January 20, 2013

Spotlight: Super Kmart Center - Moon Township, PA

Store 4935 2000 Marketplace Blvd. Moon Township, PA.
Today we feature a Super Kmart Center that hasn't been downsized to a regular Kmart or closed down all together. It is located in Moon Township, Pennsylvania and was one of the first developments in the area between the city of Pittsburgh and the airport. It opened in November of 1994 and is 172,253 sq feet according to SHCrealty.com. It was strategically built to escape the high taxes of nearby areas. The area developed rapidly in the late 90's and into the early 2000's. Few other businesses decided to locate on Marketplace Blvd though.


Thank you for shopping Super Kmart Center instead of Walmart!
During it's first 8 years of operation this store did $250,000-$300,000 a day in sales. When Kmart went into bankruptcy in 2002, it was slated for closure along with numerous other Super Kmart Centers around the country. Luckily the store pulled through and stayed open, although it discontinued being open 24 hours for over a years time. Unfortunately sales declined year after year with only slight improvements during 2008-2010. Since 2010 sales have continued to decline again. 

The typical exterior design of a built from the ground up Super K.
According to a article in the Beaver County Times on November 10, 1994, this store opened with 28 checkout registers and 16 grocery aisles. It featured a full service auto center, hair salon, pharmacy, outdoor garden shop, one hour photo lab, florist, portrait studio, gourmet coffee and bakery kiosks,  and a full service restaurant. The grocery side of the store featured a butcher shop, bakery, deli, prepared food section, fresh produce, and fresh seafood.


Dairy department.
Unfortunately the features of this store have dwindled over time and the former auto center, restaurant, and arcade spaces are being rented out for other businesses to come in and operate. The auto center was closed in 2002, full service meat and seafood in 2003, the restaurant in 2004, Borics hair salon in 2011, bakery and deli operations were greatly reduced in 2012, the floral department was closed quite a while back, and the one hour photo lab is long gone also. In early 2012, this Super Kmart Center along with the 21 others remaining around the country had their hours reduced from being open 24 hours to 6am to 12am everyday. One thing promising for this store is that at the end of December 2012, it starting accepting WIC vouchers, the first Kmart store in the country to do so.







Service Desk with the Super Stars of Super K.


Team shop and former florist area.



The former restaurant seating area.
Another shot of the former restaurant seating area.


 
Newest Super Kmart Center logo, now pronounced Kmart Supercenter







And there you go another barely surviving Super Kmart Center, one of just a few remaining around the country. Should Kmart just give up completely on their remaining Supercenters or should they continue to let them hang on? Let us know in the comments below.

45 comments:

  1. Kmart originally had their shoe departments (possibly others, too) operated by Shoemart (until recently). It's obvious they can no longer handle operating the food side, even in these cases. Contract with a local grocery operator (they exist everywhere) for the supermarket side and work with others.

    If there's any silver lining, it's the fact that many supermarkets are expanding their lines to full-line (H-E-B opened a store in San Antonio with tons and tons of non-food items, including clothing) which would help fill in the void of Super Kmart across the country. Heck, locally, the H-E-B is 81,000 square feet, less than a third of the size of the Walmart, but still commands a large amount of my family's market share for even non-food items (I think the one in San Antonio is 183k).

    I imagine if this store bites the dust in the near future, it will probably get snapped up by Meijer.

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  2. Kmart just announced that Queensbury Super KMart to become a KMart. The remaining portion of the building is to be a pickup and center for online orders(Mygofer store like the one in Joliet?) Will the company remodel the store when down sizing or just make a mess of it? Lucky the Moon Twp and my local Bradley Il Super KMart are still operating

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    1. It has been my goal every since I can remember to visit the Super Kmart in Bradley, IL. I've lived just across the border in Iowa most of my life, and have never made it to Bradley. Coincidentally, my first name is Bradley, and my love for Kmart just seems so ironic that there would be a city named Bradley with a Super Kmart. Anyways, I decided this week that I'm making the treck this summer. I seriously would never forgive myself if the store closed (or became de-superized) before I could get there!

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  3. Most Kmart Supercenters are owned by SHC and therefore require less profit to run. That could explain why many Supercenters are downsized as opposed to total closure.

    As for the future of the supercenters, the ones in Mighigan are doing just fine. In fact, many have gone back to being open 24 hours. However, in I do could see Meijer purchasing many more Kmart stores as a way to expand their geography. I've been in a Meijer that was originally was a Kmart (Lincoln Park, MI) and with the exception of the exterior, you couldn't tell it was a Kmart.


