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Last Kmart In CNY Is Planned To Close In Mid-December THE LAST KMART IN CENTRAL NEW YORK IS CLOSING

By Marsha Augustin

(Earlene Nimmons)
“Oh God! About 30 years! Every Christmas with my kids.”

(Reporter)
Not anymore. Earlene Nimmons has been shopping at Kmart for a few decades and she is not happy they will no longer be around.

(Reporter)
She’s not the only one that is disappointed. Janis Endres feels the same way and is speechless.

(Janis Endres)
“I’m lost for words about it because I’m really heartbroken that this store is leaving.”

(Reporter)
And Timika Tattum well she’s just outraged. She shopped here with her mom and grandmother as a child and still likes to come here to shop.

(Timika Tattum)
“I’m disgusted, my bestfriend works here, he worked here for 5 years now it’s closing and he doesn’t have a job!”

(Reporter)
Tattum says she’s done shopping in this mall.

(Tamika Tattum)
” Absolutely not! Unless they put another store the size of Kmart. I’m not coming. It’s pointless.”

{Reporter}
With Kmart closing what will it mean for stores like this one that are still in the shopping center.

(Reporter)
Paul Blackley Professor of Economics at LeMoyne College says, its going to be hard for retailers to remain in business once Kmart is gone.

(Paul Blackley)
“They are going to hurt, they are going to lose foot traffic, they are going to not have as many people stopping in as they did before, its going to be hard for them to generate what I like to call discretionary customers who are there for the anchor store of the plaza.”

(Reporter)
Michael Hon, Store Manager of a pawn shop in the shopping center remains optimistic.

(Michael Hon)
“For me personally it will be small damage, but that’s why I’m hoping someone gets in there quick. And if somebody doesn’t get in there quick? Then I’ll just hope for the best.”

Mattydale, N.Y. (NCC News)- The last Kmart standing in Central New York is closing it’s doors to shoppers in mid-December, right before the holidays. This may affect smaller businesses since this large retailer attracts many customers to the shopping plaza.

“If you are in a smaller metropolitan area and a few stores close, you are going to see the decline happening and stores just have a hard time keeping up,”  Economics Professor at LeMoyne College, Paul Blackley said.  “There’s just not the number of people in the income to help them stay in business so it is a changed economy.”

It has been a growing trend of bigger stores closing and smaller stores closing soon after because the foot traffic that the larger retailer would bring in, no longer comes to the mall to shop.  Reis  speaks of this national retail market trend in their Q2 2019 report.

Blackley believes stores will suffer from the loss of  Kmart. “They’re going to be hurt, they are going to lose foot traffic, they’re going to not have as many people stopping in  the mall as they did before,” Blackley said.

“The only way it will affect my business is when husbands drop off their wives at Kmart to shop and they come to my store to browse around and usually buy something,” Michel Hon said. Hon is the store manager for The Pawn Shop, directly across the parking lot from Kmart.

Some customers have been shopping at this Kmart for years and they are not happy they will no longer have a place to get deals in the neighborhood. Janis Endres loves to shop at Kmart and can’t believe they are closing and wonders what will come next.

“I just hope when Kmart leaves and the building is vacant it doesn’t attract vandals,” Endres said.

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