"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
>I know a few of you must have, at one time or another, in one capacity or
>another, worked in a restaurant. Or even run a restaurant.
>
> I'm about to write a "book". Skip over the post if you don't want to read
> it
>
> I actually didn't mind being a server. I was young, 20 or so. I had
> worked as a retail sales clerk for a couple of years. I quickly grew
> bored with straightening racks of clothing and picking up crap in the
> dressing rooms. (One time it literally *was* crap. Some woman had used
> the dressing room as a "changing room" for her baby. She left the dirty
> diaper on the floor. You might want to leave your shoes on the next time
> you try on clothes in a store.)
>
> So I got a job as a server. I'm talking about Red Lobster. Boo and hiss
> if you like. Back in the day it was owned by General Mills. They offered
> medical benefits just like the retail job. Anyone working 20 hours a week
> got major medical coverage (which wasn't true if you worked 20 hours -
> part time- in retail). The tips (this was pre tip-tax days) easily
> brought my weekly earnings up to and often exceeding minumum wage.
>
> Sure, I ran into the occasional jerk customer. I still remember one guy
> rather vividly. Friday night, the restaurant was slammed. Everyone was
> in the weeds. This guy couldn't fathom there were other tables seated
> ahead of his party (of four). They had only been sitting there for about
> 5 minutes, they had their water and I'd put in the drinks order at the
> bar. (The bar was slammed, too.) This guy was getting belligerent. I
> headed him off at the pass. I asked the manager to stop by his table and
> comp their drinks before he pitched a major hissy fit. (The guy looked
> like a frustrated middle-management type who thought he could lord it over
> the lowly waitress.)
>
> Most of the customers were nice. I had numerous "call customers" (waiting
> for the smartass remarks...). Those are people who ask for a server by
> name and are willing to wait a few minutes for a table.
>
> I could carry six plates without a tray if necessary. Five were stacked
> up my arm (napkins underneath of course). They were oval ceramic plates
> with an edge on the bottom so they wouldn't slide apart. Hard to
> describe. I carried the 6th plate in my right hand and set that one down
> at the table first. (Servers also needed to know how to tell which person
> ordered what. None of that "Uh, who had the ?" Marking the info on the
> ticket based on the table seating was very helpful.)
>
> It's hard work, waiting tables. As was alluded to in the
> surcharge/auto-tip thread (thanks for the fun, nb!!) there is a lot more
> involved than just taking an order and bringing food and drinks to a
> table. It is the servers' responsibility to make sure the food comes out
> of the kitchen as ordered. Pre-bussing tables (remove soup and salad
> plates to clear the way for the entree). Refilling water, coffee, tea.
> And who makes the coffee and tea? The servers, of course.
>
> There's sidework in the kitchen. Keep the salad station filled, running
> back to the cooler to get more salad green mix (which was freshly chopped,
> by the way, I saw the guys prep it). Also back into the cooler if the
> station was running out of a particular salad dressing. Had to keep them
> filled. In my day, servers did a lot of work in the kitchen area and
> customers had no clue.
>
> Then there's sidework when your section is closed. Those salt & pepper
> shakers don't fill themselves. The servers clean the tables and chairs.
> And... rolling silverware. (Some servers would pay others to roll their
> 50 - or whatever the count was for that night - just so they could get out
> of there 30 minutes earlier.)
>
> It was interesting. I worked with and met a lot of interesting people.
> Would I do it again? I don't think I'd have the energy. Or the patience
>
>
> Jill

I never did because I had friends who did and I knew all the work they did.
I didn't want to do that! I did work once and only once as a dishwasher at
our church. Got paid $50 for two hours of work so wished I could have that
job all the time but my friend who was the minister's daughter had it. I
just filled in for her once when she had something else to do.

I did have to fill in at the deli when I worked at K Mart. Not quite
restaurant work and I can say that I did not like it. The Icee machine
liked to spew sticky stuff on me and I hated scooping the ice cream.
Luckily that wasn't something I did very often.

I did occasionally have to help cook breakfast for all of the employees, and
at one point that was about 200.

Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
renew the lease. My former store is closing in March. I sure hope I can
still get my pension! Looks like I am going to have to try to get it early
which wasn't what I wanted to do. Now it makes me wish I had taken that buy
out that they offered me a couple of months ago. But it's too late for that
now!

On 2/4/2013 10:41 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
> I did have to fill in at the deli when I worked at K Mart. Not quite
> restaurant work and I can say that I did not like it. The Icee machine
> liked to spew sticky stuff on me and I hated scooping the ice cream.
> Luckily that wasn't something I did very often.
>
I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
I've been shielded.

> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
> renew the lease. My former store is closing in March. I sure hope I can
> still get my pension! Looks like I am going to have to try to get it early
> which wasn't what I wanted to do. Now it makes me wish I had taken that buy
> out that they offered me a couple of months ago. But it's too late for that
> now!
>
If you're convinced of this then please check into the pension situaton
*now*. It's not something to daudle about.

Jill

On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 07:41:54 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> wrote:

> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
> renew the lease.

I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
neat.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On 2/4/2013 11:10 AM, sf wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 07:41:54 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> > wrote:
>
>> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
>> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
>> renew the lease.
>
> I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
> some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
> http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
> K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
> They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
> because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
> neat.
>
I haven't been to the one in Beaufort in a while but it was a very neat,
tidy store. It was brightly lit. The employees were very helpful. I
just don't have much reason to shop there. For the sake of the workers
I hope it doesn't close. Still, I'm not going out of my way (literally)
to shop at a store that doesn't sell much of anything I need or want.

Jill

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:36:27 -0500, jmcquown >
wrote:

> On 2/4/2013 11:10 AM, sf wrote:
> > On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 07:41:54 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> > > wrote:
> >
> >> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
> >> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
> >> renew the lease.
> >
> > I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
> > some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
> > http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
> > K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
> > They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
> > because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
> > neat.
> >
> I haven't been to the one in Beaufort in a while but it was a very neat,
> tidy store. It was brightly lit. The employees were very helpful. I
> just don't have much reason to shop there. For the sake of the workers
> I hope it doesn't close. Still, I'm not going out of my way (literally)
> to shop at a store that doesn't sell much of anything I need or want.
>
I was so used to seeing cruddy KMarts that I was actually shocked to
see how neat & clean the one in Corvallis was when my mother moved up
there.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On 2013-02-04, jmcquown > wrote:

> I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
> I've been shielded.

Not sure it qualified as a true deli, but it was typically a small
deli-style "cold case" with some unsliced cheapo ham and bologna and
cheese bricks in it. I usta buy the $.50 ham hero sammys. Ham,
cheese, tomato, and mayo on a sub sub bun. Quite the deal. Some had
ice cream, but I recall Kress having the lone ice cream freezer with
the classic waffle/neapolitan ice cream sammy and half doz bulk ice
creams for cone fodder.

nb

"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 2/4/2013 10:41 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
>> I did have to fill in at the deli when I worked at K Mart. Not quite
>> restaurant work and I can say that I did not like it. The Icee machine
>> liked to spew sticky stuff on me and I hated scooping the ice cream.
>> Luckily that wasn't something I did very often.
>>
> I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
> I've been shielded.
>
Originally they had good popcorn, a hot machine that held things that were
frozen and heated in the cafeteria. They were kept in a warmer there. They
looked like burritos but were called Taco Snacks and Pizza Snacks. The
problem? They looked alike and you couldn't tell which was which until you
bit into them. I liked the Taco but not the Pizza so much. You had to pay
attention when heating and then make sure you told the person who put them
in the case which was which or they'd get mixed up. There were also hot
pretzels but I think they may have been in one of those rotating cases with
hooks on it. We had probably a dozen or so kinds of hard ice cream. And
the Icee machine. Two flavors. Sometimes Icee Bear would come in. This
was someone dressed in a big white bear suit with a red T Shirt on. Kids
loved Icee Bear!

There was a deli case that held a red glazed ham. We discovered that the
night crew had been stealing the ham so every night it had to be reglazed so
that we could tell for sure. I think they eventually hooked up a security
cam there. The sandwiches sold were ham or ham and cheese. Very tiny
amount of ham shave paper thin on one of those huge slicers that caused more
than one employee to have to to the ER for stitches. Thankfully I never had
to use it. There was also a slice of American cheese and a little lettuce
which was also shredded on that machine. Then there were subs and super
subs. I didn't like these so don't remember the difference. I know the
super one was different but not sure if it had some other kind of meat in
addition to the ham. Both had the lettuce, very thinly sliced tomatoes,
onions and mustard. The small ham sandwiches may have had mustard too.
Those were on cheap hamburger buns. These sandwiches were made up many at a
time and put in plastic bags. They changed them out just prior to dinner
time and at that time, any leftovers would be sold for cheap. I mean really
cheap. Like 25 cents. I can't remember the prices now but I do know if you
bought more than one you got a discount. Once in a while I'd buy cheap
Super Subs when I worked the late shift and I'd bring them to my dad. He
liked them.