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  4. Personally, I think if Kmart is serious about survival, they need to retrench – Close everything west of the Mississippi and use the money from the divestures to update the remaining stores in the more densely populated east coast.

    However, I don't think survival and profitability are high on Sears/Kmart's priority list. I believe that over the next few years, we're going to continue to see a handfuls of stores closed at a time, and prime locations sold off for their real estate value.

    I've even heard rumors that another 400 Sears and Kmart stores are slated for closure this year. (Granted, this came from a message board, so I'm not sure how much stock to put into it.)

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  5. Did this store have a "food court" when it opened? It looks like it might have, and certainly has the vintage for it.

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    1. It looks more like it was a full service restaurant than a Food Court.

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  6. Just some sales data..
    Annual Sales For The Year 2012 $21,180,338.29
    Annual Sales For The Year 2011 $25,338,779.65
    Annual Sales For The Year 2010 $25,107,538.73

    From your friendly anon SHC employee

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    1. These numbers are greatly exaggerated

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  7. Here's a random question - have any Kmart Supercenters been remodeled? As in with new signage and the new red & white color scheme on the inside?

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    1. I have heard of no remodels where they replaced the exterior signage. The Super Kmart stores in Lorain and Brooklyn, Ohio have received remodels in their grocery sections in 2010 or 2011. Tinley Park, Illinois appears to have been remodeled with the 2010 bold look in the grocery section. Some 1990s Super Kmart stores were remodeled around 2002.

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    2. Well the store in Brooklyn, Ohio will be closed on October 12th 2014,

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  8. No, the only remodel type they have gotten is called the Apparel Fashion Recharge. Basically new signage for softlines

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  9. wow wonderful photos! surprised to see Super Kmarts still surviving... with low volume, it is hard to keep a fully stocked, attractive, and fresh produce / perishable section

    more on Super K's here http://superkmart.blogspot.com/2011/11/super-kmart-revisited.html

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  10. What a nice feature on this Super Kmart. I worked at Defiance Super Kmart 4903 and it closed four years ago. The property just sold and in the process of being torn down. It breaks my heart that we are losing such a gem.

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  11. I heard the Kmart in Moon, PA is closing. This is terrible news. But maybe not too unlikely to happen, considering a slew of other national businesses have closed on Scott Blvd according to local residents there.

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  12. The Moon Twp Super K will close mid July according news sources.

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  13. Sadly, the fact that this one is closing does not shock me. When I was here there were only a few people in the store and there were a bunch of people at the other stores in the area. I am happy that I got pictures of my own of this store.
    http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=71978807@N03&q=Super%20Kmart%20Moon

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    1. The reason that they are closing this store is Chevron bought the property. I've been at this store for 13 years and each new set of people at the top have progressivly killed the business.

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  14. They seem to dislike there attractive stores. The new format seems to be taking the Small Dumpy Stores and copying The Service Merchandice Approach.By the way what happened to Service Merchadice? Mygofer reminds me of a Service Merchadice store with delivery.Wealthy Shoppers who don't care for the shopping experience!Wow I wonder why Walmart didn't think of that or maybe they did? Where do you see successful marketing SHLD OR WALMART? Walmart was created by copying the best features of Kmart Stores there are many stories about it!!!!

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  15. K-Mart could care less about its Employees. I hope the entire company closes

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. It was diner style restaurant.

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  17. I am glad that you documented this Kmart as it was the last Kmart that I visited and one of only two Kmarts of any kind that I have been to since Kmart left my city completely in the 2002 round of store closings. There are a few Kmarts left in my region, but there are very few of them and they very far between.

    It is disappointing to hear that this store is slated to close, but it isn't surprising to hear about any SHC store closings these days. Is the store closing due to poor sales or due to SHC cashing in on valuable real estate? It could very well be a combination of both factors, but SHC has closed stores that were seemingly doing pretty well because of the value of the real estate. The Woodlands Mall Sears in the Houston metro area comes to mind here.

    As for the question of whether SHC should continue to operate Super Kmarts or not, I guess it comes down to the numbers. The Super Kmart concept isn't new so Kmart should have a pretty good idea on how effective it is. There may not be any point in closing stores where the concept is working well, but OTOH, I'm not sure if there is any point in propping up poor performers.

