End of an Era - The Last Kmart in the Midwest Closes: Kmart #3841, Marshall, Mich. (#8)

As this post is published at 8:00 PM EST, November 21, 2021, the very last Kmart in the Midwestern United States is closing its doors for the last time. The chain, founded by Detroit-based S.S. Kresge and based in Oakland County, Michigan until 2006, is now without a store in the state it once called home. Following the closure of the Sears at Woodfield Mall a week prior, the Marshall, Michigan Kmart store was, at the time of its closing, the nearest Transformco-owned retail store to the company's Hoffman Estates, Illinois headquarters, 218 miles away from the office of Eddie Lampert.

The Midwest's last Kmart was in Marshall, a city of 7,000 near the confluence of I-69 and I-94 in southwestern Michigan. Located in the Marshall Plaza, a stripmall right off I-69, the now-closed store's neighbors include a Rite Aid pharmacy and a Family Fare supermarket. The 36,000-square foot store opened for business on November 15, 1990, and closed for the last time 31 years and six days later. I paid the store a visit one day prior to its closure.

At the door, I was greeted by a sign informing me that the store's pharmacy had closed, and that customer records and prescriptions were transferred to the Rite Aid eight doors down. The notice, and the store itself, both bore the new Rite Aid logo.

Also closed, but probably for longer, was the store's Little Caesars Pizza Station. All of the signage, and the restaurant itself, appeared completely intact, though blocked by shelves.

The pizza chain's logo adorns the building in a 2018 Street View image, and a Google Maps review implies the Pizza Station was open as recently as this past February. A labelscar on the building's exterior marks where the fellow Garden City-born chain once had its sign.

(Google Street View, 8/2018)

The customer service desk could have easily been original, bearing the triangles characteristic of 1990s Kmart decor. Above it was the only 2000s-era Kmart department sign remaining in the store.

Entering the store, racks of apparel, including branded merchandise from various college sports teams, separated the entrance and checkouts from a largely barren sales floor. Empty racks made up the perimeter of a massive expanse of white vinyl tile. To the right were the fitting rooms, sporting their original "red triangle" sign.

Some remaining home items adorned a few shelves to the left. Beyond them lay more shelves, though empty, leading to an empty space at the edge of the store, where the last row of shelves once stood. A couple more triangles adorned the walls, as did two emergency exits, which once led to the garden center.

In the back corner was the disused layaway desk, and a surprisingly clean restroom. The store's other restroom closed with the Pizza Station earlier this year.

What really amazed me about this section of the store, though, was what lay below the shelves for years, before it was exposed during the closing sale. Everything from price tags and item packages to product brochures and confidential Sears Holdings documents were stuck to the floor.

Try as I might, I wasn't able to remove much from the dusty floor. Most of it was stuck pretty tightly, and I even ended up tearing a Blue Light Always tag trying to peel it off. I did end up getting three early 2010s shelf price tags (one of which was for a Kellogg's product, fitting given the store's proximity to Battle Creek), and a few other miscellaneous labels.

Nearby, a large swath of the back of the store was mostly walled off with empty shelves, some of which bore 2010s-looking item signs. 

An old Samsung CRT TV adorned a display that likely had auto parts before.

After exploring this area, I proceeded back toward the apparel, where a Kmart employee donning a gray suit noticed me taking pictures, and told me that photography wasn't permitted in the store. He was unswayed when I told him my rationale, that I sought to preserve Kmart's history on the Marshall store's last day. Undeterred, I proceeded to the fixtures section, which consisted mostly of shelves, clothing racks, filing cabinets, electrical and restroom equipment.

I had no luck trying to buy old Kmart signage. I guess my fellow retail enthusiasts must have beaten me, as two employees I asked told me that they'd sold out of department signs. A third told me that the endcap signs weren't for sale. Hiding behind one such sign was an older one, dated 2014.

Before leaving, I was happy to stumble upon an old Kmart price scanner. I have fond childhood memories of these from my local store, so it was nice to see one again.

Now completely gone from its native Midwest, Kmart faces a grim future, with fewer than 20 stores to remain open at year's end. I'm glad I got to visit Kmart one last time, and document the Marshall store for my readers.

Thanks for shopping Oakland County Retail! My next post will feature an interesting conversion from a restaurant to a gas station.