Kmart's been long gone, but for some reason, they couldn't bear to remove the rusty sign

I don’t even think this little strip center, which is located right off of Highway 100, has or HAD a name. Back in the day, all this place housed was a Kmart and a Slumberland/Laz-E-Boy, so it really wasn’t much of a strip mall. Just a lonely Kmart with a furniture store for a neighbor.

One would never know this place was once a Kmart

We shopped at the Brooklyn Center Kmart an awful lot. More than I’d like to admit, but in my defense, we didn’t have a lot of options in the BC. We had no Target until 1986, so this was the only mass merchandiser in town. My parents purchased many Barbies, Hot Wheels, coloring books, Lego playsets, and Nintendo games for us here back in the day.

But once Target opened up in 1986, less than a mile away in the Shingle Creek Center, going to K-Mart was on a “need-to-go” basis. No longer would we spend a lazy Sunday afternoon strolling up and down the aisles looking for various doodads to buy – that’s what Target was for. Sure, Target didn’t offer bargain shoppers the thrill of getting a steal by chasing a blue strobe light down the aisles, but they didn’t need a gimmick to get the shoppers through the doors. The clean stores, nice displays, and great merchandise spoke for itself. Who needs Route 66 when you’ve got Cherokee and Honors?

So unless Kmart had an amazing deal advertised in their Sunday circular, we wouldn’t step foot in the store. We weren’t the only residents who felt that way; after Target opened, this Kmart location when downhill FAST.

I-spy a delivery of more off-brand laundry detergent and shitty plastic Chinese goods!

I don’t remember when I last visited this Kmart store – it would’ve had to have been in the late ’90s because that’s when we moved out of the city. I do know that the store closed its doors in 2000 and shortly after, the entire center was remodeled and divided up to house more stores. The current Dollar Tree location is where Kmart’s sleazy auto center was located. In December 2001, Thunder Alley Speedway opened, which was an indoor go-kart place of some sort. I never had the desire to go in there. But much like the shine on a cheap pair of Kmart shoes, the novelty wore off and Thunder Alley closed sometime in 2004 (I believe). The community has been in mourning since.

Unshaken by the changing demographics, sincere Slumberland Furniture remains loyal to its original Brooklyn Center location

Today, a Slumberland, Big Lots, and a Dollar Tree remain. Exciting stuff, no?

A Big K and a Chuck E. Cheese still tarnish the Minnesota retail landscape well into the 21st century

There is simply no room for Kmart in today’s retail landscape. On one end, we’ve got Target. Target has become way too upscale and pretentious over the past five or ten years (but I love them anyway). Target’s gotten all haute couture on us – why, these days you can buy a $200 leather jacket at Target! Whatever happened to Honors, Pro-Spirit, and Cherokee?

On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve got Wal-Mart, where fashion knows “No Boundaries”, the floors are dirty and the merchandise is in utter disarry. But they offer cheap prices, so the masses flock to the stores.

And where does Kmart fit in? Simple answer – it doesn’t. It’s a lost relic of the days gone by. Everything in the store just screams 1985 to me, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I haven’t stepped foot in a Kmart since then, and realized that not much has changed. I half expected the electronics department to be boasting VCRs as a great new technology. The merchandise might say “2008″ but the feel of the store says otherwise. It looks like an indoor flea market.

Shoppers are nowhere to be seen inside this local Kmart

We shopped at Kmart in the 80s because we did not have a Target store in our neighborhood until 1986. After 1986, all bets were off and shopping at Kmart became a big no-no. If you came to school and mentioned that you shopped at Kmart, you’d get your ass kicked.

The Pizza Shoppe has gone dark

Restaurants were in most Kmarts and were tucked away near the back of the store. I never understood the purpose of having a restaurant inside of a discount store. Did some people plan on making an afternoon inside of the Kmart store?

My memories are spotty about little cantina in Kmart, as my parents did not let us eat there because “We have plenty of food at home!!!” Thanks to Thrifty Mom, I will forever be deprived of the childhood experience of slurping an icee while walking through the Garden Center and removing all of the flower tags from the potted plants. I do remember that the eatery had yellow vinyl seating and brown brick walls which made it very dark inside. The restaurant was usually empty, with the exception of a lone grandpa inside, gumming on a donut, just waiting for the blue light to come on.

Later, most were converted to Little Ceasers Pizza (yum. I love Little Ceasers and miss it dearly). In the Coon Rapids Kmart, they couldn’t even keep the Little Ceaser’s name. “Pizza to Go” is the name of the game and it appears to be closed.

A neighboring Chuck E. Cheese is probably the reason why the Pizza-To-Go restaurant inside is closed

The most memorable aspect of Kmart is Blue Light Special, and I don’t even think they do that anymore. I didn’t hear or see one blue light in my entire visit to the store.

Kmart used to have a cart with a tall pole with a blue police light on top. The cart would be rolled into the aisle of the blue light special, a cattle-drive style announcement would be made over the intercom, the light would spin, and shoppers would stampede over to Aisle 4 to save 25 cents on Palmolive. Today, the Blue Light is a jolly cartoon character with bulging eyes that pops up in their TV ads, but I really don’t know its purpose. I think it’s their new mascot or something.

Kmart's got balls

As a kid, the checkout was the best part about shopping at Kmart. Even with a failed attempt at getting an Icee from the restaurant, we’d behave like saints as Mom trudged through up and down the aisles, shopping for various humdrum dry goods. It was all worth it because when we were finished, Mom would roll the cart up to the cashier and my brother and I would make a mad dash to the capsule machines! If we were well-behaved, we knew the odds were pretty good that Mom would pull a quarter out of her purse and let us gamble the coin away in hopes of a new superball or a slimy hand you could whip against the wall.

Kmart’s checkout was KID HEAVEN – rows upon rows of kiddie vending machines along the walls, filled with cheap plastic doodads. Clear balls filled with bouncy superballs, Runts candy, lucky rabbits feet, plastic charm bracelets, gum, jawbreakers, wacky walkers, sweet-tarts…and only 25 cents! The teaser card would draw you in with the promise of a gold wristwatch (which would no doubt turn your skin green), but most of the time, your bounty ended up being shitty plastic spider ring.

At this particular Kmart, I only noticed a few machines, but didn’t snap a picture. Kmart downsized the vending machine lineup to about 2 machines, not nearly the wall of dime-store baubles that I grew up knowing.

The coin-operated entertainment doesn’t stop at the checkout, folks. Outside, the spectacle continues with a musical carousel and thrusting dump truck.

A dump truck is great, but where is the mechanical bull?

It’s nice to see the ride-on toys still here. I’m quite surprised to see these mechanical eyesores still around; they look like lawsuits waiting to happen.

Kids these days can still beg their parents for a 25 cent joyride in a dirty plastic helicopter

At any rate, Kmart’s ship has definitely sailed. It’s probably only a matter of time before this place closes up shop for good. On my visit to this store, I saw maybe 6 cars in the Kmart side of the parking lot, all of which were probably store employees.

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

These filthy playthings still taunt and tease kids today

Most merchandise looks like it's been here for 30 years

I think this is supposed to be the garden center

The racks are packed full of goodies, but no one is there to buy anything

If Payless Shoe Source isn't in your town, Kmart's your next best choice for pleather shoes

Need the latest Martha Stewart collection but can't quite afford it? Layway is always an option!

A stop sign controls the chaos outside the Kmart store

The end is nearing