Posted on 09/14/2016 2:25:22 PM PDT by PROCON
I frequently TRY to give my business to the local Kmart, but they almost always disappoint me. They either don’t have what I need, or they have it at a higher price than Wal Mart.
Didn’t Sears start up the Prodigy online service? That was my introduction to the Internet back in the early 1990s. It was quite a clunky interface even for that time but they were among the first few along with CompuServe and AOL.
Another squandered opportunity.
the demographics have changed...when you have small children or teenagers you shop a lot....
when they're gone, not so much shopping needed....
its basically Fred Meyer for us...never Target, Shopko occasionally...
The big dept stores used to go all out on Christmas decor - and not just to promo items on sale. The windows served as wonderful tableaus, especially downtown where parents would take kids to check out the Xmas window displays. Was a great way to spend a few hours on a winter evening,
How many floors did that warehouse have? It looked like 20 stories, lol.
“Didn’t Sears start up the Prodigy online service?”
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Wikipedia:
“Prodigy was founded on February 13, 1984, as Trintex, a joint venture between CBS, computer manufacturer IBM, and retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company.”
I remember those days with great fondness.
I remember going with my Mother to pick up something she had placed on layaway at the Sears in Panama City. Back then it was a large two story building, probably the largest store in town.
I was fascinated by a display they had. A vacuum cleaner had the hose affixed to the blow side and a beach ball was balanced in the air. For some reason the air flow was perfect to keep that thing floating permanently or as long as it was on.
This would have been around 1952.
I like their major appliances - refrigerators, washers, dryers, etc., and of course their tools
This wasn’t in the window, they had a huge platform going down the middle of the store with model trains running through a Christmas village, with Santa Claus at the end of it. They did up the store windows, too, but I remember the trains.
Kmart Dental is an in-store dental office that is located in Kmart stores. There is only one such prototype in a Kmart store, which is located in Miami, Florida.
Don’t recall the number of floors.
Here’s an article I found in the Fishwrap from 2015 where the city dogooders want to re-purpose the building because in their opinion it’s an eyesore that eats up too much acreage.
I was thinking of how they use to do up the place in general at Christmas, inside and out. Some stores with their own Santa.
“... Biggest mistake Sears ever made was buying KMart ...”
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It was the other way around.
Yeah, I know. Was only joking.
I remember my mom taking us to KMart and Sears. She would always listen out for the blue light special. I remember she stopped taking us to one of Kmarts because she said there were too many negroes starting to go to that one. Man that was along time ago (no slam meant just thinking about how different times were).
“And who remembers Woolworth?”
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Used to go there all the time. Had a great soda fountain and a photobooth, fun memories.
Sears could of easily beat the sales tax issue - just like Amazon did. Every Amazon warehouse is/was a separate business entity and they used to never ship to the same state they were located in. That has changed recently and they now (sort of) collect sales tax.
Well that explains why Prodigy was pre-loaded on my IBM PC.
One day I double-clicked the icon, signed up and the rest is history. I was immediately hooked on the bulletin boards. One of which metamorphosed into this here Free Republic!
I remember paying $19.99 a month for 20 hours and then $3.60 for each additional hour. That added up fast.
Actually I think K-Mart bought Sears.
It’s no surprise they didn’t run with the digital camera, as that technology was a knife to the heart of their mammoth silver-based photofinishing operations.
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