Kmart, JC Penney, & Sears each had a HUGE Christmas catalog that are a core memory for me! My Mom kept the JC Penney's Christmas catalog for my birth year and I honestly cherish it, even if it's just a bunch of paper to anyone else. Great flashback to my childhood!! Thanks for sharing.
A moment of silence to all of us kids that showed up on the first day of school rocking some bright white Trax sneakers. This is why Gen X is so mentally tough.
K Mart had the best cafetaria. That was probably my favorite thing about K Mart. I remember going Christmas shopping with my mom at K Mart and we always ate in the cafeteria.
agreed! My Mom and Dad used to bring me there. I didnt care about the ambiance because the food was great (well, everything looked good to kids is delicious)
Worked at Kmart 1981-1987 while in high school and college. It was a GREAT place to work. Made lots of friends there and it helped me to grow up by learning how to deal with many types of people.
In 1991, I remember being 10 years old and saving $200 for a brand new Super NES the day it launched. We went to K-Mart in Pensacola near Cordova mall, and I ran to the electronics section to see one, single Super NES left. I snagged it, and we went to the front checkout, only for me to learn a very important lesson: sales tax. The total was $212, and I had $200. Looking up at my mom with totally defeated eyes, I couldn't even muster up the courage to ask her to cover the difference....but she did, and I was so relieved. I learned a very valuable lesson that day, actually two: factor in sales tax, and my Mom was my heroine that day
i was 13 when our local k-mart closed in 1993 and everything had a higher percent off by the week, so the store got more ransacked. i waited until everything in the store was 40% and got 3 snes games for like $60. super off road: the baja (hilarious game), super r-type, and somehow starfox. i used to get those big ass little caesars pizzas and an icee with my mom there too. lol
@@anthonyrowland9072 Kmart made a big change in the mid 90s to that "red look" red sign and everything inside looked almost like Target looks today, boring. The 70-80s Kmart was the bomb, and the concession in back, that little eatery was cool, I can still smell that Kmart cafeteria in my mind when I was young. My grandfather loved the subs. Today SE Michigan is boring, all Walmart, target and CVS everywhere 🤮
Similar experience with the NES in 1986 but the result was my mom laughed and made me go put it back, telling me that it was a lesson in what happens if you're stupid enough to have hopes and dreams.
My KMart used to sell the best ham sandwiches at the deli in front of the store. Five sandwiches stacked on top of each other like a loaf of bread in a plastic bag. In 1997, I also worked security at their world headquarters in Troy, Michigan.
And lets not forget the sub sandwiches...with the onions...I worked for K-Mart in the mid-sixties when things were really good, and it was actually FUN to go to work...(I was 16 at the time) Bought my first car and a nice stereo with money I made there.
That building headquarters is still sitting there closed up and abandoned on prime property in that area. Still looks the same. (Update: It's headed for the wrecking ball.)
FYI The original blue light specials were a sight to see. They would actually dim the store lights down low and would JUST have the blue lights to get the consumers' undivided attention. (Around the mid 80s and only select stores would do that) Then it would go defunct.
I miss the good old days. The last time I was at K Mart, it was in Hemet, Ca. Around 2007 and it was with a client that I did caregiving for, Mr. Spurlin. We sat in the snack bar and talked. I miss him. I also had a cat named K-Mart. ❤
I have fond memories of friday nights in the 80s/early 90s going to K-mart with my folks after we had dinner. Me and my dad would go to the cafeteria and get a slushie. They always had cool toys too and lots of books and games. In our town, back in the 80s anyway, it was the *only* department store in the county.
K Mart in Miami (When I was a kid - circa 1972 and beyond) was where we bought all of our K-Tell music albums. It's where I got my first books (C.S. Lewis - The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe) There was an actual cart that was rolled around the store with the famous flashing Blue Light, for the Blue Light Specials in each particular location. K mart was always a shopping adventure.
Late 70s early 80s. Every Friday, my parents would go to dinner at Long John Silvers...their favorite place and then off to K-mart. Every darned week. I loved it, I would just go the the toy section to pick something out, I had a $5 limit. LOL. So many Star Wars figures.
I grew up going to K-Mart. Absolutely enjoyed going with my parents: whether it was for back-to-school, Christmas time to put the hottest toys or bikes on Lay-A-Away, etc.
As a former employee from '89 til '03, I sure do miss it. It was like a family and I always had to do the Blue Light Specials, which I didn't mind because I liked doing them. Those were the days.
I have been amazed by the evolving story of K-Mart and Sears joining forces to fail together. There should be college courses about these companies, addressing what caused the most dominant retail giants of the 80's to dissolve into obsolescence in 25 years. There are reasons that Walmart survived, and these reasons should be explored and taught.
Right? It ended up like some sort of corporate suicide pact. And the thing that gets me is how Sears started as essentially the Amazon of the early 20th century; yet somehow it had gotten so far removed from those roots it didn't know how to compete with Amazon. I wondered the about the Walmart comparison too, which I think is fair to a degree, since there was arguably a hair's difference between Walmart and Kmart, especially back in the day. Some of it is probably their distribution network, which I don't know how that might compare to what KMart had. I wonder how much of it is the way they undercut their employees by ensuring most don't qualify as full time and the corporate welfare they get. I can't imagine Sears and KMart _weren't_ exploiting their employees; I can't recall a lot of particularly good stories coming out of the store we had until fairly recently. Yet clearly they still weren't doing something right.
The computer and the internet were the number one reason all of the landscape changed for retail. Just like many other things. The bottom line was you never had to leave your house. Amazon and Walmart are now a monopoly.
They are taught. But then Kmart lost and so did Sears. Now Walmart got what they wanted bend over backwards kissing everybody asses then they kicked their asses out the door because they're going to close in 5 minutes. Where do we have to go shop? Want to go to walk in the mind baby outfitters Target 🎯???? There were many regional retailers that went out of business as well. Styx bear and Fuller. Venture and more. Sears always thought they were doing their customers a favor. You know charging higher prices and get the same thing down the road for less. Kmart thought they were invincible and they got the holier-than-thou attitude. I can remember a couple of examples when I was told well it's over there someplace I don't have time. Also well I guess you could go shop at Walmart if you don't like it here. Those two responses were from Kmart employees. You know they just normal danos like Walmart was so much below them. Are both discount stores. Walmart lowball them on price and Drew them into it and they could not match them. But go back further in time. Early on Kmart paid no attention to Walmart. Even as Wal-Mart stores grew exponentially in numbers and by time Kmart decided we better look at this, it's just too late. All they would have to do is hang on because now the people who are pissed off at Walmart would go to Kmart. Just like their parents or maybe grandparents got pissed off at Kmart and started shopping at Walmart. Just a couple of insights and opinions that are clouded by my personal experiences. But I wish there were more Kmart's around.
