Kmart Had 2,500 Stores. Now It Has 3.

Attention, Kmart shoppers. Of about 2,500 stores, three are left. Kmart opened its first big store in 1962, the same year as Walmart and Target, and for almost thirty years it was bigger than both. Then a flashing blue light, a price war it could never win, and a hedge-fund billionaire turned America's biggest discount chain into a cautionary tale. This is the autopsy of Kmart: Sebastian Kresge's dime stores, the first Kmart in Garden City, Michigan, the Blue Light Special, the bookstore-and-hardware shopping spree, the one pricing idea that let Walmart win, BlueLight Always, the 2002 bankruptcy, Eddie Lampert and the Sears merger, and the long fade to the last stores in Miami and Guam. Chapters: 0:00 Attention Kmart Shoppers 1:09 The Dime Store 2:53 The Blue Light 4:26 The Price Trap 6:34 Blue Light Always 8:19 The Hedge Fund King 9:47 Last Call Watch next: Blockbuster    • Blockbuster Could Have Bought Netflix for ...   Sources: Kresge Foundation history; International Directory of Company Histories (Kmart Corp.) Kmart and Sears Holdings SEC filings (10-K / 8-K, 2002-2018); Walmart 2002 annual report Walmart and Target corporate histories Knowledge at Wharton, "Kmart's 20-Year Identity Crisis" (2002); InformationWeek (2002) AP, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, NBC News, TIME reporting on Kmart and Sears (2002-2024) Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Croix Source, Miami Herald (2025) Images: Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Curlyrnd, Mike Kalasnik, Rob Stinnett, JJBers Public, jasonwoodhead23, Phillip Pessar, Michael Kilgore, Quintin Soloviev, Patrick Gillespie, Adam Lautenbach, August Schwerdfeger, Chad Davis, Daniel Ramirez, David Wilson, m01229, Mike Mozart, Virginia Retail, Walmart Corporate (CC BY 2.0); Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0); Jay Reed, Tony Webster (CC BY-SA 2.0); Carlos Delgado, Christophe95, Daniel Case, Dough4872, Gordon F. Smith's parents, Jonesdr77, MikeMozartJeepersMedia, Otisfrog (CC BY-SA 3.0); Aaron F. Stone, An Errant Knight, Arild Vågen, Beyond My Ken, Breawycker, Clyde Charles Brown, Darren56brown, Deans Charbal, DiscoA340, HectorB.96, Larry Hachucka, Marty Aligata, Michael Rivera, Mjrmtg, Publichall, SS Oceanic III, Superkcenter611, Vibrioidxire, Xnatedawgx, YosemiteYamper, Yoshi Canopus, 颐园居 (CC BY-SA 4.0); dankeck, Balon Greyjoy, Notorious4life, w_lemay, Winnebaggo (CC0); historical Kresge photos, postcards and newspaper ads public domain. Full list with links in the video's image_credits.csv on request. Kmart is a trademark of its owner; this video is independent commentary and not affiliated with or endorsed by it. Real photographs are credited above; re-enactment scenes and illustrations are AI-generated and contain no real people. Narration is AI-voiced. #Kmart #Business #Retail