This may be the last Kmart post on the blog. This is Kmart location #4389. The store opened on November 21, 1971 and closed at 4pm on April 11, 2020. The closure on April 11th was confirmed by a phone call to the store. We visited here on March 11 and March 12, 2020. This visit was unlike anything we experienced due to the changing nature of the retail scene in the early days of Covid-19 panic buying. It was on this trip that talk of school cancellations and lockdowns was beginning to sweep the nation. Panic buying was taking hold with toilet paper already running out just about everywhere. Thankfully Texas was one of the early states to fully reopen after the Covid restrictions so we could get back to earning money. During the lockdowns the restricted hours of operation and outside lines to get into stores was ridiculous. As we have learned to live with Covid-19, our lives have forever changed. Now for the store tour!
My previous posts at this store for comparison
For this trip, we start at the back corner of the store.
Previously as you can tell by the sign, this was the sporting goods department. Later on, the sporting goods were mixed up with random products that were "special buys".
Some of the furniture items were left in this area, mostly store fixtures.
Hardware department.
The back corner of the store facing towards the sporting goods and toys. You can see the empty bike rack to the left.
Some of the remaining aisles in the back area of the store.
This sign just makes me laugh. Don't go in here, but if you do be careful. This was the only barricade up and the rest of the store was wide-open.
It was at this time in the sale process that areas of the store were being cleared out and consolidated up front.
An unstable electrical fixture that was probably attached to a shelf. Not exactly very safe.
Around the corner, the cleaning supplies from this viewpoint looked practically normal.
As you can see, the cleaning items were a mere 20% off.
Same story with the pet products 20% off.
The sodas, water, and grocery items were very light.
A different view of the same aisle.
As you can see, they had plenty of paper towels. This was not the only place they were located in the store either. I heard stories of people resorting to using these since toilet paper was out of stock for several weeks at most places.
Back towards the seasonal and toy aisles, this awesome Kmart sign.
Looking from the front of the store back towards the sporting goods/home furnishings area we started out in.
An up-close look at the sign. I wish we could have gotten this for the collection, but it is a pretty sizable sign.
Looking from the Kmart sign area to the pharmacy/seasonal aisles.
Now we are going to jump into the Garden Shop.
As you can see, pretty much everything was gone. This area did not have a lot of merchandise back in January either.
The Garden Shop items were put out here along with seasonal items.
Magazines and books, only 30% off.
School and office supplies, 25% off.
Health and Beauty department, 25% off as well.
The Pharmacy door.
Toilet Paper and Paper Towels! Remember at this time toilet paper was already sold out at practically every store.
Home goods, another 25% off area.
The medicines here had been wiped out.
Deodorant running low as well.
Lots of medicines here, but you need to check the expiration dates! Sadly, most of the remaining medicine was close to expiration.
One of the few opportunities to buy and build your own pharmacy.
Tissues were another hot commodity in March 2020, Kmart still had them.
Even more could be found on the next aisle.
This aisle was still well stocked. Not much demand for these items at 25% off.
Vitamins and health supplements. At 35% off they were a slightly better discount. Normally you could find buy one get one free, so this wasn't a very good discount.
Lots of mouthwash. I picked up some Kmart house brand Smart Sense mouthwash for the road. 25% off for dental items.
Not as much left on the toothbrush and toothpaste aisle.
Party goods, gift bags, greeting cards.
Lotions and skin care, decent discount at 35% off.
Cobwebs!
Now we will head to the other back corner of the store. Restrooms and Layaway counter.
Not much going on here at the layaway counter anymore.
Looking from the back corner of the store towards the front.
Shoe department view to the front of the store.
Checkout area.
Middle of the store. Items that were stacked on top of shelves and aisles were now stacked on the ground. You can see the remains of the electronics department in the background.
A wall of paper towels had been built in this center area of the store as well.
Not much remained of the electronics department. This store didn't have much back in January.
The empty display cases of t-shirt and underwear that was put back here months ago.
The electronics department photos were generic without brand names. The right side of an old Playstation controller shows how old this newer version of signage really was.
Tucked back in the store was this Kmart kiosk. We have seen these before, but this one was especially hidden.
