Kmart in the 70s & 80s - Why We LOVED IT
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2024
- A return to the Kmart of the 1970s that we all loved.
Before the days of "Super Kmarts" and "Big Ks," there was just Kmart.
The first Kmart was opened in 1962, and by the mid-1970s, we were all shopping there.
Revisit the days of Blue Light Specials, Kmart Cafeterias, and random wood-veneered merchandise scattered in aisles throughout the store.
MAKE SURE to stick around for the musical montage featuring two unforgettable K-mart jingles complete with in-store announcements.
Thanks for watching The History Lounge!
- Kevin
#kmart #1970s #lifeinamerica - บันเทิง
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I'm almost 53, and it blows my mind how many stores no longer exist, like K Mart, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Radio Shack, and many others. =/
Many of them on now online. & last week I received a catalog from Montgomery Ward!!
I am 53 & remember Radio Shack as a staple of my youth. Sigh 😞
@@amantedelcane420 Being a kid that was interested in electronics from a very young age, it was one of my favorite stores. I spent hours and hours flipping through their catalogs and dreaming. My dad worked at Collins/Rockwell his entire adult life, I can blame most of it on him.
And Kresge is now only in the UK.😅
Same feeling.♥️
I’m the same age, a Gen-Xer, and I think we’ve lived just long enough to see many of our childhood landmarks, trends, and popular culture we saw as kids die out. I love watching nostalgic clips like this about the 70s and 80s. I miss those times.🥰
Get rid of Walmart and bring back KMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!💔
I know F Walmart! Target too. The old Kmart not the updated red sign big K. The 60s to early 90s
I miss the Luncheon counter! Those burgs and hot dogs were great! I used to shop the Kmart $1.99 cutout bins regularly for LP albums and tapes - I really, really miss that.....and the BLUE LIGHT SPECIALS!!!
Facts
Yessss
Walmart has no magic
America was a much simpler place when Kmart was thriving. Those were the good days and we just didn't realize how lucky we were at the time.
K Mart is where I met my wife of 45 years ! She worked in the delicatessen and gave me a large helping of macaroni and cheese I knew she liked me after that and the rest is history my three kids and my wife and myself have worked for k marts at one time or another so they are a big part of our life! Thank you K marts you were there when we needed you!
That's nice to hear, very nice story , thanks for sharing !
Kmart the only place of value shopping at the time Walmart ain't got nothing on you when Kmart had it all may the Blue light special reigh.I missed getting there on time to catch the specials😮when you got there everything would be gone 😢
I miss the America i grew up in
Or the Canada for me...😐
Amen! 😢
Same here
It was wonderful really and we had no idea
Me too I’m 40 now and it’s completely different now :( also miss Jamesway too :(
Back when customer service was truly customer service
Exactly
Yes. Everyone talks about this today, but have no idea what it is...🤔...
And since COVID, everyone wants and expects to be tipped. Unbelievable.😮
@@jameswood231 before the customer gets the service also. Even when we have to order it ourselves.
Damn! Tearing up watching this. I'm 54 and KMart was a big part of my childhood.
The workers at Kmart were always friendly, unlike many Walmarts.
Oh the nostalgia. Truely better times.
Take me back please. The future sux.
I agree with you, no more Good Times
what future?
Kmart over here in Australia is going from strength to strength.
They are as popular now as ever.
Yeah some of the images used in this video are obviously from Australia too... you can tell coz it shows "Coles New World" attached :P
Probably because more people are feeling poor due to our pathetic albo labour government running the place into the ground!
This video is a snapshot of the America we’ll NEVER get back! I’m a child of the 1980s, this brings back many memories of a Saturday spent with my mother at a K-Mart store…
I always felt like we won the lottery when they did a blue light special when we were in the store. Us kids would say we needed to use the bath and race to see who could get to the blue light first. We had rules: no running, can’t bug adults, must be stealthy as possible.
Thank you for reminding me of being a kid. I feel sad for kids now that don’t get to use their imagination to make boring things fun.
Why can it never come back? Is it not worth fighting for?
Good old times when America was normal
Not like now.
