Fortune | FORTUNE 2024年10月25日
One-time retail behemoth Kmart has now shrunk to one outpost: A tiny store in suburban Miami
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位于迈阿密的Kmart是美国本土最后一家仍在营业的Kmart门店,这家商店曾经是零售业的巨头,如今却只剩下一个缩影。曾经拥有2500家门店的Kmart,如今只剩下四家,其中三家位于美属维尔京群岛,一家位于关岛。Kmart的衰落可以追溯到上世纪80年代,当时管理层收购了沃尔登书店、博德斯书店等企业,试图进行多元化经营,但最终失败。在2002年,Kmart宣布破产,沃尔玛和塔吉特抢走了它的市场份额。如今,Kmart的最后一家门店,已经成为一个象征,一个曾经辉煌的时代的遗迹。

👨‍💼 Kmart的衰落始于上世纪80年代,管理层收购了沃尔登书店、博德斯书店等企业,试图进行多元化经营,但最终失败。

📉 到了2002年,Kmart宣布破产,沃尔玛和塔吉特抢走了它的市场份额。

⏳ 如今,Kmart的最后一家门店,已经成为一个象征,一个曾经辉煌的时代的遗迹。

🛍️ 尽管这家门店保持着整洁和井井有条,但顾客寥寥无几,大部分顾客都是出于怀旧或好奇而来。

💰 Kmart的衰落,也反映了零售业的快速变化和竞争的激烈程度。

💔 曾经的巨头,最终走向了衰落,留下的只是回忆和感慨。

The last Kmart on the U.S. mainland sits at the west end of a busy suburban Miami shopping center, quiet and largely ignored.All around it are thriving chain stores attracting steady streams of customers in sectors where the former box-store chain was once a major player: Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, PetSmart and Dollar Tree.But at this all-but-last outpost of a company once famed for its “Blue Light Specials,” only an occasional shopper pops in, mostly out of curiosity or nostalgia, then leaves after buying little or nothing.“I hadn’t seen Kmart in so long,” said Juan de la Madriz, who came to the shopping center on a recent weekday to buy dog food at PetSmart. The architect spotted the Kmart and wondered if he could find a gift for his newborn grandson. He exited 10 minutes later having spent $23 on a stuffed dog and a wooden toy workbench.“It will be sad if it closes,” he said about the store, “but everything now is on computers.”The last full-size Kmart in the 50 states closed Sunday in Long Island, New York, making the Miami store — now a fraction of its former size — the last operating in the continental U.S. At its peak 30 years ago, Kmart operated about 2,500 locations. Today, four others remain: three in the U.S. Virgin Islands and one in Guam. There is also a website.Transformco, the Illinois-based holding company that owns Kmart and what’s left of another former retail behemoth, Sears, did not respond to email requests for comment or allow the store manager to speak. The company’s plans for the Miami location are unknown — but there is no indication it will close soon.The last outpostIf the Miami Kmart were a brand new mom-and-pop retailer, a shopper might think it could eventually thrive with advertising and a little luck. Kmarts long had a reputation for clutter and mess, but this store is immaculate and the merchandise is precisely stacked and displayed.The size of a CVS or Walgreens drug store, the branch occupies what was its garden section during its big-box days. A couple years ago, an At Home department store took over the rest of the space.“Get it all! Must Haves. Wish Fors. Friendly Faces,” the sign next to the door reads.Halloween and Christmas decorations line the entryway, next to the 30 shopping carts that no one is using. A robotic voice says “Welcome,” as does a cheery employee, one of three spotted in the store. A lone customer checks out the Halloween candy.Straight ahead are a few dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines and dryers: the appliance department. In the store’s main room, there is a large section of toiletries and diapers, a few hardware essentials and some cleaning and pet supplies. The toy department comprises a couple rows of dolls, action figures, games and squirt guns. Sun dresses, summer tops and sweatshirts make up the small clothing section. Oh, and there are snacks.Also still present: a recorded voice intoning a once-familiar message over a loudspeaker.“Attention Kmart shoppers,” it says, announcing that almost all items are on sale.If there were only customers to hear it, like there used to be.A fast rise and a slow deathKmart was founded by the retailer S.S. Kresge Co. in Michigan in 1962 and grew quickly, reaching 2,000 stores in 20 years. The company sold almost everything, from clothing to jewelry, TVs to dog food, appliances to toys to sporting goods. By the mid-1980s, it was the nation’s second-largest retailer behind Sears, and there were stores in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.The roots of Kmart’s decline were laid during that decade when management bought Waldenbooks, Borders Books, Builders Square, The Sports Authority and a stake in OfficeMax, thinking the company needed diversification. They were wrong. By the late 1990s, the company had sold those retailers yet still needed $5 billion in refinancing — the equivalent of $9 billion today.In 2002, Kmart declared bankruptcy as Walmart and Target devoured its market share. Its website never took off, allowing Amazon to beat it in the e-commerce space. There were executive pay scandals, a purchase by a hedge fund manager who stripped it bare and a disastrous 2005 acquisition of Sears.Mark Cohen, a former Sears Canada CEO and former director of retail studies at Columbia University’s graduate school of business, said Kmart would have thrived if not for the top executives who ran it into the ground. It could have been Walmart.“It sold in its heyday things that people continue to buy in large quantities today,” Cohen said. “Kmart went down the drain because it was led by incompetent managers.”Transformco bought Kmart and Sears out of another bankruptcy in 2019 for $5 billion — its critics say mostly for the stores’ real estate. There were 202 Kmarts remaining.Over the past five years, the firm has kept closing Kmarts until all that’s left in the states is Miami Store #3074.Nostalgia does not translate into salesOn the day that de la Madriz dropped in to buy his grandson’s gift, only a few customers trickled in and out of the store every hour.College students Joey Fernandez and Wilfredo Huayhua spent five minutes inside before leaving empty-handed. They knew about the chain’s near-demise, spotted the store while in the shopping center and went in to reminisce. It seemed small, they said, compared to the Kmarts they remembered.“We were bummed out — I spent a lot of my childhood at Kmart,” said Fernandez, 18. Still, he might be back — the store has good prices on the facial cleanser he uses.Teacher Oliver Sequin had been entering Marshalls when he spotted the Kmart. That too triggered nostalgia, but also reminded him he needed Band-Aids for his 5-year-old son. That was all he purchased.“I remember when Kmarts were bigger,” Sequin said. “But, to be honest, I like this one better. It is clean and organized, not like they were.”

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Kmart 零售业 衰落 沃尔玛 塔吉特
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