Kmart in the 70s & 80s - Why We LOVED IT
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- čas přidán 10. 05. 2024
- A return to the Kmart of the 1970s that we all loved.
Before the days of "Super Kmarts" and "Big Ks," there was just Kmart.
The first Kmart was opened in 1962, and by the mid-1970s, we were all shopping there.
Revisit the days of Blue Light Specials, Kmart Cafeterias, and random wood-veneered merchandise scattered in aisles throughout the store.
MAKE SURE to stick around for the musical montage featuring two unforgettable K-mart jingles complete with in-store announcements.
Thanks for watching The History Lounge!
- Kevin
#kmart #1970s #lifeinamerica - Zábava
I'm almost 53, and it blows my mind how many stores no longer exist, like K Mart, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Radio Shack, and many others. =/
Many of them on now online. & last week I received a catalog from Montgomery Ward!!
I am 53 & remember Radio Shack as a staple of my youth. Sigh 😞
@@amantedelcane420 Being a kid that was interested in electronics from a very young age, it was one of my favorite stores. I spent hours and hours flipping through their catalogs and dreaming. My dad worked at Collins/Rockwell his entire adult life, I can blame most of it on him.
And Kresge is now only in the UK.😅
Same feeling.♥️
I’m the same age, a Gen-Xer, and I think we’ve lived just long enough to see many of our childhood landmarks, trends, and popular culture we saw as kids die out. I love watching nostalgic clips like this about the 70s and 80s. I miss those times.🥰
Get rid of Walmart and bring back KMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!💔
I know F Walmart! Target too. The old Kmart not the updated red sign big K. The 60s to early 90s
I miss the Luncheon counter! Those burgs and hot dogs were great! I used to shop the Kmart $1.99 cutout bins regularly for LP albums and tapes - I really, really miss that.....and the BLUE LIGHT SPECIALS!!!
Facts
Yessss
Walmart has no magic
America was a much simpler place when Kmart was thriving. Those were the good days and we just didn't realize how lucky we were at the time.
K Mart is where I met my wife of 45 years ! She worked in the delicatessen and gave me a large helping of macaroni and cheese I knew she liked me after that and the rest is history my three kids and my wife and myself have worked for k marts at one time or another so they are a big part of our life! Thank you K marts you were there when we needed you!
That's nice to hear, very nice story , thanks for sharing !
Kmart the only place of value shopping at the time Walmart ain't got nothing on you when Kmart had it all may the Blue light special reigh.I missed getting there on time to catch the specials😮when you got there everything would be gone 😢
Oh my god! That is so sweet! 🥹 like all the happiness to your family! Thanks for sharing:-)
I miss the America i grew up in
Or the Canada for me...😐
Amen! 😢
Same here
It was wonderful really and we had no idea
Me too I’m 40 now and it’s completely different now :( also miss Jamesway too :(
Back when America actually made some goods
Wrong! Most things sold in K Mart in the 70s and 80s were not made in America. Before you argue with me just do some research.
@@davidmitchell6873china, India, and Bangledesh is what the interwebs says.
🎉 awesome 🎉
@@davidmitchell6873 my research says this: In the 1970s and 1980s, a significant percentage of consumer goods sold in Kmart stores were made in the United States. Estimates suggest that around seventy to eighty percent of products were domestically produced during that time. This was before the substantial shift towards overseas manufacturing that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
@@davidmitchell6873 I wrote "Some" not most. Try reading and lose the ego
The workers at Kmart were always friendly, unlike many Walmarts.
Yes, Kmart has nicer sales staff unlike walmart, where they seem to have gotten way rude since they created their bloated ego balloon trip. As consumers I feel guilty for not supporting Kmart ever enough, and when I did it was too late! I lost 2 Kmart area stores by my house in 2015 ( technically lost 4 in total when I lived in Elwood, IL.)
Damn! Tearing up watching this. I'm 54 and KMart was a big part of my childhood.
Back when customer service was truly customer service
Exactly
Yes. Everyone talks about this today, but have no idea what it is...🤔...
And since COVID, everyone wants and expects to be tipped. Unbelievable.😮
Kmart over here in Australia is going from strength to strength.
They are as popular now as ever.
Yeah some of the images used in this video are obviously from Australia too... you can tell coz it shows "Coles New World" attached :P
Probably because more people are feeling poor due to our pathetic albo labour government running the place into the ground!
