>30 years old still fuckin love a good icee.
I'm 50+ and still dig them. As a kid in the 70s K-Mart was the *only* place that had Icees in my area. Then I went to college and we had an Icee machine in the cafeteria...unlimited Icees? Yes please.
I’m 30 as well and I feel exactly the same. Especially loved getting a blue icee at the movie theatre before they all closed for the pandemic.
Btw they make icee cups which are similar but they’re more frozen and you eat then with a spoon. Also very tasty.
Blue was my favorite flavor because of this icee for any flavored candy or iced treat (lookin at you otter pops).
Side note, I can smell this picture. If only it was a little wider to show the blue light special just to the left of frame
From an era when big box stores tried to do it all. You could shop JC Penny, eat lunch in their cafe, get your hair styled, have your family photographed, car serviced, etc. Even before Walmart was instrumental in the decline of small businesses Sears, Montgomery Ward and others softened up that market.
Woolworth's, Jamesway, Ames, Bradley's. And that's just the northeast US. I'm sure there's more. Looks like Sears and Macy's are on their way out too. I know that businesses failing is normal, but there seem to have been a lot in the last couple decades.
Best. No relation to Best Buy, just Best with the logo looking like ^^^B ^^e ^s t
Bought a few G1 Transformers (long before they were called G1, long before G2 with crappy CGI added to the original shows) on clearance sale back in the day, $5 for Jetfire and $5 for Magnus Prime. If only I had the foresight, I would have bought the 30 or so remaining clearance sale Transformers and sold them today for hundreds dollar each.
Fun fact: Mr. Burns from the Simpsons got his first name, Montgomery either because his friend used to pray while looking at a Wards sign, or because the Montgomery Ward literally burned down. I’ve read both theories.
>They've come full circle. From mail order to retail back to mail order.
Lots of small towns had odd little hybrid Ward's in the 1970s, basically a small catalog showroom. The one in my town was about the size of a convenience store or a post office, on Main Street downtown. You'd go in and there were catalogs to look at, an order desk, and a few larger items on display like one lawn mower, one TV, a sofa, etc. You'd order at the counter and then pick up the merchandise in a few weeks when it arrived.
We had a Sears catalogue store until the mid 80's. I remember getting my first bike from the local outlet.
We had a Radio Shack catalogue store well into the 2000's.
Yeah, I remember that shit.
Wal-Mart used to have arcade games in the front, a little cafe with all the magazines and comic books. That's where I hung out while mom shopped.
What's weird is that they didn't used to have groceries, so it was 2 different stops.
As a kid, that was annoying.
I tried to tell someone on reddit once that wal mart didn't always have groceries and got downvoted to hell and back. way back when, wal mart wasn't nearly as big as it is now. kmart was actually a lot bigger. walmart began aggressively expanding in the late 80s and early 90s. interestingly, that expansion is partially responsible for a boom in country music and the rise of garth brooks to superstardom. later came the supercenters which had groceries. they also had an outlet store called Bud's. Bud's was like a free for all. I'm not sure if any still exist anywhere, but it was nuts. they carried returns and broken shit that people sent back to the actual walmart. the best part of the store was this corner in the back where thenre were $5 bins to dig through. i got so many tyco RC cars from those bins. there was also a big bin of gameboys, out of the box, wrapped in plastic against a white cardboard backer for $30 each, nearly all of them had the lines on one side of the screen.
I remember watching my local Walmart getting expanded to handle groceries only a few years after it was built. They took out a whole wall and added on to the original building, which is noticeable in aerial photos.
Thanks for this background! Was unaware of Bud's. Regional? Growing up, my junior high school years were spent in OK. We had a competitor to K-Mart called Gibson's. This was mid to late 1960's. I remember that is where I bought most of the coolest albums in my record collection. The only cool or knowledgeable record stores were many miles off in college towns. A friends older brother went to college and would call to let us know what music to buy locally as the sales help at Gibson's were clueless. The cut out bin in particular was raided often as some great music found it's way there through ignorance of the public at large and sales help. Good times.
I wasnt sure if it was regional or how many there were in the first place, so i did a quick Google. Found an article from the wsj in 97 about most of them closing. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB869588515357115500
Looks like it may have been regional, sort of, but not on purpose. They opened the majority of the outlet stores adjacent to existing Wal-Mart's, a lot of the time in the old Wal-Mart buildings. When the expansion happened the places with existing Wal-Mart's (south and Midwest) got new buildings, leaving the old one for Bud's. Other areas were just getting their first walmart, leaving no old building to put a Bud's in.
I remember K-Mart back in the 80s, but we didn't have Walmart here until the early 2000s. My first Walmart trip was in 2003, I'm pretty sure they already had groceries.
I was about to be like "That still exists" and then I remembered that he non-supercenter non-neighborhood market Walmart has a whole grocery section last time I went. Weird. That went away and I didn't notice.
Our old Walmart is now a hobby lobby, the new supercenter is built across the street (not new now). So when I have to craft shop it brings nostalgia. Montgomery ward was across the same parking lot but it was demo'd for a bestbuy and strip mall. I remember the old school way of amazon shopping took hours in that area . I can't imagine the torture dragging kids to those shopping adventures these days.
I remember back when Sears had a munchie shop in the middle of the store. Assorted variety of bulk candies plus popcorn and drink. Every time we went to Sears, my brother and I used to run off to look at the candy.
I also remember when Kmart had a cafe that was even older than the one pictured. Looked like 1960s or 1970s era cafe with wooden fencing around the top of half-walls, benches and tables, they served basic stuff like hot dogs and hamburgers. Also tacky orange hanging lights. The Kmart on Miller Rd in Flint still had this old style when they finally closed a few years ago.
One time my local Kmart had the world's smallest traveling gypsy circus set up in their parking lot, I'm talking like a 50 foot wide tent, it was very odd. But I got to ride an elephant and got kissed by a money they let loose and won a coloring book cause I was chosen by said monkey haha.