One word- greed. Both Kmart and Sears lost focus of their core business due to greedy shareholders wanting more, so Sears went to credit cards, and Kmart into buying other stores. Both ultimately failed, because both lost sight of what originally made them who they were.
@@jackson5116 And the saddest part of all? This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. So many parts and good ideas in America, flushed down the commode because of shareholder greed and the “thirst to be first”. I don’t think we’ll ever learn, really.
In Puerto Rico, we had both Kresge (until 1986) and Kmart. Going to Kmart on Saturdays was a thing for Me that I always looked forward to. I remember the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars for $1.17, the smell of fresh donuts… I can still remember those great memories.
I used to go to Kmart every Friday night with my parents back in the early 80s. It was the highlight of the week! There were no other stores around like it. I can remember the store exactly as it was. They never updated the stores. I can still picture the floor, the lights and that small tile print at the cash registers.
When I worked at k-mart we usually had four to 8 front end cashiers, a cashier supervisor, two or three customer service specialists, department managers and supervisors all working at the same time! In addition to the stock clerks.
I worked at Venture and that sounds like a typical daytime shift’s staffing. Closing shift had fewer faces as you only had two goals: guest service and recovery.
K-Mart...The Wal Mart of the 80's! Ours had the poles with flashing lights- If you grew up in the 80-90s as a kids, feel blessed! we Truly grew up in the best times & generation there has ever been! Kids today just don't understand!!!
I worked a couple years '82-85 in the men's department. It was a great job for a teenager and it actually had a real career path back in the day. In fact, my store was the first to get name brand jeans like Chic, Sergio Valente, Sassoon, Jordache and Guess!
technically there are, they're known as junk bins where random items that aren't moving are clearanced out, just Kmart made a spectacle of it, because you never knew what would be next.
I loved KMart. Their submarine sandwiches were so good!! I moved from Maryland to Arkansas in 1990 and it was all Walmart. I had never even heard of Walmart before then
Thank you! Getting old and nostalgia go hand-in-hand; stuff like this calls to very early memories I don't often access. I'm not quite old enough to remember blue-light special specials, but I do remember the popcorn, eatery, slushies -- and even a sizable live pet & fish department. As a very young kid (in the later 80s), it did seem like a retail amusement park. By the time I was in my teens, K-mart was totally uncool.
I remember the eatery having some of the best cheeseburgers and fries. From time, to time, my grandmother would take us there just to eat.. I also can’t forget those pudding cups with the dollops of whipped cream and cherry on top ether!😋😔
00:01 This was my Kmart growing up!!! Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have huge nostalgia for it (hence watching this video). Buying my N64 at launch in the back right of the store, and a later Game Boy Color on lay-a-way. Finally getting my first golf clubs with my dad. School supplies for first grade, right behind the registers in that early shot. 😢 damn 4:30 I realize still have a Poulan “Wild Thing” chainsaw we bought at Kmart
I started working for Kmart back in 1998 at the very end of the Kmart golden years. 2001 came and went and well Kmart went bankrupt and a few went to jail. Haha. Long time ago. I remember talking to the new CEO on live Sat tv before the fall when I was the electronics manager.
I've worked Kmart for 16 years, on and off since 1996, and even transferred from Massachusetts to Florida. I know there was a store in Lantana, Boca Raton, and Ft. Lauderdale, but don't recall a Miami location. All the years I worked, the restaurants never sold Slush Puppies, but Icee's. And the restaurant would change it's name every few years(Eatery, Eatery Express, K Cafe, before just being promoted as Little Caesars, Nathan's, etc.). There is even a privately owned store in Australia that seems to be doing quite well.
That was amazing how you brought me back to the years of shopping at Kmart with mom and grandma, good memories, thank you so much, this put a smile on my face ❤I subscribed
My lil daddy and I lived for the blue light specials in the 80's daddy drove one time in 1982 during an ice storm that was 8" deep on Christmas Eve to get to K mart for the blue light special...He was my HERO and I sure miss those days
Popcorn and slush puppies at kmart. That really takes me back. I still remember picking up my first cassette tape (Michael Jackson Thriller) and many many transformers, gijoes, matchbox, and hot wheels. Such great memories.
Growing up in the 70's the only K-Mart in the area was pretty good size. There was a pet store inside as well as a sitdown restaurant. It even had an auto bay because they sold tires. Ironically, it's now a Wal-Mart grocery store.
Damn, a pet "store" department jogged a memory, or at least part of one. i can't remember if it was our KMart or a Walmart out of town that had something like that in early 90s. I know most of the walmarts in the area carried fish; and I _think_ one or two of them still do. I feel like our KMart might have had that too, but I can't quite picture it. And carrying small pets beyond fish sounds very familiar. Our kmart had a Little Caesar's in it for a while. That was probably the only things they did better at the time compared to Walmart, which had its own little diner with some of the worst junk food; prepped and served like it was an afterthought by whichever cashier seemed to draw the short straw that day.
I remember going there in 1983.... summer time and the line's were to the back with people buying pool supplies and float's 🤔...the memories of being 10. .❤
When I was a teenager got really good pieces of clothing. I remembered get good stuff that I liked. Even music, shoes, school supplies, clothing, and even got a slushy in Coca Cola or Cherry favorite. I liked the smaller old school Kmart.
I'm 36 years old, I have not been inside a Kmart store since 2013 and I remember going into Kmart with my parents every couple of days back in the 90's. Always seemed like my family found just about everything we needed in that store. I still have a Benchtop brand box cutter my dad bought back in 1996 from Kmart and I still use it to this day. Dad definitely got his money's (a couple bucks) worth and Kmart had some great quality products for the money back in the 80's & 90's!
@@thedarknate08 I miss those days too, but at the same time. I'm also glad I'm not a young kid anymore. However, I'd love to see Kmart make a real comeback and be just like it was back in the 90's!
