Remember how this morning, we explained why it is inevitable that if you shop anywhere, your payment data or personal information will be part of a hack? On Friday evening, Kmart dropped the news that they have also been hacked, with malware installed in their in-store payment system. They have not yet announced how many customers have been affected. [More]
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$400M Loan From Its Own CEO Is Only 1/10 Of What Sears Needs To Stay Alive
By 9.19.14
I don’t know about you, but if someone loaned me $400 million, it would just about cover all my debts. But I’m not a sagging national retail operation that hasn’t been relevant in decades. If I were, then I’d probably need a much, much, much bigger loan to get out of hock. [More]
Kmart Airs What Is Totally Not A Christmas Commercial
By 9.8.14
Last year, discount retailer and aspiring landlord Kmart kicked off its Christmas marketing early. Really early. Last year, the chain waited around until September 10 to start airing its first Christmas ad. This year, they moved that start date up, presumably so people who chatter about retail would complain about the early start date and embed the ad. You win, Kmart. [More]
Sears Continues Retail Death Spiral, Still Sells A Few Useful Things
By 8.21.14
For the ninth quarter in a row, Sears Holdings Corporation has lost money. Even as the company closes stores, rents out remaining stores, and tries desperate moves like opening early on Thanksgiving Day and making fun of itself in its own ads, the company continues to sell itself for parts in a sad retail death spiral. Yet is there anything that you should consider buying at Sears while it still exists? Are Americans who sneer at Sears missing out? Maybe. [More]
“Kmart At A Discount” Store Doesn’t Quite Live Up To Its Name
By 7.1.14
If outlet stores for mid- to high-end retailers give shoppers a way to find decent bargains, you’d think that a Kmart outlet store would have some real bottom-dollar deals on items that couldn’t be cleared from inventory at regular Kmart stores. But shoppers who visit a “Kmart at a Discount” location should enter with the caveat that saving money is a hit-or-miss proposition. [More]
Use The Abandoned Kmart Parking Lot, Get Your Car Towed
By 6.9.14
The signs in the parking lot warned that it was only for Kmart customers and employees. If the Kmart store had long since closed, does that mean that it’s OK to park there? The $200 towing bills that four friends each received after leaving their cars there say “no.” [More]
Get Your Copies Of “Battilefield 4” And “Assassins’s Creed IV” At Kmart While They Last
By 3.6.14
It’s inevitable: whenever a post about Kmart appears online, wise guys pipe up to ask, “Kmart is still a thing?” Not anymore in some metropolitan areas. Reader Ryan, browsing a store in Las Vegas, thinks that he knows why this is. [More]
Behold The Pop-Up Electric Hot Dog And Bun Toaster
By 2.27.14
Live from the store-closing sale of yet another Kmart, reader Amanda sent us this strange unitasking appliance that we were not previously aware existed. [More]
The Defective Xbox, The Defective Kmart, And The Defective Exchange Process
By 2.7.14
Evan had a problem. Well, first, he had an Xbox One, which was a pretty great thing. He had picked it up at a Kmart in a different city while visiting friends, because they had it in stock. When it began to make can opener noises a few weeks later, it would have been simplest to exchange it for a new Xbox at Kmart. Naturally, that was impossible. [More]
Sears Closing Flagship Chicago Store
By 1.22.14
Along with McDonald’s, Sears is one of the biggest national brands most associated with the city of Chicago. Many people still refer to the soaring Willis Tower as the Sears Tower, even though the company fled the building for the suburbs nearly 20 years ago and gave up the naming rights in 2009. Now the once-great retailer is set to distance itself further from the Loop with news that it will shutter a flagship store in the city it once called home. [More]
Sears, Kmart Recall Kenmore Fan Heaters Because They Are Not Supposed To Catch Fire
By 1.15.14
While flames have long kept humans warm during cold weather, fire is not the intended output of a Kenmore heat fan. That’s why Sears and Kmart have recalled 43,000 of the fans and will be issuing refunds to customers who bought them. [More]
Consumerist Presents The 19 Worst Ads Of 2013, Brought To You By Consumerist
By 12.31.13
While we all have that one friend who is constantly littering our Facebook timelines with YouTube links to “Hilarius!” [sic] commercials, most of us hate advertisements. Even the ones that are funny or interesting the first time you see them will inevitably begin to grate after you see it for the 10th time in an hour. But some ads never even earn that initial chuckle, and instead go right to pushing that nerve that makes you want to body-slam your beloved 55″ TV. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Kmart Not Sure What Color This Game Boy Advance Used To Be
By 12.12.13
Recently, Reddit user Pwnapanda wandered into a local Kmart* store, stumbling on a fantastic piece of ancient technology. There was a demonstration-model Game Boy Advance beckoning shoppers to play…if they don’t mind the decade’s worth of grime on the device. Or whatever it is that makes this thing look so vile. [More]
Kmart Has Customers Jangling Over Men Jingling Their Junk In New Ad For Joe Boxer
By 11.19.13
Another day, another ad that could be seen as either clever or so suggestive that social media is roaring over the indecency of it all and how could you put that on TV, etc. This time it’s Kmart’s turn to face the Internet firing squad over an ad that features men jingling their junk like so many melodious bells in Joe Boxer shorts. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Find Surprisingly Relevant Technology
By 11.19.13
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart seek out the finest and most hilarious pieces of archaic technology still on the shelves in the nation’s discount stores. Only sometimes, the items they find aren’t so ancient. Sometimes they seem laughably old to our tech-savvy readers, but have a real use to some customers. [More]
Inside The Chinese Labor Camp That Made Halloween Decorations Sold At Kmart
By 11.7.13
Last year, reports surfaced of a woman in Oregon who bought Halloween decorations from at Kmart, pulled the unopened package out of storage a year later, and found a letter inside from the factory worker in China who packaged them. This was no lighthearted note. It was a desperate cry for help secretly written at night inside a Chinese labor camp. [More]
Kmart To Open At 6 A.M. On Thanksgiving For Shoppers Who Hate Their Families
By 11.4.13
Just in case you hate your family so much that you can’t wait until 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving to pretend that shopping at Macy’s, JCPenney, or Sears is more important than spending the holidays with your “loved ones,” Kmart — the store you used to buy socks at before the Walmart opened in your area — has decided to open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving to give you shelter from nagging questions about your job, love life, hair, friends, and why you never call. [More]
This 1976 Commercial Shows How People Never Used To Feel About Kmart
By 10.23.13
In the company’s early history about a hundred years ago, a now-familiar brand was called Kresge. That doesn’t roll off the tongue very easily, so in the ’60s they changed their name to Kmart. You know, that store where other kids in school made fun of you for buying your clothes there. It’s still around, of course, but people just aren’t as enthusiastic about it as they apparently were in this 1976 commercial. [More]
