Last full-size Kmart in US to close
Store that is closing in Bridgehampton, New York, leaves just a Florida location remaining
The last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is set to close in October, leaving only one downsized location remaining, reports say.
The department store chain, which once operated around 2,300 locations in the early 1990s, will shutter the full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York, on Oct. 20, Newsday is reporting, citing an employee there.
That means a smaller Kmart store in Miami will become the last one remaining in the U.S. Kmart, which is now owned by Transformco, also has three stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Transformco did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from FOX Business, but a spokesperson for Kimco Realty Corp. – which owns the shopping centers where both Kmarts are located in New York and Florida – told Newsday that the Bridgehampton store will indeed be closing.
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The Kmart location in Bridgehampton has been open for 25 years, according to Newsday.
Transformco says on its website that the first Kmart discount department store opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 before merging with Sears years later, then filed for bankruptcy again in 2018.
The other remaining Kmart location in the continental U.S. is at Kendale Lakes Plaza in Miami.
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The Miami Herald reports that the Kmart store there leased out nearly all of its former space to home goods store At Home. That Kmart location has now been reduced to what used to be the garden department of the original store.
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A Kimco Realty Corp. leasing representative told the newspaper that Kmart has a "long-term lease" at the Kendale Lakes location.