Just where has the time gone? Since August, dear readers, I have settled into my new life and new home and have not had one Saturday night to myself in six weeks with non stop family and friend parties, pool playing bars, estate sales and some salsa dancing in between. New beginnings was certainly a great way to cap off the end of a great summer. Here we are, it's already October and my favorite season of the year is upon us. Leaves are colorfully falling down ever so gracefully and the cold comes back, but, oh well, quiet nights will follow with some multiple DVD viewings of Forever Knight.
Thanks to a tip from a member of Remembering Retail, I was able snap these photos of a Kmart in Franklin Park that looks as though it is a step back in time. Not exactly sure when this Kmart first opened but the ads do date it as far back as the early 1980s. Besides the exterior still sporting a Big K sign (when most of the other Kmarts I have been to in the Chi area have gone back to lettering the entire name and remodeling the stores to squeeze in the Sears merchandise), the interior did a remarkable job of continuing to sport the 1983 look: The ancient peg shelves, the brings back memories of Gold Circle lighting, the letters in the MAGAZINES spelled out for those who actually still buy those paper bounded things and the space age exhaust fans, again provoking even more memories of Gold Circle for me. This location was certainly worth a drive to Franklin Park. I am so bummed that I either missed the electronics department or scanned by it without seeing much on the walls.
Special thanks goes to RR pal, Jeff Morris for telling me that the ancient lighting in this facility was not only "bad" but also "really bad, inadequate, awful, lousy" and my personal favorite "just plain terrible." Yet it photographs so well!
10 comments:
Doesn't look like much has changed at this Kmart in years. Nice relic but a horrible shopping environment.
Anh, I wouldn't call it horrible per se. Althought this Kmart seemed rather empty on both merchandise and people.
Horrible may be too strong a word, but it's pretty tired.
This one is circa 1973 and was a real looker back in the day, Didi, but of course the modern Kmart image could use some help. Back in the mid-80’s, I used to hang out at a certain establishment that had a good view of this Kmart and the Jewel-Osco Grand Bazaar (now a “regular” but really nice Jewel-Osco) adjacent to it through their front windows.
Back then, my friends there always spoke of that Kmart with a certain reverence, and I would think “Do you people ever leave Franklin Park?” :)
These days a trip to Kmart is a trip back in time, lol. Even the remodels to the BigK that happened in the late 90's and early 00's are for the most part a cheap paint job over the old look. The early 90's conversions when the 2nd Kmart logo was adopted were more contemporary looking at the time even in the old stores.
Only the one-off prototypes that Kmart occasionally offers show any kind of imagination. Since Kmart has been lagging in store construction, the stores that remain are largely museum pieces.
Steven, I definately agree with that assessment, pretty tired is pretty accurate.
Dave, ROTF! That was pretty funny. You know what they say, Kmart was THE place to go to.....in 1984 of course. I have no doubt this Kmart was once a real looker, but times change things get older and tired looking. But, hey, at least I don't live in Franklin Park. LOL!
Ken, I love that description, museum pieces. With each passing year, Kmart is starting to resemble Zayre and Venture at the end of their glory days.
WAIT, wait, there are STILL Kmarts open!
Welcome back Didi!
LOL! Why what's that over there? K-what???!!! Reminds me of that pic Dave had on site a few months ago about all those folks eagerly anticipating the building a brand new Kmart that probably looked a lot like this one.
Thanks, David.
Enjoy it while it lasts... bet it's gone within a year....
This is going to sound silly, I too remember the gigantic exhaust fans that used to be in all KMARTS around the country and in other stores such as Dart Drug (a drug store in the Washington DC area).
Wow, I am glad to finally find someone else that noticed them other than me.
BTW....I live in Northern Virginia, and there are two KMARTS that have interiors that date from the late `70's. One is in Springfield VA (in a shopping center off of Old Keen Mill Road) and the other is in Fairfax VA (in a shopping center just off of Rt. 50).
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