There will soon be 1 Kmart left in the States — but it’s not like the stores you remember

(NEXSTAR) – Attention, Kmart shoppers: A Kmart location in Bridgehampton, New York, will be closing its doors in the coming weeks, effectively leaving only one remaining Kmart location — a downsized store in Florida — as the last in the continental United States.

Those stores are two of the six Kmart locations left in total: Transformco, the company that owns Kmart, currently operates three other Kmart locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands (two in St. Thomas, one in St. Croix) and one in Tamuning, Guam.

“It was only a matter of time,” lamented one user on Reddit, under a photo showing several signs reading “Everything Must Go!” and “Store Closing Sale!” allegedly taken inside the New York store.

Reddit users also alleged that a Target was planning to move into the space. When asked, a spokesperson for Target told Nexstar that the company was “pursuing the opportunity to reach guests in the Bridgehampton, NY area, but at this time, we’re not at a point where we can share any new store plans.”

The Bridgehampton location will shutter on October 20, the Associated Press reported. An employee working at the store could not provide further details when contacted.

The retail chain that would eventually become Kmart was founded in the late 19th century by Sebastian S. Kresge. As president of the company, Kresge expanded the chain (then known as the S.S. Kresge Co., or Kresge’s) to hundreds of shops before stepping down as president in 1925, according to the Kresge Foundation. He remained on the board until his death in 1966 — four years after his company opened the first of its “Kmart” stores.

At its height, Kmart operated thousands of stores in the United States, but competition from similar discount retailers contributed to the company declaring bankruptcy in 2002. There were several attempts to revive the brand following Kmart’s merger with Sears in 2005 to become the Sears Holding Corporation, but the corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

Hundreds of the remaining stores were purchased by Transformco, but their numbers have been steadily dwindling. (A separate company still operates hundreds of Kmart locations in Australia and New Zealand. That company was developed by Kresge and an Australian retail firm in the late ’60s, but Kresge exchanged his stake a decade later, giving over full ownership.)

Only one Kmart location will be left after the Bridgehampton store’s closure: a location in the Kendale Lakes Shopping Center in Miami, Florida. This location, however, has shrunk over the years after Kmart leased out some of its space, the Miami Herald reported in August. In that space now is an At Home store — selling home goods and furnishings — while the current Kmart is now “roughly the size of a neighborhood CVS,” according to the outlet.

Recent visitors to the Miami Kmart have also claimed on Yelp that store now occupies the space originally allotted for its own former garden center.

“It’s now only the size of the garden section, and it reminds me more of a Walgreens/Goodwill/NYC Bodega than a Kmart,” one Yelp reviewer wrote. Despite the size, several other Yelpers remarked on the discounted merchandise they were able to find.

A representative for Transformco was not immediately available to comment on the closing of the Bridgehampton location, nor any plans for the Florida location or Kmart.com.

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