Adamson was appointed to serve as the company's new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Julian C. Day was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer. January 14 - Kmart completed review of store portfolio and distribution network, and announced plans to close stores and 1 distribution center. February 25 - Kmart received Court approval to distribute its Disclosure Statement and First Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization to creditors and began to solicit acceptances of the Plan.
April 23 - The U. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago entered an order confirming Kmart's First Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization, as modified, following a strong vote in favor of the Plan by the Company's creditors. With this milestone achieved, the Company targeted emergence from Chapter 11 in early May May 6 - Kmart completed its fast-track reorganization and emerged from Chapter 11 as a new and vital enterprise.
Edward S. August 6 - Kmart launches the Thalia Sodi Collection, a line of branded apparel for women and girls, as well as footwear, accessories, jewelry, intimates, hosiery and bed and bath products, inspired by the international superstar.
October 20 - Kmart Management Corporation unveils new corporate branding advertising campaign with commercials with the new Kmart. Right Here. Right Now. May 17 - For the fourth consecutive fiscal quarter, Kmart Holding Corporation reported improved year-over-year profitability and liquidity. May 20 - Kmart announced an exclusive integrated marketing campaign to launch five new Kmart Back-To-School fall apparel collections and The WB's new season of shows. This marketing partnership is the first of its kind where a major retail brand is working with a television network to jointly leverage their respective assets for cross promotional purposes.
August 12 - Kmart and E! News Live," the only live daily entertainment news telecast. Lewis will also join the Kmart Board of Directors. Lewis joins Kmart from YUM! Retail experts say it would take nothing short of a miracle to keep its stores and sister company Sears alive more than a few years. The retailer's devoted shoppers, however, hope that is not true. They had more stores than Walmart, better systems, better merchants.
They were a better company. The acquisition includes the remaining Kmart stores and Sears stores. Thirteen Kmarts, eight Sears stores and six Sears automotive centers remain in Michigan.
The retail-giant brands are a shell of their former selves. There were 3, U. Kmart and Sears stores and more than , employees when Kmart acquired Sears in A business plan filed with the court ahead of the judge's approval of the sale suggested ESL would close and sell about 36 of the remaining Kmart stores.
The hedge fund has said it would retain about 45, employees. A statement sent to The Detroit News on Kmart's future did not mention closures: "Kmart is proud of our Michigan roots," a Kmart spokesperson said in an email, "and we look forward to continuing to provide our members and customers in the state with trusted brands, services and convenience.
Now, I like their kids' clothing selection. That's what brings me here today. Before growing into the big-box discount store chain that Kmart came to be, the company began as two S. Kresge five-and-dimes — one in Memphis in and one in Detroit in Founder Sebastian Spering Kresge took sole ownership of the Detroit location and soon after incorporated the S.
Kresge Co. There were several hundred Kresge stores by the time executive Harry Cunningham opened the first "K mart"-branded store in in Garden City. The Kresge store brand was retired in , but the name lives on in the philanthropy of the Troy-based Kresge Foundation. Cunningham's company was renamed Kmart Corp.
Kresge found himself at a loss, having promised to buy , shares he could no longer afford, and the company took them off his hands. By , however, the chairman had bought back at cost his own shares plus the , others owned by the management. The Depression also brought falling sales as well as inventory losses through the failure of suppliers' businesses.
Competition also increased; the scramble for the retail dollar fueled rivalry from Sears, Roebuck and prompted other chains to open department store "bargain basements. With the Depression over by , there were stores in 27 U.
As the decade advanced, many homeowners moved out to the suburbs from inner-city locations; the retailers followed. Kresge management cautiously opened one suburban shopping center store in , adding to the first one that had opened in Three more followed in By there were about 40 suburban stores in the United States, plus one in Canada.
By the mids Chairman Sebastian Kresge was long retired from active company management. An operating committee of 16 executives appointed by the board of directors steered the corporate strategy. Although the committee frequently combined smaller stores in high-volume areas to provide better selection and more efficient service, there were U. Many of the units featured modern conveniences such as air conditioning, self-service displays, and shopping baskets.