    The grocery business is a tough game even for grocers that are on top of things. Plus, grocery stores seem to be one retail sector where there is a pretty decent level of support for local and regional chains. That may hurt Super Kmarts in some areas, but Daniel Currier mentioned earlier that Super Kmarts are doing fine in Michigan. Perhaps Kmart's roots in Michigan are helping there, but it is hard to say. The fact that the Moon Township store has a frozen section for pierogies does show that Super Kmarts are utilizing some regional merchandising in the grocery section though. The original Kmart Foods concept back in the day was a hybrid local-national grocery store approach, but that did not work out well for whatever reasons. Anyway, it may simply be the case that Super Kmarts can only work in particular areas and not in others. There is no shame in that though as even Target has been judicious in opening Super Targets.

    I wasn't really sure what to expect when I went to the Moon Township Super Kmart back in 2011. I did shop at our local Super Kmarts a few times when we had them back in the day, but that was such a long time ago even in 2011 that I had forgotten what Super Kmarts were like. I really wasn't expecting much based on my experiences of what I call malaise era Big Kmarts here locally before they left, the other Kmart I had been to in 2011 (the Big Kmart in Niagara Falls, NY), and the various photos of Kmarts stuck in malaise that I had seen at Flickr and sites like this. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw at this store. I thought the grocery section was organized well with appealing produce, deli, and bakery products. Frankly, it mimicked a "real" grocery store and was more appealing and organized than the grocery sections at Wal-Mart Supercenters. Thumbs up to Kmart for that, but it does sound like some of the grocery sections have been gutted since I visited in 2011. Oh well.

    The non-grocery departments were better than what I expected as well, but they could use some improvements. The good news is that the aisles were organized and spaced well. The store seemed to be in good physical condition inside and it was pretty clean. We can't take that for granted at Kmarts so it was good to see. There was a certain sense of dullness about the non-grocery section of the store though. White walls, white ceiling tiles, white vinyl floor tiles with a dash of grey here and there, and very basic department signs. The grocery section was much more colorful. I'm not sure why that didn't carry over to the rest of the store though. It is still a better look than the open ceiling/concrete floor monstrosities that we see some non-hardware/warehouse club retailers use, but some relatively inexpensive paintwork and signage improvements may go a long way in providing a more upscale look.

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  18. There oviously waiting for and offer o
    from a competitor for whats left of there very few Super Centers that performed well while being totally neglected!

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  19. The last day of business for this store is July 7th. Then there will be 38 good employees to stay on until the 17th to clear out all the junk. I've heard through the grapevine that all Super K stores will either be converted into a Big K or completely closed within the next year...this is from the liquidator in the store now!

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  20. Just announced that 2 more Super K's are downsizing to Big K's...3251 Indianapolis and 4997 Virginia Beach.

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  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. It has always been a restaurant since the store opened in 1994. It doesn't look like that anymore though, lol.

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  22. Any more reports on more Kmart stores? This last one was posted 6 months ago.

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  23. My Kmart in mission valley...formerly Kmart then sears essentials the back to Kmart shut doors on short notice now building is gutted

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  24. The problem with Kmart is that the customers care more about Kmart than Ed Lampert does. He could care less about its history, heritage or future. Kmart used to mean something. Now it is just a has-been withering away from neglect. Kmart has lost its will to be a retailer. It's all about real estate value.

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  25. As for the Super K in Tinley Park, IL. It was "remodeled" (basically new paint) a few years back when Meijer opened a new small format store down the street in a former Venture discount store turned Value City Department Store.

    The interior was repainted with bright colors, a lot of variations of orange. New checkout number signs (red) and a new sign package for departments. The sign on the front of the store features the Super K logo, while they did refresh the pylon sign on the street with a new red, white and blue Super Kmart Center sign. Old logo on front of store, new logo on sign. No cohesive logo message - typical of Kmart. A drive-up pharmacy window was installed (Meijer also has this feature). New shopping carts (gray). The old K Cafe space now houses beer and liquor, complete with black and white checkered tile floor from the cafe. Overall it was a very low budget "update". I think they did as little as possible in the face of new competition as if they didn't believe in their store.

    A mishmash of orange inside, red checkout signs and the clerks wear blue shirts (not Navy blue, but any shade of blue, black, hoodies, sweaters, sweatshirts - the employees look like rag dolls). Is Kmart's color orange, red or blue? Target basically owns the color red. Kmart isn't sure, or doesn't care what color IT is.

    The meat counter had been closed down and covered up. When Meijer opened, Kmart reopened the meat counter. About a year later, they closed it again. A double sided gondola with bulk product was put up to somewhat block the view of the meat cases. Tacky.

    The portrait studio recently closed. They use it for bulk storage of patio furniture overstock. Right at the front of the store. It looks hideous.

    Electronics? Why bother? It is usually unattended and they are just going through the motions with this department.

