The last Kmart in Michigan has shuttered its doors, ending the dynasty's reign

The last Kmart in Michigan closed Sunday, putting an official end to a longtime Michigan staple.

Located in Marshall, a suburb of Battle Creek with a population a little more than 7,000, at 15861 Michigan Ave., it has been the last Kmart in Michigan since 2020.

It was the only national big-box retailer in the immediate area, likely what allowed it to stay in business until now.

“You can go in and buy a birthday present if you need to, without going out of town," said Brenda Hoyt, Marshall resident, in a previous Free Press article. "Clothes, toys, projects for the kids for school — you can get it here.”

Marshall city manager Tom Tarkiewicz said he's particularly concerned about how residents without cars will get their shopping done.

From Sebastian Kresge's first five-and-dime store in 1899 to now, the store has gone from a dynasty to bankruptcy.

Here's a look at Kmart's tumultuous history:

Kresge roots

Sebastian Spering Kresge opened the first S.S. Kresge store on Woodward Avenue in Detroit in 1899, where everything was sold for five or 10 cents.

By 1912, he owned 85 stores, according to the Detroit Historical Society. The low prices enabled the Kresge brand to grow even as the country faced hardships, including the Great Depression.

The first official Kmart store opened in 1962 in Garden City by then-S.S. Kresge president Harry Cunningham.

Kresge died four years later in 1966, but the Kmart brand lived on.

Rise of the Kmart dynasty

After the first Kmart opened in Garden City, 17 more opened that same year, according to the company's history.

Kmart became a retail staple in the lives of Americans, and he company racked up $483 million in sales that year to prove it.

In the next four years, the Kresge company's popularity exploded to a whopping total of 162 Kmart stores and 753 Kresge stores across the country, according to the company website. Annual company sales rose to $1 billion.

Continuing its exponential growth, in 1976, ten years later, S.S. Kresge opened 271 Kmart stores in one year.

With Kmart's popularity, S.S. Kresge became Kmart.

Then, in the 1990s, Kmart expanded some of its stores to include everything shoppers could want from fresh food to pantry items to home goods, the company's history said.

Then, in 1999, the internet allowed Kmart to reach new heights. The development of BlueLight.com, now known as kmart.com, brought in even more customers.

Bankruptcy

Every empire must fall, and Kmart is no different.

Although it amassed more and more stores throughout the 1990s, company leaders also invested in purchasing other chains, all of which went out of business, The Detroit News reported.

Competitors, including Target and Walmart, started surpassing it in sales.

In 2000, the company closed 72 stores.

Just two years later, the company's finances steeply declined and Kmart filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 22, 2002. After filing for Chapter 11 in bankruptcy court, the company, led by then-president Julian Day, emerged in 2003 with an approved plan.

Sears merger

In 2004, still struggling, Kmart bought Sears to form Sears Holdings Corporation. It was an $11 billion sale meant to reinvigorate both companies.

But it didn't work, the competition of other stores and the rise of the internet proved to be too big of a hurdle to jump.

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In 2018, Sears Holdings Corporation filed for bankruptcy, something Kmart was all too familiar with.

In 2004, the company announced it was purchasing Sears for $11 billion; it moved its headquarters from Troy to Hoffman Estates, Illinois, in 2006.

The end of an era

According to CNN, by the end of 2021, there will only be six stores left across the continental U.S.

The original Kmart in Garden city closed its doors in 2017, marking the beginning of the end.

And now, four years later, the last one in its home state is closed.

Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The last Kmart in Michigan has shuttered its doors