I LOVED K-Mart… I worked there when I was 16 in 1984 in the deli. I had full control over the blue light special for the deli. I could create any special I wanted and write the script I would announce over the loud speaker. It was such a blast. BUT… I wanted to get my ear pierced and had to get it approved with my manager because of the strict dress code. With manager approval in hand I got my ear pierced and promptly got fired by the store because of it, even after taking it out right in front of them to keep my job. The deli manager apparently didn’t have the power to approve such a controversial thing and was also fired. My mom told me I would get fired if I did it, but I had deli manager approval, I showed her!! I couldn’t bare to walk I the door when I was supposed to be at work and tell her I was fired. She was absolutely livid with me! Those were the good old days! 😂😂
What kind of piercing??
Great Story
Wow 😮What a story!😂
😂😂😂I love a Gen X'r! We just had to push it a little too far. Such silly things to make a fuss over but rules were rules. 😅I have a similar story. Definitely good times.
@@lorraine9320 Just a regular plain metal stud in my ear lobe.
I miss Kmart 😢
The Kmart era represented some of THE best years in American history. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Working at Kmart as a teenager bought me my first car. A used 68 Camaro. Was able to drive it for my Senior year in high school. I miss that place. Still have the Camaro in red.
Bitchin' !!!
I miss it. I miss the 70s. Take me back.
Go to Idaho.
Pretty much still in the 70's
80's into the 90's too.....k mart and the culture and society at thaat time went thru the 80's into the 90's toooooo and really k mart florished into the 2000's. the k mart where i live made it and managed to stay open till bout 2011 or 2012.... but by the the 70's 80's and into te 90's vibe was pretty much gone.
No shit !
@@adamgriffith6750 so sad.
I’m with you there even tho I was born in 76 I well remember the 80’s and I would definitely go back to the 70’s and break that Time Machine
I miss KMART
I just said that to my daughter last week. She's 45 and said she hears a lot of people say that.
It's so nice to see photos from not long ago where working people felt compelled to look presentable in public. Bring back shame.
I remember Kmart and Zayres. Times have changed for the worse. Wish we could go back to the 80’s and stay there.
Zayers. Man. I got my first Atari computer at zayers.
And bring back the cars and boats from the 80s and style and fashion and of course hair bands
If you find a way to go back please take me with you. Duran Duran is on the radio.. we’re headed to airway.
@@letsmakemoney8027 Hey some of those cars had pure Corinthian leather.
@@stinger51505 had a 78 Chrysler Cordoba
My wife and I met, both working at Kmart, she in advertising and I in automotive. That was 44 years ago. The manager said if a Walmart ever came to town, we would be finished. He was right.
I miss Kmart. I remember sitting in the diner with my grandparents, while my parents shopped in the ealy-1970s.
People used to dress so much nicer back then. 😢
Kmart back in the 80's had a good selection of toys and models that other places simply didn't have.
1/25 scale plastic model cars were around $5.00 when I waa a lad.
Back when America actually made some goods
Wrong! Most things sold in K Mart in the 70s and 80s were not made in America. Before you argue with me just do some research.
@@davidmitchell6873china, India, and Bangledesh is what the interwebs says.
🎉 awesome 🎉
@@davidmitchell6873 my research says this: In the 1970s and 1980s, a significant percentage of consumer goods sold in Kmart stores were made in the United States. Estimates suggest that around seventy to eighty percent of products were domestically produced during that time. This was before the substantial shift towards overseas manufacturing that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
@@davidmitchell6873 I wrote "Some" not most. Try reading and lose the ego
Almost nothing today has the charm of the 20th century.
All the charm went away when corporations chose money over everything else, including their patrons!
The good days are gone forever!!
Everything was so simple back then
It was only simpler because you were younger.
No. Life was simpler then. People weren’t crazy like they are now. They knew who they were. They weren’t confused.
@@ceciliaramos2280 life was much more simpler and enjoyable back then
@@cyberpleb2472 it was simpler no information overload like there is now due to the internet
@@ceciliaramos2280 I don't think this has changed, people have more options now... perhaps more than they should. Base concepts have become more muddled because there is a freer expression of opinion. Every generation has longed for their youth, when things were simpler; today's kids will do the same as they age.
My mother in-law worked and retired from Kmart in Albuquerque. She passed away in 2019 at 95. God bless you Syria we miss you.
