It was a disorganized retail hellscape with merchandise scattered on the floor. Like many 80's bands, Kmart's best days were behind it even then.

Always tried to get my mom to take us to Woolco instead. I just remember Kmart as being disorganized and dirty even back then.

I think back to the years when I would just go to the mall when I was bored, just to "look." The malls are nearly gone and they've left a shuttered ugly shell where people used to congregate --sometimes for community events (and not just to buy things)...

I don't think we've gotten the better end of the deal, no matter how much many love just waiting for the Amazon truck to come.

It had a public library and a few good stores like Radio Shack. That was back in the 70s before the big malls arrived on the scene.

I mean, in its heyday it was good, but in later years it was ALWAYS understaffed. No matter when you went, you'd be facing a long wait at the checkstand. At least that was my experience. And there's still Target.

Add "capital investment companies" salivating to raid it and convince management they could turn it around while having no intention of doing so. You got a recipe for disaster. In my 25+ years in the corporate world, let me tell you, many executives are not very bright. Even forward thinking CEO's can get conned by their own executive team members as they are not advancing the company, just play the politics, get their bonuses.

Our team worked to study various sales programs, the costs associated, results, etc. There was one that was always the bread and butter of the company and used for decades, just modified over time. Did have a high turn over rate, but despite that, it always made money after costs. The other they were championing, well it made money eventually and had a much lower turnover rate. But the old was still better. Execs led the CEO to make a decision to kill off the old one before we even completed the study. Once we completed it, they buried it.

Another study that I had worked personally on that was very strategic on where we put our sales personal showed we could seriously increase sales. And another study that done on one of our main competitors showed the reason they beat us because they were doing what I had discovered. Warned them, not to water it down, if you do, you won't get the results you want. They watered it down. Frustrating part, my own manager thought my study was BS despite all the analytics proving it was valid. Long story short, they kept watering it down until they freaked out in the first month of the new fiscal year when it wasn't as successful they wanted. So they got corporate strategy involved (insult to injury, they canned the dept. that was working with me and trying to stop it getting watered down nine months prior), there decision, revise it in the second month and water it down some more. Naturally never came near targets and killed it after that. I left on my own shortly after.

a holiday loop on YouTube. It is the Kmart Christmas loop from 1974-i think. music, blue light specials and all. cracks me up!