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Kmart Abandons Sioux Falls, Not Aberdeen

I enjoy shopping at the Aberdeen Kmart. It’s very quiet…

…which is why I’m puzzled that, of the four Kmarts left in South Dakota, the corporation closed its East Sioux Falls store last fall and now is closing the West Sioux Falls store, leaving Aberdeen and Rapid City as the last South Dakota Blue Light outposts. Aberdeen’s Kmart competes with Walmart, Target, Shopko, Office Max, Dunham Sports, Runnings, Tractor Supply Company, Mac’s, Menards, Ken’s, and Kessler’s, and from the looks of the parking lot, doesn’t compete well. I don’t wish any of my friends who work there unemployment, and I appreciate the walkability that Kmart offers to the high rental population in that neighborhood who would rather not try hoofing it out to the sidewalkless auto-mania east of Lamont Street (runner-up for filming location for Roger Corman’s Death Race 2050). Still, the fact that desperate bean counters in suburban Chicago would bail from South Dakota’s largest market before abandoning Aberdeen suggests an interesting small-market strategy… which hypothesis collapses when I see that Kmart’s New York City stores don’t appear to be on the chopping block. Aberdeen must just have something awesome that Sioux Falls does not.

The West 12th Kmart is one of 108 Kmart stores and 42 Sears stores given the axe in post-holiday announcements last week and this. Hey, Aberdeen is keeping its Sears store, too! Sears also has stores in Mitchell, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Spearfish, Watertown, and Yankton.

Sears acquired Kmart in 2004 for $11 billion. At the beginning of 2004, Sears stock was $26 a share. Sears shares hit a pre-recession peak of $178 in March 2007, dropped below $40 for Barack Obama’s inauguration, came back to $113 in March 2010, and has groaned downward since. Today’s Sears stock price: $11.

But as Mr. Epp warns, Walmart, you’re next. Amazon will shortly be putting all traditional retail stores out of business with blimps and drones. It’s raining sweatpants….

12 Comments

  1. Ben Birks 2017-01-05 09:37

    Pretty sure it’s less to do with small market vs. large market & more to with real estate value of the space in Sioux Falls.

  2. Porter Lansing 2017-01-05 10:17

    Business Axiom … “If you’re not growing, you’re dying. There’s no other position.” Sears/K-Mart haven’t been growing and even worse they’ve not been changing with the times. Wal-Mart has become the largest seller of perishable food and Amazon is moving into the perishable food market. Both firms are offering home delivery, which is being well received. Craftsman tools (with their lifetime warranty) have been overtaken by equally worthy competition.

  3. Rorschach 2017-01-05 10:54

    Sears has sold the Craftsman Tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker.

    http://www.ksfy.com/content/news/Sears-To-Sell-Craftsman-Tool-Brand-To-Stanley-Black–Decker-409775495.html

    Right now, many Craftsman tools are still made in USA. Stanley Black & Decker on the other hand has moved most if not all of its manufacturing overseas. This tells me that Stanley will probably apply its aggressive cost cutting to the Craftsman brand and move Craftsman manufacturing overseas laying off a bunch of American workers. What will President Trump do about this?

  4. Loren 2017-01-05 11:14

    Right now, I liken Sears to Braniff and Eastern Airlines back in the early days of deregulation. Both airlines started to sell off assets to stay afloat. (See: Sears selling Kenmore, Craftsman, Die Hard) That might bring in some cash, but eventually you run out of assets!

  5. Porter Lansing 2017-01-05 11:18

    Sears HAS NOT sold Craftsman tools to Stanley. Sears intends to sell Craftsman tools to Stanley. Unprofitable retailers are lining up with their corporate mitts out, to beg Trump for incentives to stay in USA. Do “we the people” want tax dollars used to support businesses that don’t innovate or is it better they just go overseas and we’ll let the marketplace support or reject their products?
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/stanley-to-buy-craftsman-brand-from-sears-for-about-900-million

  6. Porter Lansing 2017-01-05 12:33

    Good one, Mike. I wasn’t aware of that guy but he’s similar to Don Trump. While Pres. Barack Obama was always the smartest in the room, his successor isn’t. There are business people who actually went to Wharton, not just took a couple classes there while attending Penn as a legacy student. Business people who’ve not bankrupted themselves numerous times and they’re going to shred Trump and USA like a soft cheese. What really is the benefit of bringing a million jobs back if the workers can’t afford to buy things because of a 45% import tariff tax? Reaching full employment is easy. Just give the workers spoons instead of shovels. – MF

  7. Troy 2017-01-05 14:13

    Here is some big news:

    Macy’s announced the closing of the 1.3 million square foot Downtown Macy’s (formerly Dayton’s) in Minneapolis which was opened in 1902. I think it might be the original Dayton’s as the date this store opened and the corporation formed is the same year.

    FYI: Most K-Marts are between 150,000 square feet and 250,000 square feet.

  8. Yellow Blue Light Boy 2017-01-06 14:17

    ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS! I was alive (not dead yet) when the K-Mart opened in Aberdeen..it was YUGE! I then worked there in HS and part of college. I had the unique fortune of being the Blue Light guy..that was my job (because I had been on the radio. People used to listen to music back then on the radio. I am not making that up). I just wheeled that blue light and sold the crap nobody wanted at whatever price I felt it could sustain. I literally was known more for that than when I was on KSDN. People stopped me in the street and asked if I was th Blue Light Guy.. Oh..I literally was the only asian-american in Aberdeen too. One of my better Blue Lights was Billy Beer. It never sold well..and well..I can’t remember what I sold it for..recent ebay sales are around $30. Like Trump..Billy Beer was flat, did not
    deliver on it’s promise (maybe 2 point beer) and ya couldn’t give it away!
    (Kids..back in 79 you could legally drink at age 18..it was called low point beer. If ya was gonna risk your life at 18 in Vietnam you should at least have a beer).

  9. Yellow Blue Light Boy 2017-01-06 14:29

    And speaking of workers…K-marts replaced a lower end brand in Aberdeen called Jupiter..which was downtown (kids..at one time downtown Aberdeen was just known as uptown and people bought NEW stuff there). And if I recall had wood floors. I had the great fortune in HS to work with and know these lovely ladies. Many who spent their entire life at Jupiter working the sales registers, department sales people and HR. They were distraught that the big corporation turned them into K-Mart employees. Working women from another generation. We still sold and cut fabric. I recently went back the store and it’s still mainly the same. Just no cafeteria, deli, autoshop, applicances, cameras…or people. Most still had strong german accents. Go ahead Trump..try to grab them in the blue schmocks making $1.75 an hour.

  10. Porter Lansing 2017-01-07 15:47

    Great story, why. bee. ell. bee. ??????

  11. Taylor Stern 2017-06-01 02:00

    Kmart bought sears

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