SAD BUT TRUE: KMART’S CLOSING
An article by USA Media posted on the Internet has confirmed the Bishop Kmart will be closing.
The Bishop site is one of 45 Kmarts being shut down by owner Transformco, along with 51 Sears stores. Transformco acquired both operations, pulling them back from the bankruptcy, a year ago, with funding from its owner ESL Investments and a third-party investor.
The article goes on to state the “Sears and Kmart corporate workforce is shrinking with about 250 layoffs.” There’s no count on the number of store personnel who will be losing their jobs.
According to Elaine Kabala, Bishop’s city planner, Kmart owns the building it will shutter in a few months. Vons has the lease on the former Kmart building across from Schat’s Roadhouse.
Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News - The Community's News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
With the convenience and variety of online shopping, I don’t think I’ve been inside that K Mart in the past couple of years. So I suppose I’ve contributed in a small way to their demise.
God Bless America
When I last went to the Bishop K-Mart,they were so low on inventory,planning to buy quite a bit of stuff,I left with nothing more then a 2020 calendar…gonna try one more time to shop there when I take my Cocker Spaniel named Chloeno in for a Julie’s Grooming bath and a haircut,but chances are,maybe a lot of Christmas stuff but little else I hope to buy…
I have been coming up to the Eastern Sierra for over 40 years, and I just got home from a 4 day trip to the East Walker. Kmart has always been my go-to store for last minute supplies that I forget at home (you always remember what you forgot when you’re halfway here). I didn’t stop there on this trip ’cause it was late at night ,or I would have seen the closing banner . I guess Im going to have a list made before my next trip in late April to make sure I don’t forget anything. But even with a list , with no Kmart to fall back on, I’ll surely forget something.
Any future plans for this business such as Walmart or Target? Does anyone know
I vote for a Target instead! 🙂
I feel like I’m stuck on a Island? But Sears and Kmart missed out on all this on-line crap going around.
Sears has been selling online and mail order forever.
Sears started business as a mail order house!! Only later did they add physical stores.
Closure of the Bishop K-Mart was inevitable, it was just a matter of time. Sears, J.C. Penney, and many others too are falling by the wayside all across rural America. Corporate retail businesses have been thrust into a new world (for the past 15 – 20 or so years) of competition in online “e-commerce”. A new form of competition. If one lives in a large urban area, with abundant shopping malls, one can drive to and walk into a retail store, browse around, have a good time, and buy things. Plenty of K-Marts, Best Buys, and other retailers in those areas. But out here along the east side, good walk-in shopping options are disappearing fast. Along with that disappearance, Internet access to alternate methods of shopping are rising. Granted, the online shopping experience is not the same as wandering the aisles of a real store, but this is now becoming the new normal. And, in my view, shopping online is very convenient. No need to start the car and drive to anywhere. Point your browser to the website of your choice, fill your virtual shopping cart, checkout with your credit card, and your goods are on their way to your doorstep or PO box. I live in south Inyo county, and this is how many of us do it.
On a different but related topic, the former location of K-Mart in the plaza located NE of the Main St. / E. Yaney St. junction as mentioned in the above Sierra Wave news article by Elaine Kabala, Bishop city planner. Soon after our first son was born (at home in Lone Pine!), we bought a Maytag washing machine from this store. It lasted for almost 30 years, much longer than the K-Mart. That K-Mart closed, and Von’s took over the lease. Ever since that time, the building has been vacant. Why? Local talk is that the building is ideal for a supermarket, but Von’s management is keeping the lease to themselves in order to prevent a competing supermarket. And from my consumer shopper perspective, Von’s in Bishop needs some healthy competition. Any comments on that? I am fairly sure that I am not alone in desiring to see other grocery stores / supermarkets take root in Bishop. The new Grocery Outlet is a good start. How about sweet-talking Trader Joe’s management into establishing a presence in Bishop in the former K-Mart location? Wouldn’t that be great!
Trader Joe’s has been discussed here before. The problem is that TJ wants a potential customer base of about 50000 people. Inyo & Mono together just don’t make the nut.
When???
February
What is going to take K Mart place? I’m to old to be going to Ridgecrest or any other place. Is Bishop going to be Bodie #2.
It died along time ago. Just waiting for the burial. Bodie wasn’t stupid enough to tell people not stop there. Reap what you sow.
I’m really concerned about the loss of affordable shopping experience for non-grocery items in Bishop. 🙁
So first JC Penny’s now Kmart. There will be nowhere left to buy anything here! Can’t wait to leave this one horse town…
Come on Walmart we’re waiting for you
K-Mart died long ago, this is just the burial.