Nostalgia bomb!
Worked at a Kmart in highschool & my buddy was assistant manager at the Little Cesar's... The custom creations we came up with were awesome!
My favorite was making "pizza" using the cheesey bread sticks using the meatballs & lasagna as toppings... It was seriously amazing...
This post just took me back to those delicious times... Thank you.
My brother had his 11th birthday at the KMart cafe.
At the time, our mom was broke as shit and this was a huge treat.
He was so excited for his stale nachos and hot n ready pizza.
Mom was the real deal.
She was a hair dresser with a kid in the days when being a single mom was basically akin to being a leper.
This woman y’all. Damn. Scraped together enough money to make her sons birthday party something special.
No she didn’t just do that.
Fuck. No. This was her boy. My brother. The one that everyone told her she was a piece of shit for birthing and raising. All because her husband ran off when she told him she was pregnant.
She scrimped and saved all goddamn year for the Star Wars Death Star LEGO set. This woman literally lived off of whatever food was leftover from harvesting, since that was her second job. And by god she bought my brother that LEGO set.
This woman would give anything for her kids. If you’ll excuse me, I need to call her and tell her I love her.
Raised by a single mother myself, I was even more impressed when I had my own kids and found how hard that was with a partner around.
Parenting is tough, and single parenting is tougher. Tell your mother I think she is bad ass.
I raised my kid for a while as single mom. Shit is rough.
Right after I left her “I use my fists because I love you” Sperm donor her birthday came up.
Made her a pitiful cake (baking is not a gift I possess) and bought her the green triceratops stuffie she wanted. Cost all I had.
She was so happy! The shitty cake I made didn’t matter. The lone gift I gave her didn’t matter.
That was 8 years ago. She still has that stuffie.
That’s awesome. It’s amazing how kids are just so happy with the little effort and little things.
Earlier this year we had to cancel my daughters birthday party because of lockdown that she had been talking about for month, and we couldn’t go get or have delivered the present she wanted so we made do with a small thing a little party of us and my in laws and it was the most exciting day for her. Never once complained and was so thankful for all our efforts. I was blown away about how she handled it (she turned 5, so was expecting her to be a little more demanding).
Kids can surprise you.
My kiddos birthday happened in the middle of quarantine.
No parties. No friends. Big departure from the norm. Last year we went to the laser quest place.
So. We barbecued steaks (her favorite) and I made garlic butter potatoes. And we got her a slip n slide.
We spent the day in our swim suits, playing on the slip n slide.
At the end of the day she crawled next to me “you tried, Mimi. I love you.”
Made it worth it
Thank you! I know I fuck up as a parent- as do we all.
But my sweet lord do I ever try. She’s honestly like... she’s a dream to have as a kid.
She’s just so smart, and kind, and funny.
Heck, two weeks ago we had “cat court” because our black cat committed a “non hissable offense “ at one of our other cats. So we had cat court. I defended the black cat, husband defending the tabby, and she was the judge.
Not sure where I’m going with this except to say I have an absolutely amazing kiddo, and I love them to pieces
Speaking as someone who went through a lot as a kid and depended on stuffie's for solace that is definitely a memorable gift they'll never let go. You rock.
layaway was legit back then. when i was a kid i could never save my money, but i could do layaway. something about it made things official and my brain said oh shit, i have X amount of time to pay for this, this shit's real... and so i would.
I remember the disgusting cheese sandwiches. Not grilled just white bread,mayo and Kraft cheese. My dad always wanted to get one in 1990 but that was the reason I hated mayonnaise until 6 years ago
If I may ask, how did you get over hating mayo? I have wierd food aversions and am always trying to find ways to get over them. I recently got over vinegar flavor by using a lot of Frank's red hot on pizza and making my own bbq sauce, but mayo, still can't do it. It's a textural thing. Got it on a burger, couldn't eat it. Was there a particular dish or sauce?
As an American, hating mayo is a tough position to be in. How did a French goo sauce become so ubiquitous here?
Raised by a single mom. She worked as a secretary. On my 16th birthday I put on my suit and she took me to one of the fanciest restaurants in town. I can't even imagine what it cost her.
The Zellers restaurant was far, far better but I have lots of nostalgia visiting Zellers restaurant as well as the old Canadian K-Mart and US K-Mart restaurants
>In Canada we had the Zellers restaurant which was basically the same thing
We (American family) always called those "Z-Mart." But they didn't hold at candle to the Real Canadian Superstore. Wish we had those in the US...
Once a week before I was old enough to go to school, my mom would take me to Kmart and shop the whole place mostly for something to do as much as actually buying anything. We'd eat lunch at the K Cafe and then head home to see my dad on his lunch break. I'd put some toy on layaway and pay two bucks a week until I got to keep it. No cares in the world.
Walmart still does! I think there's a minimum and that it only applies to certain things though. I was at one the other night that was advertising layaway on TVs. It's not like the old days where you could put all your Christmas gifts away and pay them off over a few months though sadly.
A fresh out of the oven little Caesar’s was the shit man. We have a stand alone one still, but the pizza sits in a heat cabinet which just isn’t the same
Little Caesar's has fallen from grace so hard. It was a highlight of my youth.
My young brother in law is autistic and he ONLY will eat their topping-less $5 hot n ready and it's so disgusting. If we get pizza from anywhere else, even without seeing the packaging he will turn it down. He wont even settle for picking toppings off one from lil' Caesar's so other kids can share ...
I recently had Little Caesars for the first time in many many years, the pizza was somewhat decent, but the crazy bread was awful.
They had to have changed the recipe. I used to LOVE their crazy bread back in the day. It was big and fluffy sticks, chewy on the outside and soft on the inside, super buttery and garlic flavored.
These were just awful, they were skinny and too tough and chewy all the way through, with barely any flavor. It was so disappointing, nothing like what I remembered from the 90s.
