Say goodbye to Kmart!
Valencia Boulevard location scheduled to shut its doors in November after 44 years in the SCV
“Everything from clothing to ping pong balls to major appliances will be on display at K Mart.”
So began The Signal’s coverage of the grand opening of Santa Clarita’s first discount department store, which opened on Valencia Boulevard on May 31, 1973.
A photo of store executives with wide smiles and wider ties noted that “cars overflowed the huge new K Mart parking lot” during the opening celebration.
The store was the chain’s 596th and 33rd in greater Los Angeles, during a period of rapid growth. The first K Mart opened only eleven years earlier in a suburb of Detroit.
This week, after 44 years, came word that the Valencia store will close for good in November, along with 27 others across the country.
Sears Holdings Corp. said the stores will hold clearance sales starting as soon as this month. The Valencia store is one of four in California that will close.
Kmart was booming in the early ’70s. An ad in The Signal a week before the grand opening, touting the store as “all the things a great store should be” said it was the chain’s 596th store. By the time it opening a week later, it was the 599th.
The Signal’s coverage noted that the store would carry a wide range of merchandise, from major appliances “including color televisions,” to furniture, tools, yard goods, and women’s fashions. The automotive center boasted an auto music section featuring stereo tape players.
Shoppers could use their Bankamericard or Master Charge on specials that included Polaroid Colorpack film for $3.77, a quarterinch electric drill for $5.97 and polyester men’s ties for $1.84.
By 1981, Kmart had 2,055 outlets, and it remained the country’s second largest retailer until 1990, when Walmart passed it. The company’s profitability and sales peaked in 1992, according to Funding Universe.
Kmart emerged from bankruptcy in 2002, and bought Sears to form Sears Holdings Corp. two years later.
In the quarter that ended June 30, Sears Holdings’ total revenue fell 22 percent to $4.37 billion, mainly due to store closures, which eliminated $770 million of revenue, the company said.
“The retail environment remained challenging, with continued softness in store traffic and elevated price competition,” the company said in a statement.
Same-store sales declined 11.5 percent during the second quarter of 2017, reflecting a drop of 9.4 percent at Kmart stores and 13.2 percent at Sears.
Employees at stores slated for closing will receive severance payments and can apply for open positions in other Kmart and Sears stores. Sears has a store at Valencia Town Center, and the nearest Kmart is in North Hollywood.
Sears Holdings has closed 358 Sear and Kmart stores this year, including this latest announcement. Kmart will have 596 stores after the closings, less than half of what the chain operated at its peak.