For some reason (maybe the holiday shopping season) I started thinking about Kmart today. My first job out of college in 1984 was working for NCR on the Kmart account team. Kmart was the second largest retailer in the U.S., with 2,500 stores. The five most important general merchandise retail accounts for NCR at the time were Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, and Walmart. The original Montgomery Ward went out of business in 2001. Sears and Kmart are owned by the same company now. Sears has sixteen stores remaining. Kmart has six. Those will probably close in 2022. JCPenney declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 and was purchased by Brookfield Asset Management. Walmart kicked all of their asses and is the largest company in the world by revenue. These days Walmart probably views Amazon as its main competitor. A lot can happen in thirty-seven years.
Stay healthy and safe.
Song of the Day
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.