New Alaska store will bring Kmart to all 50 states - Top 2 chains drive store growth

Discount Store News, May 17, 1993

TROY, Mich. -- Kmart will officially become a national retailer operating in all 50 states this summer when it opens its first store in Alaska July 15 in Kenai.

The 145,000-sq.-ft.-store will be followed up later in the year with one unit each in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

At 145,000 sq. ft, the three Alaska stores are larger than normal Kmarts because they require additional storage space to compensate for the lack of a distribution center in the area, explained Michelle DeLand, a Kmart spokeswoman. The merchandise offerings, however, will be comparable to Kmart stores located in the continental United States.

Kmart's move into Alaska is only part of the discounter's store opening plans for spring and early summer. In all, Kmart will open 32 new stores including the discounter's entry into the Virgin Islands. Also, three more Super Kmart Centers are scheduled to open in July followed by the company's newest discount store prototype, dubbed Oak Park IV, in Utica, Mich., to open August 5.

In addition to the new store openings, Kmart announced recently that it acquired the prescription files for pharmacy customers of 24 more Phar-Mor stores. In total, Kmart has acquired the prescription files on customers from 47 former Phar-Mor units. The newest prescription files were added from stores in Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Nevada and North Carolina.

Also, Kmart is contemplating taking a bigger bite out of the Big Apple. The discount retailer has confirmed its interest in installing a retail store at the current site of the New York Coliseum, which may be redeveloped.

Bids are currently being accepted on that project and no winner has been named. Kmart spokeswoman Mary C. McGeachy, director of national media relations, said Kmart is reviewing the site.

She declined to comment on specifically what Kmart would want to place there, calling the discounter's interest "preliminary."

Should Kmart forward a bid and eventually win the site, it would be its first store in Manhattan. It also would be a reintroduction of full-line discount store retailing to the Big Apple, which lost its last discount chain, Alexander's, last year.

Kmart operates stores in numerous New York counties including Queens and Staten Island, which both border Manhattan.

Kmart is moving ahead with its store opening plans for 1993 which should add 100 new stores on top of its 1992 total. The first big wave of store openings began this month with eight stores scheduled to open followed by 10 in June and 14 in July. As of April 30, only Utica, Mich., held a firm August opening date. No other stores currently have firm opening dates beyond Utica, not even Kmart's supercenter in Vernon Hills, Mich., slated for sometime this fall.

According to Kmart spokeswoman DeLand, the discounter will open stores in Florida, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Indiana, North Carolina, New Hampshire (Londonarry, a new market), South Dakota, Hawaii, California, Georgia, Ohio, Louisiana and Utah through July.

The much awaited entry into the U.S. Virgin Islands will occur June 3 when a 105,000-sq.-ft. unit opens on the island of St. Thomas. Another store, on the island of St. Croix, will open later this year in the Virgin Island's first enclosed mall, said Deland.

The growth of Kmart's supercenter division also heats up this summer with openings scheduled for July 8 in North Wilkesboro and Hickory, N.C., and July 22 in Ontario Village, Ohio, near Mansfield, Ohio, in the Greater Cleveland area.