It sure seems that 2025 has not been kind to retail. We've lost Big Lots (on a national level) and Party City. Forever 21 appears to be joining the store closing spree too. There's also JO-ANN fabrics, a chain that will soon be a memory. I stopped into my local JO-ANN the other day to see how things are going.
NOTE: This post comes from outside the blog's coverage area.
While visiting the western Virginia Kmart stores in May 2017, this particular location in Charlottesville, VA was announced to close just 2 days prior to my visit. This really didn't change my plans, but upon arriving it became clear it would be a bit harder than usual to take pictures. This experience pretty much describes exactly what usually happened for Kmart stores- people coming out of the woodworks to go to the first hint of a store closing sale. As a result, I was hesitant at first about taking photos out of concern of getting people in the shot, but eventually I decided to take them anyway to document this location.
Even with that being said, I do think this was a profitable store. From what I remember at the time, it seemed that Kmart's lease was up and the owners did not want to renew it. This was one of the relatively few that got remodeled after the Sears/Kmart merger which supports the suspicion of profitability. The location had a pharmacy (with a walk-up window) and Little Caesars right up to the liquidation, though it appears Little Caesars may have been added in around the time of the 2007/2008 remodel.
