Talk:Kmart

In addition, Kmart attempted to compete against Wal-Mart on price, which failed because Wal-Mart contrived to meet and beat Kmart's price cuts.

Puh-leeeeze. Maybe it's just me, but the notion of contriving carries with it a rather clear suggestion of conspiracy, scheming, and subterfuge. I'd feel more comfortable with "opted", "was able", or "diabolically reset its pricing so as".

Headline text

I don not know what all you you people out there think about Kmart but yea so if you would like to know there are not many at all that are called kmart any more, and so it is weird that they have kmart on the home page name when now it is really called the big K and so yea that is why i thought that that was weird you know what i am saying any who, so i am looking for a store layout, and did you hear about belling and he was on the radio station, and he made a barogitory comment, and yea so a lot of people who were that culture, were preety affended, anyways so do you think that martha stewart is guilty, or what about michelle Jackson? I think that he is innocent, but what ever i do not beleive in gay marrages do you? What ever well so yea so this is all about Kmart --[anon]

Blue light special and blue plate special?

Anyone know about the origin of the "blue light special" and, specifically, whether the phrase was intended to echo the phrase Blue-plate special? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 11:04, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I don't know whether the intent was to echo blue-plate special, but as I recall, the K-mart term came from a flashing blue light that would indicate the location of a temporary (perhaps in-store) special. An loudspeaker would also make announcements about the special. older≠wiser 12:54, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)

Sure. The canonical announcement was "Attention, K-Mart shoppers!" And the blue light was on a sort of cart with a post that raised it high enough above the shelving to be visible throughout the store. The question is, was the name (and perhaps the choice of light color) intended to echo or evoke the restaurant phrase? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 13:06, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The story of the attempted "revival" of this Blue Light thing is probably the biggest example of marketing and business stupidity I've ever read in my entire life.

I can't find a reference but I understand that since Kmart's color is red it was orginally the Red Light Special. Since red light has a somewhat bad connation as in red light district, it was changed to blue. 76.30.113.170 18:16, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Failure reasons

I do agree that not setting up proper inventory control (IT) was a big mistake. However, i think what really killed them was when they started buying other business that were not low priced. If they stayed within the Kmart store concept, they had a chance of surviving even with a poor inventory control. So issentially, the biggest mistake started in mid 80's. The second major thing that brought them down was poor management ethics. Dig a bit on Charles Conaway, James Adamson, Mark Schwartz etc. I think the company deserved going down when you have such greedy leaders. Oh, and i almost forgot, the store managers did their part to bring the company down. Even when there was some kind of inventory control system, they avoided using them because that would have meant doing away with shelf revenue. What i mean is, they were happy to take the slowest moving items at expense of fast moving goods if the former paid well lending to frequent stock out. Very retarded action i would say

An interesting character, Mark Schwartz, i think worked as an executive for walmart in realty related business, left in 1996, when that business filed for backruptcy. Headed to Hechinger Company and left a week before the company filed bankruptcy. Ended up in Big V Supermarkets and .. you got it... left weeks before they filed for bankruptcy. Ha, you would think they guy will never get a job anywhere else. Wrong, the guy ended up in Kmart, implemented Blue Light Always strategy and cranked up inventory by up to 8.3 billion dollars in 2001 christmas. Apparently, people shopped elsewhere and when January of 2002 came, oops we can't be able to pay our suppliers and the rest is history .. sorry all the above is history. This is the fun part though, the guy got a $3 million parting gift for doing a very good job. What am i to say Kmart, good riddance.

Super-K and Big-K

Could someone write about Super-Ks (which I heard don't exist anymore) and Big-Ks (which I heard are going to renamed just K-Mart again)? -newkai | talk | contribs 02:23, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Kmart in Australia & culture

Umm, Kmart remains a strong name in Australia, with many ads on primetime TV and in print, it is one of the main department store chains in South Australia at least. I don't know anything about failure or decaying stores, but I wonder why it isn't on this page? I passed three different Kmarts on my way to work this morning, even bought summat from my nearest store on the way back. Kmart in Australia is very popular as a very large department store that offers a range of goods, from books, extensive clothing range, jewlery, hifi, videogames, music, movies, linen, housegoods, a snack food range and many stores feature a plant nursery and garden section. It is also popular because the stores are clean, large and there are so many of them that you can be certain that one is near where you live.

Kmart in Australia is also famous for being a generic clothing seller and bad clothing is often reffered to as Kmart as an insult. Plain clothing is also famous for being "Kmart", comedian Billy Connely once joked that when Christians find Jesus they also find Kmart, as Christians here are famous for wearing tweed cardigans and other poor choices in attire.

Kmart may just be a small chain of department stores that failed in America, but in Australia they are top shit. Kmart is even doing better than the our failing Harris Scarf department store and increasingly failing Myer (Grace Bros in America, I believe) stores. So, what gives? Is wikipedia an encyclopedia for American POV and life only?

Sure Aus has it's own page, but why not put the link at the top of the page or disembag it alltogether? JayKeaton 17:29, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm the one who laid out the newly-split Kmart article, and my thought process was that it was a related topic, though separate from the US operation, thus in the "see also" section. If you think it can be done better, please be bold and fix it up. SchuminWeb (Talk) 03:55, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm not too sure how to cleanly join two articles. The Australian KMart may now have a different "holder" or summat, but I don't think that it deserves it's own page, rather the American and Australian Kmart should just be on wiki/Kmart together. I will try and look into how other pages have been combined. JayKeaton 08:02, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Kmart Australia should remain a separate article, because it is, and has been since 1994, a completely separate entity from the American Kmart. I've added a sentence to the disambig link at the top to make it easier for those down under to find the correct article. 23:24, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

No matter which country they are in or how seperate they are, they are BOTH still Kmarts JayKeaton 11:30, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject: Retailing

Hello, a new WikiProject called Retailing has been created, and we invite anyone who is interested in joining to sign up. If you would like to join it, then list your name on Wikipedia:Wikiproject/List_of_proposed_projects#Retailing. Tuxide 00:38, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Roseanne reference

I saw that episode on its recent N@N airing, and indeed Kmart is correct. I got it confused with another dumpster reference from that same season, which was where Leon says that the Lanford Lunch Box's main competition is the dumpsters behind McDonald's. So mea culpa on that one. SchuminWeb (Talk) 06:30, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

NPOV Issue

"Kmart is a cheap ass rip off of Wal-Mart. Though it was made first, it should be burned to the ground."

What does this have to do with anything (other than sparking an NPOV debate)?

WAVY 10 14:30, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

How can it be a rip off when it was created first????

Talk:Christmas controversies/Merge proposal

The current poll regarding an issue related to this article is now closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as a new section of the article's talk page). Last issue: Talk:Christmas controversies/Merge proposal

Tuxide 21:19, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Bigkmart.jpg

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HERE IS MY DEMAND: Get the begging for money ads off of Wikipedia! Wikipedia is trying to take money from readers. Wikipedia is a fraud! Why should I give money to Wikipedia? It is the users that gene

HERE IS MY DEMAND: Get the begging for money ads off of Wikipedia! Wikipedia is trying to take money from readers. Wikipedia is a fraud! Why should I give money to Wikipedia? It is the users that generate the content. What the fuck does Wikipedia do? The Edit Wars will continue until the bullshit donation ads are removed! Stop it!