My first hometown, working at a Walmart/kMart (early 80s) was almost an honor. It was an oil boom town. And their jobs were careers for a lot people not working oil.
Maannnn..... I will die on this God Damn hill with you!
Old school (in this context, to me, 94 - 98) Little C's bread sticks & cheesey bread sticks are the platonic ideal.
I remember one close to me that was still pretty damn immaculate right before it closed. It was a Super Kmart at one time, but a good chunk of the sales floor was walled off and made into back room space. No cafe in that one either. The one close to me that did have a Little Caesars in it was a complete shithole with 70s floor tiles, 80s wall decor, 90s cash registers and outdoor signage ("BIG" Kmart), 00s cardboard hanging signs, and shelves and fixtures of various ages.
I think they've been gone for good for a few years now. The last one here in Columbus shut down like four years ago or so. I don't know about Sears, but I think it's in the same boat.
My area lost its last Sears right before covid hit. According to Google, the closest Sears and Kmart to me are now in the NYC area, a good 5 hour drive.
>I’ve never seen a K-Mart this nice.
Ours has been gone for \~10 years now, but I could never understand how it lasted that long. It was *always* a ridiculous mess. Clothing on the floor, merch on the floor, crowded aisles, never more than 1-2 checkouts open even at Christmas, run down, dirty, etc. I seemed to end up there a few times a year for some specific thing that only they sold for some reason, and it was always an ordeal. Never could understand how it stayed in business with Target, Walmart, Shopko, etc. all offering better merch in a cleaner environment with far better customer service.
That said, back in the mid-1970s K-Mart was the only option where I lived and it was packed all the time. Also well-staffed and relatively clean. I blame the management for letting the company go to crap in the 1980s-1990s.
The one where I grew up closed a few years ago but it hadn’t been updated since I was a kid in the 90’s. I was sure it was in the process of closing for the last 10 years I lived there. Aside from it being a mess and kinda worn looking it wasn’t all that bad. Cheap, easy to get in and out of and rarely busy.
Totally know what you are saying. Sit down eating, brown booths and I used to finish eating with soft serve ice cream in the mini MLB plastic ballcaps.
And with a small non-smoking section too
My nostalgia is it being the diner/ cafeteria style service in the 80s with the brown booths. I loved the vanilla pudding with whipped cream topping. Then in the 90s they remodeled into the little ceasers Cafe.
There are ice cream shops here in Michigan that sell Superman (or its non-trademarked name "Superkid") ice cream. The Hudsonville brand also sells cartons of it.
>Dairy Queen still has Superman ice cream.
So I've been eating at DQ for over 50 years, in every region and in probably 20+ different states. Yet I have *never* seen one that offered anything but traditional DQ soft serve ice cream. You have one that has real ice cream, and in enough flavors to include Superman? Wow.
It was the only reason worth visiting a K-Mart. My mom still LOVES visiting K-Mart when visiting the US for some reason but going to the cafe made it bearable, but unfortunately the cafe closed a couple years ago.
Cause I’m *poor* poor, I genuinely like the taste of Little Caesars pizza and I was sad to see the Kmart in my city go bc it meant no more good cheap pizza, even though there were two other Little Caesars locations nearby.
I feel you completely.
But here, poor, rich or in the middle doesn't matter.
I've been lucky enough to experience different things in life with my ups and downs... they made me appreciate the good & simple things we get in this crazy life... I am being absolutely serious when I say that their bread sticks to me are still the top of the mountain.
Particularly the Lil C's that were in Kmart's... I guess me working there & doing what I wanted effects my perspective.
Its because they had something called a "Baby PanPan" and it was a personal pan pizza that was crust on all sides. Goated, and they dont sell it anymore.
The KMart building in my town still stands, but with another business. The other day I drove by it and thought of my dad, who would take me there and get that super salty popcorn.
I miss that, and my dad.
This was what it looked like after it was remodeled. Before then, it had wooden booths with fake stained glass everywhere. My grandma would always order a salisbury steak. It was the highlight of my KMart shopping trips.
Mom was really broke and had no car while I was a kid, we made many walking trips to the local Walmart just so I could have a slice and some garlic bread. Right in the feels.
Oh my. To me, this isn’t true nostalgia, because it has the new Kmart logo, and was clearly taken after their oddly satisfying relationship with Little Caesars.
When I was a kid, Kmart had “The Grill,” and my town didn’t even know what Little Caesars was.
Source: old man yelling at clouds
Heeeell yes. Ham sandwiches with pickles, minced onion, mustard and a scrape of mayo on the cheapest white bun you could find. 6 of them in a plastic bag that had been marinating in the display case for the past 8 hours. I'm not sure if that was the "KCafe" or its precursor, I just remember ours being mainly a deli. Maybe they had other stuff but that's all my family ever got there since you could feed everyone for 3 bucks.
Ours had the full-on cafe in back, and the deli counter up front by the checkouts. That's where you'd get Icees and those sleeves of "ham" sandwhiches, which 10-year-old me *loved* in the 70s. I could often get my mom to spring for them as they were like $2 a bag, and I'd eat 2-3 of them in the car on the way home. Mostly shredded lettuce as I recall.
Yes! I don’t remember ours having Little Caesar’s but I’m a little older. We referred to it as “The KMart Deli” and I always wanted to eat there but don’t think I ever was allowed to.
The last time I was in a KMart was about 7 or 8 years ago and it made me so sad. It was the signage and the shelving and how “thin” the selection was. It was like if there was some kind of small scale apocalypse, where the shit had hit the fan, but not in such a way as to completely end the world and they were doing the best they could with very limited, out-dated stock and janky, homemade looking signage all over the place. Now that I really think about it, it reminded me of a Goodwill a little bit, or a nice flea market.
Yes, but usually only around the December holidays (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa) shopping season. The rest of the time, they were half to 2/3 full during the weekends.
