Makeover needed: Kmart and Sears

I find most Kmarts to be dirty, not enough staff to quickly purchase anything. I do not generally like Sears clothes, but do like their tools, home and garden equipment, and appliances.

I remember the good old 80's when SEARS was King and K-Mart was the wunderkind. What built these companies was dependibility. You knew you could rely on them to get your family through tough times and even enjoy the good times. Bring back the feeling of American affordable quality and focus on the basics. Things every family needs; things you won't find (or would want to buy) at Saks, Macy's or Nordstrom.

KMart has essentially lost out to Walmart in terms of product availablity on the shelves, customer service and needs to recognize this and stock up, get capable and knowledgable people or get out of the business. Their days of glory seem to be gone.

K-Mart in Winchester,VA. need a overhall it is not organized and the stocks are always low. Sales items are not all available. Clothes are not up to date.
People that work there are not all helpful.
The parking lot isn't cared for and needs work. I lived here 13 years and shop there once or twice a month it just needs work.
Older shopper.

There isn't anything one could do to reform K-Mart. Short of downsizing it to a 'Quik-Stop' or 7-11, this stores downfall is in the merchandise and filth through-out it's stores. Celebrity merchandise made in China and other like countries, poor to 100 thread count clothing you can see through, mis-priced items and overall attitude of employee's who purport "if it's not on the shelf, we're out" and "why don't you try the other K-Mart" kept me moving on to other stores. The attitude of CEO's for K-Mart is obvious...'we can make it cheaper in another country, and they will come.' You're wrong, I won't.

The K-Mart stores in our area are so old, ratty looking, and no selection of merchandise. There is only one checker, when you want to check out. That is the last place I go when I'm looking for something I can't find anywhere else, and chances are they don't have it either. They need to remodel, enlarge the inventory, and hire more checkout people. We usually shop Sears for tools. I think K-Mart has hurt Sears image.

I guess we're lucky in Erie, PA; we have 4 K-Marts, and I can usually find what I'm looking for at one of them; I've yet to encounter an employee (at any of them) that is not friendly. Their clothes have improved so much over the past few years as well, with many 'Old Navy' style knockoffs that I like; and the clearance prices - I've been able to outfit my 4 year old son for an entire season for under $20! I love KMart. :-)

kmart needs to hire great all around workers. that includes new management. the kmart in my neighborhood has nothing but lazy workers and lazy managers. one day i went there at 10am and they werent open yet and they were snobs about having to open the doors. thats some crappy customer service. back when i was a kid the store was open no later than 8 during the non xmas shopping season and closed at 10pm. bring them days back and peopel who care about there job and kmart will be back on top because quite frankly walmart sucks. sure they offer everything but there customer service sucks and no one speaks english it seems. another thing kmart should go back to selling cd's they used to be great with music you couldnt find at fye or cocoanuts. now they sell nothings its bs.

Bring back the layaways and they will get my business again, I used to use layaways faithfully, but nobody has that service anymore, its a shame...

Wars are won on the ground as they say. The same can be said in the retail business. I remember when KMART bought Sears, they followed with clever and fresh commercials but didn't really improve much in the stores themselves. We have some of the prototype Sears Essential stores here and they look good but a closer look reveals they are in total disarray. I went to one and not a single DVD was priced. Also it is common to see something displayed on a shelf but there aren't any for purchase. There's usually only one checkout open too. I think many people who pay a little extra just to avoid going to Wal-Mart including myself. Basically it comes down to poor management and workers would just don't give a rip.

We're pretty lucky, our K-Mart is clean, friendly, and pretty well stocked. One thing I would like to see them do is to bring back the "blue light specials" that they would announce in the store at random times. When they did this in the past, I would sometimes hang around the store and keep shopping, waiting for the next announcement. Really got some good bargains on those.

I remember working at K-Mart my senior year of high school (Thru christmas and all...) The store was always in disarray, no matter how much employees would straighten their departments. Some mother would come along and let their kids rip the place apart. I think K-Mart primarily caters to these kinds of families and that's why their merchandise is a bit sub-par. As for the employees? They were never known for paying much more than minimum wage, so you're going to get people working there who really could careless so long as they get their paycheck on friday. But I find many of these similar issues in other retail stores across the board. If they spent the money to hire people to do nothing but walk around and straighten the store it would probably be more inviting to shop in. I always find myself picking something up off the floor or putting something back on a hanger properly. Probably just a pet peeve but none the less it get's frustrating and I usually end up leaving quickly.

As for the removal of cd/dvd's... they were too easy to steal so they most likely got rid of the headache from losing money in 'shrink' (shoplifting).

I worked for Sears for 25 years, retiring
from them in 96, their best year. K-mart
has muddied their image though they had started to declined years before. Used to be each of the store divisions had their own manager and the stores had lots of class. They lost their way many years ago.

Kmart closed all of its stores here except for 1; it's a super-k but they don't stock a lot of products. You can see items spaced on the shelves to fill in empty spots. I remember kmart from the 70's & 80's: that's where our parents would take us for school clothes & supplies, to put our xmas toys on layaway, and we could get delicious sub sandwiches for dinner. The only thing left is the layaway which will help me to be able to get xmas toys and items for my husband, children, & granddaughter. No clothes though because they are of such low quality, even though they have brand names on them.

K-mart should fill in where Wal-mart has failed. Friendly service and quality, AMERICAN made products.

Sorry, Martha Stewart. I don't want to pay extra for your name on many items at K-Mart. Give me more variety, not shelves stocked with your color choices.

I've shopped and worked (18 yrs,) for Kmart. Watching it decline is sad. We used to be a family and enjoyed our work but, that has gone. The cutting of dept. mgrs., associates, benefits and unrealistic scheduling hours make for an unhappy working atmosphere. Therefore, the attitudes. Not enough help and too much work piled upon an associate trying to cover 2, 3 or more depts. is ridiculous. Not enough salary hours said due to not enough sales. What they don't realize is if you don't have the people to help stock the shelves, customer care on the sales floor and checkouts the customers walk out and don't return. Duh! You have to give a little to make more. Instead the corporate with the shirt and ties sit in their office cutting store hours (scheduling) coming up with unreal procedures that go in force for a few months and then go back to the way it was before. But, all that money and work put in to the changes was for nothing. I'm sure they still got their bonus for what they thought was a bright idea. Let the store mgrs. run the store the way they see it would work. Include input from the associates. They know what really is going on and what works. Believe it or not there are still associates that give a damn and don't want to see Kmart disappear!!

The K-mart in Trussville Alabama is in need of an overhaul. They normally have only one or two isles open to check you out and they close at 9 P.M. while the Wal-mart up the street is open all night. I often see the manager smoking at the front door (Outside)with his employees. Bad image. The garden shop is a joke. Trees and plants sat out in the hot sun with no water. No imagination at these stores anymore. Its not a happening place at all. I wish they would wise up I'd hate for them to close.

they need to hire english speaking people or atleast bilingual people. I get so sick of having to hunt down someone who speaks english.

One time I went to Kmart on a friday around 5pm to get a jug of juice. There was only one cashier and this cashier was still in training. The line was super long and it was already taking ten minutes for one customer. I sat my drink down in the middle of the floor and yelled "screw this!" I had enough. Everytime I go into a kmart there are not enough cashiers on the register, they don't know what their doing half the time. The store is understocked for it's size. I have not seen a floor sales associate in years. If I go in on a slow day the associates are just hanging around the registers, leaning on the counters instead of organizing or assisting customers.