I was at the Kmart in Plattsburgh, NY about a month ago doing Christmas shopping...and I echo someguy's comments. The store was dingy and run-down, and, while it was fairly well stocked, the selection of merchandise was underwhelming (the electronics department, for one, was severely lacking in variety...and electronics are big-ticket items, you don't keep those understocked). Needless to say, the store was quite empty...lines were virtually nonexistent. The only thing worthwhile in there was the Little Caesar's.
Meanwhile, the Target across the road was extremely clean, neat, and inviting...and had a large variety and selection of merchandise. The Walmart just down the road had been recently renovated, and, while it had a strange layout (mostly due to the fact that it was a regular Walmart that was converted into a Super Walmart, leaving a strange hybrid of the old layout with the normal Super layout), it, too, was well-stocked, clean, and...well, as inviting as Walmart can be, really. Needless to say, both stores were jam-packed full of customers.
Kmart closing stores doesn't affect me much, as the Kmart here closed down years ago. We do have a Sears store in our (crappy) shopping mall...but the store generates enough traffic and performs well enough where I doubt it's in any danger of closing (it gets an extremely large amount of traffic from Canada). I just fear that Kmart's troubles are going to bring Sears down with it, which would be a shame...