I remember buying Lion King on VHS at Kmart back in early 1995 the night before it was suppose to be released and bringing it to school the next day to watch in class because the teacher was amazed I got a copy early.
Slush Puppies!! 🥤🐶 & Blue Light Specials!! 💙✨️ those were magical times growing up in the 80& 90's with K-Mart. Fond memories to cherish from another time and a safer world. 🔮A time when going shopping was a special event and outing and there weren't any worries, except for what Mom or Dad would SAY you have to put back!! 😂Oh to be that kid again. "I wanna go back and do it all over.. but I can't go back I know 🎶🤗😽
Our KMart also had cotton candy. The combination of the smell of salty/oily popcorn and sweet cotton candy was pretty good, whether you liked shopping there or not. Don't forget LAYAWAY. But should we lament the passing of KMart? Dunno. When KMart came into a town, a lot of traditional mom & pop stores usually went under. Remember in That 70s Show when Bob's successful business went under after the KMart-clone came to town?
I worked at K-Mart in the late 70s- early 80s and it was a good place to work. I worked in the auto shop, the pay was good and they sent the mechanics to schools for alignment, brakes, and tune ups. The schools were put on by Raybestos, Sun systems and Trw.
K Mart! They HAD it and they had it good. Saw a videogame for the 1st time in a K-Mart..learned a valuable life lesson (Don't steal) I stole a bunch off Starwars figures..my Mother took me back and embarrassed the hell out of me. Never stole again. K-Mart was fun.
Yes, I miss the days as a kid smelling that popcorn. I used to go to this one K Mart that had an Orange-Pinapple Icee. So far, NO FLAVOR has topped that one.
Our local original Kmart (opened about 1976, I think) is now a Home Depot. The next one up the road was closed down for a long time, and now it's a Walmart. But up until just a few years ago, there was another Kmart about an hour away, and it was right on the way to where we would celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. We would always stop at Kmart, as it was open until early afternoon Thanksgiving Day, and we joked about it being our annual "pilgrimage." Then it shut down, and the location has since reopened as a Target. I used to get my film developed at Kmart, and I well remember the excitement of going to pick up my pictures and see how they turned out.
when I was a kid I went to the garden city K-Mart all the time with my grandparents. my grandmother would shop, and I would get a hotdog with my grampa in the caffe. those were the days.
I remember going to the store in like 1982 with a friend who lived near one, and as we were walking around, heading towards the checkout counter, I noticed a huge pile of pickles in the walkway about 500 jars of pickles in glass jars. this would be for stores like this sold food, and I would say to myself who would come here to buy pickles. Well, I miss the pickles and I miss the stores. It was always fun to go there and as you said it was always an adventure.
Kmart was the stuff! I loved all the aquariums, the gun section and most of all the brand new gaming system called Nintendo sitting there available to play if you waited around long enough! My dad puffing away on his tobacco pipe while mom tried talking him into getting some cool new stuff. Ah the good old days.
We had a K-Mart in town, in fact it held on pretty long and only closed in 2019. It was built in the late 80s/early 90s. I grew up in the 80s and I swear to God, I never heard that commercial before. I knew of the Blue Light Special, and I even remember at one point our K-Mart trying to re-implement that, but only ever on a select, crappy products no one wanted to begin with; and I never once actually saw it get used or heard about it going off. I'd only go there if I absolutely had to, especially in later years. The prices were never competitive, most of the products were junk. Too many experiences of buying clothes or shoes or a watch that would break or fall apart literally a week after buying them. Eventually you can't ignore the pattern. The flip side was that it was the closest store with a lot of home goods stuff without going out of town. Places like Dollar Tree or Ace might carry a few of those things (often at significant mark-up than anywhere else), but there's a lot of things those store don't have; and with K-Mart gone, there's just nowhere in town to find those things; and then you have to go out of town. By the end though, our K-Mart was just depressing. It was genuinely like they were waiting for someone to put the store out of its misery. The poorly maintained infrastructure, the genuinely 25-30 year old checkouts. Just hugh sections of the store they had no use for. I remember going in there probably within a year of it closing, to find half the electronics section randomly replaced with mattresses and large appliances - which they had never sold before; and seemed out of place. You definitely felt bad for the employees, but the corporation just didn't give a damn and hadn't for a long time. They didn't care about modernizing, or just maintaining the buildings. I doubt they cared about the employees.
I was sad when Kmart's distinctive taste value priced subs disappeared, they were a treat when I was a youngster that got their clothes from Kmart. One of my oldest daughter's 1st words was when she proudly announced Kmart when she saw the sign at age 3, 1992. Good kiddos got a trip thru the toy dept, I got worked over by 3 & 5yo females. Dad that's the new Barbie, dad has no cash, write a check dad, go to the ATM dad. Women get their shopping gene at birth. Good times!
My friends in grade school all had Traxx and Roos tennis shoes, sold at Kmart. I wore Nikes or Leather Boots. I remember being jealous because my friends all had the same shoes.
I went to K-Mart for the last time in late 2019 at the North Hollywood location in Los Angeles before it closed for good. It was crazy to go in a K-Mart again as it was such a mainstay as a kid but then failed alongside Sears which is equally as wild to me
When I was in college(1982) I worked at Kmart after school. Had a a lot of fun announcing and running the blue light specials, people would come running to the blue light cart and made sure they received their price markdown. I was the hero with the old school sticker price gun. 😝
As far as I remember, and I also just checked, Kmart actually acquired Sears. I dug up news articles still online from 2004 and 2005 and they all say as much. I've gotten into arguments over this in the past because it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's what the articles (and Wikipedia, take that with a grain of salt) actually say. After the merger Kmart's parent company apparently took the Sears name.
Kmart did buy out Sears but that's because Lampert owned both companies at the same time. After bankruptcy Kmart came out shedding tons of debt and was actually making money whereas Sears was dead. Lampert acquired Kmart and then used Kmart's money to try to resurrect Sears because he liked that brand name/company better. After Sears was bought out he put both companies under "Sears Holding" and proceeded to dismantle Kmart to save Sears. In the end he killed both companies. He used Kmart's money/profit to keep Sears afloat until he sucked everything possible out of Kmart.
