K-mart still in trouble - closing MORE stores...

[JediMAC]

Well, maybe Rainman was right: K-mart sucks.

Or at least their financial planners and business operations managers do.  They just announced that they're still struggling to emerge from last year's bankruptcy, and therefore will be cutting another 35,000 jobs and 326 stores!  You can read all about it right here at CNN.  For a complete listing of the stores affected, click here.

So hopefully that favorite K-mart of yours that you hit while you're out on your figure hunts ain't about to bite the dust!  Only a couple left anywhere around me in L.A.  I just hope Hasbro doesn't do anything stupid like give them an exclusive this year (like the rumored Slave 1/Jango Pilot set)!

[Angry Ewok]

We got 2 K-Marts in town, one is on the "nice side" of town, and the other is on "the other side" of town... The crazy thing is, I went down to the "nice side" to look for SW's stuff during the buy one, half off another sale last night... and words cannot describe the chaos of that store...

There is no manager of the toy section, and as an employee told me when I asked for help, she told me, "When we get boxes of toys, we just throw them in the toy section..."

I remember walking into through the appliance section and thinking that the K-Mart reminded me of the bridge in Apocalypse Now, how nobody knew who was in charge and nobody really knew what was supposed to be happening.

Once I saw the "method" of which the toy section was laid out... I couldn't help but mumble... "I dont see any method." - Willard...

I searched through the ailes and found a POTJ Sing figure, a torn up Bacta Tank, and a Zam Wessel, two Interactive R2's, two lightsabers, and one Star Wars Stratego, all of them strewn about. That is all I could find.

I then went to "the other side" and expected something worse, but I was amazed to see that the store wasn't just clean, it was organized and seemed to be up-to-date on inventory. I found several end-caps' worth of initial release figures, and even some Action Fleets, and most importantly, several Bacta Tanks, which I didn't have.

Because I am somewhat broke, I bought :
Bacta Tank, Red Clone, Boba Fett, and Coruscant R2...

[Rob]

It's no wonder.  We have no K-Marts within 150 miles of Dallas (and you'd think Texas would be chalk full of them...).

Then, I went back to Florida over the holiday and went looking for K-Mart so I could see if by any freak chance the Assault on the Jedi Temple battle pack was still available, and only two of the 6 or so I used to frequent were left.  And they were both complete and total dumps.  They made the dirtiest Wal-Mart in Dallas look like Trump Tower.

[Lady Jaye]

Trump Tower?? LOL!!

Well the two K-Marts in Albany have been spared the ax!! Lucky for me, I was able to score some of those JTA there. But they really need new upper management, or something!! I think they need to re-focus their ad campaigns to focus in on shoppers wanting something that they can give, but Wal Mart can't!! What that is, they have to decide!!

[Deanpaul]

Trump Tower?? LOL!!

Well the two K-Marts in Albany have been spared the ax!! Lucky for me, I was able to score some of those JTA there. But they really need new upper management, or something!! I think they need to re-focus their ad campaigns to focus in on shoppers wanting something that they can give, but Wal Mart can't!! What that is, they have to decide!!

That's all so exciting!

[Angry Ewok]

Yea!! I don't even look at K-Mart's ads in the paper anymore!! After a while I just felt like I was looking at their Wish List!! And not an actual In-Stock and Ready to Sell Ad!! Maybe they should footnote what's On Hand and what's just fantasy!! Haha!!

Weeeee!!!!!

[Jesse James]

K-Mart is still a pretty big presence up here...  Sounds like the South is pretty well dominated by WM/Target, but up in Pittsburgh KM is still your neighborhood store for many areas.

That's gonna change I think, but yeah it's still a common sight up here.

I loved KM during the POTJ run...  They got every wave in and I probably bought more SW there than year than any year prior, and I'd say I havne't shopped more consistantly at any one store since.  I've always just spread out my dollar to whoever had what I wanted...  Though KM and KB have lost my dollar because of their inflated prices.

On the other hand, KM was the only one who I could find some of the final 12 at this year on Black Friday, so they're still a viable shopping option for some of us...  With them teaming up with Sears, that's a plus for them.  I'm thinking they're just abandoning the last of the fat at this point, which is what they should do I guess.  Move on and improve.  I wish they'd just be a more competitive source for toys...  Selection's been comparable to other stores but price makes me loathe buying from them.  I only bought there on black friday because figures ammounted to $3.50 each after the sale price.  I was more than happy with that.

[Rob]

Trump Tower?? LOL!!

Yes, K-Mart makes the bottom of the toilet bowl at the local gas-n-go look like the penthouse at Trump Tower.

[Ben]

K-Mart sucks.

I think the last time I bought anything there was when they got ML9 before anyone else locally. I went there during the summer for ROTS stuff which they never had, and totally missed the JTA set.

They're too far away for me to make it a regular stop, so I don't bother with the place anymore.

[Darth_Anton]

K-Mart is the perfect example of what is wrong with corporate America. It's a company in trouble because they can't compete, so in stead of competing and taking a little bit of a proffit loss to rebuild, they basically try to put perfume on a pig and hope to get people into the store. Sadly, they're between a rock an hard place because money talks. People won't go into the store because they charge too much money, and if the charge people less money, investors on Wall Street won't invest in them because they're not maximizing proffit.

[Lady Jaye]

That's all so exciting!

Dude, let it go!! Man, whatever happened in the past, let is stay in the past. Sheesh trolling's not a good look for you.

[jjks]

Okay DP, you know the drill...

[Lady Jaye]

No, instigator, not trying to get anyone served, just trying to put the past behind.

[Matt]

What Deanpaul posted didn't have anything to do with anything that's happened in the past--it had to do with something that is still happening to this day:  your continued abuse of punctuation.

[Victor_Von_Doom]

Like I've said before, my K-Mart is like a 3rd world country. The last time I went there was about 4 months ago. The toy aisle was crazy. You literally had to wade through the toys on the floor to even get through the aisle. Everything was thrown all about like a tornado had gone through there. Finally, I found a JTA set (the only reason I went there in the first place), and of course someone had stolen one of the clones out of it.  The basic figures, which were the same since April, were still priced at $6.99.

I couldn't care less if the K-Mart in my town goes belly up.