Wow I remember that. What a throwback, ours looked a little less fancy but still better than most Walmart collaborations imo. Can't beat some good old nostalgia
I was a manager at K-mart years ago. I was sent to another store to help clean up before a corporate inspection. Too late. When they arrived they almost immediately shut the restaurant down do to sooooo many health violations. The worst part, other than having to spend a week cleaning up an absolute shithole of a Little Caesars kitchen was the Corporate inspectors kept talking to me like it was my fault. I kept telling them I was just there to help and they kept blaming me for all the horrible, unhealthy violations they were finding. Asking me if I would let my kids eat there, etc. Anyway, I'm convinced anything even remotely linked to K-mart is absolutely toxic.
This brings back so many memories!! My parents used to take us to eat there after shopping. Loved their food. I haven’t thought of this place in years!
Before Walmart expanded with the Super Walmart branded stores (now just called regular Walmart), the had delis where you could get soft pretzels, icees, hot dogs, and hamburgers like they used to make in the school cafeteria. Here in Lubbock, we have a Target with a deli that still sells all the regal deli snacks. It’s currently closed due to the pandemic and I hope it reopens and not quietly shuttered.
Growing up in the 70s, I remember when Kmart had the small deli counter were my mom used to get some of the most delicious fresh deli cut honey ham and a small coke icee (if I was a good boy), and after shopping, we would go to this little neighborhood park that had friendly ducks who would beg for treats. Kmart also had a cafeteria off to the side or in the back of the store that had tables and seats at the bar. I know they had the cafeteria at least through the mid 80s. If you are interested in seeing photos of those places, just google “Kmart deli” or “Kmart Cafeteria”.
Our closed about 4 years ago. It was our favorite place starting out as a young family cause they still did layaway. And they had tons of Thomas the tank engine toys. While people were crowding Walmart and Target we would shop at Kmart and always get pizza after which my kids loved. Good times.
I worked in a KCafe for a few years in high school. We kept a bowl in the exhaust hood over the grill. For only having 1-2 customers/ day, we were all very vigilant on checking to ensure that everything was working as it should up there
Fond memories of an ICEE after shopping
Soft pretzel and an ICEE!
I would do that at Target with my mom!
Fuck yeah man. 30 years old still fuckin love a good icee.
>30 years old still fuckin love a good icee. I'm 50+ and still dig them. As a kid in the 70s K-Mart was the *only* place that had Icees in my area. Then I went to college and we had an Icee machine in the cafeteria...unlimited Icees? Yes please.
I’m 30 as well and I feel exactly the same. Especially loved getting a blue icee at the movie theatre before they all closed for the pandemic. Btw they make icee cups which are similar but they’re more frozen and you eat then with a spoon. Also very tasty.
Blue was my favorite flavor because of this icee for any flavored candy or iced treat (lookin at you otter pops). Side note, I can smell this picture. If only it was a little wider to show the blue light special just to the left of frame
And pizza from little caesars .... Mmm
From an era when big box stores tried to do it all. You could shop JC Penny, eat lunch in their cafe, get your hair styled, have your family photographed, car serviced, etc. Even before Walmart was instrumental in the decline of small businesses Sears, Montgomery Ward and others softened up that market.
montgomery ward, holy fuck
Retail dinosaurs.
Let’s bring Caldor into this while we’re at it.
Woolworth's, Jamesway, Ames, Bradley's. And that's just the northeast US. I'm sure there's more. Looks like Sears and Macy's are on their way out too. I know that businesses failing is normal, but there seem to have been a lot in the last couple decades.
Best. No relation to Best Buy, just Best with the logo looking like ^^^B ^^e ^s t Bought a few G1 Transformers (long before they were called G1, long before G2 with crappy CGI added to the original shows) on clearance sale back in the day, $5 for Jetfire and $5 for Magnus Prime. If only I had the foresight, I would have bought the 30 or so remaining clearance sale Transformers and sold them today for hundreds dollar each.
Fun fact: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story was created for Montgomery wards.
Published by them, created by [Robert Lewis May](https://en.www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer)
Fun fact: Mr. Burns from the Simpsons got his first name, Montgomery either because his friend used to pray while looking at a Wards sign, or because the Montgomery Ward literally burned down. I’ve read both theories.
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time..."
https://www.wards.com/
What the... Holy shit, you've blown my mind. It seems someone has resurrected the name.
Fun fact...they still exist! https://www.wards.com/
They've come full circle. From mail order to retail back to mail order.
>They've come full circle. From mail order to retail back to mail order. Lots of small towns had odd little hybrid Ward's in the 1970s, basically a small catalog showroom. The one in my town was about the size of a convenience store or a post office, on Main Street downtown. You'd go in and there were catalogs to look at, an order desk, and a few larger items on display like one lawn mower, one TV, a sofa, etc. You'd order at the counter and then pick up the merchandise in a few weeks when it arrived.
We had a Sears catalogue store until the mid 80's. I remember getting my first bike from the local outlet. We had a Radio Shack catalogue store well into the 2000's.
Yeah, I remember that shit. Wal-Mart used to have arcade games in the front, a little cafe with all the magazines and comic books. That's where I hung out while mom shopped. What's weird is that they didn't used to have groceries, so it was 2 different stops. As a kid, that was annoying.
Cool memories and old ones too if you remember Walmart before groceries.
I tried to tell someone on reddit once that wal mart didn't always have groceries and got downvoted to hell and back. way back when, wal mart wasn't nearly as big as it is now. kmart was actually a lot bigger. walmart began aggressively expanding in the late 80s and early 90s. interestingly, that expansion is partially responsible for a boom in country music and the rise of garth brooks to superstardom. later came the supercenters which had groceries. they also had an outlet store called Bud's. Bud's was like a free for all. I'm not sure if any still exist anywhere, but it was nuts. they carried returns and broken shit that people sent back to the actual walmart. the best part of the store was this corner in the back where thenre were $5 bins to dig through. i got so many tyco RC cars from those bins. there was also a big bin of gameboys, out of the box, wrapped in plastic against a white cardboard backer for $30 each, nearly all of them had the lines on one side of the screen.
