Sunday, November 28, 2021

Kmart #7294 - Vero Beach, FL - The Klosing Keeps Going


Kmart #7294
1501 US Highway 1, Vero Beach, FL - Indian River Plaza

     Some people tend to refer to the current state of Sears and Kmart as the "world's longest liquidation sale", so I guess my coverage of the Vero Beach Kmart's closing is the world's most drawn out coverage of the world's longest liquidation sale! I know it's been a while since the last installment in this closing series, but as slow as it may be, we continue on with installment number four. Today's photos pick up approximately two weeks after my prior visit to the Vero Beach Kmart, which you can recap here, bringing us to the end of October 2019 (Halloween Day 2019, actually). I wasn't planning on returning to this store so soon after my previous visit, but on this particular day I was heading back from covering some stores down in Palm Beach County, and ended up cutting over to US 1 from I-95 at some point, bringing me by the Kmart. Since I was passing by I decided to pop in for another look around, bringing us the photos we'll be seeing today.


     Compared to our last visit to the Vero Beach Kmart, nothing major has changed. We'll see some larger patches of emptiness in a few parts of the store, but otherwise the store was still pretty well stocked and none of the salesfloor was closed off yet. It won't be until our next visit when the store closing vibe really begins to hit hard.


     Heading inside, we'll do our usual counterclockwise loop through the store, beginning with the hardlines side of the building and looping around through softlines before we exit.


     Last time we were here, the closing sale discounts were advertised as 20%-60% off. Two weeks later, the discounts increased only slightly to 25%-70% off. The slight increase in discounts wasn't moving the product any faster than before, as we can tell by the full-looking shelves of merchandise.


     Diverting into one of the side aisles in the health and beauty department, this was one of the emptier aisles I'd noticed during my visit here. Still a good amount of product to be seen, but you can see where some of the merchandise was being consolidated upward.


     Even though my visit occurred on Halloween 2019, there was plenty of Christmas stuff out for sale - more Christmas than Halloween, actually! As soon as the liquidation started, Kmart dragged out all of the Christmas merchandise that had arrived and started squeezing it onto the salesfloor to get rid of it, lining it all up in the middle of this aisle.


     Following that look at the Christmas decorations, what better transition than into the toy department? Still plenty of toys for sale, even at the new 40% off discount price.


     The aisles in the toy, sporting goods, and hardware department were cut in half by the aisle we see here.


     Pallets of Christmas trees fill up the main aisle in the very back of the store, next to the furniture department. It looks like there's some Christmas trees stored on the back wall too, on that top shelf. I'm sure all those plush Monty Mongooses (Mongeese? I still don't know!) in the bin to my left were hoping to find their way under one of those very Christmas trees for the upcoming holiday season.


     The Hardware department (aka the "Do It Yourself" department) was located in the very back right corner of the building, with overstock Paw Patrol toys and Christmas trees trying to encroach into its space as product began to thin out.


     Turning around for one last look across the right side of the building, we find more Christmas trees, blocking most of our view to the left. To my right were more random pallet drops of large overstock items and the furniture department (and I think even more Christmas trees!).


     Leaving that part of the store, I think we'll be safe from any more Christmas trees through the end of this post. After cutting through the furniture department, here's a look at some of the housewares and small appliances aisles, which were still decently stocked like the rest of the store.


     While I promised no more Christmas trees, it appears some other Christmas decorations had found their way into the back aisle, as can be seen here. The pantry department branches off to my left, with electro-pli-mattress department following housewares to my right.


     Kmart was just shoving all the overstock merchandise from the backroom wherever they could at this point to get it out, hence all the displays down the center of this narrow aisle.


     Some random automotive supplies were tossed into the cleaning supply aisle, and I happened to notice this interesting device mixed in with everything - a solar powered car air conditioner to keep your car cool while parked. This would certainly come in handy on a hot Floridian summer day, when you get into your car and start sweating instantly! Had this been marked down more than $3 from the original price I probably would have bought it, but the discount was still a bit stingy at this point for me.


     Continuing along with our tour, we inch closer to the electro-pli-mattress department as we continue down the back aisle.


     Even prior to the closing, there wasn't much left to the electro-pli-mattress department, so racks of clothing had begun to encroach into its space. Same as we saw with all the random merchandise shoved everywhere on the hardlines side of the store, racks of clothes were being shoved into every inch of space on the softlines side to push out as many clothing items as possible.


