Kmart to close its last full mainland US location

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Kmart's last remaining full-sized location in the continental U.S. will close Oct. 20, a store associate confirmed to Scripps News.

The store began offering clearance sales, which as of Tuesday, were at 40% off.

The location in Bridgehampton, New York, is the last among hundreds that have closed over the years as the once-prominent retailer saw its national footprint shrink over time. Although the New York location is the last full-sized location on the mainland, three Kmart locations remain in operation on the British Virgin Islands. A location also remains open in Guam. There is also a slimmed-down Kmart location still open in Florida.

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Kmart opened its first location in 1962 in suburban Detroit and quickly expanded. Kmart had 17 locations open by the end of the year, and reached 162 stores by 1966.

By 1976, Kmart had expanded to 1,206 locations and over 2,000 stores by 1981.

But by the early 2000s, the company started to falter. It filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and closed 293 stores. The company exited bankruptcy in 2003, but not before closing an additional 316 locations.

In 2004, Sears announced it was bought by Kmart amid struggles of its own. The two companies finalized the merger in 2005, a move later seen as disastrous for Kmart.

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As Sears and Kmart continued to close stores, the company was sold to Transformco following a 2018 bankruptcy. At the time, there were just 202 locations left in the U.S. At the end of 2019, a majority of those locations would close.

Although Kmart in the U.S. is largely a relic of the past, the company is still thriving Down Under. There are still more than 300 locations open in Australia and New Zealand.

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