Who killed Kmart in Manteca?
If you glean social media, Sears Holding Co. is closing 250 stores between Kmart and Sears this year including the Manteca location because of Walmart or online retailers.
Let’s be brutally honest here.
Kmart is being killed off by consumers although you could make a case it’s an assisted suicide given how the corporate powers that be misread the landscape or waited too long to reverse engines as the obvious mother-of-all icebergs — online shopping — loomed on the horizon.
I’ve got nothing against Kmart. I like the store but I shop at the Manteca location perhaps a dozen times each year if that. My go to place is Target. It’s been close to two years if not longer that I’ve stepped foot in a Walmart. As for online shopping, I’ve never indulged.
That may not make me a typical consumer, but what is typical is I have a clear picture of what I want as a consumer. Target fits that closer than Kmart. There’s not much Kmart can do about that.
But when a company completely misreads the market or specific communities they serve, they are contributing to their woes.
There were several independent clothing stores in Manteca when I moved here 26 years ago. My first preference has always been to find a smaller store that fits my needs for several reasons. Those reasons range from typically being more personalized to being more passionate and knowledgeable about what they are selling. It doesn’t always work out that way, but they get first shot. After that I try to shop in town. If I can’t find what I want or need, I hit the freeway. As an example, I can’t get specialized hiking equipment at Bass Pro Shops. In that case I head to the REI in Stockton instead of going online because I want to touch, inspect, and compare as well as have questions answered to make sure I’m buying the right item for what I need and get the know how to use it.
Back in 1991 I was looking for Dockers and dress shirts that weren’t long-sleeved, solid or had checkered patterns. There were two downtown stores. I tend to do most of my shopping on a Sunday or early Saturday evenings due to work schedules and trying to keep Saturdays clear. My first surprise was that both stores were not open on Sundays and they closed Saturdays at 5 p.m.
I finally managed to get into the stores on a weekday before they closed at 5 o’clock. They carried jeans and slacks but not Docker-style pants. As for the shirt selection I was out of luck. Fortunaely for me Mervyn’s opened a Manteca store a few months later.
I’m not a business whiz but it was clear to me back in 1991 that Manteca was changing. There were more commuters that worked who might have preferred to shop later on Saturdays or on Sundays. Tastes in clothes were also changing.
When both stores ended up closing, the Greek chorus chanted that Walmart drove them out of business. I reality they had already started down the road given how they opted to run their business. Retail is fickle to begin with but make it inconvenient and misread the market you can shoot yourself in the foot.
Kmart obviously still fits a certain segment of the market. The loyal following they have underscores that. At the end of the day, though, volume counts.
Kmart with its infamous blue light specials was one of “the” places to shop back in the 1960s. You could argue they paved the way for Walmart. Tastes change. Store concepts evolve. Price drives some consumer decisions as does selection and service. It’s not an easy thing to gauge.
Whether Kmart ultimately goes the way of Woolworth’s has yet to be seen.
Woolworth — built on the venerable “nickel and dime” store format of the early 20th century — was considered invincible in its heyday. So was Kmart back in the 1960, 1970s and 1980s.
Kmart repelled and slayed a lot of wannabe conquerors — White Front, W.T. Grant, CBSS and membership-based Gemco to name a few — over the years.
Kmart could surge again. If you think that is impossible look at Best Buy. Eight years ago they were writing the obituary for the electronics chain store assuming they’d be in the graveyard along with the Good Guys, Circuit City, and CompUSA to name a few. The crystal ball folks proclaimed Best Buy would be dead given selling electronics was the forte of online merchandizing. Best Buy doubled down on service — think the Geek Squad — stepped up home appliance sales, and adjusted their bread and butter efforts involving computers, electronic devices and television. Best Buy isn’t dead.
In all honesty, Kmart managed to do themselves in as far as Manteca is concerned by the decision in the early 1990s to relocate to Northgate Drive. Not only is it off the beaten path — out of sight out of mind — but it lacks the synergy that comes from retail stores clustering in one area.
It is big reason why with Manteca adding 28,000 more consumers after Kmart opened on Northgate Drive that the local store got on the national closure list.
Walmart may have peeled away shoppers but it couldn’t have done it without the help of the competition.
And since it’s about consumers and what they spend, those who decide a retailer isn’t their kind of store for whatever reason play the ultimate role in deciding whether a store stays standing.