Big Kmart was such a massive failure that Kmart went bankrupt because of it! Because of that bankruptcy Kmart was then bought by ESL who then bought Sears with Kmart stock! If Kmart hadn't wasted money on Big Kmart, they wouldn't have gone bankrupt, then wouldn't have bought Sears, and neither would be tanking right now! Sears would be low, but still alive, and Kmart probably would be around if they hadn't invested in that huge flop known as Big Kmart! Big Kmart is why we have this mess today. Who was the genius who decided to invest in that major disaster anyway? They should be fined for k–ling Kmart! Big Kmart was the biggest blunder in retail history leading to the collapse of the second largest retailer at the time. Why didn't Kmart invest into logistics instead of wasting their money on the monumental failure of Big Kmart? If they had they'd probably be around today at least as big as Target!
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Don't forget about Blue Light Internet. Yes, Kmart was in the dial-up Internet business. The service was free...they thought if they gave it away, people would shop Kmart online (they didn't).
Love the comment from TheSavingsPlace about Big Kmart. I never understood the big deal about it. They basically just changed the signs on the stores to Big Kmart, even on the smaller stores. Nothing bigger or changed about the stores. They thought bringing in some food items would draw traffic. It may have had the perishables (milk, eggs, etc.) ever been in stock!) They had the right idea (look how Target succeeded with food in their stores) but as usual, the execution was poor.
Many other missteps include painting some stores orange and brown (ala Zayre), then changing them back to plain white walls. Blue light is back, but there are no customers in the store to care. Blue light is gone. Wait, bring it back again. Changing their color to blue (let's change the checkout lights to blue - that's our major overhaul), then change them to red and white. White shirts to save money on uniforms, back to red vests, then to blue shirts. Then to t-shirts (oh, what fun!) Changing our uniforms to t-shirts with slogans will make shopping at Kmart fun again! NOT. Wait, who are we again? Best Buy? The Sears blue crew? Are we trying to be Target? Oh..... yeah, we're Kmart, with the changing and undefined identity.
As someone else stated, Kmart should have been the focus and I believe could have survived. But it's hard to change perceptions with NO BUDGET. Sears was a tired brand before Kmart bought it. Neither will rest in peace thanks to the agony EL put them and their employees through.
Sears Commercial was a huge cash cow with high margins and a majority of the market when Eddie took over no retail involved. Even a complete mo–n could have made money off of it forever. Unfortunately Eddie didn't meet that standard of intellect.
Big Kmart was pretty much a new sign on the building and a couple extra food aisles. It was far from the strategic investment that you are making it out to be.
Kmart fell because it didn't focus on investing in its own internal technology, supply chain, and logistics. Additionally, it didn't aggressively reinvest in stores and relocate its stores to better locations. Yes, the new Walmart may have only been down the street – but it was usually a far better location than the Kmart.
"If Kmart hadn't wasted money on Big Kmart"
If my aunt had a schmeckle she'd be my uncle.
Proof that he was never interested in running a retailer long-term, closing profitable Kmarts alongside the closing Sears stores.
I had access to the company's P&L for 10 years. From 2008 to 2018. The kmart side of the company was profitable, even up to 2018. It was the Sears side that was losing tons of money and dragging the company down. Literally the only part of Sears that was profitable was Home Services and Innovel. You r—ds don't get it. Those Sears stores were horrible. Most people here, were just associates and don't understand the numbers. You barely made a profit on any appliance sales. The margin was so low, you almost lost money on sales.
Correction: Kmart is a massive failure. Period, full stop.
Chuck Conway... lol.
The same guy who said the SuperK idea wasnt the future.
I see its a big failure for WalMart.
Too bad. The concept was there. Just the wrong person.
Um, Kmart is/was a massive failure (much like Bradlees, Caldors, Jamesway, Shopko, Pamida, etc). Welcome to the long list of trasheaps of id–tic obsolete meaningless stores in a modern era of online commerce. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. Kmart is less significant than 8 track players (google them ) now.
Kmart went bankrupt because of Chuck Conway. The Big K concept required minimal investment and drove significant sales growth in the early 2000’s
I love Bob Hope but he was just out of place in those commercials for Big Kmart.