Farewell Tribute to Kmart #7677

After dealing with the loss of what was my local Kmart in Olean, I now go through a process of de-ja-vu all over again for Wellsville. Once Olean closed, this former top 50 most profitable store became my go to Kmart. It was perhaps a little more enjoyable for me personally as the trips over here would usually also involve getting a bite to eat at the Little Caesars cafe. I knew chances were that the store could have the dreaded closure announcement at any point, but I held high hopes for two reasons:

1. This store was one of the 50 most profitable Kmart stores
2. This store was the only discount retailer in town- unless you count dollar stores.

• Walmart tried opening a location in this community for at least 10 years, but ultimately pulled out due to local protest. Most objections were out of fear it would hurt Kmart. Yeah, its a little ironic that Kmart closed anyways. 

1/11/19:

This quad already saw one liquidation, now it sees another.

1/28/19:

Most Little Caesars would close at a liquidating Kmart once the supplies to make stuff ran out. This location had to have gotten new supplies because it remained open for a month after store closing announcement.

More shelving fixtures were sold at this location then any other liquidation sale I've been too.

2/4/19:

2/9/19:

2/21/19:

2/28/19:

3/14/19: (The Final Visit)

I honestly figured this particular location would survive, at least until the day when the entire company went belly up. But I was wrong and I'm not to happy about it. This store will be missed not only by myself, but I'm sure the Wellsville community will also miss it. I can only hope that this space will get repurposed quickly. My best guess is that either Walmart comes in and gets the Wellsville store they wanted or the building is subdivided with Big Lots taking some of the space.

Former Kmart #3141

This post comes from outside the blog's coverage area.

Honestly closing this particular store was a mistake. I can tell you from just visiting once that this location was profitable. Just look at the amount of cars in the parking lot below.

Sadly, this is one of the many poor decisions that were made which brought Sears Holdings to its knees. The company would rather close profitable stores and keep stores doing so-so or unprofitable locations open, especially if the store was owned. 

While its true that Sears Holdings has been saved by a last minute bidder, who happened to be the very same guy that pushed the company into bankruptcy, the question remains as to whether it will actually turn itself around now. Sears has already stated that of the around 400 stores it has after surviving bankruptcy, over 100 are not profitable. 

Personally, I found it surprising that ESL's offer for Sears was accepted by the bankruptcy court given Eddie's history with basically scrapping Sears Holdings for its assets. But at the same time, I'm happy to see the chains survive so its a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. At the same time, I'm losing my local store, so yeah I guess negative feelings toward the company are bound to happen. Only time will tell if they can actually become better as a chain or if Eddie will just simply keep closing stores until there are none left to close.

Anyways, that's enough rambling about the topic. You came here for a store tour and here's the Bridgeville, PA location during normal operations. This store would close shortly after Moon Township did.