Kmart World: Sears Outlet

March 10, 2012

Spotlight: Sears Outlet / Former Kmart - Marietta, GA

Sears Outlet - Marietta, GA

Today Spotlight feature focuses on a very old former Kmart building that has been re-purposed into a Sears Outlet, a local thrift store, and a local automotive shop. This store is located at 1140 Roswell Rd in Marietta, GA.

First a little history, originally this location was a Kmart and re-branded as a Big Kmart in the 90's. It's been in operation in the same location since 1964. The first Kmart opened in the US in 1962, so this store was definitely one of the first few ever opened. It's closure was announced in November 2008 for being an underperforming store. After the liquidation sale concluded, it closed for good in January 2009. This store had an auto center and at one time had some type of eatery inside of it.

View from when it was still a Kmart, courtesy of Bing Maps.

I visited this store in January 2012 after it was reopened as a Sears Outlet. The Sears Outlet takes up a little over half of the old Kmart space and uses the main entrance and exit Kmart had. A wall was built directly to the right of the entrance and divides the store. The other half of the old Kmart space, which is the right half of the store, is occupied now by a local thrift store. A new set of doors were installed on the front wall of the store to enter the thrift store. Finally, the former Auto Center is now being used by a local auto shop, Masters Automotive.

Old Kmart Auto Center, now a local auto shop.

The outside of the store received absolutely no changes from when it was Kmart, not even a paint job. The old Big Kmart, Pharmacy, and Garden Shop logo labelscars are very obvious and fully visible. The old outside garden center area is still there also. The only true change, as mentioned earlier is the addition of a set of entrance/exit doors for the thrift store.

Looking the the Sears Outlet and the Thrift store.

There was also no renovations done on the interior of the store from when it was Kmart. Sears Outlet just brought in the merchandise and shelves/racks and opened up. You can tell by the inside of the store that this was a very old Kmart location, older than even most other Kmart's as evident by its 1964 opening. Upon entering the lobby of the store on the right wall there is an extremely ancient heater type machine that looks to be from a few decades ago. Inside the store, the ceiling height is considerably higher. With the exception of Super Kmart Center locations, the vast majority of Kmart's have the low ceilings. This makes most Kmart's feel a lot smaller than they really are because of their low ceiling heights. Another thing unusual is there are skylights in the ceiling, which is definitely a first for me to see in a Kmart building. It's especially unique because the ceiling is not a warehouse type ceiling but a drop tile ceiling. Finally, an interesting thing I noticed is that Sears Outlet was using some of the chairs from the old Kmart eatery.

High ceiling, looking along back wall of store.

One of several sky lights in the ceiling, a Kmart rarity.

There you have it, a nearly 50 year old Kmart building turned into a Sears Outlet. As always leave you thoughts about the store below in the comments and enjoy the pictures!

The old outside garden center.

The thrift store side of the building.

Big Kmart labelscar fully visible behind the Sears Outlet sign.

Sears Outlet side of the building. Old Pharmacy labelscar visible.

Wall on right was added to divide the Sears Outlet from the thrift store.

Looking towards the left side of the store.

Looking towards the back of the store.

Old Kmart eatery chairs survived the closing and got a second life.

Looking towards the front of the store.

Sears Outlet exit, look at those small, ancient doors.

As described earlier, the very old heater on the lobby wall.

Former Kmart road sign.

Google street view from when it was still Kmart.

September 30, 2011

Spotlight: Kmart / Sears Outlet - Concord, NC

It's officially fall and that means new Kmart World updates! After taking the summer off, we're back with new posts to keep you occupied through the rest of 2011 and beyond.

Today's feature comes from Mike K. and is a former Super Kmart Center located in Concord, NC. It's now a regular Kmart location with a Sears Outlet store on the former grocery side. Below is Mike's observations from visiting this unique store.

"I've never seen a Super Kmart Center location in person before and was it huge! You can tell right away that it was a Super Kmart Center by the facade style and the sheer size of the building. Double entrances with one for the Kmart side and now one for the Sears Outlet side. All of the standard Kmart merchandise is in the middle and right side of the store. The far left, which was the fresh foods section, is now the Sears Outlet store. Kmart kept the regular food aisles and signs hanging above, where all the non-perishable pantry items are. A long shelf was put up to prevent you from going to the Sears Outlet side while shopping in these aisles. The selection of items was huge and a lot like a typical Walmart. This location included a still open Little Caesars Pizza Station. It was the largest one I've ever seen, especially with the massive glass windows out front that shouted 1990's. The front of the store had a Budget rental place, a nail salon, and the customer service desk. There was space for one or two other businesses, but they were closed off. It was probably a bank or something similar that was there before. The registers were in the front center of the store. You could access the Sears side from the Kmart side and vice-versa from the front of the store."

And there you have it, a former Super Kmart Center that found a second life and was converted into something useful. If Kmart continues to downsize Super Kmart Center's into regular Kmart's they should utilize this idea of a hybrid store for them. Instead of leaving the space where the grocery section was empty, use it for another one of Sears Holdings brands. Not only could they put in a Sears Outlet store, they could put in a limited section of regular Sears merchandise, a Lands End shop, a Craftsman shop, etc. There's plenty of things Sears Holdings can do with that space if they don't want to sell groceries in their remaining Super Kmart Centers. Unfortunately, this will probably be one of the only locations that gets a second use for its former grocery section.

What do you think, is this a good use of space or a waste of time? Leave your thoughts below and stay tuned for our next update soon!

Special thanks to Mike K. for taking all of the pictures and contributing commentary about his visit to the store.