Spotlight: Kmart - Burbank, CA

The Superstore Pilot store..

1000 N San Fernando Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504

Today we are spotlighting the last store in our California series of posts, Kmart located in Burbank, CA. This location is 72.577 square feet and opened on November 16, 1989. The store was originally built in 1962 as a Zody's, which from research was a small chain of discount department stores out west. Despite Kmart still operating this location it is being marketed for lease by the owners of the shopping center. The store formerly had a Little Caesars Pizza Station in it, although I am unsure went it closed. It does not have a pharmacy, auto center, or garden center. Being only 72,000 Square feet, it is one of the smaller size Kmart locations and could be why this store didn't have any extra services. We have been told by sources that this store was remodeled in late 2017, not too long after we visited it. In 2010 this Kmart was in the news but not for a good reason. A man that was shoplifting from this store was stopped by police in front of the entrance in the parking lot, grabbed one of the officers guns and shot two of the responding officers.

There are three movie studios within a few miles of this Kmart, which makes the store a popular one for filming retail scenes in movies and TV shows. This store was used for the filming of the NBC TV show Superstore's original pilot episode in late 2015 or early 2016. You can read more about it here on Sears Holdings blog. After the pilot was filmed in this Kmart store and the show was officially picked up by NBC for a season, filming was moved to a sound stage studio with a mock discount store built for the filming of all other episodes. The exterior of this store was also used in the filming of the movie Larry Crowe staring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The name of the store for that movie was Umart.

Photo courtesy of Sears Holdings

As we stated at the beginning of our post this store was not built as a Kmart and you can tell that it wasn't by the layout of things inside the store. The layaway counter is hidden way in the back left corner of the store in the middle of the kids clothing department. The whole length of the back part of the store has an odd drop ceiling. The emergency exit doors around the store you have to go up a small set up steps to reach the doors to get out. The customer service desk was recently updated, possibly for when the Superstore pilot was filmed. The jewelry counter area looks to have been updated also. This store has 10 registers, which is getting more rare to find that many registers in a Kmart store. Most Kmart's in recent years have removed and downsized the amount of registers in each store.

The exterior facade of the store was modified a bit in the past few years. There was a portion of the facade that was open with angled glass over the entryway as shown in the picture below. This part was walled over a few years ago, possibly for when the filming of the Superstore pilot was done.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user monroe3743

Well there you have it, the Kmart store in sunny Burbank, CA. These pictures were taken in the Summer of 2017, but the store is currently still operating. Let us know what you think in the comments and enjoy the rest of the pictures below!

Spotlight: Kmart (2 Level) - Los Angeles, CA

Store #7225 6310 W 3rd St Los Angeles, CA 90036

Attention Kmart Shoppers! Today we are continuing our series of posts on California locations with a two level Kmart store in the Los Angeles area.

This Kmart store is an 135,000 square foot, two floor store located on the busy West 3rd Street in Los Angeles. It was originally built as a Britt's Department Store in 1963, which was a subsidiary of the JJ Newberry company. After the JJ Newberry company decided to phase out and close their Britt's locations, Kmart stepped in and did an extensive remodel of the store and opened for business on October 5, 1978. One thing to note is that according to news articles when the building was a Britt's, it was a three level store but now in it's current form it's a two level store. When you view the side of the store in Google street view, you can see the windows that are located on third floor level. The third level is completely closed off since it became a Kmart. It is unknown what the third level is used for but it could be a storage and stock area now or just empty. I am unsure how this third level is accessed as there is no escalator that leads up to it.

Ad for the opening of Britt's Department store in 1963.

News article of Kmart coming to the old Britt's location.

We visited this store in July 2017, at the time of our visit the store was conducting a store-wide "Summer Blowout Sale!" This sale is being done at many Kmart locations and looks similar to a pre-going out of business sale that the liquidation companies conduct. This store is a busy location for Sears Holdings and is located in a high traffic shopping center with Whole Foods. As a very rare issue for a Kmart store, parking is hard to come by in this store's parking lot. The parking lot is very small and is shared with many other businesses around Kmart, it's not uncommon to not be able to find an available parking spot at all.

This store has the soft lines departments on the main level including clothing, accessories, jewelry, intimates, and shoes. Also the checkout registers and little Caesars are on the main level. Speaking of the shoe department, this store has a very unique shoe area. The shoe department is a separate area of the store, that has it's own store front with exterior sign and entrance door (although it was locked when we visited.) It can be accessed inside the store by a opening in the wall by the intimates department.

 

Exterior show department entrance

Interior shoe department entrance

This Kmart has a large Little Caesars Pizza Station Cafe. It has it's own exterior entrance and sign. To access it inside Kmart you go down a short hallway by the checkouts and it opens up into a large seating area with a Little Caesars Pizza Station. It was pretty bust when we visited the store.

Hallway to access the Little Caesars Pizza Station.

Busy location complete with customer staring at me taking this picture.

To access the basement level of the store, there are escalators in the middle of the store including a cart escalator next to the people escalator. There was also a elevator in the corner of the store, but it was out of order when we visited the store. Once on the basement level, the hard lines departments are all there. The layaway counter is also on the basement level. The layaway area looks to have been recently remodeled as it had a newer look. Not sure if this was the case but the current layaway counter could have formerly been the Pharmacy as this store doesn't have one and the current layaway area is right next to the health and beauty aids.

Newer look layaway area, former Pharmacy spot?

This store does not have a garden center, auto center, or as stated above a Pharmacy. It does feature a second store entrance on the street side of the store but it is now closed off and doesn't look to have been used in quite a while. The store has a large amount of registers with several in use when we visited since this is a higher volume store.

Street side entrance that is no longer used.

Plenty of registers for this busy store.

That just about covers this unique and busier Kmart location. If you know of anymore information on this store or its history please leave us a comment and enjoy the rest of the photos below. Until next post..Kmart On!