It’s officially the end of an era in the American retail space.
According to a Fox Business report, the last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is set to close in October.
The one-time iconic department store chain, which once operated nearly 2,300 U.S. locations in the early 1990s, will close the full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York, on Oct. 20, according to a Newsday report.
The Kmart location in Bridgehampton has been open for 25 years, according to Newsday.
The other remaining Kmart location in the continental U.S. is at Kendale Lakes Plaza in Miami.
The move means a smaller Kmart store in Miami will become the last one remaining in the U.S. Kmart, which is now owned by Transformco, also has three stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A spokesperson for Kimco Realty Corp. – which owns the shopping centers where both Kmarts are located in New York and Florida – told Newsday that the Bridgehampton store will indeed be closing.
The company was incorporated in 1899 as S. S. Kresge Corporation and renamed Kmart Corporation in 1977. The first store with the Kmart name opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.
After thriving for many years, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 before merging with Sears years later, then filed for bankruptcy again in 2018.
The Miami Herald reports that the Kmart store there leased out nearly all of its former space to home goods store At Home. That Kmart location has now been reduced to what used to be the garden department of the original store.
A Kimco Realty Corp. leasing representative told the newspaper that Kmart has a “long-term lease” at the Kendale Lakes location.