This article is about the American retailer. For the Australian retailer and flagship brand of Wesfarmers's Kmart Group, see Kmart Australia. For other uses, see Kmart (disambiguation).
Prior to 2018, Kmart owned and operated a much larger chain of Kmart stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
The company was incorporated in 1899 as S. S. Kresge Corporation and renamed Kmart Corporation in 1977.[9] The first store with the Kmart name opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.[10] At its peak in 1994, Kmart operated 2,486 stores globally, including 2,323 discount stores and Super Kmart Center locations in the United States.[11][12][13][14] From 2005 through 2019, Kmart was a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation.[15] Since 2019, Kmart has been a subsidiary of Transform SR Brands LLC, a privately held company that was formed in 2019 to acquire assets from Sears Holdings.
^ abLast recorded reliable source quoted the total number of Kmart stores globally as seven, after the planned closure of West St. Croix. This report is from June 2023:
Cobb, Sian (June 7, 2023). "One Kmart on St. Croix to Close, Retail Consulting Firm Reports". St. Thomas Source. Retrieved January 22, 2024. Only a handful of Kmarts now remain, including two on St. Thomas, two on St. Croix, one in Guam, and two on the U.S. mainland.