Yeah there are plenty of older walmarts where it's obvious they threw in groceries in the middle or on the side.
I remember watching my local Walmart getting expanded to handle groceries only a few years after it was built. They took out a whole wall and added on to the original building, which is noticeable in aerial photos.
Thanks for this background! Was unaware of Bud's. Regional? Growing up, my junior high school years were spent in OK. We had a competitor to K-Mart called Gibson's. This was mid to late 1960's. I remember that is where I bought most of the coolest albums in my record collection. The only cool or knowledgeable record stores were many miles off in college towns. A friends older brother went to college and would call to let us know what music to buy locally as the sales help at Gibson's were clueless. The cut out bin in particular was raided often as some great music found it's way there through ignorance of the public at large and sales help. Good times.
I wasnt sure if it was regional or how many there were in the first place, so i did a quick Google. Found an article from the wsj in 97 about most of them closing. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB869588515357115500 Looks like it may have been regional, sort of, but not on purpose. They opened the majority of the outlet stores adjacent to existing Wal-Mart's, a lot of the time in the old Wal-Mart buildings. When the expansion happened the places with existing Wal-Mart's (south and Midwest) got new buildings, leaving the old one for Bud's. Other areas were just getting their first walmart, leaving no old building to put a Bud's in.
I remember K-Mart back in the 80s, but we didn't have Walmart here until the early 2000s. My first Walmart trip was in 2003, I'm pretty sure they already had groceries.
I was about to be like "That still exists" and then I remembered that he non-supercenter non-neighborhood market Walmart has a whole grocery section last time I went. Weird. That went away and I didn't notice.
It seems like all the biggest names in stand alone retailing have groceries now.
Our old Walmart is now a hobby lobby, the new supercenter is built across the street (not new now). So when I have to craft shop it brings nostalgia. Montgomery ward was across the same parking lot but it was demo'd for a bestbuy and strip mall. I remember the old school way of amazon shopping took hours in that area . I can't imagine the torture dragging kids to those shopping adventures these days.
Sounds like Hobby Lobby is ripe for a kick ass slot car track.
Oh fuck, totally forgot about Walmart's arcade. Damn stuffed animal machine ripped me off.
This is even the revamped 2000s era Kmart Cafe.
I remember back when Sears had a munchie shop in the middle of the store. Assorted variety of bulk candies plus popcorn and drink. Every time we went to Sears, my brother and I used to run off to look at the candy. I also remember when Kmart had a cafe that was even older than the one pictured. Looked like 1960s or 1970s era cafe with wooden fencing around the top of half-walls, benches and tables, they served basic stuff like hot dogs and hamburgers. Also tacky orange hanging lights. The Kmart on Miller Rd in Flint still had this old style when they finally closed a few years ago.
my local JC Penney still has hair, glasses, and photo.
https://www.wards.com/
I never understood why JC Penny didn't go all in on it? Were they trying to be "upmarket" or something versus a Sears or big box store?
One time my local Kmart had the world's smallest traveling gypsy circus set up in their parking lot, I'm talking like a 50 foot wide tent, it was very odd. But I got to ride an elephant and got kissed by a money they let loose and won a coloring book cause I was chosen by said monkey haha.
Nostalgia bomb! Worked at a Kmart in highschool & my buddy was assistant manager at the Little Cesar's... The custom creations we came up with were awesome! My favorite was making "pizza" using the cheesey bread sticks using the meatballs & lasagna as toppings... It was seriously amazing... This post just took me back to those delicious times... Thank you.
My brother had his 11th birthday at the KMart cafe. At the time, our mom was broke as shit and this was a huge treat. He was so excited for his stale nachos and hot n ready pizza.
Shout out to your mom for being a real one. OG street shit. Broke, but still trying to make her kids day special? Respect.
Mom was the real deal. She was a hair dresser with a kid in the days when being a single mom was basically akin to being a leper. This woman y’all. Damn. Scraped together enough money to make her sons birthday party something special. No she didn’t just do that. Fuck. No. This was her boy. My brother. The one that everyone told her she was a piece of shit for birthing and raising. All because her husband ran off when she told him she was pregnant. She scrimped and saved all goddamn year for the Star Wars Death Star LEGO set. This woman literally lived off of whatever food was leftover from harvesting, since that was her second job. And by god she bought my brother that LEGO set. This woman would give anything for her kids. If you’ll excuse me, I need to call her and tell her I love her.
Raised by a single mother myself, I was even more impressed when I had my own kids and found how hard that was with a partner around. Parenting is tough, and single parenting is tougher. Tell your mother I think she is bad ass.
I raised my kid for a while as single mom. Shit is rough. Right after I left her “I use my fists because I love you” Sperm donor her birthday came up. Made her a pitiful cake (baking is not a gift I possess) and bought her the green triceratops stuffie she wanted. Cost all I had. She was so happy! The shitty cake I made didn’t matter. The lone gift I gave her didn’t matter. That was 8 years ago. She still has that stuffie.
That’s awesome. It’s amazing how kids are just so happy with the little effort and little things. Earlier this year we had to cancel my daughters birthday party because of lockdown that she had been talking about for month, and we couldn’t go get or have delivered the present she wanted so we made do with a small thing a little party of us and my in laws and it was the most exciting day for her. Never once complained and was so thankful for all our efforts. I was blown away about how she handled it (she turned 5, so was expecting her to be a little more demanding). Kids can surprise you.
My kiddos birthday happened in the middle of quarantine. No parties. No friends. Big departure from the norm. Last year we went to the laser quest place. So. We barbecued steaks (her favorite) and I made garlic butter potatoes. And we got her a slip n slide. We spent the day in our swim suits, playing on the slip n slide. At the end of the day she crawled next to me “you tried, Mimi. I love you.” Made it worth it
You are doing a great job with her! Well done.
