I've always thought this style of Super Kmart looked pretty neat (especially compared to most other exterior designs Kmart used), and this store is particularly cool with all of its custom detailing. I'm glad Walmart didn't feel the need to make major changes here (especially since the stores they were building around the time they took over this one were extremely bland), and the current blue and grey paint scheme honestly works on this store a lot better than it does on many of Walmart's own standard designs.
Ha, well, I guess you made me think about Kmart's exterior designs and which were the most interesting. Honestly, none of them were very interesting, lol. The kind of roundish entryway ones from the early 1990s were a bit more distinctive, in a somewhat upscale way at least, than the older ones. I guess the old ones from the 1960s-1970s have iconic looks to them even if they weren't very nice or fancy looking. I think an argument could certainly be made that this model of Super Kmart Centers were the nicest looking Kmart exteriors. I never did see them in person all that much given that the only Super Kmarts in Houston were quite far from me (though I did shop at them occasionally), but as I've mentioned before, my last visit to a Kmart ever was the Moon Township, PA Super Kmart. Even in 2011, I got the sense that might be my last ever visit to a Kmart so I was sure to take in the experience and I even got a photo of the outside. I guess that'll forever be my parting image of visiting Kmarts in-person!
ReplyDeleteKmart's Builders Square II stores were pretty interesting if we count that as being something Kmart. This one in the photo isn't signed as being a Builders Square II like ours were, but it obviously is a BSII store. I always thought it was funny that they put the shape of the facade as a design on the facade itself! It is also funny that the shape of that facade is now very similar to the logo used by Lowe's! I guess that adds to the generic nature of these types of hardware stores, but at the time at least (~1993), we didn't have Lowe's stores here and so it looked unique to us at the time. The hybrid tiled raceway/concrete floor inside was certainly unique too! Link: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4Nwb5iiLGus/VmZQ-1Y3_6I/AAAAAAAAW5o/LJoZ01k3yrc/s640/builder%2Bsquare%2B2.PNG
Interestingly enough, the local BSII over by Willowbrook Mall ended up becoming a Sam's Club, which is what it is now. I guess I did not think of that as a Kmart-to-Walmart conversion of sorts, but there was that. I think a couple of Kmart's Pace Membership Clubs became Sam's Clubs here too.
Yeah, those arched/rounded Kmarts were pretty nice too. That's really the only design other than this one that stands out to me.
DeleteThe Sam's Club that was once in Seattle was also previously a Pace, and before that a Price Savers. It almost became a Costco to continue the tradition, but that fell through and now it looks like Winco might take it over, making it their first store in Seattle proper.