I just found your channel today and I am OBSESSED!!! I have been feeling so nostalgic lately for my childhood (the 80's) because of how crazy this world is now! Your channel brings me right back and I thank you for that. I live in N.J. I am gonna have to take a trip up to Westwood and look for the blue light specials 😉
Worked there in high school, 1988-89. I was clock#2, and I ran blue light specials all the time! I got my first portable CD player there, had to save up because it was $150!
They were still paying in cash in 1990. I believe their reasoning for paying in cash was; with money immediately in-hand, it'd be hard for us to leave the store without buying something.
@@laurenchristianna2092 Not always. But, if I did, it might have been to put some money down on a boombox I had on Layaway! LOL Or, maybe some food, or an Icee.
My middle school had Slush Puppy machines. We also had Pizza Hut breadsticks available every day. In high school we had McDonalds in the cafeteria with self serve sauce dispensers (hot mustard, sweet & sour, bbq, etc) and self serve fountain drinks. Needless to say I was a porker for most of 7th-11th grade til I hit my growth spurt lol.
As an 80s kid, what I loved about Kmart were the less mainstream toys. The had an isle full of plastic model kits and supplies. No other big box store had this. They were only $5 or $6 and kept kept me quiet for days so my mom let me get one every trip to Kmart. Also the food counter had this weird smell like popcorn and potato wedges under a heat lamp. Let’s not forget those awful kids ride-on machines out front. I always regretted riding those.
People talk about their love of Toys R Us, or KB, but man alive my Kmart toy department defintiely rivaled those stores! Hell, it likely surpssed them with the assortments they had!
I worked at a Kmart back in the early 80's in the Automotive dept. - more specifically the car stereos. I have some significant memories of that place due to how it never changed. EVER. The one thing you missed was the Cafe's inside the stores. All of them. That was about as significant as the Blue light specials because it was good food & cheap. Dang it....I just realized something.....I'm old....Dang it....
@@myshadowstalksme -- Consider this: assuming you can stick around on this planet long enough you, one day, will come across some young person just obsessed with the 2020's and you will be confused because you are here right now living it and it isn't a big deal...Nuthin to get excited about...well, I mean except for .....(please input YOUR insane moment here)
I worked in the deli, cut 1/4" piece off top of my thumb using the slicer for onions. Sandwiches started going blur light at 8 pm and we closed at 10 pm. Enjoyed working there.
I remember loving Kmart hotdogs as a kid so i paid kmart a visit before they closed or even announced closing a few years back and it was desolate 😢 just a handful of very elderly people.
Kmart, JC Penney, & Sears each had a HUGE Christmas catalog that are a core memory for me! My Mom kept the JC Penney's Christmas catalog for my birth year and I honestly cherish it, even if it's just a bunch of paper to anyone else. Great flashback to my childhood!! Thanks for sharing.
Oh yeah, my parents kept
sears books from my brother and I yeat lf biths. As kids they were the xmas holy grail.
I couldn't wait for the sears Christmas catalogue..poured over it...I remember the way it smelled...like a news paper
@@dulllynn8312 yes! That smell lives on in my memories!
Don’t forget about Brendles and service merchandise catalogs.
@@scoobysnacks3740we didn't have a Brendles, but we definitely had a Service Merchandise!! Great reminder, thanks!
My gosh do I miss the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. What a time to be alive.
The 90s Kmart changed
BEST era ever. Especially 80s and 90s. By 2010, things were really changing negatively.
@@KentKaliber The 70s and 80s were the best until they changed in the mid 90s
A moment of silence to all of us kids that showed up on the first day of school rocking some bright white Trax sneakers. This is why Gen X is so mentally tough.
Don't forget the Rustler jeans! I'm still amazed we survived, being Soo "traumatized?!"
I was lucky my dad was a steel worker back before it all went under..I got to go to Kmart for BRITISH KNIGHTS shoes..who remember those!
As a millennial I got Shaq and Franklin shoes. No end to my misery until my mom used her Sears card to start buying me Chuck Taylors
I got the brown ones
I had them same shoes in the 70s, such great times.
K Mart had the best cafetaria. That was probably my favorite thing about K Mart. I remember going Christmas shopping with my mom at K Mart and we always ate in the cafeteria.
agreed! My Mom and Dad used to bring me there. I didnt care about the ambiance because the food was great (well, everything looked good to kids is delicious)
The smell of popcorn in the air. The 80s were beyond awesome.
Cafeteria?
K-nuggets and the taco snack stand...
You mean snack bar
I miss shopping at Kmart. 😢
❤️ Kmart 🍿 popcorn & layaway; toys section
So do I
Worked at Kmart 1981-1987 while in high school and college. It was a GREAT place to work. Made lots of friends there and it helped me to grow up by learning how to deal with many types of people.
I worked at Kmart during High School, from 1974-1976. I left when I joined the Air Force. It was definitely a special time!
I worked at Kresges in 86 and Kmart from 88 -96. For the most part I enjoyed it.I wished they could have pulled through..
In 1991, I remember being 10 years old and saving $200 for a brand new Super NES the day it launched. We went to K-Mart in Pensacola near Cordova mall, and I ran to the electronics section to see one, single Super NES left. I snagged it, and we went to the front checkout, only for me to learn a very important lesson: sales tax. The total was $212, and I had $200. Looking up at my mom with totally defeated eyes, I couldn't even muster up the courage to ask her to cover the difference....but she did, and I was so relieved. I learned a very valuable lesson that day, actually two: factor in sales tax, and my Mom was my heroine that day
i was 13 when our local k-mart closed in 1993 and everything had a higher percent off by the week, so the store got more ransacked. i waited until everything in the store was 40% and got 3 snes games for like $60. super off road: the baja (hilarious game), super r-type, and somehow starfox.
i used to get those big ass little caesars pizzas and an icee with my mom there too. lol
@@anthonyrowland9072 Kmart made a big change in the mid 90s to that "red look" red sign and everything inside looked almost like Target looks today, boring. The 70-80s Kmart was the bomb, and the concession in back, that little eatery was cool, I can still smell that Kmart cafeteria in my mind when I was young. My grandfather loved the subs. Today SE Michigan is boring, all Walmart, target and CVS everywhere 🤮
Similar experience with the NES in 1986 but the result was my mom laughed and made me go put it back, telling me that it was a lesson in what happens if you're stupid enough to have hopes and dreams.
@@adamb89 Your mother was a psychopath.
