Attention K-Mart Shoppers...

[saunadog]

I was reading in the Detroit Free Press this morning about the dwindling number of K-mart stores (I still have a lot of memories of shopping there as a youth, although it definitely created a stigma with my peers!).

Anyway, rather than posting about the future of the company or where it went wrong, I thought I'd share a link in the story to an interesting collection of K-mart audio recordings. From the article:

"The tapes span from the 1970s through 1992 and contain hours of background music and easy-listening tunes interspersed with store announcements and advertisements for brands that were popular among Kmart shoppers, such as Jordache jeans, Pony shoes and Gemini electronics.

The tapes were pre-recorded and shipped to Kmart stores across the country by Kmart, then based in Troy. Tapes from the early 1990s opened with a musical jingle from "KMRT," a fictional Kmart radio station."

The audio files can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers

I'm currently listening to the 1973 recording (digitized from reel-to-reel tape). Lots of cheesy muzak for those into that stuff. Sounds a lot like that "101 Strings" drek!

 

[jcamero]

I really liked K-mart, as well as the Big "K" stores, sad to see them disappear.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Any Blue Light Specials on those tapes? haha. I reckon not since those were on the spot at stores and not pre-determined by corporate who sent the tapes. Would be fun to have some of those on tape though.

 

[techguy0192]

K-mart is the closest thing we have to a working time machine. Stepping inside one is like go 25 to 30 years back in time.

 

[gadget73]

I have an old K-Mart brand torque wrench somewhere. There was a small one in the town I used to live in, but it went away probably 20 years ago now. The store was pretty run down. We had another department store at the other end of town called Ames. That one went away not long after Wal-Mart opened. I think the Kmart was gone before that, but not by much.

 

[dzkfraser]

Yeah, there was Ames, Hills, Grants, - all low end dept. stores, K-Mart filled that niche when Walmart and Target took over. They could have competed if they had bothered to put any money into their stores. They all looked old and and were generally unkempt and dirty. With Sears tanking, probably see both of them gone in the next year or two.

 

[gadget73]

The one here was in real sad shape. Looks like they did absolutely nothing with it from the time it opened in the late 60s or early 70s until it closed. The Ames was actually a little better kept, but not by much.

Say what you will about Wal-Mart and their business practices, at least when you go into one of their stores it doesn't look like a dump. Its full of junk, but its clean and well lit.

 

[SPL db]

One of the first K-Marts in my hometown had a small cafeteria in the middle of the store. Busy shopping and getting hungry? What could be better?

I remember them having pretty decent food actually, about on the same lines as the old Kings restaurants.

And this all long before there were any malls of any kind.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Yeah, I remember in the 70s you could get a hot dog and some other things. We never really ate there much but I remember they had it.

Now there's a Subway inside the Home Despot. KMart invented that ****!

 

[saunadog]

We had a Kresge's in my town back in the day - still remember purchasing my very first 45's there.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Ah yes, Kresge's, I haven't heard that name in a long, long time...

Wasn't there another store similar to that, it was kind of a pharmacy/small department store a la Walgreens...can't remember the name.

 

[usedto]

There used to be a small chain of farm related stores that had a branch here. After some of the CEO's of KMart drove it into the ground, one of them got hired to run these stores. They lasted about 3 years before closing all of them down - at least the ones around here.

 

[gadget73]

Wasn't there another store similar to that, it was kind of a pharmacy/small department store a la Walgreens...can't remember the name.

Woolworth's ? They had a hot dog counter. I remember being taken into one as a small kid before it closed.

There was a Jamesway we used to shop at down the shore.

 

[Christian B]

Yeah, I remember in the 70s you could get a hot dog and some other things. We never really ate there much but I remember they had it.

Now there's a Subway inside the Home Despot. KMart invented that ****!

Woolworth's ? They had a hot dog counter. I remember being taken into one as a small kid before it closed.

There was a Jamesway we used to shop at down the shore.

Yes, Woolworth had a lunch counter long before there were any KMarts. Someone else may have done it even earlier, but I remember eating at a Woolworths in the 50's. KMart launched its first store in 1962.

 

[Ronald1973]

The local Kmart here was the only source for Zenith blank video tapes, one of the better brands I had found. I was working at Walmart at the time and would run over to Kmart on lunch with my Walmart attire on and grab my tapes I needed!

 

[Rome]

Grew up with K-Marts & Gibsons department stores. They have been gone in this area for many years. I could get an ICEEE drink before Slurpee came out at the K-Mart! Many memories indeed!

Rome

 

[bobsvinyl]

A K-Mart wasn't that close to my town when I was growing up. We had a Grants store. If your parents bought your clothes there, the kids at school would point at you and chant "Grants' pants, Grants' pants!"

 

[usedto]

A K-Mart wasn't that close to my town when I was growing up. We had a Grants store. If your parents bought your clothes there, the kids at school would point at you and chant "Grants' pants, Grants' pants!"

How about if you wore Penny's "Plain Pockets" denim pants instead of Levi.

 

[Ronald1973]

Grew up with K-Marts & Gibsons department stores. They have been gone in this area for many years. I could get an ICEEE drink before Slurpee came out at the K-Mart! Many memories indeed!

Rome

I didn't realize Gibson's was a national chain. We had one close when I was a kid. My parent's bought a lot of stuff there. It's sort of a shame. The building is gone but the parking lot lights are still there in all their glorious 70's fashion. We had at one time: Montgomery Ward, Gibson's, Magic Mart (later it became Alco), and a little rinky dink Walmart. It was a big deal in the late 70's when Walmart started to open on Sunday afternoon from 1-5! In the late 80's/early 90's, they moved to a new location not even a mile away. It lasted there a few years until they went full SuperCenter mode. The rest of the stores are long gone. The buildings for Kmart and Montgomery Ward are still around, though the Kmart building is empty and the MG building holds a carpet store. Magic Mart was in a strip mall with Kroger and J.C. Penney. Kroger built a new store just a few feet away, Penney's moved across town to the second building Walmart vacated (now Penney's is closing), and they tore the whole strip mall down.

 

[Rome]

Yea Ronald, we had two of them in my hometown Tyler TX. Also we had one Montgomery Wards & JC Penney.

One of the first stores I remember as a kid that did car repair back then was MW.

Sadly all of them are gone now. I loved to walk to around the Sears & Roebuck store & look at all the cool stuff, especially lawn & garden stuff with the Craftsman tools!

Rome