K-Mart

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had occasion to go the Lone Oak K-Mart on several occasions. I’ve actually bought several nice UK clothing items on sale there. It led me to start reminiscing about K-Mart. It’s kinda sad to see how few people shop there. Even though it was a few days before Christmas, the parking lot was no different than any other day I’ve been there lately. They do have a few things (like the UK stuff I bought) but really, they just aren’t that great a store any more.

I remember in what I believe was 1971, when that K-Mart opened. It was a huge deal to have that chain locate in this area. Kentucky Oaks Mall was an orchard. I don’t even think the old Paducah Mall on the Southside was open yet. If it was, it wasn’t fully operational. I-24 was just a dream so getting to Nashville to shop wasn’t anywhere as easy as it is now. I remember visiting there right after it opened with my friend Steve Vick. I couldn’t believe what all they had in there. I remember the 45s being locked in a cabinet – you had to have an employee come with a key to open up the case when you wanted to buy one. I have a lot of other memories of that place.

Back in the day, the six of us that hung out together on Houser Road thought we were filmmakers. We could buy a roll of Super 8 film there for a few dollars and make our own movies. The neat thing was they included a mailer inside and you simply sent the film in when you were done and within a few weeks, it appeared in our mailbox. It was like the premiere of a big movie when we would load that up on my parents Super 8 projector and watch it.

You could buy real food there. They had a deli in the front that sold a pretty decent ham and cheese sandwich. They also had the best summer drink of all – an Icee. In the back, they had a grill that you could order a pretty decent meal from.

My cousin JoAnn worked there for years as well as my friend Brent Starkey’s mom. I honestly think they beat Wal-Mart to the idea of a greeter since they always had someone in the front of the store to say Hi when you came in. They had an auto center where you could actually leave your car with a description of what needed to be fixed and drop your keys in a box. I also remember it was the place to park your car when you went to a Lone Oak High School football game. They also would have someone (one of the local volunteer fire departments) set up a trailer with a haunted maze kind of thing in it. I remember taking Donna through and somebody pinching her and him ending up with a poke in the eye somehow :-)

The thing K-Mart is probably most famous for were the blue light specials. You’d be shopping there and a voice would come over the loudspeaker to let you know an item was on sale for the next several minutes. You would look for the flashing blue light to find it. The flashing blue light was on wheels and would be moved from sale to sale. I remember my sister Melissa telling me the story about laughing watching packs of women in the store following the blue light around for the next sale and then being totally embarrassed to see mom right in the middle of the pack.

I am not sure what exactly happened to cause K-Mart’s fall. I imagine it was between the appearance of Kentucky Oaks Mall, Wal-Mart and some corporate issues. They also took away all the neat stuff (the deli, Icee’s, the grill, garage and especially the blue light specials). They do have some things I like including a pretty good rewards program and the ability to get your receipts emailed to you. But, I just wonder how much longer that store will be around.