My KMart used to sell the best ham sandwiches at the deli in front of the store. Five sandwiches stacked on top of each other like a loaf of bread in a plastic bag.
In 1997, I also worked security at their world headquarters in Troy, Michigan.
ham, lettuce, and mustard on a burger bun. legendary. i was a kid devouring those on the way home.
And lets not forget the sub sandwiches...with the onions...I worked for K-Mart in the mid-sixties when things were really good, and it was actually FUN to go to work...(I was 16 at the time) Bought my first car and a nice stereo with money I made there.
the smell of popcorn popping when you walked in the door. Nothing like it unless you are at the cinema.
That building headquarters is still sitting there closed up and abandoned on prime property in that area. Still looks the same.
(Update: It's headed for the wrecking ball.)
Soft 🥨 was the best
OMG SUPER Kmarts where everything! I used to love the Icee’s too
FYI The original blue light specials were a sight to see. They would actually dim the store lights down low and would JUST have the blue lights to get the consumers' undivided attention. (Around the mid 80s and only select stores would do that) Then it would go defunct.
That’s so neat! I remember shopping Christmas blue light specials in the mid 1990s and it was really exciting. 😊
I miss the good old days. The last time I was at K Mart, it was in Hemet, Ca. Around 2007 and it was with a client that I did caregiving for, Mr. Spurlin. We sat in the snack bar and talked. I miss him. I also had a cat named K-Mart. ❤
These days if they turned the lights down someone would fake an injury and say they couldn't see and sue Kmart 😂. Y'all know it is true.
@@thegamingchef3304 Is K-Mart even around anymore?
@@Ibhenriksen 2 left.
My mom loved Kmart. I had my first tuna melt there so good. I miss Kmart too.
Great toy section in 80’s. Transformers, Star Wars, all the kool lines
I remember. In the late 70's K-mart was King!
I miss the good old days, cruising Kmart parking lot when I was a teenager. Good memories
I have fond memories of friday nights in the 80s/early 90s going to K-mart with my folks after we had dinner. Me and my dad would go to the cafeteria and get a slushie. They always had cool toys too and lots of books and games. In our town, back in the 80s anyway, it was the *only* department store in the county.
Oh I miss slush puppies. Slush Puppies was one of the best things of the 80s for me.
And the $.99 subs
They were delicious. Miss them too.
I don't know if they taste the same, but i've seen slush puppies in shop rite (if u have one in your area) in those pouches that look like capri suns.
I used to pump so much cherry syrup into mine lol. People would trash them in these days, probably steal the syrup.
@@tweetygirl818 unfortunately there isn’t a shop rite in my area. Thanks for letting me know about the frozen packs.
K Mart in Miami (When I was a kid - circa 1972 and beyond) was where we bought all of our K-Tell music albums. It's where I got my first books (C.S. Lewis - The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe) There was an actual cart that was rolled around the store with the famous flashing Blue Light, for the Blue Light Specials in each particular location. K mart was always a shopping adventure.
Late 70s early 80s. Every Friday, my parents would go to dinner at Long John Silvers...their favorite place and then off to K-mart. Every darned week. I loved it, I would just go the the toy section to pick something out, I had a $5 limit. LOL. So many Star Wars figures.
I grew up going to K-Mart. Absolutely enjoyed going with my parents: whether it was for back-to-school, Christmas time to put the hottest toys or bikes on Lay-A-Away, etc.
As a former employee from '89 til '03, I sure do miss it. It was like a family and I always had to do the Blue Light Specials, which I didn't mind because I liked doing them. Those were the days.
I have been amazed by the evolving story of K-Mart and Sears joining forces to fail together. There should be college courses about these companies, addressing what caused the most dominant retail giants of the 80's to dissolve into obsolescence in 25 years. There are reasons that Walmart survived, and these reasons should be explored and taught.
Right? It ended up like some sort of corporate suicide pact.
And the thing that gets me is how Sears started as essentially the Amazon of the early 20th century; yet somehow it had gotten so far removed from those roots it didn't know how to compete with Amazon.
I wondered the about the Walmart comparison too, which I think is fair to a degree, since there was arguably a hair's difference between Walmart and Kmart, especially back in the day. Some of it is probably their distribution network, which I don't know how that might compare to what KMart had. I wonder how much of it is the way they undercut their employees by ensuring most don't qualify as full time and the corporate welfare they get. I can't imagine Sears and KMart _weren't_ exploiting their employees; I can't recall a lot of particularly good stories coming out of the store we had until fairly recently. Yet clearly they still weren't doing something right.
The computer and the internet were the number one reason all of the landscape changed for retail. Just like many other things. The bottom line was you never had to leave your house. Amazon and Walmart are now a monopoly.
They are taught. But then Kmart lost and so did Sears. Now Walmart got what they wanted bend over backwards kissing everybody asses then they kicked their asses out the door because they're going to close in 5 minutes. Where do we have to go shop? Want to go to walk in the mind baby outfitters Target 🎯???? There were many regional retailers that went out of business as well. Styx bear and Fuller. Venture and more. Sears always thought they were doing their customers a favor. You know charging higher prices and get the same thing down the road for less. Kmart thought they were invincible and they got the holier-than-thou attitude. I can remember a couple of examples when I was told well it's over there someplace I don't have time. Also well I guess you could go shop at Walmart if you don't like it here. Those two responses were from Kmart employees. You know they just normal danos like Walmart was so much below them. Are both discount stores. Walmart lowball them on price and Drew them into it and they could not match them. But go back further in time. Early on Kmart paid no attention to Walmart. Even as Wal-Mart stores grew exponentially in numbers and by time Kmart decided we better look at this, it's just too late. All they would have to do is hang on because now the people who are pissed off at Walmart would go to Kmart. Just like their parents or maybe grandparents got pissed off at Kmart and started shopping at Walmart. Just a couple of insights and opinions that are clouded by my personal experiences. But I wish there were more Kmart's around.
One word- greed. Both Kmart and Sears lost focus of their core business due to greedy shareholders wanting more, so Sears went to credit cards, and Kmart into buying other stores. Both ultimately failed, because both lost sight of what originally made them who they were.
@@jackson5116 And the saddest part of all? This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. So many parts and good ideas in America, flushed down the commode because of shareholder greed and the “thirst to be first”. I don’t think we’ll ever learn, really.
Slush puppies taste great!
