Tuesday, December 02, 2008

How does K-mart stay in business?

I can't understand how K-mart is still in business when so many other stores are going under. The Kmart nearest to me is like a blast from the past, even though I know it was built in the 90's. Within a half-mile of this store, we have a Super Walmart and Target. Corporate must just have given up on this store. There is a K-mart near my mom's which isn't half-bad, so I know they all aren't as crappy as mine.

I went to it today since I saw their ad that said they were having a double coupon week up to $2 (for example: a $2 coupon was worth $4)

Here is what I bought:



And what I paid: $3.43



Which I paid for with a gift card. A couple of Christmas's ago, Jacob received a gift that he already had, so I returned it and got a gift card.

I should have paid more than $3.43, but due to the cashier's ineptness, that's all I was charged. The coupons were doubled, then the cashier input them again. As I said here before, it's not my job to tell the cashier how to do their job. If they don't know what they are doing, they should get more training or call over a supervisor. To be honest, when I saw the cashier monkeying around with the coupons, I expected the cash register drawer to pop open and get handed a bunch of money. That wouldn't have surprised me.

As I was waiting in line (had to wait a long while to check out because people ahead of me were trying to buy stuff that didn't have a UPC code on them) I saw this display of magazines. Several were weekly magazines with November 10th dates on them. I told you it's like going back in time.



Speaking of the stuff without UPCs, the people were trying to buy garden supplies (probably leftover from the summer), they left without buying the items because it was too much of a hassle to wait.

I also looked at the make-up since I have some Revlon and Covergirl coupons and saw this display of nail polish. What a mess - who would buy that? The display has several spots where people tried it out. And now the stuff is so old the nail polish is separating.



Even though I got a deal today because of the inept cashier, to quote the wise Rainman, "Kmart sucks".

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering the same thing. Our local k-mart opened up in 2002. The whole place has that dated/depressed feeling about it, which is hard to describe. There was a Super K about an hour's ride north of here, that was half way decent, but closed because of the competition from a super walmart a mile up the road.

Anonymous said...

I've often wondered how they stay open for business too... Every one I see is run down and dirty looking. I think that Sears bought them a few years ago, so maybe Sears is making enough moola to keep K-Mart afloat.

Anonymous said...

The only positive is k-mart still has layaway. I miss layaway.
All we have is Walmart here- they put everything out of business. I really, really hate Walmart!

Anonymous said...

I shopped at Kmart in Chesapeake,Va. while visiting recently and the impression was how could such a dirty ,unorganized store stay in business and cashier had such an attitude, never again will shop there or hopefully any other Kmart