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Kmart Canada was the Canadian division of Kmart Corporation. At their peak in the 1990s, they operated over 120 stores in Canada. The last CEO for Kmart Canada was George Heller, he held the title of CEO from 1997 until 1998 which is when Kmart Canada ended operations.
History[]
Kmart first expanded into Canada a year after their American debut in 1963. Although, the company already had a presence in Canada as the predecessor to Kmart, S.S. Kresge already had locations in Canada.
A 1960s - 70s era Kmart Canada
The first location was located in London, Ontario at 1275 Highbury Ave N. It opened in March of 1963 and its location number was #5400. It lasted up until 1998 when Kmart left Canada. The location turned into a Zellers, and is currently a Walmart.
Until 1990, Kmart Canada used the same branding and advertising as its American counterpart. In advertising, Kmart Canada used "The Saving Place" as their slogan. The Saving Place jingle was translated into French for predominately French speaking parts of Canada. When the 1990 Kmart remodel happened, Kmart Canada followed suit, but Kmart Canada decided to use "The lowest price is a Kmart price" as their slogan and they used different advertising. Although the stores themselves looked the same as American ones.
In 1983, Kmart Canada closed several of its Quebec locations due to restructuring.
In 1994, S.S. Kresge closed its remaining Canadian locations, because of this, new Kmart Canada locations were opened to replace them.
Demise[]
Throughout the 1990s, Kmart and Kmart Canada began to decline, in 1997, Kmart Canada announced that they were closing 10 locations throughout Canada. But they were still losing money, so unfortunately, in May 1998, Kmart Canada decided to sell off the remaining 112 stores to Hudson's Bay. Some of the stores were turned into Zellers locations, which was a discount department store very similar to Kmart. The rest were turned into other stores, left abandoned, or demolished.
Store concepts[]
Kmart Canada never opened any Super Kmart Center locations. Although, Kmart Canada locations opened in the mid 1990s usually were built with an empty space next to them, this was so they could expand some Kmart Canada locations into Super Kmart Centre locations at a future date, but this never happened.
A 1990s era Kmart Canada (Store #5551)
Some Kmart Canada locations had automotive centres and Kmart Pharmacies. Most Kmart Canada locations also had a restaurant in them, but unlike American Kmart's, it wasn't usually a K café, although there were some of those in Canada, most locations had "Eatery Express" locations. There was one location at the Jane and Finch mall in Downsview, Ontario which had a Little Caesars Pizza Station in it. Some locations even had Tim Hortons locations in them.
Kmart Canada also had a website you could visit, its URL was: http://www.kmartcanada.com/ Although the website shut down in 1997.
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Kmart Canada |
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See also[]
- An archive of the Kmart Canada website: https://web.archive.org/web/19961108190906/http://www.kmartcanada.com/
- A 1976 Kmart Canada commercial with a French translated version of the "Kmart is your Saving Place" jingle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_mZO9MIec
- A Kmart Canada commercial from Fall 1994 showing the now separate commercials and jingles from the American division: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rlc4OTDBXQ