Really sorry to hear that. To make it to 95...that just really, and truly, blows my mind. I really, and honestly, and sincerely, too, hope she had a great Life. I have 1, of 4, Grandparents left, and not one of them, so far, have made it to their 90's. Wish you the very best, though. Take care of yourself. 🙋
I pity the generations of people that did NOT get to see this wonderful time in life!!!
Back when it was still a majority whyte country. Not anymore. Under 60% now and declining fast. For the group 18 to 30, they are already in a minority. Just as planned by Ted Kennedy in 1965; the Immigration Act of 1965. Ted lied.
Oh yeah there will be nothing like it ever again. What a shame it's only going to get worse. It reminds me of Pompano Beach Florida 40 years ago it was a true vacation Paradise now they destroyed it by Over building and putting up big Condominiums. Like the song says they tore down Paradise to put up a parking lot
As a child, I used to go to K mart on Saturdays for their $1.99 full breakfast.
I miss Kmart and Woolworths stores. I use to eat hamburgers and fries with a coke at Kmart as a kid.
Watching this really puts into perspective how far America has fallen.
No joke.
Because K Mart got replaced by a better modeled and ran department store company?
Really, laying it on a bit thick, my friend. Shopping trends change & stores must adapt or fall. New companies have taken their place since then. Calm down, Mr. anti-American
We all should have rallied for Kmart instead of the greedy owners of wally world
I tried! I went into Kmarts in deadmalls to buy ANYTHING. My last Kmart purchase was in 2015 or 16. There was nothing but crap. I bought clearance item clothes.
I dont know about you but shopped at Kmart till there was no kmart.
Problem though was in 1990 K-mart started changing itself to become more "modern". "New" and "improved" don't always mean the same thing. The beginning was redesigning the logo to something more generically corporate, then changing the interior design, eliminating the blue-light special, stripping out the cafeterias etc. A decade later, the chain died due to bankruptcy, and over the remaining 24 years it dwindled to irrelevancy in the consumer marketplace. K-Mart thrived for 18 years, declined for 10 years, and shrunk into oblivion over the next 24 years.
Sure glad I experienced Kmart in its glory days.
I really miss the Kmart that was back in the 70s. So many great memories from back then.
I enjoyed the smell of popcorn when walking into the store.
When I see a Kmart store photo, I automatically smell popcorn and have strong urge to buy a kiddie pool and a Barbie.
I've got many memories of Kmart, but probably the clearest one is when I got separated from my mom, and I went to the customer service counter asking them for help. The lady got on the PA system and announced, "Will the parents of a little boy wearing a Tom & Jerry t-shirt that says 'If you can't beat 'em, bite 'em" come to the customer service desk?"
Of course, the rest of my memories are mostly begging my parents for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, cards, and books.
Ha, same exact story for me. I wondered off looking at bean bag chairs and ended up becoming separated from my parents as well. A very nice older couple took me to the service desk...In the end my mom and dad bought me a coke slush, that was 1979. I was 4.
I miss this version of America.
Never will forget the smell of KMart….freshly popped popcorn!
🤮
I miss Kmart..🥺😢
❤We bought our wedding rings from KMart Lantana year 1984.❤Wonderful memories.❤Sadly my wife passed 2010.❤Love from Finland
I remember going to Kmart with my mom and getting a toy and having little Caesars pizza. I miss the '90s
I miss k mart
We all need a K mart now more than ever
One of the things I miss about k mart is that if you tried to steal something they would run you down and tackle you. My friend was security and he threw an exorcize weight threw the front window to chase down a shoplifter. The guy was so surprised he stopped long enough for my friend to take him down. Cops showed up, took him away and my friend got an accommodation. That's how store security is done.
That should be done today. All these stores wouldn’t have lost money and closed their stores. Security needs to be reinforced like back in those days.
i still remember the smell of k-mart when i walked in. K mart brings back positive memories for me.
A mixture of new clothes and popcorn.
The popcorn smell when you walked in the door❤️
Thai is what I was looking for. Many memories of getting the popcorn then going to electronics to play the Nintendo that was set up to try.
That’s the truth! Sooo miss stores having snack bars with popcorn and icees. That was as much a treat as going back to play the Atari, Intellivision, and Commodore displays back in the day!
