this is seriously one of the only times i have almost CRIED because of a store. Kmart isnt just a store, its my childhood.

10:50 I work at Kmart and yes that is the photography room that is no longer active with the same 80s/90s paint walls lol. Good video, this is like history we need to archive. I really hope Kmart does not go completely under. I'm already trying to take Kmart memorabilia if or when that day ever comes.

The Kmart in my hometown closed around 2001, 2002. My mom told me it was devastating for the people who lived on Kmart's side of town and they had to go from one end of town to the other to get their shopping done. The site was abandoned (though some 18 wheeler trailers sat in the parking lot for 6-7 yrs) until a few yrs ago when a farm/ranch store bought the property. Mine also had a Little Caesars and we lost them along with Kmart. However, my hometown succeeded in bringing Little Caesars back over a year and a half ago. Everyone was happy to see them back in town.

0:50 Made me cry... No matter where the store was, I wish I was there so I can shout, "GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN!" because Kmart stores will always in my memories.

is there an alternate reality where its Big Ceasers and little K mart???

I remember being 3 years old when 9/11 happened and I was with my mom at this KMart, I had no clue what was going on besides that a plane hit a building and everyone in the store was in shock watching on the tvs they had near the front of the store. Crazy how time flies man.

The paint splattered wall would have been where the Olan Mills Portrait Studio would have been. The Kmart in Somerset, Ky used to have one and the studio had walls just like that. Great video!

14:14 coupon expired 1/8/99

last message from manager shutting down the store. damn

I miss Kmart

The Start Touched Me When I Saw The Kmart Closing Sad Moments :(

Ive Worked for Kmart as an AP manager for the last 5 years, and after all I've learned, you're right on the mark. They took on too much, and lost their customers. Now management at the corporate level is clueless to whats going on in the stores. All these ideas they have to make a "PROFIT" and "SAVE" the company are not working, I'm noting claiming to have the answer to what will work. But I dont have a thought that might help. Get back to the basics, Keep It Clean, Keep It Stocks, And Keep It Open. Stop with all the ideas that only last a few months.

Before you all shoot your mouth about Walmart or Amazon remember Kmart did this to THEMSELVES. Eventually the customer stopped coming first so the customer went somewhere else. The last time I went into Kmart the merchandise was awful. They were selling portable CD players in 2015!!!!

I could recall from my childhood there was a Kmart near me and I spent 2007, 2008, 2010 up until about 2013 or '14 in that BIGKmart and it was honestly the first relic from my childhood that wasn't a person or a small thing, but an actual place. It closed in 2015 and I didn't really know about it until me and my mother took a trip to where we used to live and I saw it and was surprised, a piece of my childhood that I couldn't control or manage gone. Of course Kmart was never really a "popping" place in the 2000's but to me that place had value, kinda like the movie rental store in my current town that I also spent many hours in, gone as well.

This was my first job, from March 2002 until September 2004. The service station had already been closed for some time before that. The stairs behind layaway led to a room where fixtures were kept. It seemed extremely unsafe, with stacks of shelves that could fall at any moment, with just the slightest nudge. Great video! Watching this brought back some memories.

Hi Nate, I don't usually comment online but I literally made a Google account so I could comment on your video. I worked for Kmart for 11 years (2005-2016) until I was laid off when my store closed. I just wanted to say Thank You for such a poignant tribute. From the haunting music to the beautiful photography to the bits of humor ("Aw dang it I'm supposed to be on a diet!"). Even though there are a bunch of things I probably should be doing instead, I'm watching this over and over and am filled with so much nostalgia for a place that I spent much of my life in for over a decade. Thank you again for a tribute to the end of an era.

Kmart is still strong in Australia

the music made this so much better man this was crazy to look at all the old stuff

Nate, I just came here from your main channel, and MAN am I late! This brings a tear to my eye because I went here A LOT as a kid.

wow so many memories of shopping here and now seeing it like that it's crazy

So i went on google maps a while back to find that it did indeed close way before 2013. I also managed to find a picture of the Kmart Service Center and i'm guessing they closed when they we're remodeling from a regular Kmart to a Big Kmart.

We used to have a K-Mart on Route 114 in North Andover MA. It shut down in 1984. I loved that Store! My Daughter and I used to take a Walk up there on my Days off and I used to blow half my Paycheck in there! Lol! 😃 That was when Prices were more reasonable. And of course my Daughter was 1 Year old at that Time so it wasn't that hard to get her a Treat every Weekend either! When that K-Mart closed down, Bradlees moved into it. Than Bradlees went out in 2002 and it was replaced with a Kohl's and a TJ-Maxx which has been there ever since. I miss K-Mart. Thankyou for the Video. It makes me very sad seeing these once thriving Businesses going out so rapidly.

