Silke Jasso
All right I’ll be honest with this one, I didn’t think that the ‘K’ in Kmart stood for anything. I am just as stumped as those who just found out what it meant because you don’t really think about it. It’s just a store that you used to pass on the way home.
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Well, apparently the name dates back to the last initial of the founder of the very first Kmart store, Sebastian Spering Kresge. Fun fact, the popular retail chain was once originally SS. Kresge. Not really appealing if you ask me, so I guess it was smart for them to change it to appeal to customers.
The first store originally opened in 1899, and it was set to be a variety store featuring low price merchandise that included random furnishing. It was a concept that was pioneered by F.W. Woolworth in 1879, which ultimately worked and by 1917 there were 150 stores. It became the second biggest variety chain store in the world, behind Woolworth
The History of Kmart
So over the next 40 years, the company then decided to experiment by opening even more stores and shopping centers. By 1959 it was then decided Kresge would go beyond the average variety store and become a discount store market. In 1962, the first-ever Kmart store opened in Garden City, Michigan. Not only was it the first time the store used a new name, but apparently the display looked very different from now.
So, does Kmart even exist today? Well, the short answer is sort of yes, but it’s likely that you do not live by one. In early 2000 the store began to struggle financially. From 2005 to 2019 it became a subsidiary of Sears Holding Corporation. But, when Sears Holdings ultimately crashed in 2019, Transform SR LCC was formed in order to acquire the assets from Sears Holding. This included the remaining Kmart stores.
Believe it or not, there are only nine Kmart locations that are still open, but only a third of them are located in the United States. You can find Kmart in Westwood New Jersey, Birmingham in New York, and Miami Florida.
So there you have it, your history lesson of the day. I hope you were as entertaining as I was.
They need to do something about the food if you can actually call it food. they sell in them
I knew what the K stood for forty years ago. What’s the big deal?
I have known this my whole life
It was the founders last name
There were stores everywhere at one time then shortened to K Mart
So what does the K stand for it doesn’t say
The k stands for kunt lapper
kresge. it’s click bait
So what does the k stand for
KNOTHING but Kmart, which would be proper, IF the English language actually made “sense” in spelling and pronunciation half of the time regarding words such as: ‘no/know,’ ‘not/knot,’ & ‘now/knowledge.’ But “since” it doesn’t, I’d reckon we’d have to settle for: K stands for “Nothing” or ‘No thing’ proving beneficial or really helpful to others. K ONLY stands for ‘K’RESGE, a last name of some founder of the place, I guess. 🤷 Which, in turn, matters to no one who wasn’t thinking to themselves, ‘Hmmm, I wonder what the ‘K’ in Kmart stands for, if anything? I think I’ll do some “much needed” research on this “beneficial” subject because this is “definitely” something the world “NEEDS” to know!”
K-MART was my favorite store rout 66 all the way! I felt cool in that brand and the food court 🙂 i used to pretend the K stood for Kitchell lol
K=KRESGE
KRESGE USED TO BE A STORE KINDA’ LIKE A FIVE AND DIME. IT WAS GOOD PRICED STUFF AND I LOVED IT. ONE OF MY FAVORITES. KRESGE…K-R-E-S-G-E KRESGE. 🙂
Look at this Dmart shopper tryna be funny.
There is a KMART in the little town where I used to live. I went into it a couple of years ago, looking for something I needed. They had what I needed when I looked.
There is a Kmart in Wilkes Barre Pa
Kmart is alive and well in Lubbock, Texas.
Actually we have 3 stores here in Miami, Florida