Although the variety store image still guided company activities during the s, pricing limits were fading away, with the concept of discount retailing coming to the fore in its stead. Kresge offered economical private-label products ranging from clothing to house paint.
The variety of brand-name offerings also broadened to include electric appliances, radios, and lawnmowers.
In the late s food grew into the largest single department, warranting training in food management for all store managers. Many stores had delicatessens, and Kresge in-store luncheonettes provided shoppers with a large assortment of snacks, lunches, and dinners devised by the test kitchen at the company's Detroit headquarters. By these mini-restaurants were so popular that at least one new or remodeled facility opened alongside a delicatessen counter in some Kresge store each week.
A wider variety of merchandise plus higher pricing brought a need for a layaway plan allowing customers to save for expensive items. It was, however, still against company policy to offer credit, although competitors were luring customers in this way.
In , coinciding with the opening of the first Kresge store in Puerto Rico, Harry Blair Cunningham succeeded to the presidency of S. Cunningham, aged 58, had been with Kresge since A former newspaper reporter, he had worked his way up from trainee status through the store manager ranks, eventually becoming general vice-president.
Twin assignments went with this position: one was to tour all of Kresge's U. Cunningham's travels convinced him that Kresge's competitors were not other variety chains, but the new discounters aiming for fast inventory turnover, which they could achieve by lower markups on a large assortment of small items. Discounting, in fact, was a return to Sebastian Kresge's basic merchandising philosophy, which would be a bulwark against competition in the future, just as it had been in the past.
Cunningham, after a period of testing, concluded that higher sales volume, rather than higher markups, would boost the company's profits, which had dropped during the s. In the company opened its first discount store in the Detroit suburb of Garden City, calling it Kmart. Within a year, there were 17 others. Unlike Kresge stores, Kmarts were not placed in shopping centers but were built in plazas by themselves, to avoid internal competition and also to provide ample parking.
To ensure a 25 percent annual pretax return on investment, each store featured decor that was pleasant, though not extravagant, and each aimed for eight inventory turnovers per year. The Kmart stores were an instant success; by , there were 63 facilities, 51 of which provided repair and maintenance service for automobiles.
Three years later, the number of Kmarts had swelled to The Kmart introduction still left the company with a number of older Kresge stores, still on long leases, which were too small to display Kmart's expanded merchandise lines.
Numerous Kresge stores, mostly in deteriorating business areas, were renamed Jupiter Discount Stores and converted to facilities offering a limited variety of low markup, fast-moving merchandise such as clothes, drugstore items, and housewares.
By there were almost Jupiter stores in operation. In the company underwent several changes. One involved the sale of longtime subsidiary Mount Clemens Pottery. Another was the acquisition of Holly Stores, a retailer of women's and children's clothing that had been a Kmart licensee since , and was operating clothing departments in Kmarts, Kresges, and Jupiters at the time of the acquisition. The same year, the company acquired Dunhams Stores Corporation, a sporting goods supplier already operating under license in 42 Kmarts.
Dunhams then became Kmart Sporting Goods, Inc. There were stores, of which were in Canada. Although discount retailing had gained momentum somewhat later in Canada than in the United States, the Canadian subsidiary had opened its first Kmart in London, Ontario, in At the same time, while inner-city deterioration in Canada had not reached the same level as in U.
Company founder Sebastian Kresge did not live to see this triumph. He died in September at the age of 99, having retired from the company chairmanship only three months earlier.
Also in , the famous "Blue Light Special" was invented by a Kmart manager in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who was seeking a way to make it easier for his customers to find the Christmas wrapping paper that he was clearing; the Blue Light Special went on to be adopted chainwide and become an American icon.
Meantime, spurred by its Canadian success, the company found another international opportunity in Australia, via a joint venture: Kmart Australia Limited, with retailer G.
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