I'm lucky. My town. We have a very loyal K-MART customer's. That refuse to let our K-MART go anywhere. Our Sears went out of business but our K-MART will always be here as long as the company itself stays in business. Even after the addition of 2 super Wal-Marts our K-MART is still thriving.

I think this was one of the first dead retail videos I watched. You have the gift then, and you are just getting better and better andhave your own style and mark on it. FYI Wallie posted on his Facebook page that you inspired him to do Dead retail videos like this. So you make your mark, and thank you for all the hard work you do Nate.

As a kid growing up in the 80s there was a Kmart in every direction no matter where my parents went shopping. There was one in Norton, VA, Middlesboro, KY, Harlan, KY and Kingsport, TN and I went to them all. As something to restore some hope it could come back. I remember as a kid in the 80s there being a Roses Department store, one in Wise, VA, another in Middlesboro, KY and Kingsport, TN and all those closed and now there's a Roses in the Middlesboro Mall where the original anchor was Kmart. To me Sears and KMart joining together just doomed both.

Great video! Brings back memories of shopping there as a kid. Sad to see these stores go.

I agree with everything you say except how hard it is to compete with Walmart. If you did not know Walmart is also loosing business. Walmart issues are bottom shelf items and do not sell any quality. They have no customer service to speak of, and I hope they go the way of KMART.

I don't think any of our K-Marta were ever that big. I do remember their lay-a-way plan. Back in the day with 5 kids that's the only way I could afford toys for my kiddos. Great job and kinda sad too.

I was surprised this Kmart stayed around so long. When Walmart moved into the old Hills and Gold Circle property across the street i figured Kmart would be gone in a year, the gas station probably helped a little though. The problem in that area is the crime, Walmart trains their LP associates at the Walmart across the street because of that. A friend of mine actually used to work at the Kmart service center when it was open.

It feels slightly erie to drive down 62 and pass the abandoned Kmart at night. It's so dark without the parking lot lights. I'm kind of sad it's gone...

It's so sad to see this. There were a lot of good times in K Mart growing up. I wonder if that coupon from 96 is one I just pulled out of the old electric coupon dispenser just for fun as a kid, then threw it on the ground 😂 that place is where I fell in love with Icees and Little Caesar's pizza. I remember that's the first thing you could smell walking into the building, and it would instantly make me hungry. My parents would always take me to the photo studio for pictures. We have so many! Thank you for visiting and taking this video. The music you chose was so fitting, kinda haunting sounding but calm. Pretty!

I am Ohio native. I live in Canton. KMart was not a store for my family and I...it was a walk down memory lane full of childhood memories. I watched this video and literally cried. I mean I remember Apples store across the street...I remember IGA...and Fazios....way before Walmart came in and destroyed our area. I was so sad I went the last few weeks and not to by anything...but I sat hours talking to employees and staff customer and we just remembered all the good things this store brought us. I mean not McDonald's...not Burger King...not Wendy's...but KMart was my first job...I was 16 and I bag store items. Had a lot of fun. #KMartOverWalmartAnyDay #MissMyGranny She would have been sad seeing this store go. 😢

it's sad and fucking upsetting that our favorite shops and places to eat and to play and to have fun are long gone it fucking sucks big time but hey things change people change and worse times are changing it's been like that since the beginning of time and history do you agreed on this? people.

Another awesome video. Nicholas is a nice dude, glad you could incorporate his photos. Good work.

Speaking of K'Mart, there are no more K'Marts in San Antonio TX... They left around the mid 2000s. This video makes me cry inside.

so many cool items in the trash

With living in Michigan, there are still a few K-marts yet they too are slowly closing. I remember shopping with my parents at a Kmart and it really being a part of childhood. The smuck Eddie Lampert that is running Sears Holdings and Kmart is literally running the businesses into the ground. How sad! Great video, thanks for posting.

My KMart in Joliet IL closed down this past month. Chances are it will be torn down because there was a Showbiz Pizza/Chuck E Cheese attached to it that has been closed since the early 2000s with no other businesses that have moved in, and it can't be safe. The KMart was open for 50 years, one of the oldest buildings still with its original tenant on that street.

I think one thing that really sticks out is the filth. Stores need to be cleaned to be safe and sanitary for everyone who is in them, and it's obvious Kmart definitely dropped the ball on that one. When you have expired coupons from the late 90s buried in the dirt, that's quite sad. I loved Kmart but they really dropped the ball on their stores presentation.

