By Kevin Williams
I often lament the loss of store chains from yesteryear. But my hometown seems to get hit especially hard not by chains that are necessarily closing up shop altogether, but ones who just no longer think the economic climate of my town is viable.
SIGH, I still find myself missing Kmart which closed its doors in my town in 2009.  The space has been since been redeveloped and divided an is now a Big Lots and Tractor Supply.  A couple of years ago, Target, fled my town too.  That left us with just a handful of stores left to get a last minute Christmas gift for someone or buy a shirt.  Dillard's fled town years ago also.  Elder-Beerman (owned by Bon-Ton) is in the process of winding down operations in my town.  That store has been a mainstay in my town since I was born.  My Aunt is 83 years old and has worked there for as long as I can remember but she'll be out of a job once things wind down, although, at 83 I think she was itching to retire anyway.  These are photos my Dad took the other day in the Elder-Beerman looking positive picked clean and ghostly in its final days.
And, then, sheesh, I just saw a list of yet more stores Sears and Kmart are shuttering. Â I've been to a few of the stores on this list: Crystal River and Sarasota are two towns that I have been to and I've been in the Kmart in Crystal River, I am fairly certain.
So are there are any Sears or Kmart stores in your hometown on this list? Â Will you miss them?
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-sears-and-kmart-stores-closing-2016-12
tomthebackroadstraveller
Oh Kevin, there is alway Amazon!
Amy Roark
I also miss our local K-mart that closed over a year ago. I was just mentioning to my mom how I miss our former Kmart at Christmas time. It seemed like they always had some affordable finds for decor, Christmas needs etc. It seems as these chains leave a piece of my youth does too. I remember shopping at Sears with my dad in the tool or appliance department. The Sears where we use to live closed several years ago. I guess my kids will remember Target and Walmart the way I remember the stores of my youth.
Kevin
Where was your former Kmart? Seemed like Greater Cincinnati used to have Kmarts all over now I am hard-pressed to think of any that are still around......
Linda from KY
There is still a K-Mart on the Dixie Highway in Erlanger, KY, which is part of the Greater Cincinnati area. I don't shop there very often, but I have been there fairly recently.
Kevin
Good to know, Linda...I hope you shop there as often as you can, I'd hate to lose another in Cincinnati area!
Aimee
That's a shame about all the stores closing! I've run the gamut of towns that had very little shopping and so going to a mall 20-30 miles away was a real occasion. And I once lived in a town near one of the largest shopping malls in the country. Have also lived in towns with shopping in the middle range of availability.
I remember Elder-Beerman fondly from when I lived in Indiana; it was a nice store.
Sears and K-Mart have been going downhill for a long time, and their slide doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.
Kevin
Aimee, SIGH, you are right...don't know what, if anything, can stop the Sears-Kmart slide....it's just a different retail environment right now and those stores are dinosaurs...I am a fan of them and would hate to see them disappear, but that is the direction it is going....
Karen Dulin
Yes Kevin, our K-Mart in Hopkinsville Ky. is closing. I will definitely miss ours. I buy certain items of clothing at our K-Mart...that I can't get at Wal-Mart.
Kevin
Always good to hear from you, Karen....too bad about your local Kmart closing, I do miss ours!