By Tim Leeds
Julie Fracker of the Kmart corporation said there are no plans to close the Havre Big Kmart at this time.
Fracker, media specialist for the corporate affairs office in Troy, Mich., said the corporation plans to close only the 72 stores listed last week. She said there are no plans to close other stores not listed, such as the Havre store or the Northwest Bypass Kmart in Great Falls.
Fracker said the corporation recently did a review of the 2,165 Kmart stores in operation in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She said the decision was made to close 72 stores, including stores in Great Falls and Miles City, which are not meeting expectations for sales and profitability. The locations of six Super Kmarts, which include full-size grocery stores as well as standard Kmart merchandise, are to be named for closure later.
Fracker said the decision was made to allow Kmart to refocus its resources and energy on three new priorities in stores that are meeting expectations. She said the new top priorities will be expediting the infrastructure chain to supply the new stores, making sure the product is on the shelf when the customers are shopping and that they can get through the checkout lines quickly, and focusing on marketing and sales opportunities.
Fracker said they are very thankful to the associates and customers of the stores being closed, and hope that they will be able to use services of other Kmart stores.
She said they are encouraging all employees of the stores being closed to apply to other Kmart stores and they will try to place them wherever they can.
