Saturday, November 19, 2011

Closed Super Kmart Stores in Michigan

 Nicholas Eckhart
nicholas@deadanddyingretail.com
last update: 4-27-2015


Roseville- 17580 Frazho Road
  • Converted to regular Kmart in early 2015

Bing Maps imagery


Southgate- 16705 Fort Street
  • Opened 11-18-1998
  • Closed 10-12-2014

Bing Maps imagery

Detroit- 19990 Telegraph Road

  • Converted to regular Kmart in 2013


Bing Maps imagery

Bloomfield Hills- 2101 Telegraph

  • Built as regular Kmart
  • Converted to Super Kmart in 2001
  • Converted back to Kmart in 2010
  • Closing December 2013
Bing Maps imagery



Auburn Hills- 3500 Joslyn Road

  • Currently Vacant
  • Closed 2003

Bing Maps imagery


Canton Township- 41660 Ford Road

  • Torn-down for IKEA
  • Closed 2003

Bing Maps imagery



Dearborn- 5851 Mercury Drive

  • Currently Walmart
  • Closed 2003

Bing Maps imagery


Detroit- 18700 East Meyers Road

  • Currently The Home Depot
  • Closed 2003
Bing Maps imagery


Lincoln Park- 3710 Dix Highway

  • Currently Meijer
  • Closed 2003

Bing Maps imagery



Sterling Heights- 33201 Van Dyke Road

  • Torn-down for Walmart
  • Closed 2003

Bing Maps imagery


Utica- 45460 Utica Park Boulevard

  • Currently Subdivided
  • Closed 2003

Google Earth imagery

Madison Heights- 29101 John R Road
  • Closed December 2014

Bing Maps imagery                          
Port Huron- 1179 32nd Street
  • Closed December 2014










Bing Maps imagery

Taylor- 21111 Van Born Road
  • Closed September 2016

Bing Maps imagery






31 comments:

  1. I doubt the closed Kmart in Auburn Hills, Michigan was a Super Kmart. It appears too small to be such. Was this store one of the regular Kmart to Super Kmart conversions?

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  2. The Auburn Hills store was one of Kmart's Mini Super Kmart concept stores. These were opened in Big Kmart stores with no addition done to the store. Other sections of these stores were shrunken so groceries could fit in. Some other examples of these are on my closed Super Kmart location lists for Arkansas and Alaska. Another Supercenter experiment was adding on to existing Big Kmart stores to create a normal sized Supercenter. Some of these remain in operation, but no Supercenter stores opened in Big Kmart Stores with no addition remain as Super Kmart. Only 26 Super Kmarts remain open.

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  3. The Store in Auburn Hills also featured one of the first Kmart Express Gas/Convenience stores in the company. I believe the gas station is still open but under a new name by an independent.

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  4. According to this website: http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/cactusbob2k2/kmart.html there was a Super Kmart Center planned for West Branch, MI that was never built. It was supposed to be located somewhere along Cook Rd. North of the Interstate 75 interchange and south of Refinery Rd. I don't know when these plans were floating around, but this store would have most likely replaced the Big Kmart in town that was built in what looks like the late 80's (the Google Streetview imagery is grainy and the store is set back far from the road)that replaced a much older Kmart two buildings up the road (now Tractor Supply Company). A Wal-Mart Supercenter was later built in the same general area that the Super Kmart was planned to be built in.

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    1. I found that the search words "Proposed Super Kmart" bring up a bunch of planned sites I was unable to track down in the past. It even mentions some plans shot down by residents! Thank you for sending information on this planned store. I actually combed through that exact article in the past, but missed that part!

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    2. I found that the search words "Proposed Super Kmart" bring up a bunch of planned sites I was unable to track down in the past. It even mentions some plans shot down by residents! Thank you for sending information on this planned store. I actually combed through that exact article in the past, but missed that part!

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    3. Wow, I never thought to try that. I searched "Proposed Super Kmart" myself and put together a list of 9 planned Super Kmart locations and other information I found on them in Chicago, IL (2), Bel Air, MD, Hampton, VA, Newington, CT, Honolulu, HI, Westlake, OH, Latrobe, PA, and Ventura, CA. I can post the list here if you would like it.

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    4. I already went through the search results and found those. I have tracked down about 15 planned stores(including the 9 you listed above)and I am working on adding more that I am finding now to the map.

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    5. I probably should have looked at the map first before I made that list! But the Hampton, VA store I mentioned above wasn't the one you were probably thinking of (The one that was partially built and then torn down for a BJ's). This is another unbuilt planned Super Kmart in Hampton:

      SW Corner of W. Mercury Blvd. and Power Plant Parkway, Hampton, VA – Plans for this store came out in early 2000 and it was supposed to open in fall of 2001. It was supposed to be 140,000 sq. ft. and replace the dilapidated and mostly vacant Mercury Plaza that had partially burnt down. Later that year, due to legal reasons, plans for this store fell through and Kmart instead started to build their new Super Kmart Center across the street in the new Power Plant Shopping Center in 2001. That store would end up never opening due to the bankruptcy in early 2002. The Mercury Plaza site has since been redeveloped with a Burlington Coat Factory and room for more new stores.

