The Blue Lights — indeed all the lights — have been turned off at the last remaining Kmart store in Manhattan, the once groundbreaking and now sad Astor Place location.
As reported by social media earlier today — Kmart’s parent company Transformco no longer makes any announcements of any sort, much less store closings — the two-level location bordering Greenwich Village and the East Village across the street from Cooper Union closed unceremoniously after business yesterday.
As sudden as the closing was it certainly should come as no surprise to anyone following the Kmart saga, which has seen the discount chain — once the largest retailer in America (that’s right, bigger than Walmart) — reduced to perhaps 20 remaining locations for the entire country. As of the first week of the year, there were estimated to be only 32 Kmarts still open for business according to Brostocks.com, a website that follows both Kmart and its sister retail brand Sears. More recent reports, unconfirmed by the company, show even fewer stores still operational with the majority offered for rent by leasing agents. At its peak Kmart had over 2,300 stores and as recently as 2018 before Transformco won the assets of what had been Sears Holdings in bankruptcy court proceedings there were a combined total of about 1,000. Even after the sale, 400 stores between the two nameplates remained in February 2019.
Sears itself hasn’t fared much better. It too was once the largest retailer in America — before Kmart and way before Walmart — but it is believed to have less than 50 stores left. Again, Transformco does not answer inquiries on the current status of its stores and most information is gleaned from real estate brokerage websites.
The Astor Place store, originally three levels in what had been the John Wanamaker department store in a previous incarnation, was considered a groundbreaker in 1996 when it opened along with a second Manhattan location on 34th Street next to Penn Station and catty-corner to the Macy’s Herald Square flagship. Both stores represented the first real encroachment of big box national discounters into the crowded streets of Manhattan at a time when most said it couldn’t work. Each store developed a loyal client: the midtown store for commuters and office workers and Astor Place for downtown hipster types who had had enough of boutique shopping for staples and the occasional trendy fashion item that Kmart had a flair for back in the day.
And while the tendency will be to blame this closing — the 34th Street store closed in February of last year — on the pandemic, the rise of online shopping or any one of a number of retail trends, the sad truth is that both Kmart and Sears have been in a death spiral for years, having closed over 3,000 stores and eliminating at least a quarter million jobs under the reign of Edward Lampert, their owner and manager since he brought the two companies together in 2005.
Retail is a harsh business and over the past few years we’ve seen any number of legendary nameplates from Toys’R’Us to Pier 1 Imports to Bon-Ton all go out of business. Some have been resurrected as virtual retailers, others bandied about as brands to be parceled out to the highest bidders. That no doubt will be the fate waiting both the Kmart and Sears brands and by current indications it won’t be much longer before that happens either.
It all makes you more than just a little Blue.
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July 13, 2021 at 04:45AM
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Kmart Turns Off Its Last Blue Light In Manhattan - Forbes
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