Guest Post: Kmart, Location Factors, and Repurposing Buildings

Howard Weiss is Professor of Operations Management Emeritus at Temple University. He is also the developer of our POM and ExcelOM software, provided free to adopters.

Since 2005, Kmart has closed all but 17 of its 2,085 stores. In Figure 8.1 in the Location chapter of your Heizer/Render/Munson textbook, location of markets is listed as a factor in deciding on a country in which to locate. For retailers, location of markets is also a major factor in site decisions. In fact, in 2012, Professor Yingru Li published a study stating that the selection of store locations partially explains why Wal-Mart, which currently has more than 5,300 stores in the U.S., has been more successful than Kmart.

Unfortunately, when Kmart was locating new stores it did not factor into its decisions that customers were moving further outside of cities and that it should locate stores beyond a city’s beltway.

In a previous blog here I discussed the repurposing of facilities. U-Haul self-storage seems to be the biggest beneficiary of the closings as it has opened storage facilities in over 20 former Kmarts. Some other uses and their locations are:

Churches, Charlotte, NC; Plainview, TX; Holland, MI

Drug Company, Desert Hot Springs, CA

COVID-19 vaccine clinic, Cudahy, WI

Storage Facility (Not U-Haul), Fremont, OH; Roanoke, Va, Danville, NC; Reno, NV;

Cannibis Location, Antioch, CA

Factory, Auburn Hills, MI

Retail Store – Big Box/Department, Clive, IA; Exeter Township, PA

School, Brevard County, FL; Waukegan, IL

Library, Lebanon, MO

Farmers Market, Herndon, WA

Classroom discussion questions:

1. What other venues might relocate to a closed Kmart?
2. Why have so many of the Kmart stores been converted to storage facilities?