For some reason they didn't keep the hot snacks or pretzels for very long.
And eventually the good popcorn was replaced with a machine called Air Popt.
That popcorn was like eating salted straw. We got a lot of complaints about
that.

We also had the cafeteria and depending on who the manager was, the food
could be passable to very good. For many years when I worked there we had a
woman named Mary who ran it and she was a very good cook. Yes, the
vegetables came canned and a lot of seniors ate there but... She bent the
rules a lot and put things on the menu that did not come from headquarters
and made things that she wasn't supposed to.

At some point they did away with the mashed potatoes on the steam table and
brought in a machine that made them on the spot. It pooped them out into a
little cup that had a pink bladder in it. When the cup was turned upside
down, it would deposit them onto the place in a rounded scoop shape. The
pink bladder part looked pretty creepy and people didn't want to see it.

We had several kinds of soft drinks, including one machine that shot the
liquids up and sprayed them back down. Those drinks varied but they were
always fruit flavored. There was a big stainless steel iced tea dispenser
and I learned not to get that after a clump of mold came out into my cup.
They didn't clean that very often. And once, some high school kids called
snickering and said they were going to poison us. They had put Pointsettia
leaves in the tea. And they had! We had a high school right behind us and
we frequently had trouble with those kids.

We had a little salad bar and there were little side dishes of things like
cottage cheese, boiled eggs (dyed and in the shell for Easter), pudding, all
kinds of pie. We sold various ice cream dishes and at one point there were
balloons. If you ordered a banana split, you got a balloon, popped it and
it would tell you inside what you would have to pay. Sometimes they were
free.

One of the best desserts they had was the apple dumplings. They came
frozen. Whole peeled and cored apple in pastry and heated in a pan with
sticky cinnamon syrup. Then smothered in vanilla sauce with a cherry on
top. They also served bread pudding which my friend with the bad teeth and
the seniors all seemed to love. It was made from scratch. They served
breakfast too.

At some point not long before I retired from there, the rats took over.
We'd had severe trouble with rats and cockroaches. They had been a slight
problem for years, perhaps because there were woods behind the store but...
A little Asian place had opened in that strip mall and the owners fled. We
had no clue where they went and they left food in there. The rats got in
and then ran out of food so come over to our store through the suspended
ceiling. Sometimes when they ran up there it sounded like a herd of
elephants. Sometimes they ran around during the day and customers saw them.
I hated this because at the time I was in charge of the food department.
When I went into the back room, I'd bang on the metal parts of the shelving
units with a big stick to scare them off. Some were as big as house cats.
We lost a lot of food due to those rats!

Some of the employees called the health department and they were constantly
in there. The cafeteria employees spoke to the rest of the employees and
told us what few specific items were safe for us to eat but said most things
were not because they couldn't protect them from the rats and roaches. I
stopped eating in there.

Both the cafeteria and deli were closed not long after I left and they had
no food for a while. Them they opened the K-Cafe which is still there but
rarely ever open. People didn't want to work there becase it too had rats.
They'd see a rat then quit. My friend told me if I ever went back in there
not to get any food or drinks from it because not only were there rats but
people were getting food poisoning from the tuna sandwiches. I don't know
what all they sold there but she told me it was a very limited menu and few
people ever bought food there.

Some of the K Marts had Furr's cafeterias and according to my parents these
were very good. They may not have been in the store proper but next door.
I did see one once but I can't remember what state it was in. My mom loved
them because the had fried okra and she said it was very good. I think
these were mainly in the Midwest. I think they are all closed now.

>> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
>> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
>> renew the lease. My former store is closing in March. I sure hope I can
>> still get my pension! Looks like I am going to have to try to get it
>> early
>> which wasn't what I wanted to do. Now it makes me wish I had taken that
>> buy
>> out that they offered me a couple of months ago. But it's too late for
>> that
>> now!
>>
> If you're convinced of this then please check into the pension situaton
> *now*. It's not something to daudle about.

I am too young to get it now. I think I can get it at age 55. I just read
the link that he posted. I will post it here. But unless he knows
something additional that I don't know, it looks to me like they are only
planning to close a lot of stores. Not all of them. But he did mention
something about the district manager so it could be that he *does* know some
kind of insider information. I'm a tad worried about some of my appliances
too. I just got a recall on my LG washer and it came from Sears. I have to
call repair on that. Here's the link:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eight-...173320796.html

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 07:41:54 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> > wrote:
>
>> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
>> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
>> renew the lease.
>
> I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
> some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
> http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
> K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
> They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
> because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
> neat.