Man, the nostalgia is real. I want to go back. The world is too fucked up now.
I’ll never forget the lunch counter at our local Kmart back in the 1980s. It was always fun to get grilled cheese sandwiches there.
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup when it was cold outside and the store was decorated for Christmas. 🤗🎅🎄⛄❄
Lovedddd Kmart food court ❤ i can still remember the 🍕
Man what a beautiful memories of k Mart.😢😢😢😢😢
What memories 😑 when kids were kids. Boys were boys.girls were girls. Basic styles. I'm glad I grew up in 1980s ..Running into friends there K.
In Puerto Rico, we had both Kresge (until 1986) and Kmart. Going to Kmart on Saturdays was a thing for Me that I always looked forward to. I remember the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars for $1.17, the smell of fresh donuts… I can still remember those great memories.
Yeah, I bought all my Matchbox and Hot Wheels there back in the early 80's too. I always got excited going into the toy aisle at K-Mart. Great times.
In Dundalk, MD there was a Kresge until late 80s, maybe early 90s. They had a deli that had the best honey ham.
I was in a Walmart today. Hot Wheels cars were $1.18
I used to go to Kmart every Friday night with my parents back in the early 80s. It was the highlight of the week! There were no other stores around like it. I can remember the store exactly as it was. They never updated the stores. I can still picture the floor, the lights and that small tile print at the cash registers.
When I worked at k-mart we usually had four to 8 front end cashiers, a cashier supervisor, two or three customer service specialists, department managers and supervisors all working at the same time! In addition to the stock clerks.
Our Kmart would have every aisle manned with cashiers especially on weekends. Never seen that at Walmart even in the busiest periods.
@@vistatiger7493 yea Walmart in Kissimmee got like 100 cash registers and a cashier for every one busiest Walmart in the world even at 3 am
I worked at Venture and that sounds like a typical daytime shift’s staffing. Closing shift had fewer faces as you only had two goals: guest service and recovery.
Damn KMart was my first job. I can still hear “under the boardwalk” playing whenever i see the logo
I remember them from the late 90s to the early 2000s , they had the best hotdogs ‼️
The store of my youth. My dad loved K-Mart. We go there almost every weekends.
K-Mart...The Wal Mart of the 80's! Ours had the poles with flashing lights- If you grew up in the 80-90s as a kids, feel blessed! we Truly grew up in the best times & generation there has ever been! Kids today just don't understand!!!
I worked a couple years '82-85 in the men's department. It was a great job for a teenager and it actually had a real career path back in the day.
In fact, my store was the first to get name brand jeans like Chic, Sergio Valente, Sassoon, Jordache and Guess!
The blue light special is such a great idea that could still work today. I remember the popcorn smell vividly
technically there are, they're known as junk bins where random items that aren't moving are clearanced out, just Kmart made a spectacle of it, because you never knew what would be next.
I loved KMart. Their submarine sandwiches were so good!! I moved from Maryland to Arkansas in 1990 and it was all Walmart. I had never even heard of Walmart before then
Don't forget Kmart had that little diner in the back and they serve those blue plate specials all the time😅😅
Thank you! Getting old and nostalgia go hand-in-hand; stuff like this calls to very early memories I don't often access. I'm not quite old enough to remember blue-light special specials, but I do remember the popcorn, eatery, slushies -- and even a sizable live pet & fish department. As a very young kid (in the later 80s), it did seem like a retail amusement park. By the time I was in my teens, K-mart was totally uncool.
I remember the eatery having some of the best cheeseburgers and fries. From time, to time, my grandmother would take us there just to eat.. I also can’t forget those pudding cups with the dollops of whipped cream and cherry on top ether!😋😔
00:01 This was my Kmart growing up!!! Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I have huge nostalgia for it (hence watching this video). Buying my N64 at launch in the back right of the store, and a later Game Boy Color on lay-a-way. Finally getting my first golf clubs with my dad. School supplies for first grade, right behind the registers in that early shot. 😢 damn
4:30 I realize still have a Poulan “Wild Thing” chainsaw we bought at Kmart
I started working for Kmart back in 1998 at the very end of the Kmart golden years. 2001 came and went and well Kmart went bankrupt and a few went to jail. Haha. Long time ago. I remember talking to the new CEO on live Sat tv before the fall when I was the electronics manager.
I've worked Kmart for 16 years, on and off since 1996, and even transferred from Massachusetts to Florida. I know there was a store in Lantana, Boca Raton, and Ft. Lauderdale, but don't recall a Miami location. All the years I worked, the restaurants never sold Slush Puppies, but Icee's. And the restaurant would change it's name every few years(Eatery, Eatery Express, K Cafe, before just being promoted as Little Caesars, Nathan's, etc.). There is even a privately owned store in Australia that seems to be doing quite well.
That was amazing how you brought me back to the years of shopping at Kmart with mom and grandma, good memories, thank you so much, this put a smile on my face ❤I subscribed
My lil daddy and I lived for the blue light specials in the 80's daddy drove one time in 1982 during an ice storm that was 8" deep on Christmas Eve to get to K mart for the blue light special...He was my HERO and I sure miss those days
Popcorn and slush puppies at kmart. That really takes me back. I still remember picking up my first cassette tape (Michael Jackson Thriller) and many many transformers, gijoes, matchbox, and hot wheels. Such great memories.
We had a restaurant in the Kmart in my town... Wasn't great but as a lil kid I didn't know better lol good times
I worked there when I was a teen in the late 80s. It was a great time.
Growing up in the 70's the only K-Mart in the area was pretty good size. There was a pet store inside as well as a sitdown restaurant. It even had an auto bay because they sold tires. Ironically, it's now a Wal-Mart grocery store.
Damn, a pet "store" department jogged a memory, or at least part of one. i can't remember if it was our KMart or a Walmart out of town that had something like that in early 90s. I know most of the walmarts in the area carried fish; and I _think_ one or two of them still do. I feel like our KMart might have had that too, but I can't quite picture it. And carrying small pets beyond fish sounds very familiar.
Our kmart had a Little Caesar's in it for a while. That was probably the only things they did better at the time compared to Walmart, which had its own little diner with some of the worst junk food; prepped and served like it was an afterthought by whichever cashier seemed to draw the short straw that day.
