Friday, September 16, 2011
Dead K Mart in San Antonio Texas
Attention K Mart shoppers there is a blue light special, but not at this location. This was a Super K Mart that probably closed nearly 10 years ago when K Mart pulled out of San Antonio and Houston. This location is eerily similar to the Super K Mart that sat abandoned in Humble Texas that was redeveloped after sitting for 9 years in nearly the same condition as this location.
One hour photo will be delayed for a very long time.
The garden center grows once again; weeds.
The former Little Caesars on the left side of the building.
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Nice photos of an abandoned Super Kmart.
ReplyDeletei used hate walmart but be honest they dont bascailly every store they got i mean common
ReplyDeletei dont like what the ceo of kmart is doing
ReplyDeleteThe ceo of Kmart/ Sears made some bad choices early on that are coming back to harm the company. Not updating the stores is the major problem that is hurting the company now.
DeleteEVERY CEO of Kmart has contributed to the failure. It just took 35 years to run out of money. Cunningham: expanding too fast; Dewar: changing the stores; Fauber: ignoring Kmart in favor of acquired companies; Antonini: trying to update without funding; Floyd Hall: Big Kmart and Venture purchases; Conaway: Chapter 7 and overspending; Adamson: getting out of Chapter 7 too fast; Lampert: trying to make money off failure. It shouldn't be so much of a surprise that they are failing; it should be a surprise that it took this long.
DeleteI guess Fast Eddie has slowed the inevitable. It is a shame that so many companies take short term gains for themselves at the expense of long term success. The Big Kmart initiative was an attempt to bring the brand into the 90's that did not do much to help out. Super Kmart stores seemed to do well early on and then faltered as well. I hope we will see Kmart continue at least into 2020.
DeleteWhile I can't speak about all of the Kmart CEOs in the detail Scott has, I will say that Kmart made a major blunder in the 1980s by trying to diversify into all kinds of "category killer" chains like Builders Square, Borders, and a whole bunch of others including some very forgettable chains. The same could be said about Sears too I guess, but I think things were even worse for Kmart. Wal-Mart and Target were making in-roads in the discount store sector in the 1980s. Instead of renovating their stores and developing the inventory and supplier infrastructure that Wal-Mart did, Kmart was too busy trying to find the next retail concept fad. I guess one can't blame them. After all, Kmart exists because of an experiment by Kresge's and some of the segments they experimented with are now very viable forms of retail (home improvement and warehouse club stores most specifically), but those projects were run with the same ineptitude that let Wal-Mart pass them decades ago.
DeleteI think Antonini had some good ideas, but it was too little too late. By the late 1990s, the Kmart shopping experience was really quite bad. In a few ways, it might have been even worse then than it is now (though there are certainly aspects to the current operation which set new lows). I remember going to our Kmarts in Houston, mostly ex-Venture stores, and seeing the stores out of advertised products, shelves that were in disarray, price tags that expired two weeks prior were still out, and they often only had one checkout line open leading to long waits even though they had very few shoppers. I was a loyal Kmart shopper, but it was quite difficult to be loyal to them during that period. Then, of course, they left town.
The initial optimism about Lampert's arrival quickly went away and the Big Kmart concept, which underwhelmed shoppers in 1997, is still around at most of the remaining Kmarts. It's a huge shame, but I agree with Scott that this has been many decades in the making.
I used to have a Super Kmart in Round Lake Beach, IL that opened in February 6, 1995 and closed December of 2013. Kmart's bankruptcy was probably one of the worst retail bankruptcy in the history. They were closing stores that had just opened 2 years that were total ground up built stores, profitable stores and just making no scene over the entirety of it. If I was the CEO during there bankruptcy, all of the Super K's would have stayed open. Many people don't relize that there bankrupty could have been much worst with more stores closed. Back in 2003, the Harlingen and Longview Kmart's had planned to close and the Super K in Round Lake Beach was also on there and I had found another planned list in 2002. The 2002 list is here: https://www.homeworldbusiness.com/unofficial-list-of-kmart-store-closures/ And here is 2003:http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=5619
ReplyDeleteBoth quite shocking list to look at.
The Kmart bankruptcy killed nearly all of the Kmart's in the largest populated areas of Texas. Here in Houston we lost all of our stores within 2 years and one that was fairly new in Katy Texas like you mentioned. All we were left with was Lufkin over 100 miles away, Lake Charles, 140 miles away, and Kileen over 180 miles away. Lake Charles will close September 2nd so the only Kmarts near Houston are over 5 hours away now. McAllen (last in Texas near the Mexican border) 2 in Metairie La, and 1 in Gulfport Ms. So unless we get the combo Sears/Kmart stores, I may not see another Kmart for a very long time.