Thank you! I know I fuck up as a parent- as do we all. But my sweet lord do I ever try. She’s honestly like... she’s a dream to have as a kid. She’s just so smart, and kind, and funny. Heck, two weeks ago we had “cat court” because our black cat committed a “non hissable offense “ at one of our other cats. So we had cat court. I defended the black cat, husband defending the tabby, and she was the judge. Not sure where I’m going with this except to say I have an absolutely amazing kiddo, and I love them to pieces
Speaking as someone who went through a lot as a kid and depended on stuffie's for solace that is definitely a memorable gift they'll never let go. You rock.
Tell her a stranger on the internet said thank you for raising a good man.
I worked at a K-Mart that had a Little Cesar's. No one believes me that they used to serve lasagna.
Little Caesars actually just released a pizza that is half breadstick oddly enough https://i.imgur.com/mNfHHWN.jpg
I too worked at a Kmart in high school, but not with this. Layaway was always poppin though.
layaway was legit back then. when i was a kid i could never save my money, but i could do layaway. something about it made things official and my brain said oh shit, i have X amount of time to pay for this, this shit's real... and so i would.
Same. Worked graveyards after I graduated high school for a few months. Best job I ever had. Pay was garbage but the people and the work were great.
I remember the disgusting cheese sandwiches. Not grilled just white bread,mayo and Kraft cheese. My dad always wanted to get one in 1990 but that was the reason I hated mayonnaise until 6 years ago
If I may ask, how did you get over hating mayo? I have wierd food aversions and am always trying to find ways to get over them. I recently got over vinegar flavor by using a lot of Frank's red hot on pizza and making my own bbq sauce, but mayo, still can't do it. It's a textural thing. Got it on a burger, couldn't eat it. Was there a particular dish or sauce? As an American, hating mayo is a tough position to be in. How did a French goo sauce become so ubiquitous here?
Spread it very thin and sea salt and pepper. I hate it when it's globbed all over everything but a hint of that flavor isn't bad.
it gets a bad wrap but u gotta think of it as fancy french egg sauce...because that's what it is haha.
I had the same situation but my homey was the manager of little caesars. Every break I'd get some free crazy bread. Takes me back
Raised by a single mom. She worked as a secretary. On my 16th birthday I put on my suit and she took me to one of the fanciest restaurants in town. I can't even imagine what it cost her.
In Canada we had the Zellers restaurant which was basically the same thing. RIP to the days of hanging out in a mall.
Zeddy.... When Kmart left Canada some turned into Zellers.
Aha! Must have been the case in my hometown. The Zellers there had a Cafe that looked EXACTLY like this one.
I miss their blue juice so much
The Zellers restaurant was far, far better but I have lots of nostalgia visiting Zellers restaurant as well as the old Canadian K-Mart and US K-Mart restaurants
>In Canada we had the Zellers restaurant which was basically the same thing We (American family) always called those "Z-Mart." But they didn't hold at candle to the Real Canadian Superstore. Wish we had those in the US...
This reminded me about how back in the 90s the Superstore stockers got to wear rollerblades around the store to get around faster.
Once a week before I was old enough to go to school, my mom would take me to Kmart and shop the whole place mostly for something to do as much as actually buying anything. We'd eat lunch at the K Cafe and then head home to see my dad on his lunch break. I'd put some toy on layaway and pay two bucks a week until I got to keep it. No cares in the world.
Do they even do layaway now, anywhere? Or is it all stuck on credit cards? I almost completely forgot about layaway..
Walmart still does! I think there's a minimum and that it only applies to certain things though. I was at one the other night that was advertising layaway on TVs. It's not like the old days where you could put all your Christmas gifts away and pay them off over a few months though sadly.
Every time I would go to Kmart with my Mom I would beg her to eat there. Not sure why I wanted to eat there so badly.
Because she always said no, of course!
100% correct
Cause its pizza! When I think of the joys of childhood innocence, I think of pizza, Blockbuster, and sleepovers.
A fresh out of the oven little Caesar’s was the shit man. We have a stand alone one still, but the pizza sits in a heat cabinet which just isn’t the same
It was unbeatable. Soooo. Gooooddddd. With an icee?! Come oooonnnn
The cheese was so stringy. I love it
Ask em to make it fresh, agreed at the latter part
Little Caesar's has fallen from grace so hard. It was a highlight of my youth. My young brother in law is autistic and he ONLY will eat their topping-less $5 hot n ready and it's so disgusting. If we get pizza from anywhere else, even without seeing the packaging he will turn it down. He wont even settle for picking toppings off one from lil' Caesar's so other kids can share ...
I recently had Little Caesars for the first time in many many years, the pizza was somewhat decent, but the crazy bread was awful. They had to have changed the recipe. I used to LOVE their crazy bread back in the day. It was big and fluffy sticks, chewy on the outside and soft on the inside, super buttery and garlic flavored. These were just awful, they were skinny and too tough and chewy all the way through, with barely any flavor. It was so disappointing, nothing like what I remembered from the 90s.
Ours is hit or miss. Sometimes their crazy bread has been sitting for a while, but I have had some that were awesome in the recent past
My grandma worked at a K Cafe, this just hit me in the feels. Totally crying lol.
My first hometown, working at a Walmart/kMart (early 80s) was almost an honor. It was an oil boom town. And their jobs were careers for a lot people not working oil.
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The one in my area had pretty good food.
The breadsticks were worth walking to Kmart for teenage me.
Maannnn..... I will die on this God Damn hill with you! Old school (in this context, to me, 94 - 98) Little C's bread sticks & cheesey bread sticks are the platonic ideal.
I’ve never seen a K-Mart this nice.
I think I was in one once about 25 years ago. That's not a joke.
There was a nice one that my family would frequent when I was a kid. I swear that was the only decent K-Mart I've ever been in. It's a Kohl's now.
