May 20, 2011

Spotlight: Big Kmart - Snellville, GA

Big Kmart - Snellville, GA May 2011.
 Today's spotlight is the Big Kmart in Snellville, GA. This is a very old Kmart located in a dying shopping center. As you can see from the picture above it wasn't very busy when I visited on a weekday afternoon. I originally visited this location and took a couple pictures of it in September 2008 (shown below.) A few things have changed since then including new shopping carts, the removal of the K Cafe and a few minor decorative changes.

Typical Kmart store entrance, The door striping is now red, it was blue when I visited in Sept. 2008.

Above was the picture taken in Sept. 2008. At the time you can see they were having a sidewalk sale. The carts they had were blue plastic, now they are grey and red metal (as pictured below.)

Kmart's new carts, that are being put in several stores. There are two sizes, the regular ones and a new mini cart (they are on the far right row of the picture.)
 I for one am happy to see Kmart at least invest in new carts. Most stores had several different colors and styles, not to mention that they were very old. Now if they would only makeover the rest of the store maybe we'd get somewhere.

The former location of the K Cafe, now just an area for putting pallets of specials.

 K Cafe pictured still in business when I visited the store in Sept. 2008. It used to feature Little Caesars pizza, but as you can see in the sign its blanked out.
K Cafe's seem to be disappearing from Kmart's at an increasing pace. I think Sears Holdings has something against food, as they are removing more Super Kmart Centers, K Cafe's, and continue to lag in their food selection at regular Kmart stores.

I could not get over how old this Pharmacy sign looked, a serious throwback.

Appliance area that was added a few years ago.

Electronics department, complete with missing signs on the wall.

One thing I will say about the electronics department during my visit was that there was an employee working in the department and she even asked me if I needed any help. I was impressed as most Kmarts its hard to find someone working in the electronics much less willing to help you.

Olan Mills Portrait Studio.
I found this Olan Mills very strange as it was out in the open in the middle of the store instead of being in a little room like they usually are. It leads me to believe it wasn't an original location and was added after the fact.

That about wraps up this spotlight feature, hope you enjoyed it. We've got plenty more to offer in the coming weeks including a former Super Kmart Center in NC that is now a regular Kmart/Sears Outlet combo store.  And as always leave your comments and thoughts about this store below.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting... another typical haphazard Big K! The inside Pharmacy sign is almost identical to one in our Bowling Green KY post (coming soon). Never seen a photo studio out in the open like that. And yup, K Cafes and Super Ks are disappearing...
    nice post!

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  2. In most Kmarts nation wide Appliances are sold at Sears registers and appliance salesmen are commission based. Well as of this Sunday Kmart will be eliminating these salesmen jobs. All appliances will go through kmart registers and no price matching will be given. Inventory will take up to two weeks to replenish. Minimum wage cashiers will sell appliances not real sales people. This company is dead.

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  3. I live about seven miles from this KMart; right now (early November 2014) there is a big "Store Closing" sign on the outside of the store. The Hobby Lobby that used to be a couple of stores down moved out and into a new building just a few months ago; the CiCi's Pizza that was next door has been closed for about three years now. After KMart is gone, this shopping center will be almost completely empty.

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    Replies
    1. City bought all the land around there. It's all being turned into 'projects and community area.'

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  4. I drove by it last night and noticed the Store Closing sign and also do not see it come up on the Kmart Store Locator online anymore. However, I still did not see its closing listed on any announced store closing list anywhere. As bad as the traffic is on GA 124 now, I just don't get why a small amount of investment in this store could have made it viable. I really wonder if the Kmart execs really care about their company.

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    Replies
    1. City bought all the land around there. It's all being turned into 'projects and community area.'

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    2. At Home (Garden Ridge) is currently renovating the site as well as giving it a face lift. It has taken over 2 Kmart's so far, one in Buford GA, and the other being Warner Robins GA.

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  5. At Home (Garden Ridge) is currently renovating the site as well as giving it a face lift. It has taken over 2 Kmart's so far, one in Buford GA, and the other being Warner Robins GA.

    ReplyDelete