     What we see here was the majority of the former electro-pli-mattress department, most of the actual merchandise from this area consolidated just out of frame to my right. With all that consolidated, this became the perfect home for more racks of clothes (as prior to the closing, the footprint of the men's department was slowly creeping further into the electro-pli-mattress space anyway).


     This lone register was buried amongst all the clothes. Originally this was the store's electronics register, which eventually got demoted to the layaway payment register, and now was just sitting here amongst all the clothes waiting to get dismantled. I have no idea if this register was being used for anything at this point in the closing sale, but as you can see, it was still very much working when I was here.


     More racks of clothes were placed down this aisle, which separated the housewares department from the softlines side of the store.


     More clothes, with the shoe department appearing to my left.


     This aisle in the shoe department was the only totally empty aisle I remembered seeing during my entire visit this day, so either the shoes were selling well at 50% off...


     …or people just wanted to break in this store closing and toss all the shoes on the floor instead.


     Now that we've seen the traditional store closing shoes on the floor, we poke out from the shoe aisles for a quick glimpse at the fitting rooms. It's hard to tell if the fitting rooms had been closed at this time due to the liquidation, or if it was just a mess back there.


     Here's one last look across the back of the store as we loop our way back to the front.


     The left side aisle was also filled with lots of clothes, just like all the other main aisles on this side of the store.


     Back up front, we find the check lanes to my right, somewhere behind all those displays.


     One last look at the front end before we head out...


     I'll leave everyone with this parting shot of the exterior to wrap up today's installment in my Vero Beach Kmart closing series. The next time I get around to this series will be our last installment showcasing this store while it was still in business. With how far the liquidation had progressed by that time, the next installment will probably be the most interesting out of this entire series, considering how much will have changed. I'll get to that at some point, and I'll try to see what I can work on for my next installment of MFR.

So until the next post,

AFB

7 comments:

  1. It's nice to see more photos of this Kmart again. Actually, this week was the first time that I got an authentic taste of Kmart vintage HVAC vents in a decade. There's an old Kmart that closed at FM 1960 W & Kuykendahl here in Houston in around 1995. The building has had a few different tenants since then, but it's mostly gone underutilized. Before the pandemic, it opened up as a Texas Thrift. I had been wanting to go down there, but I never got the opportunity. I finally was able to visit it and it was great seeing the authentic Kmart HVAC vents, the low ceiling, and the strip lighting. It wasn't Kmart, but it sure felt like it. In fact, I had gone to that Kmart before it closed in 1995 so it was a chance for me to see those HVAC vents again for the first time in 25+ years!

    As much as we think the current state of Sears and Kmart is to act like the world's longest liquidation sale, Eddie Lampert is certainly up to something. As I mentioned on your last AFB post, Sears Hometown Stores have been popping up here in Texas including in old closed mall Sears. Mike from HHR talked to the store manager at one of these new stores and the manager stated that the store is corporate owned and not a franchised store like most Sears Hometowns. My best guess is that Lampert is setting up these stores and is then hoping to sell them to franchisees. Once they are established, they might be easier to sell than selling the idea of building a new Sears location from scratch. Here is Mike's post about the Macroplaza Mall Sears Hometown: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/11/05/sears-marcoplaza-mall-location-reopens-as-a-hometown-store/

    All the Christmas stuff in the photos seems appropriate for the times considering that people are now decorating their homes for the season. It's too bad these photos are from Halloween 2019 and that the store is gone or else maybe people would have headed to Kmart for trees! I hear there may be shortages of real and fake trees this year. Fortunately, my ~15 year old tree (from Walgreens? I forget where it's from) is still holding up just fine!

    That solar powered car A/C seems really neat. It would be useful for here in Houston for when I need to take breaks at work and don't wish to idle the car just to run the A/C. Granted, I don't know how well those devices work. The one at Kmart looks old and if those worked well, I suspect they'd be a lot more popular than they are. Then again, maybe Koolatron made a mistake by having Kmart be the retailer for their product, lol!

    You might have seen this mentioned over at Retail Watchers or at the NW Retail Blog, but there is some Albertsons news to note from this area. It's also related to Kmart Florida liquidations...well, the Fort Pierce Kmart at least, lol. It seems Albertsons has decided to discontinue the requirement that Randall's shoppers need the Remarkable Card to get sale prices at Randall's stores. Oddly enough, in Dallas, Tom Thumb still requires the card even though Albertsons doesn't (and hasn't in the past as far as I know). In Seattle, where Albertsons and Safeway share ads (which is not yet the case in Dallas), both stores require the card for sales. So, yeah, Albertsons certainly has some inconsistencies by market! I think Randall's dropping the card requirement is a great move and Tom Thumb ought to do the same. The card can still be used by those wanting to use digital coupons.