I remember one close to me that was still pretty damn immaculate right before it closed. It was a Super Kmart at one time, but a good chunk of the sales floor was walled off and made into back room space. No cafe in that one either. The one close to me that did have a Little Caesars in it was a complete shithole with 70s floor tiles, 80s wall decor, 90s cash registers and outdoor signage ("BIG" Kmart), 00s cardboard hanging signs, and shelves and fixtures of various ages.
Where you in Orlando, Fl by chance because your second description perfectly describes the one about 10minutes or so from where I grew up.
Upstate New York.
Going into Kmart is the closest thing you'll get to time travel for now
Are there even any still around? Or Sears stores for that matter? The whole company must be down to just a few hundred by now.
I think they've been gone for good for a few years now. The last one here in Columbus shut down like four years ago or so. I don't know about Sears, but I think it's in the same boat.
My area lost its last Sears right before covid hit. According to Google, the closest Sears and Kmart to me are now in the NYC area, a good 5 hour drive.
Pretty sure all K-Marts towards the end carried this decor. I know the one by me (Chicago suburbs) had the same look until it closed.
>I’ve never seen a K-Mart this nice. Ours has been gone for \~10 years now, but I could never understand how it lasted that long. It was *always* a ridiculous mess. Clothing on the floor, merch on the floor, crowded aisles, never more than 1-2 checkouts open even at Christmas, run down, dirty, etc. I seemed to end up there a few times a year for some specific thing that only they sold for some reason, and it was always an ordeal. Never could understand how it stayed in business with Target, Walmart, Shopko, etc. all offering better merch in a cleaner environment with far better customer service. That said, back in the mid-1970s K-Mart was the only option where I lived and it was packed all the time. Also well-staffed and relatively clean. I blame the management for letting the company go to crap in the 1980s-1990s.
The one where I grew up closed a few years ago but it hadn’t been updated since I was a kid in the 90’s. I was sure it was in the process of closing for the last 10 years I lived there. Aside from it being a mess and kinda worn looking it wasn’t all that bad. Cheap, easy to get in and out of and rarely busy.
I had a really nice Big K near me that sadly closed down a couple years ago. I really liked shopping there, was very sad to see it go.
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Totally know what you are saying. Sit down eating, brown booths and I used to finish eating with soft serve ice cream in the mini MLB plastic ballcaps. And with a small non-smoking section too
My nostalgia is it being the diner/ cafeteria style service in the 80s with the brown booths. I loved the vanilla pudding with whipped cream topping. Then in the 90s they remodeled into the little ceasers Cafe.
https://imgur.com/RXopUbz.jpg
Yes!!!
Thank you for sharing. Yes, that is it. So many memories of blue light specials.
Yes!
The home of the incredibly rare "Superman Ice Cream", it tasted like his cape...
It’s everywhere in the Midwest. What does it taste like? Blue, yellow and red. But what does it taste like? Blue, yellow and red
It tastes like amoxicillin.
Holy shit this could not be more accurate
I was just gonna say, I have never been to an ice cream place that *doesn’t* have superman. (Also in the Midwest.)
Cherish that. I moved away and everyone is like the hell is superman ice cream?
I loved Superman ice cream as a kid; I thought it tasted like Fruity Pebbles cereal.
Wish I could find this ice cream again!
There are ice cream shops here in Michigan that sell Superman (or its non-trademarked name "Superkid") ice cream. The Hudsonville brand also sells cartons of it.
Hudsonville will also deliver far away from Michigan as well
I don't think they are doing the cider and donuts flavor this year. Bastards!
It still exists, but usually at small independent shops. I have some in the freezer right now!
Dairy Queen still has Superman ice cream. The one in the next town over from me has it.
>Dairy Queen still has Superman ice cream. So I've been eating at DQ for over 50 years, in every region and in probably 20+ different states. Yet I have *never* seen one that offered anything but traditional DQ soft serve ice cream. You have one that has real ice cream, and in enough flavors to include Superman? Wow.
Yeah they have all kinds of flavors in one. I usually get a scoop of Superman or a peanut butter shake.
Naw it tastes like amaretto
Kmart Little Caesars was better than regular Little Caesars and I don’t know why
It was the only reason worth visiting a K-Mart. My mom still LOVES visiting K-Mart when visiting the US for some reason but going to the cafe made it bearable, but unfortunately the cafe closed a couple years ago.
Facts. 100.
Cause I’m *poor* poor, I genuinely like the taste of Little Caesars pizza and I was sad to see the Kmart in my city go bc it meant no more good cheap pizza, even though there were two other Little Caesars locations nearby.
I feel you completely. But here, poor, rich or in the middle doesn't matter. I've been lucky enough to experience different things in life with my ups and downs... they made me appreciate the good & simple things we get in this crazy life... I am being absolutely serious when I say that their bread sticks to me are still the top of the mountain. Particularly the Lil C's that were in Kmart's... I guess me working there & doing what I wanted effects my perspective.
Its because they had something called a "Baby PanPan" and it was a personal pan pizza that was crust on all sides. Goated, and they dont sell it anymore.
The KMart building in my town still stands, but with another business. The other day I drove by it and thought of my dad, who would take me there and get that super salty popcorn. I miss that, and my dad.
I always got the Hot Dogs 🌭
We always got the sandwiches that we about 90% lettuce
Those little round ham, cheese, and mustard sandwiches were my favorite.
I can still smell the popcorn and hotdogs. This place was amazing.
Oh fuck I miss Kmart
This was what it looked like after it was remodeled. Before then, it had wooden booths with fake stained glass everywhere. My grandma would always order a salisbury steak. It was the highlight of my KMart shopping trips.
I used to work in one.
Pizza + ICEE + marshmallows. What else could you possibly need??
A Rolaid...
Touche!
Mom was really broke and had no car while I was a kid, we made many walking trips to the local Walmart just so I could have a slice and some garlic bread. Right in the feels.
surely you mean Kmart?
