Kmart vs. Walmart How the Retail Giant Lost Everything

What Happened to Kmart? It Started the Same Year as Walmart What happened to Kmart? The first full-size Kmart opened in Garden City, Michigan, on March 1, 1962. Four months later Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. Kmart had the head start, the money and the famous name, and for almost thirty years it was ahead. Forty years later, Walmart's sales for the year were $217.8 billion. Kmart's were $36.2 billion, and it had just filed for bankruptcy. This is the story of S. S. Kresge's five-and-ten, Harry Cunningham's big bet, Blue Light Specials and the K-Cafe, the bookstores, lumber yards and office-supply chains Kmart bought instead of fixing its own stores, the 2001 price war, the January 22, 2002 bankruptcy (then the largest retail bankruptcy in US history, 2,114 stores), Eddie Lampert, the 2005 Sears merger, and the last Kmarts. CHAPTERS 0:00 Same year, same idea 1:28 S. S. Kresge, the five-and-ten 3:29 1962: the first Kmart 6:01 Blue Light Specials and the K-Cafe 7:49 Walmart in the small towns 8:25 Books, lumber, office supplies 9:48 Walmart pulls ahead 12:10 The price war of 2001 13:33 Bankruptcy, 2002 15:37 Eddie Lampert and Sears 17:06 Closing a store at a time 18:19 The last Kmarts 19:22 What really happened SOURCES Kmart Corporation and Kmart Holding 10-K filings, FY2001 and FY2003 (SEC EDGAR); Kmart fiscal 2001 and 2002 results releases Wal-Mart Stores annual report FY2002 (SEC EDGAR); Fleming Companies 10-K FY2001 Associated Press, January 22, 2002 (bankruptcy filing and chronology); Kmart Joint Plan of Reorganization disclosure statement (2003) SEC Litigation Releases 19344 (2005), 21065 (2009) and later, SEC v. Conaway and McDonald Kmart/Sears merger release, March 24, 2005; AP, November 18, 2004; Sears Holdings Chapter 11, Case 18-23538 (S.D.N.Y., 2018) WLRN and Fortune, October 2024 (Bridgehampton closing); Britannica and the Kresge Foundation (S. S. Kresge); Walmart corporate history IMAGE CREDITS Photos: Wikimedia Commons and Flickr (Creative Commons and public domain), Library of Congress (public domain). Photographers: Phillip Pessar, Russ, Nicholas Eckhart, Daniel Ramirez, Chad Davis, Dwight Burdette, Quintin Soloviev, Mike Kalasnik, Andrew Jameson, WalgreensOsorio, Ben Schumin, Niceckhart, DiscoA340, Publichall, Aaron F. Stone, Curlyrnd, PeRshGo, Yoshi Canopus, DanTD, Darren56brown, Lionsdude148, Piperpet, Mjs92984, Xnatedawgx, Michael Rivera, Marty Aligata, Vibrioidxire, Jonmallard, HectorB.96, Mr. Matté. #Kmart #RetailHistory #WhatHappenedToKmart #BlueLightSpecial #KmartHistory #Walmart #Sears #SSKresge #DeadMalls #BusinessHistory #DefunctStores #RetailApocalypse