The last large-scale Kmart is closing its doors in the US

The giant once famous for its Blue Light Specials — a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole that draws shoppers to a flash sale — is closing its last large-scale store in the United States.

The store, located in posh Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is scheduled to close on Oct. 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store Monday night. The manager was not available, she said.

That will leave only one small Kmart store in Miami. It has a handful of stores in Guam and the US Virgin Islands.

Transformco, the company that bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of bankruptcy of Sears Holdings in 2019, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

In its heyday, there were over 2,000 Kmarts in the US

Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002—becoming the largest U.S. retailer to do so—and announced that it will close more than 250 stores.

A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to restore them to their former glory. But the 2008 recession and the growing dominance of Amazon helped derail that mission. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has only a handful of stores in the U.S., where it once had thousands.