I remember when Woolworths had fish, birds and rodent pets for sale
@stargazer1682 yeah man. I loved those walls of fish tanks full of every fish known to mankind.
I remember that pet department. They had a huge assortment of pets too. I got my first aquarium from them around 1980.
Kmart has a good long run. Good work on the video.
I remember going there in 1983.... summer time and the line's were to the back with people buying pool supplies and float's 🤔...the memories of being 10. .❤
I actually watched this and it was a good flashback of riding around the store on a big wheel 😂😊
I miss k mart as a 1980's kid the toy aloe was the best .
One of their last ad campaigns was hilarious!
Free shipping, with the actors telling everyone "I shipped my pants!" " I shipped my bed!" ect... LOL!
I worked at Kmart for 2 and a half years up until it closed. It didn’t pay nothing but it was most fun job I had
I was sad when they finally closed the Outer Banks, NC location. It was a tradition to go every time we went there.
The Westwood NJ store just closed 😕I will miss them.
When I was a teenager got really good pieces of clothing. I remembered get good stuff that I liked. Even music, shoes, school supplies, clothing, and even got a slushy in Coca Cola or Cherry favorite. I liked the smaller old school Kmart.
I'm 36 years old, I have not been inside a Kmart store since 2013 and I remember going into Kmart with my parents every couple of days back in the 90's. Always seemed like my family found just about everything we needed in that store. I still have a Benchtop brand box cutter my dad bought back in 1996 from Kmart and I still use it to this day. Dad definitely got his money's (a couple bucks) worth and Kmart had some great quality products for the money back in the 80's & 90's!
Where I live ours closes in like 2003 so it's been that long for me! I miss those days 😔
@@thedarknate08 I miss those days too, but at the same time. I'm also glad I'm not a young kid anymore. However, I'd love to see Kmart make a real comeback and be just like it was back in the 90's!
I literally said I missed Kmart today and now I see this…
I remember buying Lion King on VHS at Kmart back in early 1995 the night before it was suppose to be released and bringing it to school the next day to watch in class because the teacher was amazed I got a copy early.
Slush Puppies!! 🥤🐶 & Blue Light Specials!! 💙✨️ those were magical times growing up in the 80& 90's with K-Mart. Fond memories to cherish from another time and a safer world. 🔮A time when going shopping was a special event and outing and there weren't any worries, except for what Mom or Dad would SAY you have to put back!! 😂Oh to be that kid again. "I wanna go back and do it all over.. but I can't go back I know 🎶🤗😽
Our KMart also had cotton candy. The combination of the smell of salty/oily popcorn and sweet cotton candy was pretty good, whether you liked shopping there or not. Don't forget LAYAWAY. But should we lament the passing of KMart? Dunno. When KMart came into a town, a lot of traditional mom & pop stores usually went under. Remember in That 70s Show when Bob's successful business went under after the KMart-clone came to town?
I worked at K-Mart in the late 70s- early 80s and it was a good place to work. I worked in the auto shop, the pay was good and they sent the mechanics to schools for alignment, brakes, and tune ups. The schools were put on by Raybestos, Sun systems and Trw.
My childhood was spent going to KMart! 🥰
Omg I MISS Slush Puppies!!!! I want one right NOW!
K Mart! They HAD it and they had it good. Saw a videogame for the 1st time in a K-Mart..learned a valuable life lesson (Don't steal) I stole a bunch off Starwars figures..my Mother took me back and embarrassed the hell out of me. Never stole again. K-Mart was fun.
I remember going to Kmart in Fl about 5 years ago in Miami. It’s exactly the same. They did have really good towels for super cheap.
Yes, I miss the days as a kid smelling that popcorn. I used to go to this one K Mart that had an Orange-Pinapple Icee. So far, NO FLAVOR has topped that one.
Our local original Kmart (opened about 1976, I think) is now a Home Depot. The next one up the road was closed down for a long time, and now it's a Walmart. But up until just a few years ago, there was another Kmart about an hour away, and it was right on the way to where we would celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. We would always stop at Kmart, as it was open until early afternoon Thanksgiving Day, and we joked about it being our annual "pilgrimage." Then it shut down, and the location has since reopened as a Target.
I used to get my film developed at Kmart, and I well remember the excitement of going to pick up my pictures and see how they turned out.
I remember eating fried chicken at the restaurant. And looking through the big flip posters. The game toy machines at the entrance/exit.
Does anyone remember “Hills”? I vaguely remember they had these creepy holiday commercials and their tagline was “Hills is where the toys are”
Yes, I recall hills. It was my 1st job toy department at Christmas. For sure, a challenging 1st job. Sadly, all gone as well.
In Australia our KMart sold Guns
Those were the days
when I was a kid I went to the garden city K-Mart all the time with my grandparents. my grandmother would shop, and I would get a hotdog with my grampa in the caffe. those were the days.
I remember going to the store in like 1982 with a friend who lived near one, and as we were walking around, heading towards the checkout counter, I noticed a huge pile of pickles in the walkway about 500 jars of pickles in glass jars. this would be for stores like this sold food, and I would say to myself who would come here to buy pickles. Well, I miss the pickles and I miss the stores. It was always fun to go there and as you said it was always an adventure.
Can someone bring back Kmart ❤the store miss it a lot. ❤❤❤❤😂
I remember the Christmas jingle, “Merry Merry Christmas at your KMart Christmas store”.
The Kmart I went to as a kid had its own little restaurant inside and I remember the taco salad was sooo good. Miss that damn salad. 😅
I miss K-mart subs, 2 in a bag for $3, good times.
Kmart was the stuff! I loved all the aquariums, the gun section and most of all the brand new gaming system called Nintendo sitting there available to play if you waited around long enough! My dad puffing away on his tobacco pipe while mom tried talking him into getting some cool new stuff. Ah the good old days.
We had a K-Mart in town, in fact it held on pretty long and only closed in 2019. It was built in the late 80s/early 90s. I grew up in the 80s and I swear to God, I never heard that commercial before. I knew of the Blue Light Special, and I even remember at one point our K-Mart trying to re-implement that, but only ever on a select, crappy products no one wanted to begin with; and I never once actually saw it get used or heard about it going off.
I'd only go there if I absolutely had to, especially in later years. The prices were never competitive, most of the products were junk. Too many experiences of buying clothes or shoes or a watch that would break or fall apart literally a week after buying them. Eventually you can't ignore the pattern.
