Kmart, once a giant in the discount retail industry, has closed its last full-scale store in the continental United States, Miami Herald reports.
The store, located in Bridgehampton, Long Island, officially shut its doors this week. The closure marks the end of an era for the chain, which was once a household name with over 2,000 locations across the country.
The Bridgehampton store’s closing didn’t come as a surprise to many. Local shoppers had noticed the store’s dwindling foot traffic in recent years.
“I’m not surprised; it’s always empty… This is actually the most crowded I’ve seen it,” said Juliette Fayh, a shopper from East Hampton, in an interview with NBC New York.
Although Kmart’s presence has all but disappeared in the continental US, a small location remains in the Kendale Lakes neighborhood of Southwest Miami-Dade, Florida. However, this remaining store is not a full-scale Kmart like the one that just closed. Instead, it operates as a small, two-room storefront in the Kendale Lakes Shopping Plaza. The location, about the size of a neighborhood CVS, offers limited merchandise and features the brand’s iconic “Blue Light Specials” signage.
In 2023, the Kendale Lakes Kmart gave up most of its lease to the Texas-based home goods retailer At Home, which now occupies the majority of the space. The remaining Kmart section is located in what used to be the store’s garden shop.
While Kmart once thrived with thousands of stores, it began a steep decline after merging with Sears in 2005, under the leadership of hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert. The company continued to struggle in the face of growing competition from other big-box retailers like Walmart and Target. By 2019, the Transformco hedge fund had acquired Sears, further consolidating the businesses. The former Kmart in Bridgehampton will soon be replaced by a Target, USA Today reported.
As of now, only three full-scale Kmart stores remain, located in the US Virgin Islands and Guam, leaving the Miami outpost as the last trace of the iconic brand on the mainland.
