Transformco, the parent company of Kmart and Sears, quietly advertised “temporary store closing” positions at three of its remaining locations late Friday afternoon. Two Kmart stores in the Florida Keys and a Sears Grand in Rancho Cucamonga, California have finally made their way onto the company’s list of doomed locations.

Since the start of 2021, Transformco has often posted announcements for temporary sales help on Friday evenings. This is now the way company employees and customers learn about the status of their jobs or local stores. Transformco stopped issuing store closing press releases more than a year ago.

It may not seem like a lot to make a news story out of three store closings. But once these three stores close their doors, likely by May or June, there will be only 21 Kmarts and 28 Sears stores left in operation.

The Kmart stores in Marathon and Key Largo, Florida and the Rancho Cucamonga Sears Grand will commence store liquidation sales early next week.

For the last several decades, Kmart has enjoyed a discount store monopoly on the Florida Keys. Its roster of three Florida Keys Kmarts will be soon reduced to just one store, located in Key West. And that location, originally a Zayre discount store, is certainly on borrowed time.

Kmart stores in the Florida Keys do a considerable business in selling snorkeling, diving, and lobster harvesting supplies, along with souvenirs and necessities.

Kmart’s departure from the Keys will likely open the doors for other discounters. The nearest Walmart
WMT
, located in Florida City, is a 2 hour and 45 minute drive from Key West. Target’s
TGT
Cutler Ridge store is even farther.

The Marathon Kmart is a landmark for local residents and visitors to the Florida Keys. The store, located halfway to Key West, is known for its Whaling Wall mural, created by the marine life artist, Wyland. Between 1981 and 2008, Wyland completed over 100 Whaling Wall murals throughout the world. The Whaling Wall project is considered one of the largest public arts projects in history.

When the Marathon store opened in November 1977, Kmart operated over 1300 locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia. With “over 50 different departments — everything for the home, family, and car,” the Marathon Kmart provided a level of value and convenience for Keys’ residents who were starved for discount shopping options.

The Marathon Kmart formerly housed Grant City, a discount store offshoot of the W.T. Grant Co. variety store chain. For over seven decades, Grants was a household name for many Americans. A massive store expansion program brought Grant City to the Florida Keys in 1973.

However, Grants collapsed not long after the Marathon store opened. An aggressive store-opening campaign and a failed and risky credit program pushed Grants into bankruptcy in October 1975. Within six months, Grants, with its 1069 stores and 62,000 workers, ceased to exist. It was the largest retail chain-store bankruptcy filing in United States history.

Grants’ failure left hundreds of vacant storefronts across the country. Kmart was quick to grab many of these vacancies and, like Grants, embarked on its own aggressive plan for growth. However, Kmart evolved into a huge haphazard collection of stores with varying levels of success. 

Unlike its Marathon location, the Key Largo store was originally designed and built from the ground up by the Kmart Corporation. It opened in 1987 and followed the traditional Kmart layout when the discount store was still in a period of growth. In 2017, the Key Largo store was praised for its recovery efforts after Hurricane Irma inundated the Keys with water and wind. Despite the area’s devastation, Kmart quickly reopened it doors with flashlights and brooms in hand.

In Rancho Cucamonga, California, the local Sears Grand store will also begin its final liquidation next week. Sears Grand was an off-mall concept designed by Sears in 2003. Sears Grand, a one-stop “shopping experience” that combined a traditional Sears with a large selection of convenience foods and cleaning supplies was meant to be a significant growth vehicle for the struggling retailer.

However, plans for Sears Grand largely ground to a halt after Kmart acquired Sears back in 2004. The company, then-renamed Sears Holdings
CKH
, didn’t fully embrace or invest in future Sears Grand development. Most Sears Grand stores closed by 2010. The Rancho Cucamonga location still bears the Sears Grand nameplate on its storefront but it is mostly a historical reminder of Sears’ decades-long demise.

With only 49 Sears and Kmart stores, Transformco will eventually run out of locations to liquidate. It’ll be curious to see if Transformco can make it through yet another year with any type of brick-and-mortar footprint. But for most shoppers, it just doesn’t matter anymore.