| |
Gary Istok wrote:
> Richard Schuit wrote:
>
> > What does the "K" in K-Mart stand for?
>
> Yes, it does stand for Kresge. S.S. Kresge (for Sebastian S. Kresge -
> the founder) was the name of the 5 & 10 stores (nickel & dime) that were
> all over America from during the first 8 decades of this century. They
> disappeared in the 1980's when all Kresge stores were closed, in favor
> of the larger KMART. The first KMART appeared in 1963 in Garden City
> Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). The company headquarters are still
> located in metro Detroit. I have several friends that work for KMART
> Corporation.
Same here. The headquarters are still in Troy, MI. Having grown up right
next door in Southfield, it was right up there with J. L. Hudson and various
auto companies (a far second, though) as a possible career point. I don't
think the "K" is for "Krap", though--despite sometimes having second-echelon
merchandise, K-Mart to their credit have not raised prices on SW sets to
gouge the consumer. In fact, I got a lot of them for almost 50% off in the
last couple of weeks.
I remember when there were "Kresge" stores as well--usually in strip-malls
or as holdovers from long-ago days. My understanding is that K-Mart was to
Kresge stores as "Super K-Mart" is to "K-Mart" (SAT/GRE practice,
anyone?)...or Meijer is to "Meijer Thrifty Acres." Just the newest
iteration...though maybe Gary can clear me up on this, since I'm a young
scamp of an AFOL (born in 1971, merely yesterday!).
best,
Lindsay
(Still officially a resident of Northville, MI)
---
Lindsay Frederick Braun (Mr)
Department of History
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: K stands for........
|
| (...) Acutally, if I understand this correctly, there are three types of K-Mart at the momment: o K-Mart: older stores, not yet refurbished (I know of two in my shopping radius) o Big K-Mart: either new stores or refurbished older stores o Super (...) (25 years ago, 18-Dec-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.off-topic.fun)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: K stands for........
|
| (...) Yes, it does stand for Kresge. S.S. Kresge (for Sebastian S. Kresge - the founder) was the name of the 5 & 10 stores (nickel & dime) that were all over America from during the first 8 decades of this century. They disappeared in the 1980's (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.off-topic.fun)
|
6 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
