The Very Last Large-Scale Kmart Is Shuttering Its Doors for Good This Weekend

It's the end of an era.

Attention, Kmart shoppers: The last full-sized Kmart store, located in quaint beach town Bridgehampton, New York, is closing on October 20—and the once-mighty brand will officially part of history. One small Kmart-branded store will remain in Florida, with a few more in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The store began as S.S. Kresge in Detroit in 1899 and grew into a chain of more than 2,400 locations with 350,000 employees. Known for its steep discounts and 15-minute “blue-light specials,” a signature in-store promotion from 1965-1991 that sent shoppers scurrying down the aisles in search of bargains, the retailer was synonymous with value and reasonable prices among Americans.

Kmart merged with Sears in 2005, ultimately leading to the demise of both once-dominant retailers, with few Sears stores remaining in the country now. Despite partnerships with stars like Selena Gomez and Adam Levine, the company couldn't attract young consumers like other big box stores. The 2018 bankruptcy filing by Sears reduced the number of stores to 422 between the two names, and that number continued to decrease.

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Competition from supermarkets like Walmart and Target, which both expanded their inventory to include groceries, and the shift to online shopping, particularly Amazon, added to Kmart’s struggles to stay a contender in the market.

Kmart was the country’s largest retailer until 1990 when it was surpassed by Walmart . To compete, it introduced Big Kmart stores but was never able to compete with Walmart’s trajectory. Though Kmart did introduce a super center in Medina, Ohio, in the early 1990s that included 24-hour grocery and merchandise shopping, the company struggled to keep pace with similar companies, and the merger didn’t help to boost business.

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While Walmart and Target saw success with their apparel brands, Kmart’s clothing lines were considered outdated and of poor quality, further adding to their troubles. A partnership with Martha Stewart Media , which at first proved to be lucrative, ended when Stewart commented to CNBC that the quality of her products had deteriorated after the Sears and Kmart brands merger.

The fadeout of the once-popular retailer has brought up nostalgic feelings from shoppers that remember the glory days.

"Spent many many many hours in this exact store as a kid, sad to see so many of those aisles half empty now," a TikTok user commented on a video taking viewers through the aisles of one of the last stores. "For what it’s worth: the shelves were very neatly arranged; the people there seemed like veteran shoppers; and there were some families too," the creator replied.

While the stores have closed for good, Kmart continues its business online, with a website that offers everything from clothing to garden supplies. Blue-light specials may be a thing of the past, but true to its start, there are still deals to explore.

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