Mach said:

yup, i go there to borrow items such as pressure washers and irons.

Imago said:

there are plenty of nasty targets

All the K-mart's in my area shut down years ago...but as a child that was the place to shop. I grew up in tiny town Scottsbluff/Gering Nebraska...we didn't even have a mall until the middle 80's, and I wouldn't even call it a mall by most mall standards.

Growing up in northwestern Iowa, I avoided Kmart at all costs. (I would go to Target instead.) But there are no Targets in Manhattan. There is one Kmart in the East Village so I go there sometimes--mostly just for cleaning supplies or to buy cheap toys for my niece and nephew. When I went as Lisa (of Prince, Wendy & Lisa) for Halloween a couple years ago, I found a cheap black velvet blazer there for my costume. I don't really like it, but it's not that bad. It's clean and they don't have a cafe/restaurant.

I went to Macy's not too long ago--I forget why. Macy's is fairly popular in New York (Thanksgiving parade & all). I don't really like shopping at department stores--it's too hard to find stuff. I hate shopping anyway and only go if I need something specific. At department stores, if you just want black pants, for example, you have to go to three different floors and search for them by designer, which I hate; it's too time consuming. I just want to go and find the black pant section and be done with it.

sextonseven said:

I think I've been in that KMart.

Mach said:

Actually, Kmart bought Sears

http://www.consumeraffair...sears.html

They have been long gone from Canada for some time now.

We have Zellers instead.

Imago said:

I think that sooner or later, K-mart is going to meet the fate of Circuit City. Walmart is doing a better job.

gyro34 said:

Yes, they're much better at buying at cheaper sweatshops and passing on the savings.

The Kmart by me is now a Sears...

we bought 6 Wiis at our local KMart..they were the only place within a million mile radius that had 'em...they were on ebay within a couple of hours...

I think the last time I was in a K-Mart (or as we used to call it back home, "The Kaymorks") was when we were visiting NYC earlier this year, at the Astor Place store.

Imago said:

I coulda swore K mart went under years ago. There's one near my house but I don't go in there.

PEJ said:

it did about 2 - 3 years ago. its Sears Essentials now

horatio said:

they closed a ton of stores but they're are still some out there...there's even a Super KMart in Savannah, Georgia...two words never meant to be used in the smae sentence, KMart and super...

I went yesterday
ours are pretty big and well lit

I ain't been to K-mart since the late 70's. When my mom would push that blue light
for the lady to come open the dressing room. Too try on the pants. How embarrassing.

Here it is.



Damn.

have one here about a mile from where i live, i bought one of my sons x-mas gifts there. it was the cheapest place for what i wanted. i like it, but i wonder how it stays open? it's right across the street from our wal-mart. i think it only stays open because of the anti-wal-mart shoppers??? i like wal-mart, target and k-mart.

Anxiety said:

Is that why Carrie was there?

「 [Look,] Don't Try To Stop It ϟ Roman Holliday 」.1983 + 「 Boxerbeat ϟ JoBoxers 」.1983
「 [Look,] Don't Try To Stop It ϟ Roman Holliday 」.1983 + 「 Boxerbeat ϟ JoBoxers 」.1983

:swinginfromside-to-side: :horns blaring loud: AN' YOULL BE DOIN THE BOXERBEAT, BOXERBEAT. AN' YOULL BE DOIN THE BOXERBEAT, BOXERBEAT. THE BOXERBEAT :stompin feet: THE BOXERBEAT :stompin feet: DO THAT BOXERBEAT. :STOMPIN FEET: THAT BOXERBEAT. THE BOXERBEATT. :stompin hard:
[Edited 3/11/09 5:36am]

Kmart still does oky here esp. since they are one of the few stores that still offers layaway. I never go in Target but I think I will check them out since others here seem to like it!!

Not since I was a kid (it's where most of my school clothes came from). I walked through a Sears for some reason a while back and it was weird.

I do occasionally shop at Macy's, though. They have good sales on sheets and kitchen stuff.

sextonseven said:

It's because I tried to do the whole trip with only my carry-on luggage. I should know better, even if we were only there for 3 days. We ran in there for me to get a cheap duffle bag to bring my shopping purchases home in.

CarrieMpls said:

Were you impressed?

The area is not what it used to be. A lot of its character is gone.

applekisses said:

Several US companies are doing that.

applekisses said:

Well, several US companies are doing that.


If you like clothes from The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, JC Pennys, Nike, and any number of clothing retailers in the mall, they're buying clothes from sweatshops--and you don't always get the savings passed on to you. Often it's all about profit margin.

Walmart stood out in the begging, not because of unfair practices (ALL these retailers have been guilty of doing weird things), but because they merged and adopted technology improvements in the way they distributed their merchendise.

Walmart beat all other retailers to the market in inventory--NOTHING sits stagnant in a Walmart store--the minute you scan an item, Walmart's warehouse is immediately alerted that the item needs to be replaced, and they can immediately pull up trends in shopping. In short, their inventory process was incredible. If you take the last wood hanger set down off their shelf, tomorrow a new set will be there in it's place.
This doesn't sound remarkable today, but Walmart was doing this years and years ago. They were geniuses at control and moving inventory.

By the time everyone caught up they were well ahead of everyone and well on their way to replacing all our world leaders with Walmart greeters.

The last time I was in a KMart was about a year ago -- and that was the first time in about 9 years I'd been in one. I only went in because I was waiting on a car repair next door and had nothing else to do. It was, as you said, poorly lit, dingy, outdated... depressing. It was like being in a morgue. But, then, all of Buffalo, NY, is morgue-like.

Imago said:

I agree.

On a personal note, Macy's formerly known as Burdines in South Florida used to carry women's pijamas made in Turkey. I bought two sets of them in 1998. They're made of 100% cotton, and they have outlasted many wash cycles.
This year, I took a look at what kind of pijamas they are selling. All of the women's sleepwear is made in China. I haven't found anything made of 100% cotton, and all these items for sale have these highlighter-like colors.

sextonseven said:

i'm fairly certain we were accompanying carrie to the astor place k-mart for some kind of k-mart need, yes.