The flip side was that it was the closest store with a lot of home goods stuff without going out of town. Places like Dollar Tree or Ace might carry a few of those things (often at significant mark-up than anywhere else), but there's a lot of things those store don't have; and with K-Mart gone, there's just nowhere in town to find those things; and then you have to go out of town.
By the end though, our K-Mart was just depressing. It was genuinely like they were waiting for someone to put the store out of its misery. The poorly maintained infrastructure, the genuinely 25-30 year old checkouts. Just hugh sections of the store they had no use for. I remember going in there probably within a year of it closing, to find half the electronics section randomly replaced with mattresses and large appliances - which they had never sold before; and seemed out of place.
You definitely felt bad for the employees, but the corporation just didn't give a damn and hadn't for a long time. They didn't care about modernizing, or just maintaining the buildings. I doubt they cared about the employees.
I was sad when Kmart's distinctive taste value priced subs disappeared, they were a treat when I was a youngster that got their clothes from Kmart. One of my oldest daughter's 1st words was when she proudly announced Kmart when she saw the sign at age 3, 1992. Good kiddos got a trip thru the toy dept, I got worked over by 3 & 5yo females. Dad that's the new Barbie, dad has no cash, write a check dad, go to the ATM dad. Women get their shopping gene at birth. Good times!
My friends in grade school all had Traxx and Roos tennis shoes, sold at Kmart. I wore Nikes or Leather Boots. I remember being jealous because my friends all had the same shoes.
I went to K-Mart for the last time in late 2019 at the North Hollywood location in Los Angeles before it closed for good. It was crazy to go in a K-Mart again as it was such a mainstay as a kid but then failed alongside Sears which is equally as wild to me
TRAX tennis shoes!!
When I was in college(1982) I worked at Kmart after school. Had a a lot of fun announcing and running the blue light specials, people would come running to the blue light cart and made sure they received their price markdown. I was the hero with the old school sticker price gun. 😝
I still have all the Christmas bears from K mart that they would sell every year. Good times
O I loved k Mart and also toys R Us just iconic and brings back the old days I always loved going as a kid.
When you were too poor to even get a slush puppy... Thanks for bringing up all those horrible memories!
As far as I remember, and I also just checked, Kmart actually acquired Sears. I dug up news articles still online from 2004 and 2005 and they all say as much. I've gotten into arguments over this in the past because it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's what the articles (and Wikipedia, take that with a grain of salt) actually say. After the merger Kmart's parent company apparently took the Sears name.
Kmart did buy out Sears but that's because Lampert owned both companies at the same time. After bankruptcy Kmart came out shedding tons of debt and was actually making money whereas Sears was dead. Lampert acquired Kmart and then used Kmart's money to try to resurrect Sears because he liked that brand name/company better. After Sears was bought out he put both companies under "Sears Holding" and proceeded to dismantle Kmart to save Sears. In the end he killed both companies. He used Kmart's money/profit to keep Sears afloat until he sucked everything possible out of Kmart.
Exactly Kmart bought Sears. That was what killed both stores even more than the extenuating circumstances.
Yes!! I used to make my Sears credit card payments at the Kmart customer service desk.
Eddie Lampert really destroyed them
I just found your channel today and I am OBSESSED!!! I have been feeling so nostalgic lately for my childhood (the 80's) because of how crazy this world is now! Your channel brings me right back and I thank you for that. I live in N.J. I am gonna have to take a trip up to Westwood and look for the blue light specials 😉
K mart was my 1st job
Worked there in high school, 1988-89. I was clock#2, and I ran blue light specials all the time! I got my first portable CD player there, had to save up because it was $150!
My very first job was at K-Mart. This was in 1980 and we were paid in cash.
They were still paying in cash in 1990. I believe their reasoning for paying in cash was; with money immediately in-hand, it'd be hard for us to leave the store without buying something.
@@eLeMeNOhPeaQWell... did you? Buy things with your $$ before you left the store on payday?
@@laurenchristianna2092 Not always. But, if I did, it might have been to put some money down on a boombox I had on Layaway! LOL Or, maybe some food, or an Icee.
My middle school had Slush Puppy machines. We also had Pizza Hut breadsticks available every day. In high school we had McDonalds in the cafeteria with self serve sauce dispensers (hot mustard, sweet & sour, bbq, etc) and self serve fountain drinks. Needless to say I was a porker for most of 7th-11th grade til I hit my growth spurt lol.
As an 80s kid, what I loved about Kmart were the less mainstream toys. The had an isle full of plastic model kits and supplies. No other big box store had this. They were only $5 or $6 and kept kept me quiet for days so my mom let me get one every trip to Kmart. Also the food counter had this weird smell like popcorn and potato wedges under a heat lamp. Let’s not forget those awful kids ride-on machines out front. I always regretted riding those.
I remember this too. I bought and built many models from Kmart
People talk about their love of Toys R Us, or KB, but man alive my Kmart toy department defintiely rivaled those stores! Hell, it likely surpssed them with the assortments they had!
When we'd go to K Mart my Dad's first stop was the popcorn counter. We'd munch that stuff all thru the store.
I worked at a Kmart back in the early 80's in the Automotive dept. - more specifically the car stereos. I have some significant memories of that place
due to how it never changed. EVER. The one thing you missed was the Cafe's inside the stores. All of them. That was about as significant as the Blue light specials
because it was good food & cheap. Dang it....I just realized something.....I'm old....Dang it....
Sounds like some incredible memories. I’m obsessed with the 80s. What a time.
@@myshadowstalksme -- Consider this: assuming you can stick around on this planet long enough you, one day, will come across some young person just obsessed with the 2020's and you will be confused because you are here right now living it and it isn't a big deal...Nuthin to get excited about...well, I mean except for .....(please input YOUR insane moment here)
@@johnnyonthespot4375 I lived in the 80s. So I’ll continue being obsessed with that decade.
Whenever my mom would go to Kmart I'd tag along and try to hassle, beg a G.I. Joe out of it.
I worked in the deli, cut 1/4" piece off top of my thumb using the slicer for onions. Sandwiches started going blur light at 8 pm and we closed at 10 pm. Enjoyed working there.
I remember loving Kmart hotdogs as a kid so i paid kmart a visit before they closed or even announced closing a few years back and it was desolate 😢 just a handful of very elderly people.