I looked on the Australia Kmart Website and they don’t have any of the same types of clothing that I miss unfortunately….They did have some pretty unique items though - and yes I heard they are doing well over there - are they considered a discount or a medium priced store now?
I miss this version of America.
This video is a snapshot of the America we’ll NEVER get back! I’m a child of the 1980s, this brings back many memories of a Saturday spent with my mother at a K-Mart store…
I always felt like we won the lottery when they did a blue light special when we were in the store. Us kids would say we needed to use the bath and race to see who could get to the blue light first. We had rules: no running, can’t bug adults, must be stealthy as possible.
Thank you for reminding me of being a kid. I feel sad for kids now that don’t get to use their imagination to make boring things fun.
Why can it never come back? Is it not worth fighting for?
Oh the nostalgia. Truely better times.
Take me back please. The future sux.
I agree with you, no more Good Times
what future?
I miss Kmart. I remember sitting in the diner with my grandparents, while my parents shopped in the ealy-1970s.
Good old times when America was normal
Not like now.
Working at Kmart as a teenager bought me my first car. A used 68 Camaro. Was able to drive it for my Senior year in high school. I miss that place. Still have the Camaro in red.
Bitchin' !!!
My wife and I met, both working at Kmart, she in advertising and I in automotive. That was 44 years ago. The manager said if a Walmart ever came to town, we would be finished. He was right.
We all should have rallied for Kmart instead of the greedy owners of wally world
I tried! I went into Kmarts in deadmalls to buy ANYTHING. My last Kmart purchase was in 2015 or 16. There was nothing but crap. I bought clearance item clothes.
I dont know about you but shopped at Kmart till there was no kmart.
Problem though was in 1990 K-mart started changing itself to become more "modern". "New" and "improved" don't always mean the same thing. The beginning was redesigning the logo to something more generically corporate, then changing the interior design, eliminating the blue-light special, stripping out the cafeterias etc. A decade later, the chain died due to bankruptcy, and over the remaining 24 years it dwindled to irrelevancy in the consumer marketplace. K-Mart thrived for 18 years, declined for 10 years, and shrunk into oblivion over the next 24 years.
One of the things I miss about k mart is that if you tried to steal something they would run you down and tackle you. My friend was security and he threw an exorcize weight threw the front window to chase down a shoplifter. The guy was so surprised he stopped long enough for my friend to take him down. Cops showed up, took him away and my friend got an accommodation. That's how store security is done.
That should be done today. All these stores wouldn’t have lost money and closed their stores. Security needs to be reinforced like back in those days.
I've got many memories of Kmart, but probably the clearest one is when I got separated from my mom, and I went to the customer service counter asking them for help. The lady got on the PA system and announced, "Will the parents of a little boy wearing a Tom & Jerry t-shirt that says 'If you can't beat 'em, bite 'em" come to the customer service desk?"
Of course, the rest of my memories are mostly begging my parents for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, cards, and books.
Ha, same exact story for me. I wondered off looking at bean bag chairs and ended up becoming separated from my parents as well. A very nice older couple took me to the service desk...In the end my mom and dad bought me a coke slush, that was 1979. I was 4.
I LOVED K-Mart… I worked there when I was 16 in 1984 in the deli. I had full control over the blue light special for the deli. I could create any special I wanted and write the script I would announce over the loud speaker. It was such a blast. BUT… I wanted to get my ear pierced and had to get it approved with my manager because of the strict dress code. With manager approval in hand I got my ear pierced and promptly got fired by the store because of it, even after taking it out right in front of them to keep my job. The deli manager apparently didn’t have the power to approve such a controversial thing and was also fired. My mom told me I would get fired if I did it, but I had deli manager approval, I showed her!! I couldn’t bare to walk I the door when I was supposed to be at work and tell her I was fired. She was absolutely livid with me! Those were the good old days! 😂😂
What kind of piercing??
Great Story
Wow 😮What a story!😂
😂😂😂I love a Gen X'r! We just had to push it a little too far. Such silly things to make a fuss over but rules were rules. 😅I have a similar story. Definitely good times.
@@lorraine9320 Just a regular plain metal stud in my ear lobe.
I enjoyed the smell of popcorn when walking into the store.
I miss Kmart and Woolworths stores. I use to eat hamburgers and fries with a coke at Kmart as a kid.
Kmart was my first job. After it closed, I went into a depressed state for a while. I miss the store & how I was treated as an employee there.
My mother in-law worked and retired from Kmart in Albuquerque. She passed away in 2019 at 95. God bless you Syria we miss you.
