Shoppers, store owners hope for best as Ellenton Kmart holds closing sale
By VINCENT F. SAFUTO
ELLENTON – Like several other people who were at the Ellenton Kmart on a recent Tuesday, Kathy of Palmetto was looking for bargains and hoping that a good store will replace the Kmart.
She didn’t want her last name used, she said.
“I just want to see what is going to be coming in,” she said as she left the store, which is conducting its liquidation sale. “It just means the economy is hitting a lot of people hard.”
The ongoing travails of Sears/Kmart means that what’s happening in Ellenton at the North River Village shopping center at the intersection of U.S. 301 and 60th Avenue East is and has been happening in a lot of other places. For a time, it seemed that this particular Kmart had a charmed life because every time Sears released a new list of Kmart closings, the Ellenton Kmart had dodged the bullet.
But as Sears had another crisis in late December, it was on the list of stores slated to be closed by the end of March. The inside of the store has a more airy look now, with nearly all the aisle-blocking displays gone and — in some departments — only a few items left on the shelves.
The shelves are for sale, too.
On Jan. 17, Carla Recker of Palmetto had several small items in a shopping cart and one large item: A portable kayak she got for $69.
“I’m sad,” she said. “I hate to see a business close.”
As she was loading her purchases into her SUV, Recker said she would shop at the Kmart about once a month and especially liked finding a good deal such as the ones on the big bags of popcorn.
Orion Newberry, a manager at the Tobacco Depot store in the same shopping center, said he would miss the Kmart because it was so convenient for buying items for his store.
“We’re hoping that a good store comes in,” he said.
Others in business in the shopping center expressed the same view.
Pat Westerhouse, vice president of finance and property management for CASTO Southeast Realty Services, said she can’t provide details, but has been receiving inquiries about the property, though any details await the closing of the Kmart store, set for the end of March, but depending on when its inventory is sold out.
“All I can tell you right now is we have tons of interest,” she said. “We’re getting a bunch of phone calls and we’re fielding inquiries, and we’re optimistic that something good’s going to take its place.”
The area is growing fast, Westerhouse said. “We don’t anticipate difficulty backselling it,” she added.
Local employees referred questions to Howard Riefs, Sears Holdings director of corporate communications. He did not reply to phoned or emailed requests for comments.