Hello and welcome to the Atlantic, Iowa Kmar tour. This Kmart tour is located in eastern Atlantic at
the end of Plum Street (Three blocks North of my Grandparent's house) at the Stop Light Intersection of Plum and US HWY
6 and HWY 83.
Kmart in Atlantic was the smallest of the now four stores. Kmart and Alco are gone since
Wal-Mart's arrival in May 2005. Kmart's departure was six months later, not even giving it a go for the holiday season,
and Alco closed in July 2008. Pamida still stands today, with a pharmacy in place, and has remodeled the store in the
past few years.
Before Wal-Mart, Kmart was big for Atlantic, being the only national chain department
store in town (Pamida and Alco are midwest region stores). I believe this Kmart arrived in the 1970s...I wasn't sure
which store came into town first (My guess is Pamida). This store had five registers and a courtesy desk.
Though smaller than the average Kmart, this store was just right for a population of 7,500. I remember visiting the
store for the first time in 1999 with the old logo on it (Man I wish I got pictures of it!) during the holiday season.
I visited the store about two years later when Kmart did the chain-wide remodeling.
Orscheln, which
was a few buildings down at the time, took over the old Kmart rather rapidly...and they have made good use of it. If
you never got to visit this Kmart, here's a few pictures below to show what it looks like. If ANYONE has pictures of
this store pre-remodel 2001 please Email them to me at
Nkbush@wccta.net. Thank you and enjoy!