    The outdoor garden center area? They didn't even go through the motions of using it this summer. All the flowers were in front of the store. The outside garden center was left completely devoid of product.

    Produce? A few dozen pieces are spread over flat displays and look very unappealing. The entire grocery department is lacking in customers no matter what day or time.

    My prediction is that this will be the next Super Kmart to drop groceries altogether and wall it off with shelving units with their famous shower curtains dangling from the ceiling to block the view. Don't even get me started about Kmart's signature use of shower curtains to block views when they close an in-store cafe or restaurant or downsize from a Super Kmart to a regular Kmart (Terre Haute, IN) - take a look if you don't believe me. Shower curtain liners are about as tacky as you can get to block views!

    Then again, this is a chain that has no consistent logo image. Kmart simply lacks any pride as a retailer. Very sad.

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  26. This Moon Township, PA Super K is now closed. The last I heard they were down to selling the fixtures and that was about 1-2 weeks ago.

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  27. See this will keep happining they NEED to close the super ks.

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  28. i think their last ditch effort is to push the super k one last time....if the dont the company is sinking anyway...theres really nothing to lose....lower the prices, invest..otherwise kmart as a whole is finished

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  29. It is frustrating to see loss and shrink in the stores due to lack of training and payroll- I understand the more for less culture we now live in but you also have to not panic to cut payroll and do it wisely. Cutting all the full timers who are more likely to take pride in their department and jobs and give soo many hours to the part timers to fill gaps is not smart staffing. Don't just cut what we do- change how we do it- - take your gator tags off of clothes before shipping them to other stores will save your stores expenses- Dont spend soo much money at SHC for meetings and luncheons- There are alot of expenses there that if put back into the stores could be money spent wisely.( if it weren't too late) Not being properly trained because of payroll will cost you so much more in the long run- shrink and waste that can be controlled or avoided just because there is no time or money for checks and balances also costs more in the long run- improper training and too much to do in so little time causes errors and mistakes. They may not be a lot at once but do add up to a ton for the bottom line.

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  30. I oversee most of the closed Kmart/Sears locations throughout the US. I'm looking for some reliable people that can do a monthly inspection for me of the property on the inside and outside of the building. Let me now if you might be interested and where you are located at. Thanks.

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  31. The fate of Kmart is truly something awful.

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  32. Why does this blog exist? I'm serious. I can't fathom it, on any level. In the same way I'm unable to fathom a sphere with four spatial dimensions, I am unable to fathom this website. That's not hyperbole, or some sort of attempt at humor. I'm legitimately on the verge of having a panic attack because of the existential dilemma created by this blog's ever having had a presence on the Internet, let alone a continuing one.

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  33. Why should it matter to you as to why this blog exists ? It just is.......

    Annie

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  34. From what I saw on Google Maps, this store is demolished. The crazy thing is that some small areas of the checkered tile still appear to be intact despite the fact that the building is down.

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  35. If this blog can still post, I have a few cool K's in NJ. The first is in West Orange. Opened as Korvette's in the 70's, became Caldor and PathMark in the early 80's. Caldor closed in '99, and K opened in 2000. PathMark closed and is now a WholeFoods. The Kmart is a 2 level, having clothes and the cafeteria (a Nathan's) on the ground floor and electronics, pantry, toys, tools, and sporting good in the basement.
    The next store is in Lodi. It opened in the early 70's, and it still is pretty 70's. It has the 70's signs for garden, layaway, and fitting rooms, as well as old magic carpet-operated doors and the old gray stones on the front pillars. It also has plenty of 90's items intact, including the "thanks for shopping at BigK" sign with the word "big" removed, the blue customer service desk with the projector TV in the back of it, and many security monitors with VCR's. The layout is weird: you walk into Womens' clothes, with clothing and sporting goods to the left and entertainment, pantry, toys, layaway, and garden to the right. It's a blast from the past!
    And finally, there's the former Paramus store. It opened in the early 70's as a Grand Union Grandaway store to partener the pre-existing GU, and became Kmart not long afterwards. It closed last December, and now sits abandoned with soaped-out windows, although you can sneak an iPhone lens through the soap bubble holes. The architecture is beautiful, as the store is a massive archway, similar to a Penn Fruit store. The interior had spotlights on the ceiling. There were sets of entrances, one on the left and one on the right. You would turn to enter the store, with clothing to the right and entertainment, garden, toys, and a tiny pantry to the left.

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  36. The West Orange store Bikerboy is talking about us profiled by styertowne on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115637162@N02/albums/72157663101904413
    It has the nicest interior package I have seen in a Kmart.

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