Attention Kmart Shoppers: The Rise and Fall of America's First Big Discounter

In 1989, Kmart was the biggest discount store chain in America. It could be found almost anywhere, in small towns and big cities and mid-sized suburbs from coast to coast. By 2002, Kmart was bankrupt. The company had fallen into third place behind Wal-Mart and Target, which were less than one-tenth the size of Kmart twenty years before. How did Kmart grow to become one of the nation's most dominant retailers, and then lose it all, in the span of just a few decades? Attention Kmart Shoppers has the full story, from the chain's founding as an arm of the Kresge variety store company in 1962, all the way down to the five Kmart stores that are still in business today.