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    6. You are right! I did overlook that site, I automatically assumed they were talking about the other nearby site. I know of a few more planned sites in Michigan and Tennessee as well as those two 1990s Kmarts you pointed out in Pennsylvania and New York that I have to add to the map. I have a feeling more were supposed to open in PA, NY, CA, HI, FL, MN, MI, OH, IL, WI, and MO (I found several planned sites in St. Louis area that were Kmart stores with plans to be expanded).

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  5. The Utica Sam's was not the Super K. That was a Pace, IIRC. (Center opened in '93 with Borders, KM, Pace, Builder's Square, and Officemax, among others- a true K Mart Plaza.) The Super K faced west, north of Officemax. It was one of those regular-to-super conversions that did not add square footage.

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    1. I found out the Sam's was not the Super Kmart a while back, but I did not update this yet. I did not know the Sam's Club was a Pace though!

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    2. There's a whole series of Sam's with different store numbers that AFAIK indicate former Paces. I haven't read the location directory in my Wal*Mart road atlas in a while, but I believe they were in the 6600s. Sam's was barely in SE MI at all (just Southgate, I think and maybe one more) before they got the Paces.

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    3. Thank You. I am trying to track down the locations of all the Pace stores. This might get me a good start on finding them all.

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    4. Thank You. I am trying to track down the locations of all the Pace stores. This might get me a good start on finding them all.

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  6. "Another Supercenter experiment was adding on to existing Big Kmart stores to create a normal sized Supercenter." What are examples supporting your claim?

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Here are a few examples. The Ashtabula one never was converted to Big Kmart before the expansion though.

    Ashtabula, Ohio http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/8662297332/in/set-72157632386975293
    Cambridge, Ohio http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/8529180461/in/set-72157632386975293
    Indianopolis, Indiana http://binged.it/16KzAar
    Indianapolis, Indiana http://binged.it/16KzP5o

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  9. FYI Michigan is Kmart's birthplace try and cover some of the KMarts in Michigan.

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  10. so what was the kmart on hall rd in Utica turned into
    it wasn't the plaza with comp usa and all that was it

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  11. The former Super Kmart on 19990 Telegraph Road, Detroit MI is closing this year.

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  12. I still remember walking into the former Super Kmart in Lincoln Park. I haven't stepped foot in it since it became a Meijer, however.

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    Replies
    1. And BTW, the Lincoln Park store opened in 1994.

      Source: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2003/12/24/business/20031224-archive.txt

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  13. On Monday, after the liquidation sale ends, don't forget to move the Southgate store from your "currents" list to this page and update the Telegraph Road, Detroit list.

    And in the other Detroit listing, the street is simply called Meyers Road, nothing else, plus, it's actually on the west side.

    And I know when the two Detroit stores opened: Meyers Road in early 1999, Telegraph Road in late 2001. And Southgate opened in either the last two months of 1998 or early 1999.

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  14. Found some news articles about the Canton store.

    According to this article about the closure of it's pre-Super predecessor, it opened on September 10, 1997: http://archive.cantonpl.org/observer/1997/08_Aug%201997/08-10-1997.pdf

    Here's one from shortly after the closure announcement: http://archive.cantonpl.org/observer/2003/01_Jan%202003/01-16-2003.pdf

    And one about the store being demolished for IKEA: http://archive.cantonpl.org/observer/2005/05_May%202005/05-19-2005.pdf

    They are all front-page headliners too.

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  15. The Telegraph Road, Detroit store opened on November 17, 2001 and closed on October 12, 2014, just to let you know.

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    Replies
    1. And I forgot this: that store was the last ever from-scratch Super Kmart build.

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    2. The Super Kmart in Auburn Hills (store # 4794) first opened as Kmart in November of 1991. This was a beautiful store, and it was huge for a Kmart. All the departments had expanded assortments (Team Sports clothing ran most of the left hand side of the store) and this store was featured on TV commercials.....Joe Antonini was shown walking through the store, talking about it's expanded departments and "wider, brighter aisles". This was a showcase store for the company. When it opened, it's sales volume was so huge that an expansion had to be built on the store (you can see it on the left hand side of the store photo) as additional stockroom space to accomadate the freight needed for the sales volume. In 2001 this store converted to a Super Kmart, This was one of a group of conversion stores that were called "in-the-box" Super Ks. They did not add onto the store but shrunk existing departments and reduced stockroom space to add the Grocery and Fresh departments. The same was done with Utica and Bloomfield Hills but Auburn Hills was the largest of the 3. The original entrance was closed and re-opened more to the center of the store; checkouts were shifted as well as Customer Service area and cash office relocated to the front wall. The store also had a gas station which was one of the highest volume gas stations in Michigan. The store was absolutely beautiful.......the floor was carpeted in clothing and footwear departments. The reason this store closed during the bankruptcy was due to the ridiculously high rent......it was not lack of sales and was actually producing profit, despite selling gas at $0.86 a gallon! Those were the days.....

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    3. And possibly due to the fact that it was now facing competition from the Meijer and Target that had opened just up Joslyn near Great Lakes Crossing as well as from the since-relocated Walmart further south closer to the Silverdome?

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