DeleteKmart in Houston had many relatively new locations at the time of the 2002-3 bankruptcy and withdrawal from the Houston area. There were the Super Kmarts from the mid-1990s, more than a handful of 1990s regular Kmarts, and then the even greater number of mostly 1990s-built ex-Venture stores that Kmart moved into in 1997. My guess is that Kmart owed a lot of money on those newer locations and decided to get out from those debts during bankruptcy. Kmart would have had some remaining older stores which may have not had a high debt load, but some of those locations were in declining areas. On top of that, the competition was fierce in Houston at the time as both Target and Wal-Mart had and have major presences here. The grocery competition in Houston is pretty fierce too with more chains than most other cities.
DeleteI think Kmart was in a tough spot in the Houston market. The aggressiveness in opening new stores may have hurt them, but I don't think they could have maintained their older stores without the newer ones as many of them were in declining areas. I also think that some of the ex-Venture spots that Kmart moved into weren't in great locations either which really hurt Kmart's chances. The 290 and 43rd St and 1960 and I-45 stores are examples from this area which come to mind immediately.
It's very sad that Kmart left this area. I hated receiving the news back in 2002-3, but I think it really would have been a struggle for them had they stayed even if Eddie Lampert never happened.
Is that old Super Kmart still there or not anymore?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is out in the San Antonio area, can you reply to this comment and give an answer? I have not been by this area since these images were taken.
DeleteThis location has been renovated into a charter school and has been that way for about 2 or 3 years as of Feb 2019. The charter school is allegedly pretty bad.
DeleteIt's actually divided between the charter school and Incredible Pizza Company now (which moved from a former Albertsons nonetheless!)
DeleteI appreciate the update; I last saw this site flying by the Interstate going about 70+ mph. The one and only time I stopped at the site is documented here.
DeleteYou should see the one on I35: https://goo.gl/maps/xSKZuemkyP8M4TN48 I went maybe like once or twice with my grandparents to this and the San Pedro location (we went to San Antonio a lot growing up)
DeleteThat is really awesome, they are still using the building with little to no changes on the exterior of the store.
DeleteGive me a link to interior pics of this place and of other abandoned super kmarts
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't have any new information to post. Try WallieB26 on Youtube and Dead and Dying Retail for more Kmart posts.
DeleteI mean interior pics of this place while it was vacant, there is a link but it's broken
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDo you have any photos of the inside, if not, then where do I find them?
DeleteI don't think there's photos on there
DeleteThere's no photos on there
DeleteWhat did the inside look like while vacant? The Flickr link is broken, can I find them on Facebook?
DeleteAnd what did the inside look like at the time?
ReplyDeleteI took these photos from my car while driving around the site. Unfortunately, I didn't attempt to look inside.
DeleteDo you know what the inside looked like?
DeleteCan I find them on Facebook and where the Flickr link is broken, whare do I see them, I really want to see them
DeleteWheres the new link, I wonder what a super Kmart looks like in bad shape
ReplyDeleteReply the link of the San Antonio 410 interior pics here, the old link is broken
ReplyDeleteCan I find them on Facebook and where the Flickr link is broken, whare do I see them, I really want to see them. If not, can you best describe the condition of it, was the Humble Super Kmart in horrid shape too?
ReplyDeleteYou can try to use the Internet Wayback machine and possibly see some of the broken links. This post was from 2011 and I know a lot of the old sites I used to visit back then have been taken down or expired. The Humble Kmart was boarded up right after closing, I never walked up close since the parking lot was blocked off. The Humble store was closed for about 10 years before the redevelopment took place.
DeleteI tried the Wayback Machine and it didn't work, did you download any interior photos from Flickr, and can I find them on Facebook, or anywhere else they could be saved. Do you have any links you can reply with?
DeleteUnfortunately, I don't have any extra links or images that are not linked or posted on the blog. Maybe one of the blog readers can help you out and reply below.
DeleteDo you have pictures of the abandoned super Kmart in Lafayette La, when it was abandoned
DeleteNo I don't unfortunately.
DeleteDid you see or download the interior pictures of this one from Flickr? Do you know what it looked like inside and why was there a fence around it?
DeleteDid you see or download the interior pictures of this one from Flickr? Do you know what it looked like inside and why was there a fence around the building?
DeleteThey probably put up the fence as an attempt to keep people from going inside and/or tagging the building. I don't have any interior photos of the building.
DeleteDid you see or download the interior pictures of this one from Flickr? Do you know what it looked like inside and why was there a fence around it?
ReplyDeleteThey probably put up the fence as an attempt to keep people from going inside and/or tagging the building. I don't have any interior photos of the building.
DeleteDid you see or download the interior pictures of the San Antonio one from Flickr? Do you know what it looked like inside and why was there a fence around it?
ReplyDeleteThey probably put up the fence as an attempt to keep people from going inside and/or tagging the building. I don't have any interior photos of the building.
DeleteWho has interior photos? I wanna know how bad the inside looked.
DeleteDid you drive up close to the building, what did it look like inside the doors and the loading dock area?
ReplyDeleteI did not have the opportunity to get close to the building. The gates around the front of the store were locked to vehicle traffic without a security card.
DeleteDeplorable
ReplyDeleteThankfully this building has since been remodeled into a charter school and other businesses.
Delete