page_title: Kmart
section_title: 2010–2018: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Kmart / History / 2010–2018: Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the Big Kmart located in Greenwich, NY. It's one of the smaller stores in the company. (Taken from my flickr)
context_page_description: Kmart Corporation is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
  The company was incorporated in 1899 as S. S. Kresge Corporation and renamed Kmart Corporation in 1977. The first store with the Kmart name opened in 1962. At its peak in 1994, Kmart operated 2,486 stores globally, including 2,323 discount stores and Super Kmart Center locations in the United States. From 2005 through 2019, Kmart was a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation and is now a subsidiary of Transform SR Brands LLC.
context_section_description: On December 27, 2011, after a disastrous holiday sales season, Sears Holdings announced that 100 to 120 of Sears and Kmart stores would close.
  In 2014, news reports indicated that Kmart was liquidating dozens of stores across the United States. Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings Corporation, underwent financial distress throughout the year, sparking an unspecified number of closings of Sears and Kmart locations amid vendors' and lenders' concerns about its liquidity. Along with store closings, measures included the spinning off its Lands' End division, selling most of its stake in Sears Canada, issuing debt and taking on loans that cumulatively put it on track to raise $1.445 billion in cash in 2014. Howard Riefs, a company spokesman who has often spoken on behalf of Kmart, said, "Store closures are part of a series of actions we're taking to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model."
  On October 10, 2014, Kmart was a victim of a data breach concerning customers' credit and debit card information. On October 19, Kmart stated, "Based on the forensic investigation to date, no personal information, no debit card PIN numbers, no email addresses and no social security numbers were obtained by those criminally responsible. There is also no evidence that kmart.com customers were impacted. This data breach has been contained and the malware has been removed. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our members and customers."
  In January 2015, Kmart agreed to pay $102,048 and other consideration to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disability discrimination lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Kmart offered a job at its Hyattsville, Maryland, store to a candidate with kidney disease on dialysis. The candidate advised the hiring manager that he could not provide a urine sample for the company's mandatory pre-employment drug screening because of his medical condition, and requested a reasonable accommodation such as a blood test or other drug test that did not require a urine sample; Kmart had refused to provide an alternative test and denied the candidate employment. In April 2016, Kmart announced that it was liquidating 68 stores. The chain announced in September 2016 that 64 more stores in 28 states would close by mid-December 2016. In December 2016, at least 25 Kmart locations were targeted for closure in early 2017.
  In January 2017, Kmart announced that 78 more stores would close, including the first Kmart location in Garden City, Michigan. In May 2017, Kmart announced the upcoming closure of 18 more stores. Sears Holdings admitted uncertainty regarding the survival of both Sears and Kmart. In early June 2017, Kmart announced that an additional 49 stores across the U.S. were to be shuttered by September 2017. Financial analysts are now warning that the fate of Sears Holdings is nearing its end. However, Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert stated in October 2016 that there were not and never had been plans to close the Kmart format and that they are working hard to make it a "more fun, engaging place to shop, powered by our integrated retail innovations and Shop Your Way". In early July 2017, Kmart had announced that 35 more stores would close by early October 2017. In late August 2017, Kmart announced another 28 store closures, including the last Rhode Island location, in Cranston. On October 11, 2017, with no closing sale held, the Kmart store in Santa Rosa, California, was apparently burnt down by wildfires in the Bay Area, adding to the list of closed stores. On October 17, 2017, Kmart announced the liquidation of an unspecified number of locations by late November. On November 3, 2017, it was announced that a further 45 Kmarts (along with 18 Sears stores) were to close, effective by January 2018, including Kmart's last store in Alabama, in Albertville.
  According to Fortune.com, Kmart and Sears did not run any television advertisements during the 2017 holiday season to focus on digital marketing and after evaluating the effect
caption: A smaller Big Kmart located in Greenwich, New York in 2017. This store closed in March 2019 along with 79 other Kmart and Sears stores.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "3.0000", "Image DateTime": "2017:08:16 13:48:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Copyright 2009", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-H300", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "10718", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8297", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "103/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:08:16 13:48:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:08:16 13:48:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3558788/1209675", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1911/250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6729/1000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "317/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "MultiSpot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "239/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5152", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3864", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "10542", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "133", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}