Final full-sized Kmart in US to close

Kmart is going the way of Blockbuster as the final full-sized location in the U.S. is closing next month.

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The store, located in Bridgehampton, New York, will close on Oct. 20, CNN reported.

It isn’t the end of the brand, at least not yet, as there is a smaller convenience-sized version of the store in Miami that carries some appliances and limited other items, and there are regular-sized stores in Guam and the US Virgin Islands, two U.S. territories.

The Miami location lost most of its footprint to an At Home store and the Kmart brand is now housed in what was the original store’s garden department, the Miami Herald reported last month.

The era of Kmart started to come to an end when Sears and Kmart merged in 2005 by hedge fund operator Eddie Lampert. Kmart also faced stiff competition from Walmart and Target which offered not only typical box store items but also groceries. Online shopping also offered a death blow to Kmart, CNN reported.

When Kmart and Sears merged there were 1,400 Kmarts nationwide and another 900 Sears locations, but Lampert wanted to sell locations and some of the other assets such as Craftsman which had at the time been exclusively sold by Sears.

Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and when it came out of bankruptcy, there were only 231 Sears and 191 Kmarts left, CNN reported.

Transformco now owns the brands, Fox Business reported.