Kmart to shutter its last full-scale US store

The end may be near for Kmart shoppers in the US.

The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in the country’s mainland.

The store, located in swank Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close October 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store late Monday. The manager wasn’t available, she said.

That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. There also are a handful of stores in Guam and the US Virgin Islands.

Transformco, the company that in 2019 bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

In its heyday, there were more than 2,000 Kmarts in the US.

Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest US retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.

A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness.

But the 2008 recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing that mission.

Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has just a handful of stores left in the US, where it once had thousands.