Yes. That's the way I read it too. And it said that the "brick and mortar"
stores were having financial trouble. They do sell online and when I buy
from them, that's usually how I shopped.

The store where I worked cut back on employees so much that I was lucky to
see two of them when I went there. One in the pharmacy (which we did not
have when I worked there) and one cashier. There are plenty of people still
working there that I know. But I never saw them. I do worry about what
will happen to them. Most are my age, close to it or older. Employers are
not looking for people of that age.

I was talking to a friend the other day about the store closing. When she
and I worked there, they were *very* picky about how the store looked. They
literally did do the white glove test. And one manager went so far as to
stick a Q Tip in obscure corners to see if there was dust there. We had a
night crew who stocked the shelves and another who did the cleaning. And
the floor cleaning device kicked up a lot of dust. So each morning we had
to come in early and dust. Especially the glass shelves above the towels
that really showed dust. In the morning we also put away returns and
repackaged items. But repackaging was also done throughout the day when we
had the time.

At night we all stayed an hour late to straighten and front face the
shelves. In addition, each of us was assigned a random aisle and end cap
somewhere in the store. We were to keep these filled and straightened at
all times which was a perfectly silly thing to have us try to do, especially
if those places were far from the department(s) where we worked. But they
did try very hard to keep the shelves filled and the store clean.

Yes, we were overrun with pigeons (dead and alive), roaches and rats. But
we did try like mad to get rid of those things. It just seemed an
impossible task. The exterminator was in there at least weekly and we just
couldn't seem to make a dent in it. That was partly due to the poor design
of the strip mall with a common suspended ceiling and a poor landlord who
refused to make repairs and just didn't care. The roof caved in more than
once.

In those days, despite the large number of employees that we had (at one
point, about 200 including the auto shop), we still didn't have enough
people to provide good customer service. Nor were there enough registers.
We had 10. Almost always long lines. Advertised items selling out on the
first or second day. Believe me we lowly employees tried our best. But it
was a very poorly run company then and from what I hear now, even more
poorly run now. That's because they make all of these stupid corporate
decisions and those old farts who are on the top levels are clearly out of
touch with the way things work and what customers want. I could write a
novel on that but I won't.

Sad thing is, most of the former employees dislike the place so much that
they rarely ever go back. I think I may have been there 5 times. Maybe.
Maybe not even that many times, since we moved back here 8 years ago. I
mainly only went out of curiosity. And I rarely shopped there before I
worked there even though we had one just over 2 miles from our house. When
I was a kid, we had a Putt Putt golf near there. We'd often walk up there
and play golf all day, taking a break to walk to the K Mart for lunch. At
that point in time there weren't many other places to eat close by. I think
the next closest place was XXX root beer and to get there you had to walk
down a very busy highway. Then there was Henry's. That wasn't even the
name of the place. It was something like Sunshine Sundries or something
like that. But the foul tempered man who owned it was named Henry. My dad
made the mistake of buying ice cream from him once and he ordered us never
to go in there. The school also ordered us never to go in there. There was
a rumor that he sold drugs in there. I don't know. I was too frightened of
the place to go in there. But of course some kids did. The ones with the
bad reputation.

And then when I was in 6th grade and for a few years in Jr. High I did buy
some shoes, swimsuits and a few tops in there. I had a very hard to fit
body. Was extremely thin and tall. Kids clothes fit me around but were too
short. And most adults clothes were far too big. But they sold badly
fitting (for most people) clothing in there and a few select pieces did fit
me. Most of the shoes were crap. But I did get one pair of leather sandals
that were nice and I liked one kind of slippers that they sold. They were
also one of the closest places that sold 45 records so once in a while we'd
buy those.

Then in high school at back to school time they had a sale on odd candy bars
10/$1.00. My dad would send me in there to buy as many as they'd let me
have. We sold them at the Jr. Achievement meetings for 25 cents each. I
did the same when I was put in charge of the student store. My teacher was
amazed because we couldn't get candy from the jobber for that cheap. And
the kids usually didn't care what brand it was. It was candy and it was
cheap! So they bought it.

Other than that, I don't think I ever set foot in that store, unless perhaps
they had some kind of advertised item that my dad wanted to buy. But that
wasn't very often.

"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> I haven't been to the one in Beaufort in a while but it was a very neat,
> tidy store. It was brightly lit. The employees were very helpful. I
> just don't have much reason to shop there. For the sake of the workers I
> hope it doesn't close. Still, I'm not going out of my way (literally) to
> shop at a store that doesn't sell much of anything I need or want.

