Walking Through a Canadian Kmart in 1986 — Aisle by Aisle

Saturday, the 11th of October, 1986. Thanksgiving weekend, and the last weekend of Expo 86. A quarter to ten in the morning, in a parking lot off a four-lane road, between a car wash and a tire shop. Just inside the automatic doors, between the gumball machines and the bulletin board, there is a fibreglass horse with plastic stirrups and a slot for a quarter. A little girl in a pink jacket has been told that if she is good, really good, all the way through the store, she can ride it on the way out. It is going to be close. This was the store most of us were taken to on a Saturday whether we wanted to go or not. One floor, acres of it, a snack bar by the door, a garden centre at the side, and a voice in the ceiling that could reach every corner of the building. We walk through it in the order you would actually have walked through it, aisle by aisle. Hot dogs on the rollers and a cherry slush with a spoon-straw. A bin of Expo souvenirs at half price. Ketchup chips and the chocolate bars nobody south of the border has heard of. Halloween costumes in a box, worn over a snowsuit. Attention, Kmart shoppers. Road hockey nets and goalie pads, the spring after the Canadiens won the Cup. A grey game console with a small man in a red cap jumping on mushrooms. And the layaway counter, where Christmas went on a shelf in brown paper. We are not skipping an aisle. If you remember that horse, the slush machine, or the voice in the ceiling, tell us in the comments what town it was. Somebody watching this was the next child in line for the ride. Next week: a Woolco in 1979, aisle by aisle.