Product Details
Certificate TypeCommon StockDate IssuedJune 5, 1992CanceledYesPrinterAmerican Bank Note CompanySignaturesMachine printedApproximate Size12" (w) by 8" (h)Additional DetailsNA
Historical Context
Historical Context
Kmart was originally founded by Sebastian S. Kresge, a traveling hardware salesman, and John G. McCrory, owner of eight general merchandise stores in the eastern United States and one of Kresge’s customers. In 1897, the two opened a pair of five-and-ten-cent stores in Memphis, Tennessee, and Detroit, Michigan (McCrory continued managing his McCrory Corporation stores through the 1920s). Kresge ultimately became the sole owner of this venture and by 1907 operated S.S. Kresge stores in eight cities between Chicago and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With Kresge as president (1907–25) and chairman of the board (1913–66), the company expanded steadily. Kresge’s at first restricted the price of its merchandise to not more than 10 cents, but inflation triggered by World War I drove the limit to 15 cents and higher.
In 1962, under a program designed by company president Harry B. Cunningham, Kresge’s entered the large-scale discount retail market with construction of the first Kmart store outside Detroit. With its success, the company expanded aggressively, erecting an average of 85 discount stores per year over the next two decades throughout the United States and parts of Canada.
In 1965, Kmart introduced its popular “Bluelight Specials,” surprise deals that were announced in-store and offered for only 15 minutes. After 1991 they were only occasionally used.
The corporate name was changed to Kmart in 1977. Kmart was particularly prescient in arranging a retail agreement with Martha Stewart - hiring her to serve as the public face for its entertainment and lifestyle products in 1987. By 1997, Kmart became the exclusive retail store for the Martha Stewart Everyday line of home furnishings.
Kmart’s expansion continued, and by 2000 the company operated 2,200 Kmart, Big Kmart, and Super Kmart stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Increasing competition with the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, and other discount stores, however, led Kmart to declare bankruptcy in 2002. Although some of its retail stores were shuttered, Kmart survived both the bankruptcy and the legal difficulties experienced by the representative of its star brand, Martha Stewart.
The reorganized Kmart Holding Corporation acquired Sears, Roebuck and Company in 2005 for some $12 billion and took the name Sears Holdings Corporation, the corporate entity formed to manage the Kmart and Sears retail brands. Edward S. Lampert controlled nearly 40 percent of the new corporation. Although the holding company remained prosperous, sales at Kmart and Sears stores continued to decline. In 2009 Stewart accused Kmart of allowing her line to “deteriorate,” and their partnership ended the following year. During this time various Kmart stores were closed. In addition, the financial stability of Sears Holdings became increasingly uncertain, with Lampert drawing criticism for his handling of the corporation.
On October 15, 2018, Sears Holdings filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced that it would close 142 stores, including 63 Kmart stores, which included the last Kmart in Arkansas, in Russellville, the last two Kmarts in Georgia, in Covington and Peachtree City, and the last two Kmarts in Kansas, in Kansas City and Salina. Sears Holdings' bankruptcy also marked Kmart's second bankruptcy in 16 years. On November 8, 2018, Sears Holdings announced it would close an additional 40 stores, including 11 Kmart stores. On November 23, 2018, Sears Holdings released a list of 505 stores, including 239 Kmart stores, to be presented for sale in the bankruptcy process while all other stores were holding liquidation sales. However, the stores for sale were not guaranteed to be protected from liquidation in the future. On December 28, 2018, Sears Holdings announced it would close 80 additional stores, consisting of 37 Kmart stores.
In a proposal announced in early January, Sears Holdings planned only to keep 202 Kmart stores along with 223 Sears stores open, assuming that it would survive the bankruptcy process. Most of the proposed locations were in highly populated coastal regions.
On January 15, 2019, when it had appeared that Kmart's parent, Sears Holdings, was preparing to file for Chapter 7 liquidation, the bankruptcy court judge ordered the company to return to the negotiating table and work out a new deal with Eddie Lampert to prevent the liquidation from occurring. A new deal was struck at the last minute that would keep up to 400 Sears and Kmart stores operating. On January 19, 2019, Sears Holdings officially announced that they had won the auction, and that some of the then existing stores were to remain open.
On January 24, 2019, a group of unsecured creditors, which included Simon Property Group, filed a motion with the bankruptcy court to overturn the deal Sears Holdings had recently made with Lampert, claiming Lampert had been "engaged in serial asset stripping" of the company at the expense of suppliers and landlords. The creditors had requested that the bankruptcy court rule to liquidate the company instead of allowing reorganization so that the creditors would be able to recover more money that was still owed to them. On January 28, the federal government-operated Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation announced that they were not in favor of Sears Holdings' current agreement with Lampert since that agreement would create a $1.7 billion funding gap in the employee pension fund, requiring American taxpayers to cover the shortfall. In papers filed on February 1 with the bankruptcy court, ESL "outlined plans to close three Kmart stores per month in 2019" if the court would decide to accept ESL's purchase bid.
In February 2019, it was announced that a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the most lucrative part of Sears Holdings to Edward Lampert, allowing the surviving part of the company that operated both Sears and Kmart to remain in business at the expense of suppliers, landlords, employees, pensioners, the U.S. government, and other creditors. Kmart would have 202 locations after the sale was to be completed.
The sale of 202 Kmart stores to Transform Holdco was finalized in February 2019, with the remaining Kmart locations liquidated to partially pay off Sears Holdings creditors.
In May 2019, it was revealed that Kmart would close its store in Walla Walla, Washington in July, making it the first post-bankruptcy closure for the brand since being bought by ESL. On August 6, 2019, TransformCo announced plans to close five additional stores by October 2019. At the time of the announcement, TransformCo also added that it "cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term." Between August 5 and 23, 2019, it was later announced that four more Kmarts would close.
In late 2019, the massive closure of 120 Kmart stores was announced.
In November 2019, Kmart announced the closing of 45 stores in February 2020. The Wall Street Journal reported that Transformco "would continue to evaluate its retail footprint, suggesting that additional closures are possible." On February 6, 2020, Kmart announced it would close 15 more stores.
The owner of Kmart, Transform Holdco LLC, had its headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just outside of Chicago since 1993 when it moved out of the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago. Kmart's headquarters had been in Hoffman Estates since Kmart bought Sears in 2005, but in December 2021, Transformco announced that it intended to put its corporate headquarters and 120 surrounding acres in the Northwest suburb on the market at the start of the new year.
The headquarters were formerly located in the Kmart International Headquarters at 3100 W. Big Beaver Road in Troy, Michigan, in Metro Detroit. The facility had 23 interconnected modules. Each had three stories, except for one module, which was one story. Based on the layout, Norm Sinclair of DBusiness concluded that it was "a study in inefficiency".
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