Craftsman brand of tools previously sold only at Sears, rather than in investing in either chain," CNN reported. Lampert's alleged misplaced priority led to another bankruptcy filing in 2018.

Kmart was founded by Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1899. He opened a five-and-dime store in Detroit that later became the Kmart brand.

In 1965, the store introduced 15-minute "blue light specials" in which a store clerk alerted shoppers to an in-store special by announcing "Attention Kmart shoppers." The practice was halted in 1991, which marked the beginning of the end for the retailer giant.