I miss the old America!!!!!
I still have a box fan my father bought there in the early 60's. It still works great, made in the USA!
Cool ❤
Western Australian here, we have Kmart and love it. No Walmart anywhere in Australia
I'm so glad you posted this. I visit AU frequently and love going to Kmart.
Interesting, Walmart operates in 25 countries but not in Australia.
Kmarts cafeteria was the best. My friends and I would always walk or ride our bikes to Kmart and have lunch.
My parents were to cheap to go to the cafeteria.
I grew up in the K-Marts. My dad was a store manager for 30 years. The Kresges were even at my parents wedding. My grandfather was a manager of the Kresges store as well, so my dad grew up there as well. It was the best times! My sister and I got to play in the stores on the holidays when they were closed. We'd ride bikes, skateboards and rollerskate. We'd play with all the toys, get on the store microphone and play hide and seek in the stockrooms. We'd eat the leftover popcorn and help ourselves to the ice cream at the deli. We would even play at the service desk and pretend to be a recording saying the store was closed but would reopen the next day. Twice a week we would go to the store after dinner with my dad and play in the offices and help the cashiers roll coins with a huge counting machine which were brought back at the close of the night. The entire store was our playground! We were very fortunate to have experienced such a wonderful childhood there. I miss those carefree times when we ruled the K-Mart.
Love your story!
Sounds amazing 😊
Saturday at Kmart back in the day was the best.Bring it BACK!😂
I miss those simpler times
When women were women men were men
My mom always got me fruit striped gum at Kmart anytime we went there. Thanks mom for all the great memories you gave me growing up. You did the best for us with whatever you had.
The flavor of Fruit Stripe lasted for about 10 seconds LOL. The whole pack lasted me about a minute and a half.
It was the only place that had the layaway and allowed mom to make a couple payments.
If Mom wouldn't get me something I'd go to my Daddy! Within reason of course!
@@ratbert86 Yeah, but, oh, that minute & a half were the best!!
I remember going the Kmart as a kid never knew how much I would miss it. Sears as well🥲
I miss Kmart! We went there every other weekend! My grandma would always secure the latest most popular Cabbage Patch Dolls there for my birthdays and Christmas' for several years ❤ Miss Ya Grandma! 😢 She was like a mom to me 💔
One Christmas while I was working there I was in charge of rain-checks and helped many parents get the hot toy of the season for their kids. (I think it was some Power Rangers toy.) I figured out that if a customer was thrilled about my assistance and wanted to do something to repay me I would hand them a card with the corporate phone number and my name on it. Then I'd tell them that if they called that number and told them I'd helped them out, it would help me. Kmart made the cards for us to hand out to customers, it wasn't something I made myself, I just utilized it.
Most of them called. Having a customer do that earned a chairman's award (I think that's the right name) which came with a 50 point K-note. (You could redeem those for gift certificates once you had enough.) I ended up receiving multiple of those awards every week for a good six weeks straight thanks to that!
I would love to go back in time!
You're not alone, I hate what this world has to offer now which is nothing good
I loved Kmart as a kid in the 70s. Ours had the cafeteria, but right next to it there was ten cent Skee Ball! I was a hyperactive child so it was either money for Skee Ball or I would hide inside those round clothes racks and make my mom try and find me. Then there was setting all of the kitchen timers to go off in one minute increments and putting random items in peoples carts. I really should have been beat more as a child.
Sounds like you were a handful. Lol 😂 More Kool Aid, Red Dye, Sugar and Corn Pops & Super Sugar Crisp...
I remember the mechanical horse out front. 😂
Yes - the mechanical horse or the 3-seat merry-go-round!
Kmart was my first job. After it closed, I went into a depressed state for a while. I miss the store & how I was treated as an employee there.
"Attention K-MART shoppers! For the next 15 minutes, we have ______ on sale. Look for the Blue Light. And thank you for shopping your neighborhood K-MART!" I remember K-MART very well.
Yes bring back K Mart!!!
Shoppers would gasp in disbelief at the bargains available.
Shop smart! Shop, S-Mart!
My mom took my brothers and I there all the time for it seems like just about everything, I can also remember my dad never wanted to go!