A few TV's were still here for sale.
Now for some photos of the clothing areas of the store.
As you can see, there were still a lot of clothes left at this point in the sale.
Some of the leftover underwear displays were here on the display racks.
Fixture row in the middle of the store.
Toys had been moved over here with the clothes and random items in the middle of the store.
Some up-close photos of the fixtures.
This is pretty close to the exact middle of the store. Clothes, toys, and fixtures were left here.
Near the jewelry and cosmetics section of the store.
Jewlery and clothing.
Now this has to be the weirdest product placement ever. Sporting goods including BB guns along with purses, and clocks. These store closing sales always have some interesting things to see. This was definitely a first.
To the left, an aisle full of jewelry boxes. To the right, umbrellas, stuff to keep you dry in the rain, and some beauty items.
Some of the remaining cosmetics and beauty items.
Unfortunately, this is where our visit ends. The store closed earlier than listed at 7pm so we had to end our trip.
Two different blue-light special signs from different eras of the blue-light reboot. You can also see some of the St. Jude donation items to the right.
I am not sure which one of these is older. Either one would be awesome to add to the collection. I certainly didn't have the vehicle space for one of these.
That wraps up the interior photos of the final Kmart visit of the blog. That is unless for some odd reason Kmart makes a comeback or one of my blog readers sends me some plane tickets to Miami or New York 😉
The old auto center.
This side of the store was especially dark, only the freeway lights provided light here. The road signs look awesome like this.
Now for the next day, we didn't go back inside but here are some final photos of the store.
The Big Lots labelscar is very visible on the right side of the building.
This Kmart still looked great on the outside.
This gloomy day was the perfect look for my final trip to Kmart.
I could have picked up this loose sign for my collection, but I let it be. The photo is more powerful in this case.
Final roadsign photos!
Farewell Kmart, the Texas chapter is now history. I was glad we could document this store as the chain shrunk and eventually left the state. More to come on the blog!
Thanks for these photos, it is hard to believe that this is going to be the last Kmart post on the blog barring an unexpected visit to one of the remaining Kmarts! Then again, who knows what may happen with the Kmart name. Who would have expected that Sears would return to Humble and to Willowbrook Mall! Certainly I wasn't expecting that!
ReplyDeleteThe McAllen Kmart was certainly one of the better looking Kmarts Kmart had down towards the end. In some ways, that's still visible at this point in the clearance sale, but less so in the parts that are empty. That sign telling people to stay out, but then which tells people they are on their own if they go in is just bizarre. Oh well, I suppose bizarre things are just a part of a Kmart closing sale! The way that electrical outlet is sitting certainly does not seem like it would be up to code, but I'm guessing Kmart wasn't too worried about that at his point!
I think the Blue Light Special cart on the right is older than the one on the left. I think the one on the right was the one used by Kmart in around 2000 when they were still in Houston and the other one is probably a Lampert-era one.
I'm surprised Kmart even had that many TVs in 2020. Sears only had one or two TVs in their stores by that point, but many Sears stores didn't have any TVs at all. It looks like they still had a number of DVDs, but otherwise the electronics department is wiped out. It's too bad no old VHS movies or anything resurfaced as they did at some other Kmart closing sales!
I'm not surprised to hear that some of the medications were near expiration. Some of those were probably ordered before bankruptcy and just lingered on after that. The store had a surprisingly large amount of toilet paper and paper towels. Perhaps if this was taken a week or two later, the scene would have been quite different. Even by early March 2020 though, I remember toilet paper being wiped off the shelves here in Houston. I wonder if the McAllen Kmart had any of their large supply of Jarritos that they had at one time!
This closing sale happened at around the same time as the Deerbrook and Willowbrook Mall Sears closing sales. Unlike those, which ended up being cancelled at some point, I guess this closing sale went until completion for the most part. I'm glad you were able to check it out. At least the last Kmart in Texas was, at least relatively speaking, a pretty nice one and one that came from Kmart's classic era of design.
