One of America’s most iconic retail chains, Kmart, set to close last full-size store in US

Kmart, one of America’s most iconic department store chains, is closing its last full-size store in the United States this fall.

The store, located in Bridgehampton, New York, on the South Fork of Long Island, will close its doors for good on October 20, an employee confirmed to WJAR.

The real estate investment trust, Kimco Realty Corp, which owns the shopping center that houses the chain location, also confirmed the store would be closing, according to Newsday.

Kimco Realty Corp did not share any details about why the store was closing.

A smaller Kmart in Miami, Florida, will remain open, but it pales in comparison to the storefronts the big box store chain used to operate in its heyday.

The Miami location is closer in size to a CVS or other convenience store, according to an August report by the Miami Herald.

However, Kmart has several stores outside the 50 states that will remain open in the US Virgin Islands and Guam, WJAR reported.

Kmart’s origins date back to 1899 when Sebastian Spering Kresge founded his first store, a modest five-and-dime, in Detroit, according to Transformco, the investment holding company that currently owns Kmart.

Kresge quickly expanded his reach over the next decade under the name the S.S. Kresge Company and, by 1912, had 85 stores around the US.

The first official Kmart opened in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962. That same year, 17 additional stores opened around the US.

Only four years later, in 1966, 162 Kmart stores were located in towns and cities nationwide and quickly began to form one of the country’s largest discount retailers.

In 1977, S.S. Kresge Company officially changed its name to K Mart Corporation.

By the 1990s, Kmart had 2,300 stores around the US, with 350,000 employees.

However, K Mart Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and merged with Sears Holdings in 2005.

Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018.

The Illinois-based investment holding company Transform Holdco LLC, also known as Transformco, has owned Kmart and Sears since acquiring Sears Holdings assets in 2019.