In Australia K-Mart is massive. They are one of the biggest retailers

I'm near a big Kmart, specifically the Maryland one, thank god its still open... I miss Kmart, they're blue lightbulb was always fun to watch on tv

Kind of makes me sad... I remember back when Zellers shut down a few years ago in Canada... They sold out to Walmart and Target (who shut down a year later). Its somewhat funny though, we used to have Kmart here in Canada but they sold out to Zellers

I absolutely love your videos like this. Love from Australia.

When this particular K-mart announced they were going out of business, I had to stop going. I know, keep going for sentiment, get the closeout deals, all that - couldn't do it. My mind would have blown if I'd had to watch this store slowly empty out. (seeing it as it is here just confirms it) This had been my go-to stop on my way home from work for about the 5 years before they closed for quick things I needed, and on very bad days, some "depression pizza" from Little Caesar's. Great garden center. Best place to go for Christmas decor. Always well-organized - the remaining K-marts in the area all seem to be messes compared to how tidy this one was. This is recent enough for it all to just be surreal, even though I still pass by it every day. Now the parking lot is full of barns. I could be wrong, but I believe the shopping center across the street - not where Walmart is, the other street, where the rest of the barns are - used to at some point be a Piggly Wiggly, and on special occasions when I was small, we'd come up to this area to hit Green Farms, Piggly Wiggly, and K-mart. It may have been a different store and not the Piggly Wiggly, but the patterns on the brick really stuck in my memory. My dad used to work in both Canton and Alliance, so we were often up in this area. Anyway, your videos make me very sad. Great job. :)

I worked at the West View location (Pittsburgh store #3529) from April 1997 to March 2003. I was 17 and it was my first job. So many memories and so many good times. I can still remember the re-launch of the Blue Light Special in early April of 2001. I also remember working the evening of 9/11. I worked in the sporting goods department and was told to take ALL of the guns and ALL of the ammo out of the display case and put them in the back stock room. Those items were not to be sold that night. It was also gloomy in the store because they were trying to be energy efficient by turning off half of the fluorescent lights in the store. That didn't last long because shoplifting went through the damn roof. No wonder they went bankrupt.

I am five years too late in my response but our local Kmart supposed to be here Forever but it went out of business a couple of months before the pandemic hit. The old building was used at least for the first year of the pandemic as a play switch it sanitized masks and things like that since getting masks was impossible for healthcare workers. At the present it’s still an empty space - While it’s in a plaza type area, I’m not sure if this is going to be retail space or watt. I think the whole Plaza might be dismantled and bigger retail spaces might be put in its place. It’s quite sad seeing the old buildings go. This particular Kmart that I am talking about was a place I went to ever since I was a kid and I’m much older now and it’s completely gone. I think someone else had a video of the last Kmart still in operation United States closing recently if I’m not mistaken. Sometimes I still listen to the Kmart music that other creators have posted. And I agree about the Caesars pizza although I do miss the K Café so much I think the Caesars pizza aspect to it was really more exciting.

Our last Kmart in the Denver metro area, in Arvada is closing in September. That store opened I think in 1968. Kmart was a big part of my childhood.

RIP Kmart 1970-2016/2017

when on vacation I stopped the big K Mart in Kingman and it was dead, ran down, and the pharmacy was closed. asked one of the employees if the store was gonna close and she said it actually has very good business but we came at a slow time. the Kmart near me recently got a little ceasers and was remodeled about 10 years ago. the paint splatter rooms were the olan Mills studios. my store had them shut down years ago. I predict mine will be one of the last to go cause it has good business and they own the land it's on.

That looks like an early 60s pioneer store. We have one in Springfield IL that has a plaque on the wall from 1963. The way Eddie Lampert has destroyed that company is just heartbreaking. It's the longest, most painful non-bankruptcy liquidation ever.

I remember going to Kmart in the mid 70's. getting a icee and popcorn while checking out the newest 8-tracks and albums. A whole different universe........

the kmart in my my town closed in 1991 but the building reopened as an HEB grocery store. and walking in you can tell it used to be a KMart XD

Those steps lead to more storage and the upstairs of the store. They used it for layaway during holidays. It is scary, dangerous, and wet up there! I also heard that there is an upstairs portion of the store in several places.

Sad. I have great memories of shopping at K Mart. All of ours have closed in the Atlanta GA area, I believe anyway. I really wish they could've held on.. RIP. Great work on this video btw. I like your channel.

