Rumor: Kmart Likely To File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Early 2022
People have been predicting Kmart’s demise for decades now, but it’s finally looking like the big-box retailer is preparing to permanently close its doors.
As of the latter half of December 2021, there are only twelve Kmart stores remaining (six of which are in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). Mere days ago, there were thirteen, but the last Kmart in California closed its doors for good and is now being renovated into a Target. It’s a sad reality of what’s going on with Kmart. In recent years, the same thing has been happening with other closing Kmart stores too. Most of them have been renovated into Target stores.
In Australia, there are retail stores branded under the “Kmart” name, but it’s not the same company. Funnily enough, many Target stores in Australia are closing their doors and are being renovated into Kmart stores. The Kmart brand in Australia is actually doing really well for itself and is one of the biggest retailers in the entire continent. When people say that Australia is upside down, they aren’t lying!
With that out the way, let’s dive into this new rumor that recently came out.
Direct From the Westwood Kmart
On December 11, 2021, in a post made to the Kmart subreddit, a Reddit user leaked a private message conversation that occurred on Instagram between the official Westwood Kmart account and an inquisitive user.
According to the Westwood Kmart, in March 2022, Transformco (the parent company of Kmart) will permanently close all of the remaining Kmart stores and sell off the property (likely to Target). The only exception would be the Kmart store in Guam. That store would be sold off to another retailer. In other news, Sears would only operate VIA their website, sort of like how Circuit City operates nowadays.
In regards to that Kmart store in Guam, Target’s core audience doesn’t exactly reside there, so I can only assume that a different large retailer like Walmart would take its place. It’s still doing well for itself and there’s absolutely no competition in the surrounding area. Overall, the condition of the building is in good shape and it apparently receives a lot of foot traffic, but even a single above-average store isn’t enough to save the dying company.
This rumor seems extremely probable and comes as no surprise. Again, Kmart is down to just a handful of stores now. In terms of business decisions, they have nowhere to go now. Declaring bankruptcy is the only thing they can do.
Believe it or not, that’s just the beginning though. There’s actual evidence to solidify the accuracy of this rumor.
Transformco Closes Shop
On December 14, 2021, just days after the rumor had begun to circulate on the Kmart subreddit, the same Reddit user from before made another post to the Kmart subreddit, which broke the news that Transformco planned on selling their headquarters in January 2022.
For most people, the news was both surprising and unsurprising for a multitude of reasons I’ve already explained above.
Transformco partially blamed COVID-19 for the reason as to why they were selling their headquarters, and while that could very well be true, it’s hard to ignore the rumor from days prior and the fact that Kmart has been rapidly declining for decades now. The company has downsized when necessary, which is often, especially when you look at all of the store closures.
If this isn’t enough evidence that Kmart is nearing bankruptcy, then I don’t know what is.
The Future of Kmart
To say the least, there’s absolutely no future for Kmart. It’s hardly even a spoiler at this point. With all of the information that’s currently available, it’s safe to say that they’ll be declaring bankruptcy in the next few months. They’ve already declared bankruptcy twice in their history (once in 2002 and once in 2018), but this time around, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the more permanent kind of bankruptcy where they liquidate all of their assets and close everything, similar to what happened with Toys “R” Us. They almost certainly won’t find a buyer, since who in their right mind would want to acquire the dead corpse of a retailer that is Kmart?
There are much better places to shop nowadays. Your money is better spent elsewhere. Both Walmart and Target come to mind. Even if you’re feeling nostalgic, you shouldn’t shop at Kmart, and even if you try anyway, just keep in mind that they won’t be around for much longer.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, more details are bound to come out over the next few months. Keep yourself updated and stay tuned if you’re interested! I’ll definitely try to cover any new developments in a future article or two. Most importantly though, I’ll be here to report on Kmart’s bankruptcy when it happens, trust me. Kmart doesn’t have the attention of their nonexistent shoppers anymore and it’s safe to say that the Blue Light Specials are over. Lights out!
Thank you for taking the time to read this article.