Call Me Crazy, But I Miss the Quincy and Hannibal Kmart Stores

I realize this will likely be an unpopular opinion, but I'm gonna let it fly anyway. I, for one, completely miss the Quincy and Hannibal K-Mart stores. Let me explain.

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Quick backstory first. My first job was at the Hannibal Kmart store. I was a stockman who (truth be known) started working when I was still 15 years old, labor laws be damned. I worked nights, weekends and holidays and I could tell you stories about what I found when cleaning the bathrooms there, but that's a (disgusting) story for another day.

Oh, and I ran the blue light specials. Remember the blue light specials?

If you didn't know, Kmart as a retail store is pretty much no more. It went the way of the hula hoop and dinosaur a few years ago and I can't even remember when the Quincy and Hannibal stores officially closed. Quincy hung on for longer than Hannibal for sure.

So what do I miss about Kmart? Other than the friends I worked with, there was a cheesiness about the vibe there. I don't know how else to describe it. It's almost like the store was stuck in time somewhere in the late 1960's refusing to update itself. That's probably what doomed it. It eventually succumbed to other big box stores overtaking it and making it obsolete.

The Hannibal Kmart location became Farm & Home Supply and the Quincy location is where the new Target is having their grand opening now.

Kmart still lives...kind of...with an online brand that actually has Playstation 5's. Well done.