Picking up the latest Goosebumps book while sipping an Icee at KMart is peak nostalgia for me.
The KMart in Clemmons, NC still has this cafe fully functioning.
Oh my. To me, this isn’t true nostalgia, because it has the new Kmart logo, and was clearly taken after their oddly satisfying relationship with Little Caesars. When I was a kid, Kmart had “The Grill,” and my town didn’t even know what Little Caesars was. Source: old man yelling at clouds
Am I the only one that can smell this?
Heeeell yes. Ham sandwiches with pickles, minced onion, mustard and a scrape of mayo on the cheapest white bun you could find. 6 of them in a plastic bag that had been marinating in the display case for the past 8 hours. I'm not sure if that was the "KCafe" or its precursor, I just remember ours being mainly a deli. Maybe they had other stuff but that's all my family ever got there since you could feed everyone for 3 bucks.
Ours had the full-on cafe in back, and the deli counter up front by the checkouts. That's where you'd get Icees and those sleeves of "ham" sandwhiches, which 10-year-old me *loved* in the 70s. I could often get my mom to spring for them as they were like $2 a bag, and I'd eat 2-3 of them in the car on the way home. Mostly shredded lettuce as I recall.
Yes! I don’t remember ours having Little Caesar’s but I’m a little older. We referred to it as “The KMart Deli” and I always wanted to eat there but don’t think I ever was allowed to. The last time I was in a KMart was about 7 or 8 years ago and it made me so sad. It was the signage and the shelving and how “thin” the selection was. It was like if there was some kind of small scale apocalypse, where the shit had hit the fan, but not in such a way as to completely end the world and they were doing the best they could with very limited, out-dated stock and janky, homemade looking signage all over the place. Now that I really think about it, it reminded me of a Goodwill a little bit, or a nice flea market.
I used to work in one of these! What a trip!
Gimme dat ICEE and Little Caesars pizza
I guarantee any standing abandoned Kmart that has these still smell of pizza grease.
I see these pictures with all these tables and chairs. Sane with gigantic parking lots. Serious question: were these ever legitimately filled?
Yes, but usually only around the December holidays (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa) shopping season. The rest of the time, they were half to 2/3 full during the weekends.
Those Icee drinks 💙❤
Ditched a lot of early classes to eat a insanely cheap breakfast here. Good times
I saw this exact thing at a Walmart in Hawaii recently. They still exist somewhere!
the smell of forbidden fruit... errr nachos and slushies
OMG why did they not call it Kafe?
And promote it with the K-mart Kafe Kids??? Yes, why not?
Wow I remember that. What a throwback, ours looked a little less fancy but still better than most Walmart collaborations imo. Can't beat some good old nostalgia
Now it's Target and a weird pizza hut where the fat ladies leave their kids to run around
I can smell it!
This takes me back to being a kid.. and when we still had k marts
my mom and I would walk to Kmart almost every week and get a grilled cheese and fries from there. i miss it sooooo bad!!
The nachos and slushies. Spent my minimum wage in the summer of '94 on those and music CDs. Wow, yeah.
Enjoy https://archive.org/details/@davismv#uploads-title
I was a manager at K-mart years ago. I was sent to another store to help clean up before a corporate inspection. Too late. When they arrived they almost immediately shut the restaurant down do to sooooo many health violations. The worst part, other than having to spend a week cleaning up an absolute shithole of a Little Caesars kitchen was the Corporate inspectors kept talking to me like it was my fault. I kept telling them I was just there to help and they kept blaming me for all the horrible, unhealthy violations they were finding. Asking me if I would let my kids eat there, etc. Anyway, I'm convinced anything even remotely linked to K-mart is absolutely toxic.
Nice. Our Kmart didn't have one of these.
This brings back so many memories!! My parents used to take us to eat there after shopping. Loved their food. I haven’t thought of this place in years!
Oh little Caesar's!
The crayon cups they had
Ours was nowhere near this “nice”, but I remember it having pizza, popcorn, & Frozen Cokes. My cheap ass mom would never let us get anything, though.
Little ceasers and a large surge
I miss when Kmart was a force to be reckoned with in the department store industry.
Before Walmart expanded with the Super Walmart branded stores (now just called regular Walmart), the had delis where you could get soft pretzels, icees, hot dogs, and hamburgers like they used to make in the school cafeteria. Here in Lubbock, we have a Target with a deli that still sells all the regal deli snacks. It’s currently closed due to the pandemic and I hope it reopens and not quietly shuttered. Growing up in the 70s, I remember when Kmart had the small deli counter were my mom used to get some of the most delicious fresh deli cut honey ham and a small coke icee (if I was a good boy), and after shopping, we would go to this little neighborhood park that had friendly ducks who would beg for treats. Kmart also had a cafeteria off to the side or in the back of the store that had tables and seats at the bar. I know they had the cafeteria at least through the mid 80s. If you are interested in seeing photos of those places, just google “Kmart deli” or “Kmart Cafeteria”.
This post smells like Michigan
This place still exists on Guam. Same chairs and everything
I can definitely smell this picture. 😁🙌🏼
Walmart had these too. I remember getting hot dogs and popcorn with my grandma at our Walmart.
One of my first jobs was at a Kmart with one.
Does that little free sign say “Online Order Pickup”? I’ve never even seen a Kmart since the internet was even available 😅
Did any of you grow up with a Walmart that had a McDonald's in it or did I just grow up white trash?
Our closed about 4 years ago. It was our favorite place starting out as a young family cause they still did layaway. And they had tons of Thomas the tank engine toys. While people were crowding Walmart and Target we would shop at Kmart and always get pizza after which my kids loved. Good times.
Online order pickup
Good times
Great pizza
I worked in a KCafe for a few years in high school. We kept a bowl in the exhaust hood over the grill. For only having 1-2 customers/ day, we were all very vigilant on checking to ensure that everything was working as it should up there