Mine finally went a few months ago. Had a huge liquidation sale one day, next day it was gone. The only trace that it was once a Kmart is the faded outline of the sign on the building. Pretty sad, but I'm hoping they put a Target there.

My sister worked at Kmart a few years and we as kids grew up with Kmart.Oh the Blue Light Specials! I'm saddened to see it go like this. It was a classic.

There's a Kmart near my grandmothers house. I didn't know they were struggling

Kmart is down to its last 32 stores across the Country :(

2015 was the last time I was in a Kmart. I was going through Alabama on a Honeymoon and I seen it and was like we gotta stop Lol. We spent like an hour in there. Wish I would have recorded. It was actually like a step back in time because they still had the old Tiger electronic handheld games and stuff.

if its still there get in and get that pepsi sign that was hanging from the Cealing in little ceasers

Great production! You have a unique talent of communicating your passion along with enough music and commentary. I am glad I found your channel after first becoming a fan of Dan Bell. Unfortunately many other retail youtubers just seem to be following, you have something different. Please produce more retail exploration in 2018!

I miss K-Mart it was part of my childhood

The KMart where I used to buy 45's, closed about 15 years ago. It became an Asian market within about a month.

Grew up in the town down the road from this place. Bought Weird Al's Running with Scissors there.

i know kmart has no prices like walmart but when i need something i got to buy from kmart 4 blocks away from my house i buy everything there. kmart located Elden St Herndon Virginia i have been going there since 1998. thanks for sharing this video.

Back in my youth I went K Mart/ Big K Mart/ Super K Mart stores and went to stores closing sale in Big K Mart and Super K Mart back in 00s or my last year of 5 th grade.

i love dead mall & urbex videos so much but never really looked for ones around me. this is the kmart my grandma and i would come to every weekend to get a new toy when i was little. we lived literally down the road. it’s so surreal to see someone explaining it to all of youtube when i could draw a map of everything just from memory. i really like your videos & i hope you start them up soon! you must live really close to me, since you’re posting about all the places i’ve been/go to. i’d like to get into making my own videos too :)

I know how you feel. In my hometown, there's two Kmarts. both of them were Big Kmarts. one of them was downsized into a regular Kmart and now, they just announced several days ago that they would be closing in mid March. and my dad was telling they built it in 1981 or 1982 cause he said he was 11 and he used to ride his bike over there and go inside the building while they were building it (back when you could get away with things) and now they're closing. I remember for my 7th birthday, I got a SpongeBob alarm clock from that Kmart. it's really sad to see things you had and went to as a kid and now they're pretty much gone. I should go up there and make a video before they close. they're starting their liquidation sale on the 6th. luckily the other Kmart, which is still a big Kmart, is not on the closure list...yet. nice video tho. I'm liking your editing style.

We still have a Kmart here in Iowa,but its on a fast decline (Our two Walmarts are pushing everything out).Gotta keep up on that debt/equity ratio...Customer Service is always #1,if you can keep up with changing times and shopping habits.Walmart isn't the greatest on customer service but they keep on top of forseable changes!!!

The very first time I discovered Little Caesars was inside Kmart in Bloomington, IL.

I really enjoyed this video. Your stories are great and you did a super job showing off this Kmart.

our kmart closed permanently 3 years ago (2014), the nearest one is 86 miles away in duluth Minnesota, we only have a mall, walmart and target

I remember buying my PSOne console from that East Canton Kmart in 2000; along with a few games... ah, the memories. Now gone forever.

I live in Hancock Mississippi & We Used To Have A K-Mart But They Closed It Down A Long Time Ago

You could tell Kmart didn't give a shit about its image. It was stuck in primordial times. Looked like what it was 20 years ago, a 90s discount store. I give Kmart kudos for lasting this long honestly. Thought it would have followed suit in the early 2000s following Caldor & Bradlees demise. I still shopped in Kmart over the years but it just didn't do enough to innovate itself into the 21st century.

I remember going to Kmart when I was a little kid and my mom was like pick out one toy and one candy and then I was like no I want three things and then I ended up getting lost

This Kmart was 5 minutes away from my house, we used to go there all the time to get Little Caesars pizza. Sad :( In the last weeks of it being open I bought a cash register drawer since they were selling fixtures, still have it.

Thankyou!

this was a really great tour I like how you didn't just walk around while filming but took care to get some good shots

I've had a strange passion for "exploration" since I was a little kid. This stuff fascinates me. If someone asked why, I guess the best explanation I could give is that while we as folks have lives and souls...we also "give" lives to things like structures, to quite an extent. Once that life is gone, the difference is HUGE...and exploring these once that life is gone is not unlike some sort of modern archeology.. If you don't get into this, I can't explain it to you.

