Kmart--Another one bites the dust?

[StoneHeartFarm]

Anybody heard any more about Kmart? On the news they just said the President has resigned and the stock is still falling. A few days ago the radio reported Kmart had a lousy Christmas season and was in talks with lenders.

With Quality failed, losing Kmart too would be a hard economic blow for a lot of communities.

SHF

 

[Thomas]

It does look good all for KMart,and by Monday noon it should be final on the out come.Maybe they can regroup like Sears did a number of years ago..cut some of the fat off at the top,or maybe like Harley Davison.Even in our area KMart has become one of the first stop shopping stores,and if went out of business would hurt many different age groups incomes.

 

[rdln]

Yeah, my dad bought stock a while back saw it triple, ma said sell but he didnt listen. Now he is gone and she sold half of it last week. She is worried but doesn't have that much in it. Kmart HQ is about an hour from home and they opened a store where I grew up? in 1983 so I am sorta partial to them.

Never heard of target until 10 yrs ago and walmart until 5 yrs ago. I do see a difference in target/walmart with more selection though.

 

[TresCrows]

The Rosey O'donnel thing did not help them. Many NRA types quit shopping there and so have a lot of the Conservative types because of the values promoted by Rosey as K-marts spokesman (woman).
Oh well, another lesson for the bean counters to learn--all consumers are not niave twits. Really, both K-mart, Wally World and other discount stores like these have done more to ruin small town America and the small shop owner than any other single factor. I will not miss them, too do loo.
J

 

[Bird]

Yep, looks like Kmart is in deep trouble, and since their warehouse/distribution center (not to mention the supercenter store) is one of the major employers in our county seat, it doesn't look good. Since that supercenter is also the nearest supermarket to us (and since they have the self checkout so it's faster), we've been using them regularly; hate to loose them.

 

[cowboydoc]

From the financial news it looks like they are going to declare bankruptcy and try a regroup.

 

[Jeff396]

What's a self checkout? That's a new one on me.

Jeff

 

[TerryinMD]

Next!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

Why are so many companies quiting? Is is just another way for them to get some debt and taxes relieved. Must be something I just don't get.... /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Terry

 

[Bird]

Jeff, Kmart is the only self checkout I know of so far. You can wait on a cashier if you want, but I don't. They have 4 checkout stations where you just scan and bag everything yourself, then either put cash in the machine or slide your credit card through, etc. There's a computer monitor that works by touch on the screen, and of course, they have one cashier nearby to help folks that are new to the system, don't know how to weigh and enter produce and things like that. It's completely self service, quick, and easy, and very rarely have to wait in line. A lot of folks are still reluctant to use it, but I think it's great.

 

[Hillbilly]

Scan your stuff and bag it,it is pretty neat. If you set something down that was not scanned(where the purchases are bagged)it will tell you to" remove the item that has not been purchased"you can pay cash or card without assistance,but a check you have to get a clerk to approve.

 

[DVerbarg]

In addition to K-Mart having the self-checkouts I believe that Meijer's (another discount type store along the lines of Target and Wal-Mart) has them. They are also appearing in grocery stores such as Kroger's.

I've used them a few times but have been too frustrated by them. The anti-theft measures implemented are too frustrating for me to deal with when purchasing many items and when only purchasing a couple items the express lanes are generally faster. Of course others, like Bird, benefit from them. But I have to admit that the first time I saw one I waited in line just to try it instead of using a "normal cashier". /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

 

[DVerbarg]

Its that scale mechanism that gets on my nerves. After you scan an item it has to go on the scale/bagging area and stay there until after the monetary transaction is begun. This presents a problem if you have a cart (buggy for you southerners /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif) full of merchandise. Hmpphh /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif!

 

[Bird]

Dave, I'll admit that I was slow and a bit frustrated the first time I used it. If you work fast, you keep getting that audible "Please bag last item" (when you scan and bag it before the audible gives the price), but I soon learned to just ignore that, so I can do it faster than going to one of their cashiers now.

And I'll also admit that I don't understand how their anti-theft measures work; looks to me like it might not be hard for someone to get off with something, but I guess they have some system in place. I've never run into anything that caused me any delays once I learned how to handle produce with no bar code, and of course that's simple, too, once you get used to it.

 

[Knight9]

So do you get a price break for doing all the work yourself??

Kevin

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>After you scan an item it has to go on the scale/bagging area and stay there until after the monetary transaction is begun</font color=blue>

Not with our Kmart. Example: one of the really large packages of toilet tissue, you sure aren't going to put it in one of those little bags, but the audible will say "Please bag last item"; just ignore it and keep going; no problem.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>So do you get a price break for doing all the work yourself?? </font color=blue>

Well, sort of . . .. I don't know about other places, but our local Kmart has, for many years, been notorious for ringing up prices that were higher than those posted. And if you didn't catch it before it was totalled up, then you had to go to the "service counter" to get it corrected and get your refund. I know a lot of people who absolutely refuse to trade with Kmart because of that. I'll assume it was honest errors; however, in one case, I bought a package of cheese that was rung up at almost twice the posted price, I told the cashier, got it corrected, etc., then a week later bought another identical package and it was also rung up at the same old wrong price. So they had known about it for a week and had not corrected it.

So when I do the scanning myself, I can catch it right then, and so far I haven't had it overcharge me when I was doing it myself./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[DVerbarg]

Maybe I'm just too frustrated by limitations. Once owned a retail store and as a result used to a system working efficiently for a trained cashier, not a customer. Overall I think the systems are designed well, except for that silly scale /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif. Guess I'll just have to grow up and learn to accept this new fangled stuff (never mind the fact that at various times in past lives I was a programmer and Director of Information Technology and now work with technology as a tool all day long...)

 

[DVerbarg]

Nope, just the satisfaction of being a DIY /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[DVerbarg]

KMart's system sounds better then others I've worked with. Most won't allow you to continue until the item is on the scale. If you could ignore and continue I would probably use the self-checkout regularly.

 

[jyoutz]

Loosing K-Mart would be very bad news for my small community. We have absolutely no other stores with a decent selection of merchandise except K-Mart and Wal-Mart. I would hate being down to a single place to shop. We are a small community but larger than any other in the surrounding area. So people who shop our Marts come from 2 counties and adjacent areas in western New Mexico.