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Attention Kmart shoppers: We’re closing
By Kalea Hall
AUSTINTOWN
The Kmart store here has been a staple place to shop for as long as its customers can remember, but that will end come late January.
Sears Holdings on Thursday released its latest list of stores to close, 45 Kmart and 18 Sears locations, including the Austintown Kmart at 4475 Mahoning Ave.
“It used to be that Kmart was the place to go at Christmas time for toys for the kids,” said Robert White of Austintown after leaving Kmart on Friday when the store was promoting a “Holiday Blowout” sale. “That’s no longer the case. It’s just an unfortunate story. We see it happening more and more.”
The Austintown Kmart will close nearly two years after the Boardman and Warren locations closed. Locally, there are still Howland, Hermitage, Pa., New Castle, Pa., and East Liverpool locations.
White has been a Kmart shopper for 25 years. The store, he says, offers a variety of products at decent prices.
“I feel competition is necessary, and Walmart will just be even bigger of a monopoly,” White said. “Kmart has a long history of being a retailer, and it’s sad to see it go away.”
Competition from other stores and online shopping outlets are what customers believe led to Kmart’s demise locally and nationally.
“You look at this parking lot and you go to Walmart and look at their parking lot,” said Alan Greathouse of Niles after shopping at Kmart on Friday. “It’s a nice store, and it’s been around forever. I’d hate to see it close.”
A liquidation sale at Kmart could start as early as Thursday.
The 63 Kmart and Sears stores closing in January are in addition to the about 250 other store closings previously announced this year, the Associated Press reported.
The company plans to continue to right-size its footprint nationwide.
The number of employees at the Austintown Kmart affected wasn’t available from Sears Holdings. The majority of the jobs are part-time positions. Eligible associates will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.
Sears Holdings did not respond to The Vindicator on Friday as to when the Austintown Kmart opened. Auditor records show the store was built in 1968 and remodeled in 1988.
“We are saddened to see the loss of the Kmart,” Austintown Township Trustee Jim Davis said. “It’s been a staple of the community.”
Austintown Trustee Ken Carano remembered the heyday of Kmart.
“They were the big shopping [center] when I first got to Austintown in 1969,” Carano said. “Unfortunately, both Sears and Kmart have competition they have not been able to keep up with.”
Though the township loses one store, it is expected to gain two. Meijer will open a store in 2021 where the former Austintown Fitch Middle School was at 5800 Mahoning Ave., and construction of a Lidl grocery store at Mahoning Avenue and Wilcox Road could start either next year or in early 2019.
Michigan-based Meijer considers itself a pioneer of the one-stop shopping concept.
Lidl, a German-based company that runs discount supermarkets, is considered a competitor of Aldi.
Trustees are hopeful the empty commercial space left after Kmart closes will be filled.
“We feel very confident because of the location off of the freeway and easy access that some other large company will come in,” Carano said.