Kmart Plaza Shopping Centers

[marshd1000]

I think that stores like KMart, even though they are a big box store, liked to think of themselves as shopping centers as they had most things that people needed daily. During the same era as the "KMart Plazas", Fred Meyer stores refered to themselves as "Fred Meyer Super Shopping Centers" or "One Stop Shopping Centers". Freddy's would say that they were 28 stores in one.

[VibeGuy]

During that era, though, most Fred Meyer stores had extensive street-facing retail space that was leased to outside tenants - usually a hair salon, a locksmith, a laundromat, an ice cream scoop shop...I seem to recall more than one Radio Shack...possibly a Hallmark or two.

These constructions continued into the early 90s; designs built since then generally only offer a single lease tenant space for a coffee retailer, or none at all.

E

[Super S]

During that era, though, most Fred Meyer stores had extensive street-facing retail space that was leased to outside tenants - usually a hair salon, a locksmith, a laundromat, an ice cream scoop shop...I seem to recall more than one Radio Shack...possibly a Hallmark or two.

These constructions continued into the early 90s; designs built since then generally only offer a single lease tenant space for a coffee retailer, or none at all.

E

Adding to that, as many older Fred Meyer stores expanded and remodeled, they took over many of the spaces once leased by outside tenants.

As for those outside tenants, in addition to what VibeGuy said, I have seen Washington Mutual (where the main entry is not inside the store like most are), several laundromats, and I believe the Fred Meyer in Gresham, Oregon even had a Waldenbooks in one of the spaces at one point.

[TenPoundHammer]

Adding to that, as many older Fred Meyer stores expanded and remodeled, they took over many of the spaces once leased by outside tenants.

As for those outside tenants, in addition to what VibeGuy said, I have seen Washington Mutual (where the main entry is not inside the store like most are), several laundromats, and I believe the Fred Meyer in Gresham, Oregon even had a Waldenbooks in one of the spaces at one point.

Similarly, I've been told that some Kmarts had Waldenbooks in them at one point, since Kmart used to own the chain.

While we're on that topic, the Meijer in Traverse City used to have a full Carlton Cards store in it.

[danielh_512]

The Kmart Plaza signage was formerly adorned in Altoona, PA at the store along Plank Rd.

The Kmart was once smaller, and was adjacent to a Shop n Save supermarket. Around 1991, the Shop n Save closed (Likely a former Kmart Foods), and was expanded into the remodeled Kmart. The signage disappeared.

A possible Kmart Plaza site would be in Annandale, VA, although in the DC area, none of the supermarket spaces were ever Kmart Foods. They were operated by Grand Union. This was likely due to the strong grocery unions of DC at the time, which still have considerable strength today.

[Groceteria]

Hi all,

We're getting a little topic drift here into discussion of Kmart Foods, about which there's already another thread here:

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7

So I'm going to merge some of the purely Kmart Foods posts from here into that thread, so we can leave this one more or less specific to the Kmart Plaza shopping centers.