Really sorry to hear that. To make it to 95...that just really, and truly, blows my mind. I really, and honestly, and sincerely, too, hope she had a great Life. I have 1, of 4, Grandparents left, and not one of them, so far, have made it to their 90's. Wish you the very best, though. Take care of yourself. 🙋
I miss Kmart 😢
Kmart is still all over Australia! There are 325 stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Sure glad I experienced Kmart in its glory days.
I worked at Kmart while in highschool in layaway, making store signs, taking care of the fish and birds and occasionally announcing Blue Light specials. I loved working there and was sad to see it close.
Never will forget the smell of KMart….freshly popped popcorn!
🤮
❤We bought our wedding rings from KMart Lantana year 1984.❤Wonderful memories.❤Sadly my wife passed 2010.❤Love from Finland
Western Australian here, we have Kmart and love it. No Walmart anywhere in Australia
I'm so glad you posted this. I visit AU frequently and love going to Kmart.
Interesting, Walmart operates in 25 countries but not in Australia.
Kmarts cafeteria was the best. My friends and I would always walk or ride our bikes to Kmart and have lunch.
My parents were to cheap to go to the cafeteria.
I miss it. I miss the 70s. Take me back.
Go to Idaho.
Pretty much still in the 70's
80's into the 90's too.....k mart and the culture and society at thaat time went thru the 80's into the 90's toooooo and really k mart florished into the 2000's. the k mart where i live made it and managed to stay open till bout 2011 or 2012.... but by the the 70's 80's and into te 90's vibe was pretty much gone.
No shit !
@@adamgriffith6750 so sad.
I’m with you there even tho I was born in 76 I well remember the 80’s and I would definitely go back to the 70’s and break that Time Machine
When I was in high school in the mid 70’s I worked at Kmart. It was my first job at 16 and I absolutely loved working there. I felt like a grown up wearing my turquoise smock. Back then we got paid in cash if you can imagine that. We received a pay envelope every Friday afternoon about 4:00 and inside was our net pay in cash with a stub showing all the deductions withheld. It was a smart move because we could spend it that day in the store. I have so many fond memories of working there.
I spent many days browsing my local K-Mart in Miami in the 1970s and very early 80s. It's where my dad bought me my first .22 rifle and my first Atari 2600. Incredible memories.
I loved Kmart as a kid in the 70s. Ours had the cafeteria, but right next to it there was ten cent Skee Ball! I was a hyperactive child so it was either money for Skee Ball or I would hide inside those round clothes racks and make my mom try and find me. Then there was setting all of the kitchen timers to go off in one minute increments and putting random items in peoples carts. I really should have been beat more as a child.
Sounds like you were a handful. Lol 😂 More Kool Aid, Red Dye, Sugar and Corn Pops & Super Sugar Crisp...
What a huge hit of nostalgia. Was a loyal K-Mart shopper into the early 2000s. You know, seriously, I never once dreaded driving over and going into K-Mart. I absolutely dread parking and shopping at our local Walmart today.
Absolutely a nightmare Everytime I shop there. Which is next to none. Can't stand the place personally.
I still have a box fan my father bought there in the early 60's. It still works great, made in the USA!
Cool ❤
The Kmart era represented some of THE best years in American history. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
I miss KMART
I just said that to my daughter last week. She's 45 and said she hears a lot of people say that.
The popcorn smell when you walked in the door❤️
Thai is what I was looking for. Many memories of getting the popcorn then going to electronics to play the Nintendo that was set up to try.
That’s the truth! Sooo miss stores having snack bars with popcorn and icees. That was as much a treat as going back to play the Atari, Intellivision, and Commodore displays back in the day!
I really miss the Kmart that was back in the 70s. So many great memories from back then.
I would love to go back in time!
You're not alone, I hate what this world has to offer now which is nothing good
Boy do I miss Kmart. School clothes shopping, Saturdays with my grandma shopping, then as a mom then a grandma. I also shopped at kresgees as a child. The wooden floors, and all the fun stuff you could buy. Sure miss those days.
I remember the mechanical horse out front. 😂
Yes - the mechanical horse or the 3-seat merry-go-round!
Getting an icee there is one of my favorite 80s memory😊
I loved going there with my parents for good shopping and the hot dogs and chocolate shakes. I can still hear and smell the popcorn.
My grandmother and aunt both worked at Kmart from the 60s into the early 90s. I practically lived in there at times. Such a huge part of my childhood.
