By Walter Elliott
BELLEVILLE – “Local Talk” paid a visit to Kmart No. 371 here around 5:30 p.m. on its last full month of business March 2.
It was easier to pick out what goods had gone than what remained during the 15-minute tour of 371-411 Main St, whose parking lot was 30 percent full. The store, a month into its “Store Closing” sale, will reduce the once familiar Kmart and S.S. Kresge presence to three New Jersey locations on or by April 15.
The automotive and hardware items, including Craftsman tools and DieHard batteries, were almost exhausted. There was at least one Kenmore washing machine on the sales floor, but it was grouped among shelving and other store fixtures on sale.
The back wall freezers were empty of frozen food, as were displays for jewelry and kitchen appliances. The layaway office was stripped bare except for its sign. The clothing fitting rooms were closed except for a counter phone where one may call for use permission.
Electronics – except for a rack of ear buds, an end cap of alarm clock radios and a bin of CDs – were gone. There are no more lottery sales, but still price checks available, at the courtesy desk.
The Little Caesars pizza snack bar and internet cafe of 12 years ago have long disappeared. So too the blue light sales and the Blue Light cartoon character of the early 2010s.
One can still get Thom McCann shoes, among other footwear, racks of Route 66 brand and other clothes, and a range of toys, packaged food and household products. They were on 15 to 70 percent final sale.
Walking past the three active cashier stations and out the door, one can hear on the store PA Hall & Oates’ 1984 hit, “You’re Out of Touch, I’m Out of Time.”
SB360 Capital Partners, who is doing Sears Holdings’ latest round of liquidations, listed Belleville among the 32 Kmarts and Sears nationwide Feb. 2 to close by April 15.
Sears Holdings had closed 96 Kmarts and Sears stores, including the one at West Orange Plaza, 235-51 Prospect Ave. on or by Feb. 2, 2019. It and the Sears at the Livingston Mall were vacant until their landlords volunteered the spaces for Essex County’s COVID vaccination sites.
The last two rounds of liquidating now 128 stores are seen as a survival bid for Sears Holdings, which had entered federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization protection Oct. 11, 2018.
Sears, during this bankruptcy, has sold Craftsman Tools to Black & Decker, DieHard to Advance Auto Parts and its Sears Outlets to American Freight. It reminded one of how A&P supermarkets sold away its signature 8 O’Clock Coffee brand in 2003 before completely liquidating in 2015.
The present state is a far cry from when Kmart, of Troy, Mich., and Sears, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., merged Nov. 17, 2004. The thinking was that Sears would sell its lines like Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances in the greater number Kmarts.
The upper-scaled Sears’ acquisition of the more discount-minded Kmart could be compared to when the Packard car company, of Buffalo, bought Studebaker, of South Bend, in 1954. Its executives were hoping that the Packard luxury cars and the more mainstream Studebakers would give them a broader lineup to compete against General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Studebaker-Packard, however, never had the development and marketing resources of Detroit’s Big Three. The last Packards, in 1958, were Studebakers in all but the nameplate. Studebaker-Worthington built its last car in 1966. (Yes, that’s “Worthington” as in the Worthington Pump factories in Newark and East Orange’s Ampere section. Worthington got absorbed by West Orange’s McGraw-Edison in 1978.)
In Sears-Kmart’s case, they, like many brick-and-mortar general retailers, have had a harder time competing against online sales sites in the 2010s.
It can be argued that Kmart and Sears had been having a generation-long sunset in “Local Talk” Land since their mid-20th Century heyday here.
Kmart started out as the rebranding of the S.S. Kresge department store chain in 1962. Sebastian S. Kresge bought the existing Plaut department store in Newark or otherwise opened stores in East Orange, Irvington, Bloomfield and Montclair in the 1920s and 30s.
Kresge, as one of the nation’s largest discount department stores, competed against McCrory’s, W.T. Grant, Woolworth’s, Kress and other chains in Downtown Newark and along East Orange’s Central Avenue, Irvington’s Springfield Avenue and Bloomfield-Montclair’s Bloomfield Avenue.
The Kresge’s at 580 Central Ave., East Orange has been cited for its terra cotta facade by architects and historians.
Kresge, when rebranded as Kmart, began to move farther out into the suburbs from the 1960s.
Kmart No. 371 here in Belleville’s Valley section was built as a standalone building in 1979, replacing the Eastwood Wire factory. It was also once the highest grossing store on the East Coast.
Kmart’s move into West Orange Plaza in 1999 made it its third anchor store there. It replaced the regional Caldor chain, who had moved into E.J. Korvette’s original space in 1981.
Some may first think of Kmart’s blue light sales, some others may remember Kmart (and, later, Sears) clothing lines from actresses Jaclyn Smith and Kathy Ireland. Others still may remember Kmart’s sponsorship of Indycar and NASCAR stock car teams in the 1980s-90s.
It was title sponsor for Paul Newman and Carl Haas’ Indycar team for legendary driver Mario Andretti. Kmart also sponsored the cars of NASCAR Cup race winners John Andretti and Lake Speed and, with its Route 66 brand, three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip.
Kmart first entered bankruptcy in 2002.
When Kmart unplugs its blue light on or by April 15, it would be following Sears’ six-month lead. The Sears Outlet at West Orange’s Essex Green Town Center shopping plaza became American Freight in September.
The Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck & Co., began opening stores in Newark, East Orange and Montclair in the 1920s-30s. Its East Orange store was directly across Central Avenue from S.S. Kresge.
Sears was looking to compete against the other department stores while supplementing its mail order catalog business. What watch salesmen Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck started in 1886 had become the Amazon.com of its time by 1900.
One can order by mail most anything, from underwear and shoes to ready-to-assemble cars (1908-1912) and houses (1910-40). The Sears catalog was an avenue for minorities to have middle-class items because the mail could not see race or ethnicity.
Sears, Roebuck was the nation’s largest retailer through 1990. Its Sears Tower headquarters opened in 1973 as the world’s tallest building.
Sears, like Kmart and most other retailers, began following 1950s suburbanization. It closed its “Local Talk” area stores in favor of anchoring the likes of Livingston Mall.
When Sears started opening smaller, specialized hardware and outlet stores – like the latter in Essex Green – it was already losing out to the likes of Walmart.
It had folded its catalog division in 1993, only to reopen an online version 1998-99. It sold its Sears Tower in 1994 and moved to Hoffman Estates.
Despite getting an initial revenue boost by absorbing Kmart in 2004, Sears Holdings had lost $11 billion before entering its 2018 bankruptcy. It had fallen to 31st ranking in retail sales.
“Local Talk” walked into American Freight at Essex Green 4:15 p.m. March 2. The three customers were greeted by as many salespersons and wall-to-wall furniture and major appliances.
“Local Talk” looked in vain for “Sears” on any signage or products.
“We dropped the Sears name six months ago,” said a salesman.
On the way out the door, “Local Talk” did see a new refrigerator among two others along a midway aisle. It was a silver Kenmore model.