The only one we went to in CA was in Oakland and I was truly shocked at the
appearance. Not only filthy and dirty but they left pallets everywhere who
you couldn't get up and down certain aisles. And both times we went there
(once with my husband and once with my dad), some bum approached us for
money. My store almost always had at least one security guard working. And
when they did not, there was always an extra manager on duty. We took stuff
like this very seriously and we did not allow people like that to bug
customers. This store just didn't care.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> I was so used to seeing cruddy KMarts that I was actually shocked to
> see how neat & clean the one in Corvallis was when my mother moved up
> there.

The last time I went to the one in North Seattle was 2 years ago. It was
actually clean and neat and well stocked which was odd because I saw only
two employees working. What I didn't see was customers. We did see a few
but really very few given the size of the store. And we didn't have to wait
in line.

Where they really took a turn for the worse (I say worse because it wasn't
actually the worst. That would come later) was when they made the big
announcement that they wanted to attract a better customer base. They
wanted to be more like the Bon Marche. And that's not what people wanted.

They stopped selling the packages of candy that were 2/$1. Stopped selling
the Lander's cosmetics and cheap $1 hardware type tools and often broke
during the first use. Although I think I still have that $1 hammer that I
bought some 30 years ago. Granted I only ever used it for hanging pictures.
The type of customers they did attract did want that sort of stuff. I do
actually see the Landers cosmetics from time to time at various dollar
stores. And of course the cheap hardware.

And once they did that, that's when the profits stopped. They stopped doing
the blue light specials. Another thing that customers loved. They stopped
drastically marking down stuff that wasn't selling. I once bought a nice
red sweater at Nordstrom for $10 on the clearance rack. We sold the same
sweater for $20! Granted the prices were more likely $9.99 and $19.99 but
close enough. So instead of selling the cheaply made and cheaply priced
clothing, we brought in better stuff. I bought some YSL sweaters there once
that may or may not have been bogus but they did look nice. We even had
some Nike footwear. But people didn't come to K Mart for stuff like that.

"notbob" > wrote in message
...
> On 2013-02-04, jmcquown > wrote:
>
>> I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
>> I've been shielded.
>
> Not sure it qualified as a true deli, but it was typically a small
> deli-style "cold case" with some unsliced cheapo ham and bologna and
> cheese bricks in it. I usta buy the $.50 ham hero sammys. Ham,
> cheese, tomato, and mayo on a sub sub bun. Quite the deal. Some had
> ice cream, but I recall Kress having the lone ice cream freezer with
> the classic waffle/neapolitan ice cream sammy and half doz bulk ice
> creams for cone fodder.

Hmmm... Could have sworn that ours had mustard on them. But I think I only
ate them once or twice when I was too broke to buy anything else. I really
didn't like them.

notbob > wrote:
> On 2013-02-04, jmcquown > wrote:
>
>> I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
>> I've been shielded.
>
> Not sure it qualified as a true deli, but it was typically a small
> deli-style "cold case" with some unsliced cheapo ham and bologna and
> cheese bricks in it. I usta buy the $.50 ham hero sammys. Ham,
> cheese, tomato, and mayo on a sub sub bun. Quite the deal. Some had
> ice cream, but I recall Kress having the lone ice cream freezer with
> the classic waffle/neapolitan ice cream sammy and half doz bulk ice
> creams for cone fodder.
>
> nb

Sure. Kmart hoagie, famous.
And the sit down restaurant.
And the auto store.
And lots of fishing and hunting, GUNS.
Used to be a fun place.

Greg

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:10:34 -0800, sf > wrote:



>
>I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
>some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
>http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
>K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
>They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
>because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
>neat.

Both stores time has come and gone. We had a K Mark in town for years
and it was changed to a Sears Essentials for a few years and now back
to K Mart. It was never very good and seems to be sliding. I go
there maybe twice a year because it is not crowded and if they have a
brand name item I'll buy it. Seems like the quality of the goods
keeps going down too.

"Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:10:34 -0800, sf > wrote:
>
>
>
>>
>>I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
>>some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
>>http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
>>K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
>>They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
>>because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
>>neat.
>
> Both stores time has come and gone. We had a K Mark in town for years
> and it was changed to a Sears Essentials for a few years and now back
> to K Mart. It was never very good and seems to be sliding. I go
> there maybe twice a year because it is not crowded and if they have a
> brand name item I'll buy it. Seems like the quality of the goods
> keeps going down too.

They just opened a new Sears Appliance store near here. Hmmm...

K Mart took on the Martha Stewart line some years ago and it just never
appealed to me. Linens and dishes and I think bakeware. All colors I don't
like.