I grew up a mile away, on Cathy Drive. This video was heartbreaking.

Man, I used to grab those little coupons all the time as a kid. It would've been pretty cool if I could find them, probably gone though.

RIP KMart. Walmart you're a good store too. I love Fry's electronics, Kohls, and Kroger.

Thank you for making this video, i shop at my local kmart when i can. so sad, that places and stores that was normal things for me are soon to be no more. Most of the kmarts in my area already closed down, and all the actual pizza huts are closed. I still have a block buster card. My favorite thing of microscrew drivers came from radio shack, now i can't find replacements that i like. Well anyway, you did a good job on this video. hope you have a great day

Target killed Cape Cod's Kmart. Now that whole plaza is a Frankenstein's monster of open and closed businesses.

theres a kmart in forestpark Illinois that has a basement that had access to some secret underground tunnels that al capone use to use to run his liquor from Forest Park all the way to Chicago

Now we are down to 31 Kmarts left Big Bear Lake California Kmart and Bayamon PR and Mayaguez PR are currently closing 31 Kmarts in Total (24 in the Mainland and 7 in Territories) Alabama X Alaska X Arizona X Arkansas X California 1. Costa Mesa 2. Freedom -P 3. Grass Valley -P 4. Long Beach 5. South Lake Tahoe Colorado X Connecticut X Delaware X Florida 1. Key Largo 2. Key West 3. Marathon 4. Miami Georgia X Hawaii X Idaho X Illinois X Indiana X Iowa X Kansas X Kentucky X Louisiana X Maine X Maryland 1. Silver Spring -P Massachusetts 1. Hyannis Michigan 1. Marshall -P Minnesota X Mississippi X Missouri X Montana 1. Hamilton Nebraska X Nevada X New Hampshire X New Jersey 1. Avenel 2. Belleville 3. Kearny 4. West Wood New Mexico X New York 1. Bridgehampton 2. Bronx 3. Bronx -P 4. NY -P 5. White Plains North Carolina X North Dakota X Ohio X Oklahoma X Oregon X Pennsylvania 1. Kingston/Edwardsville -P 2. Willow Street -P Rhode Island X South Carolina X South Dakota X Tennessee X Texas X Utah X Vermont X Virginia X Washington X West Virginia X Wisconsin X Wyoming X Territories: Guam 1.Tamuning, GU Puerto Rico 1. Hato Rey 2. Rio Piedra USVI 1. St. Croix 2. Frederiksted St Croix 3. St. Thomas 4. St. Thomas

to be honest.. I want to go back to the early 2000s. when I was a kid. now I'm 19 with responsibilities. most of the time, I don't even know what or why I'm doing stuff. I want to go back to being 7 years old and having my family take to stores like Kmart. I would also still have my grandma. where I played outside til the street lights came on everyday after school with my friends, some friends til this day. I don't like time, after all. PS.. the paint splatter wall design was a picture room.. I would know. I took one of my toddler pictures with that background... in my local Kmart thats also closing down.

My pastor used to live in the Akron Ohio area we are near were rolling acres used to be him and his wife used to go to this Kmart and the Canton Center mall back in the 90s he even remembers the fight that happened at rolling acres in 1991 with the movie theater incident and the people thinking that the metal sign that fell down was a gunshot

When I lived in East Canton this is the closest area to aim for a Little Caesars my mother was really old school Lovin those stores she left Kmart but last year a closed my mother always bought my coats from here winter coats

There's a few K-marts still selling here in Puerto Rico but it's quite impressive that one of the biggest companies in the world took a hard downfall. In the K-mart that i frequently go they still sell quite well, but the way things got over the years killed them since they refused to adapt to modern times heck they don't sell videogames anymore which is dissapointing.

I miss shopping at Kmart.

When I was a little kid Clarkins was across the Highway,late60'searly70's

The Kmart nearest to me just closed down a few months ago and it was a big Kmart and they didn't have a Kmart cafe of a Kmart express? But they did have a garden center and a little grocery section. I'm kinda confused

the one where i used to live in new philadelphia ohio closed many yrs ago, wal mart owned it, it was finally torn down recently :)

Actually its not kmarts fault. Its sears. They bought Kmart then started closing everywhere.

The BigK Marts in my area (there are two of them. One is its own store and one in a mall) are still very popular and the one in the mall still has the little ceasers

I Was Love Key Mart❤😢

Really hope my Kmart doesn't end up like this....

RIP Kmart :'(