Saturday at Kmart back in the day was the best.Bring it BACK!😂
I remember going to Kmart with my mom and getting a toy and having little Caesars pizza. I miss the '90s
Clothes and shoes that fit proper and last.
Excellent store in all other items, and friendly.
I miss Kmart..🥺😢
I remember Kmart, we would always shop there when I was a kid. It was the go to store.
I worked at a k-mart in Utah for 11 years ( I started in 1979) , I remember wearing that mint green smock & doing blue light specials 😂 ThankYou for the trip down memory lane 😊
I worked as a teenager for Kmart in about 1983 as a cashier. TYFSOK (Thank you for shopping our kmart) - ahhh, memories!
This brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. ❤️
I miss Kmart! We went there every other weekend! My grandma would always secure the latest most popular Cabbage Patch Dolls there for my birthdays and Christmas' for several years ❤ Miss Ya Grandma! 😢 She was like a mom to me 💔
One Christmas while I was working there I was in charge of rain-checks and helped many parents get the hot toy of the season for their kids. (I think it was some Power Rangers toy.) I figured out that if a customer was thrilled about my assistance and wanted to do something to repay me I would hand them a card with the corporate phone number and my name on it. Then I'd tell them that if they called that number and told them I'd helped them out, it would help me. Kmart made the cards for us to hand out to customers, it wasn't something I made myself, I just utilized it.
Most of them called. Having a customer do that earned a chairman's award (I think that's the right name) which came with a 50 point K-note. (You could redeem those for gift certificates once you had enough.) I ended up receiving multiple of those awards every week for a good six weeks straight thanks to that!
My grandma bought my first transistor radio here at the store in Surrey BC Canada. One of the greatest things ever given to me. 1968 was the year. The Wonder Years.
I grew up in the K-Marts. My dad was a store manager for 30 years. The Kresges were even at my parents wedding. My grandfather was a manager of the Kresges store as well, so my dad grew up there as well. It was the best times! My sister and I got to play in the stores on the holidays when they were closed. We'd ride bikes, skateboards and rollerskate. We'd play with all the toys, get on the store microphone and play hide and seek in the stockrooms. We'd eat the leftover popcorn and help ourselves to the ice cream at the deli. We would even play at the service desk and pretend to be a recording saying the store was closed but would reopen the next day. Twice a week we would go to the store after dinner with my dad and play in the offices and help the cashiers roll coins with a huge counting machine which were brought back at the close of the night. The entire store was our playground! We were very fortunate to have experienced such a wonderful childhood there. I miss those carefree times when we ruled the K-Mart.
Love your story!
Sounds amazing 😊
Almost nothing today has the charm of the 20th century.
All the charm went away when corporations chose money over everything else, including their patrons!
I miss Kmart. I can't believe it's gone.
Aw, my parents took my sisters and I to K-Mart all of the time! We stayed shopping at KMart! Our favorite department store. Mom used their layaway plans during Easter and Christmas to buy us our Easter dresses and Christmas our gifts. What beautiful memories ❤I will always remember ❤️ 😊
As a child, I used to go to K mart on Saturdays for their $1.99 full breakfast.
I worked at Kmart for 5 years in the 90s. 💜 I was paid in cash until my final check, when they switched to actual checks, which we took from the cash window at the back, to the service desk to cash. 🤣 (The cash envelopes included a slip spelling out hours, pay rate, deductions, PTO available and used, etc) I loved shopping there and working there.
The good days are gone forever!!
My dad use to wait in the car while my mom would take HOURS looking at EVERYTHING shopping 🤣 What a smart man my dad, God i miss him 🙏❤️
I started working for K-Mart in 1977. We now call it the "good ole days". After 26 yrs. with the company my store closed in 2003. It was sad but many of us made life long friendships that we still share to this day.
I grew up loving K -Mart and I miss it terribly.
I worked for Kmart for 13 years before my store closed in 2002, in Gautier, MS.
I loved working for Kmart.
As a kid I always loved looking at the fish in the aquariums in the back of the store 🐟
I still have a couple things I bought there in the 1980s. Really miss that store. ♥️
My family still shop at Kmart every week. We love our Kmart 🎉
Kmart was great, shopped there regularly, it was the 'go to store'
This makes me sad and nostalgic. Thanks for sharing!
I worked for Kmart back in the eighties in the Toy department. Fun fact, Kmart paid you in cash, no pay check. The ressson for this was you would spend your money before you left the store. Now that was smart thinking back then. We also got our first pet Tigger, the cat, some one giving away kittens in front of the store. That cat lived to 17 yrs old also a big part of my childhood and teen years
Yep .. you clocked in at the start of your shift and clocked out at the end. On payday you got paid in cash in a little envelope. Spent a good bit of that cash on record albums in the store😊
Just miss them,tons of great memories.