I am glad that I had vacation time and was able to make it one least time to the Kmart. I would have spent a bit more time there, but we had a full schedule and were unable to go a second day. With how fast the Kmart stores dropped from 2017 to 2021, I knew that this would be my last chance to see one. Even though I had relatively little experience at this Kmart, it still felt and smelled like every other Kmart store from that era. From what I have seen, the last remaining US mainland Kmarts are looking really sad with huge sections of the stores now closed off.
DeleteI was hoping to find the small one that was the last blue light special stand they used. It was much smaller, and I could have fit it in my vehicle. Thanks for the clarification, I didn't get a good look at the carts on the way out. I was super happy that I got the hand baskets, it was my last chance to get one of those as well without paying $100 on Ebay.
My visit was cut short by the earlier closing time of the store. There may have been a lot that I missed. Some random items were probably out there to be found. This was probably one of the cleanest store closing sales I have been to. That may have changed in their final days, but items were pretty well setup and not thrown all over the place. The employees seemed to really care for this store up until the end. I didn't see a lot of the Jarritos drinks. I think one cooler had some up front and that was it. Paper towels were in three different spots in the store, I wonder how much longer those lasted.
Speaking of the Willowbrook Sears, do you know if the Hometown store is still open? The Pasadena location closed a few weeks early and the new Sears Hometown sign has already been removed. I haven't heard anything about the Hometown stores except for the Humble location which updates their Facebook page regularly.
After you mentioned the Willowbrook Mall and Humble Sears Hometown Stores in your reply, I went to verify that they were still open. I had been checking the Facebook pages for these locations frequently to see if they were still around, but I had not done so in a couple weeks at least. Well, I have some bad news, when I went to see if these stores were still around, I found that they are no longer listed on the Sears Hometown Stores website. I checked their Facebook pages and they hadn't been updated in at least a couple weeks. The Sugar Land location is still listed on the Sears Hometown Store website, but their Facebook link has never worked so I don't know much about that location.
DeleteI notified Mike from HHR about this and he decided to make a visit to the Willowbrook store to see what's up. Indeed, the store is closing, but it will remain open until they sell their remaining inventory. We're not sure about Humble, but I would assume it's closing as well. The official word is that Sugar Land is staying open, but since Willowbrook was supposed to be the central warehouse for Houston's Sears Hometown Stores, I'm not sure if that's true or for how long Sugar Land will remain open.
So, yeah, RIP North Houston Sears Hometown Stores. I'm glad Sears at least tried and I suppose the Humble store at least lasted a year or so. The Willowbrook store barely made it half a year. Who knows what Eddie Lampert has up his sleeve, might Sears return again at some point down the road? You wouldn't think so, but who knows with them!
Oh, there is one thing I would like to add. This is certainly a shameful plug, but one which I think you will enjoy. After over a year of discussing the topic, I finally wrote out a guest post over at HHR about the catalog showroom era of Houston Jewelry. These stores were similar to Service Merchandise and Best Products, but they were a bit nicer and had local store levels of customer service. Houston Jewelry is still around on Westheimer, but only as a jewelry store since 1993. They used to have electronics, sporting goods, housewares, and all that Service Merchandise.
DeleteOne of the owners is a retail history enthusiast himself. This is evident because the company has posted a lot of great stuff on their website, but Mike and I reached out to him personally and he was very enthusiastic about telling us behind the scenes information about the company. It was great and I know I appreciate the added information.
Anyway, the post has received good feedback so far so I thought you and your readers might want to see it: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2022/08/05/a-look-back-at-houston-jewelry-houstons-own-catalog-showroom-store/
Awesome, I will check out the post and catch up on Mike's page later this afternoon. I have a bit of time today, but unfortunately not enough to update my blog. I especially miss Service Merchandise so this will be excellent to check out.
DeleteNice looking store with the newer décor (although as you pointed out, even that décor is quite dated). Glad you got to document it as well as the weirdness of shopping in those particular days of March 2020. It's especially neat to see both of those old bluelight special stands, those would've been the highlight of the trip for me!
ReplyDeleteIt was a weird time to be alive. It will be difficult to explain how this time was to our future generations. I would have been able to take home the small mid-2010's blue light if they had one, but I didn't see it. The two here were very bulky.
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