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Competition helps force Kmart closings
By DAN DeWITT and ROBERT KING BROOKSVILLE -- Kmart clerks are friendly and helpful, said Jean Mason of Brooksville. And, having shopped at the chain for decades, she said, she feels loyal to it. But one other reason she is a Kmart shopper is the same one that forced the closure of her regular store in Brooksville and the company's other store, on U.S. 19 in Spring Hill. "You don't have to battle any crowds," said Mason, 71. The company announced the two stores were among the 326 stores it is closing nationwide. The company culled the unprofitable stores in preparation for leaving bankruptcy protection, which it is scheduled to do in the spring. It chose some stores to close because they face tough competition. The Brooksville store is less than half a mile from a new Wal-Mart Supercenter; the Spring Hill Kmart is competing against an existing Wal-Mart store a mile to the north. A mile to the south a new Wal-Mart Supercenter is under construction and due to open this spring. The closings will put a total of 175 full- and part-time employees out of work. Stores in neighboring Pasco County won't be closing. Both Hernando stores are. Carl and Ann Lerche, both in their late 60s, say Kmart simply can't keep up with Wal-Mart's larger selection of items and its food department, which makes it possible to do one-stop shopping. "You hate to see Kmart get squeezed out," he said. "But competition is the name of the game." Like Mason, the Lerches shop at Kmart because it is convenient, in their case, near their home in Timber Pines, a gated community separated from Big Kmart only by the Timber Pines wall. Also, like Mason, they go because it is hardly ever crowded. When Kmart goes, the Lerches say they face the frightening prospect of the busy parking lots and aisles at Wal-Mart. "Here's my epitaph: Here lies Carl, who got run over by a woman with a shopping cart at Wal-Mart," Lerche said. Other customers lamented the coming of two large, vacant stores in Hernando County. Kmart left an empty store on the other side of U.S. 41 when it opened its current store in 1994 -- at the time the largest retail outlet in the county; its old space has since been filled by a Big Lots closeout store, but Kmart's move also contributed to the departure of a Kash n' Karry at the same plaza, and that spot remains vacant. "What's going to happen to this building?" asked Louise Allen, 61, who drove to the Brooksville store Monday with Mason. "This is a new building," Mason said. Ralph Adley, 76, and his wife, Bernice, bought a small table at the Brooksville Kmart, after first checking at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on State Road 50 near Mariner Boulevard. He was surprised he didn't find it at Wal-Mart, he said, because it generally has a better selection. And though he likes Kmart, he said, its recent improvements seem a response to better service at Wal-Mart. "At Wal-Mart, you ask somebody where something is and they practically take you there by the hand," Adley said. "Kmart is doing that now, but only after Wal-Mart showed them how."
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From today's Hernando Times |