There is a Kmart on Guam(USA) in June 2024. It's exactly like you remember the store 30 years ago complete with blue light specials.
I miss k mart
i still remember the smell of k-mart when i walked in. K mart brings back positive memories for me.
A mixture of new clothes and popcorn.
I loved shopping at Kmart. That's my childhood right there. A bygone era.
I miss Kmart, I used to work at Kmart back in the 80's. Thanks for sharing. 😊
I really miss Kmart. This video brings back fond memories.
ICEEs and soft pretzels, Trax sneakers, the turquoise smocks and logo. Blue light specials. Good times.
Fresh pop corn and ham,very distinctive smell and taste
made me miss my Mom, just passed this year. she used to take us there all the time.
What a wonderful tribute. I remember!
grandmother worked at Kmart. We'd meet her in the cafeteria sometimes for lunch.
If I needed something, KMart had it! I will forever miss it.
2:50 Look at all of those well-behaved non-shoplifters.
I remember my mother bringing me there in the 70s to shop. I was fascinated by the blue light specials, layaway department and instore restaurant. When I finally got my Independence in 1980 when I turned 18, I loved going there to do my own shopping, the blue light special giving half off different department for 10 minutes being very cool. Layaway for larger items that were on sale and hard to get was super. The store even had an automotive department, oil changes, shocks and tires changed while you waited. Go get a hamburger and fries while you wait.
Kmart back in the 80's had a good selection of toys and models that other places simply didn't have.
1/25 scale plastic model cars were around $5.00 when I waa a lad.
I was THE shyest kid in my large high school of 2000 kids, but guess who announced all those Blue Light Specials?...Me! 😂😂 I did so well, that the other departments wanted me to announce theirs. Doing those got me out of my shyness, and at my next job was doing 2 min. commercials! I miss those days!! I miss K-Mart and Service Merchandise And Carson Pirie Scott.... oh, and Woolco too! I miss the 60's, 70s, and 80's!! THANKS for this Video! ☺ ps...the pic of the one w/the water tower in the back (@ 11:18) looks identical to the Terre Haute, IN store w/a water tower behind it. 25th & Wabash.
I miss this store!
I grew up going to KMart. My first albums were purchased at KMart in Sterling Heights,Michigan! Partridge Family!
Mine was the Osmond Brothers😊 Shaler, PA
I liked shopping at Kmart, miss it.
My mom always got me fruit striped gum at Kmart anytime we went there. Thanks mom for all the great memories you gave me growing up. You did the best for us with whatever you had.
The flavor of Fruit Stripe lasted for about 10 seconds LOL. The whole pack lasted me about a minute and a half.
It was the only place that had the layaway and allowed mom to make a couple payments.
If Mom wouldn't get me something I'd go to my Daddy! Within reason of course!
@@ratbert86 Yeah, but, oh, that minute & a half were the best!!
I worked at Kmart in 2006 as the Garden Center Lead before they closed the store in Saint George, Utah. Around that time they had actually tried to bring back the Blue Light specials as one of it's many last attempts. The store was one of the originals from the 70s and had many additions added to it throughout the decades. The sprawling backroom was almost wrapped around the entire store and had been remodeled so many times it felt like an amusement park maze. It also felt like they had kept at least one of every thing the store original used in the back (old carts, registers, 3 different styles of the push around Blue light stations, old vending machines as well as a kiddie Wild West Stage Coach ride that once sat in the front of the store, etc. etc.). It still had it's snack bar and was completely functional that sold popcorns/icee this guy is talking about.
When I came 1981 to the United State it was around Christmas time. It was December 6th when we came refuges from my country Iraq and was my first shopping store was in the Kmart and I went crazy. How beautiful it was the store. It was the store
You’re probably around my age. Much like the sky high signs that made us want to pull in the parking lot, There was just something about the big bright storefront signs that just made us feel so welcome, and anxious to go inside to our favorite departments. They were obviously designed to have that effect on people, but it worked and did positively add to the experience and memories.
We had a nice Kmart here in Farmington, NM! I miss Kmart and I miss my grandma!!!
I miss Kmart. And I miss My Aunt Betty who worked at Kmart for over 30 years... In Flint Michigan.😢
We all need a K mart now more than ever