By; Nicholas Eckhart
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| This Picture was taken 11-8-11 by me. This is a very nice store. The American Flag looks grand flying over the store, that is something you can not find at Walmart. |
Address- 5350 Leavitt Road Lorain, Ohio.
Phone Number- (440) 282-3015
Opened- October 27, 1993 as the 12th Super Kmart Center ever opened.
Size- 200,000 square feet.
Facts- This store was a very innovative store when it opened. It combined all of Kmart’s prototypes Like an Auto Center, a Food Court, a Bank, an Image Center, a Florist, and a Video Center. Many of those and other features were first found in the Lorain, Ohio Super Kmart Center, then set the standards of look, design, and services of Super Kmarts today. Some older Super Kmart Centers were expanded to include these services and features. This store was at the time the largest Super Kmart Center. This was the first store to look like many Super Kmarts found today and ones that are now closed. These features helped launch the Super Kmart Center chain and make it very successful until Kmart’s bankruptcy. The Lorain Super Kmart Center also replaced the nearby Amherst Kmart store. The store has since closed it’s Video Center, Auto Center, Food Court, and more recently it’s Florist. This supercenter has two seasonal sections, one that currently has Halloween items and one with Christmas Items. A Walmart Supercenter opened nearby in 2010 prompting Kmart to compete with them. Some updates recently are a Little Caesar’s pizza in the old Florist, a large section of parking lot repaved, new Restrooms, better Customer Service, a hiring desk, Blue Light savings, Remodeled Grocery section, new carts, a dollar shop in the old Kmart Café, and more modern signage. At first nearly everyone left this store for Walmart, but they seem to be returning after they found out this Walmart is cramped, dirty, has bad Customer Service, and has not made much of a positive impact on the area. Some area customers are loyal to Kmart and won’t even consider Walmart. In the early 2000s Walmart wanted a store in Lorain, but the community banned a Walmart from opening in the city’s limits. Walmart found a way around that by finding a site in 2010 that technically was not in Lorain, but very close to Kmart. Walmart was originally going to open another Walmart Supercenter in Elyria, but scrapped these plans when they found the Lorain site. Walmart still owns the site in Elyria and the city wants improvements done to the site (demolishing buildings). Well, back to the Super Kmart it seems to be doing better since reputations of Walmart and Target are falling. Some updates to the exterior and the stores space management need to be done. Some of those updates needed are Updated signage, expanded Electronics, more space used in the front of the store, a better stocking system, and a fixed roof. I am sorry, but on my visit there recently there was a lot of people in the store and I did not take any pictures. I do not feel that comfortable taking pictures in stores. Overall I would give this store a four out of five star rating. This store has the best employees and service, but lacks all necessary updates.
PHOTO GALLERY
12-30-11
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| The empty seasonal section near the front of the store. |
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| The former entrance to the Kmart Auto Center. The store did not start closing it until recently, so I did not get a peak inside. |
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| The former Kmart Cafe area. There are some Dollar shop items to the left side of the shot, magazines behind them, and the employee break area against the window. |
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The exterior at night. Notice how dead the store is at this time. The main store sign is very faded, since it has been on the store for almost 20 years. Sorry about the blurriness, I will try to get a better shots of the exterior and interior next time.
3-03-12
The Storefront at night.
3-23-12
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