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    1. Still a little more to see from this Kmart too, so you have more to look forward too as well! That's neat you got to venture into the Texas Thrift finally, and get a taste of that old Kmart feel while there. Not sure how much of that old Kmart the thrift store took, but if it took the whole thing, then I'll really be convinced that everything is bigger in Texas!

      Eddie is still making money off all this somehow, or else he'd have given up long ago. That's why even though the company isn't turning a profit, Eddie still is through his shenanigans. If anything on the retail side of Sears/Kmart is going to remain long term, it will be solely through those Sears Hometown stores. The full-line Sears stores and Kmarts will eventually meet their demise, as there's only two dozen or so locations left between both brands right now, and clearly those aren't the future. I've yet to see any new Sears Hometown stores pop up near me, but maybe some will considering the recent activity in your area, and how corporate seems interested in those. It will be interesting to see how Eddie handles those Hometown stores going forward.

      It's crazy that Christmas trees of all things have been the victim of the recent shortages! We have a ~10 year old tree from Walmart (a hand me down from a neighbor, actually) that's our primary, and a second smaller tree we put in the backroom that my parents bought at Fay's Drugstore about 25 years ago (and that's about how long Fay's has been out of business too!). Like your ~15 year old tree, these two still do the job just fine all these years later.

      This solar powered AC unit was a first for me too. For $10 or so I probably would have given it a shot, as it seems like something that would come in handy. That's actually a good point about using it when sitting in the car on breaks at work. I'd probably sit in my car more often on breaks if the car didn't get so hot, and I didn't have to waste gas idling to run the AC!

      I remember when Albertsons retired the Preferred cards in Florida a long time ago (late 2000's I'd say - I still have one or two of those I kept as souvenirs). Safeway in Florida never required a card either, and the use of the cards seemed hit or miss in the different regions Safeway and Albertsons operated in lately. I agree it's probably a change for the better getting rid of the cards, as that's one less hassle to deal with at the checkout.

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    2. The Texas Thrift does not use up the entire Kmart, but it does use a pretty large chunk of it. Part of the Kmart was subdivided into a Family Dollar. The part over by the garden/auto center was subdivided into a furniture store many years ago that eventually became a different thrift store that moved to another nearby location a few years ago.

      Within the Texas Thrift, the store has a partition that separates the sales floor from what I suppose is a warehouse of thrift goods. The partition does not go all the way to the ceiling so it's possible to look at the ceiling in the warehouse part. What's interesting is that they switched all the florescent light tubes to some cooler color bulbs in the sales part of the building, but the warehouse part still has the warmer, duller color tubes that were more popular back in Kmart's prime. It was odd to see how dramatically different the different color lighting looks!

      So while the Texas Thrift might not be Texas-sized, we do have another new thrift store on the same road (FM 1960 W) which might meet the Texas-sized definition. Mike from HHR's latest post is about this actually. It's a thrift store called Deseret Industries which is owned by the Mormon church and it is located in an old Oshman's SuperSports USA/The Sports Authority building near Willowbrook Mall. It's very large from what I can tell. I have not been to it yet, but Mike's pictures show it to have a lot of stuff and it's all quite well organized. I know you like thrift stores so you might be interested in seeing Mike's post: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/12/03/deseret-industries-houston-when-the-osmonds-met-goodwill/

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  2. I honestly feel like shoes on the floor are a regular occurrence in any Wal-Mart I go in . . .

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  3. I vote for "Mongeeses." Covers all the bases.

    That Koolatron seems kool! Er, uh, cool.

    Interestingly, my aunt told me this past week that she always thought Kmart had the best Christmas decorations. That's not something that I really have ever compared much, but it's neat to hear her perspective on that.

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    1. I like that thinking! Mongeeses it will be then! :)

      Lol! For $27.99, I hope it was an effective kool aid!

      It's interesting your aunt mentioned Kmart's Christmas decorations. When I go to thrift store and estate sales, it's pretty common to see a lot of Kmart branded Christmas decorations around. Not sure if that's just coincidence, or if Kmart really had a reputation for their Christmas decorations back in the day.

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