That was in the 70s, a great time as a kid!
I high school, during the Christmas season of my senior year, I worked in the shoe department of our local K-Mart. I can STILL quote word-for-word some of the ads I had to declare over the store loudspeaker when I did those "Blue Light Specials"... 45 years ago.
I grew up loving K -Mart and I miss it terribly.
I loved shopping at Kmart. That's my childhood right there. A bygone era.
Getting an icee there is one of my favorite 80s memory😊
who remember the deli at KMART in the late 70s? THere was this sandwich I loved as a kid.
I worked at Kmart while in highschool in layaway, making store signs, taking care of the fish and birds and occasionally announcing Blue Light specials. I loved working there and was sad to see it close.
I worked for KMart for 42 years. I still miss it.
Kmart is still all over Australia! There are 325 stores in Australia and New Zealand.
What a huge hit of nostalgia. Was a loyal K-Mart shopper into the early 2000s. You know, seriously, I never once dreaded driving over and going into K-Mart. I absolutely dread parking and shopping at our local Walmart today.
Absolutely a nightmare Everytime I shop there. Which is next to none. Can't stand the place personally.
the 70's were paradise to be a kid...
I spent many days browsing my local K-Mart in Miami in the 1970s and very early 80s. It's where my dad bought me my first .22 rifle and my first Atari 2600. Incredible memories.
Home of the blue light special
I started working for K-Mart in 1977. We now call it the "good ole days". After 26 yrs. with the company my store closed in 2003. It was sad but many of us made life long friendships that we still share to this day.
*Simpler times. I miss them dearly.*
1970's Kmart toys section was MY FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH!!!
My grandmother and aunt both worked at Kmart from the 60s into the early 90s. I practically lived in there at times. Such a huge part of my childhood.
This brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. ❤️
I definitely remember the popcorn and the Cherry slushie
Aw, my parents took my sisters and I to K-Mart all of the time! We stayed shopping at KMart! Our favorite department store. Mom used their layaway plans during Easter and Christmas to buy us our Easter dresses and Christmas our gifts. What beautiful memories ❤I will always remember ❤️ 😊
I can smell the cafeteria in the air
Kmarts gone , and so is America 🇺🇸
Fkn Terrible
💔🇺🇲💔🇺🇲💔🇺🇲💔🇺🇲🙏
I’m a 80’s baby I miss Kmart sooooo much
I Love this video, I bought a lot of fishing tackle at K-Mart back when I was just 10-14 years old. 56 now! Loved K-Mart! Thanks for the video, and memories!
Same..
I loved going there with my parents for good shopping and the hot dogs and chocolate shakes. I can still hear and smell the popcorn.
My husband's Uncle invented the blue light special. We have a couple of photos of he & his wife at ribbon cutting ceremonies at new store openings. Before he died, he said K Mart is no longer hiring from within for management. Management doesnt know it's customers anymore & they will go bankrupt in 20 years. He was right!
That's pretty neat!
How cool is that!! He sure was right!!
Your uncle in law is my hero!
I will always miss Kmart 😢 I used to layaway the clothes for my kids to go to school, also for Christmas 😢
I miss K Mart
I still miss K-Mart!
At the end Kmart's were basically empty. Everyone was at Walmart.
The fact that there are so many photos in an around K-mart stores just proves how popular they were.
One of the first victims of private equity liquidation. Eddie lampert ate sears with kmart. Plundered and left 1000s unemployed.
2:50 Look at all of those well-behaved non-shoplifters.
I worked as a teenager for Kmart in about 1983 as a cashier. TYFSOK (Thank you for shopping our kmart) - ahhh, memories!
With much work and effort and against my mother's wishes, my father bought me a Nintendo back in 1988 from Kmart. My father passed away six years ago, wherever you are dad, I love you and think of you every day.
My family still shop at Kmart every week. We love our Kmart 🎉
I looked forward to riding the mechanical horse or car out in front of K-Mart when i was a kid. K-Mart really was a family field trip 😂
I miss you Kmart please come back
And Sears to
I hate what America has become😡…..and I feel like there’s nothing we can do about it 😖
Oh... But there is a lot you can do about it. If the founding fathers had your attitude this country would have never existed.