6 Years Ago This Week, Kmart in Somers Point, NJ, Closed Forever

As many of us are running around trying to finish (or start) holiday shopping, it was six years ago this week that the Somers Point Kmart closed for good.

It was around December 15, 2019, that there was not a car to be found in the parking lot of the once-bustling store on Route 9 (Target now occupies the space).

And that empty parking lot was the final chapter in retail history for this once-huge chain of department stores in South Jersey.

How Kmart Went From 3,000 Stores to Almost None

Kmart's financial struggles had been building for years, and we can sum them up this way: they had 3,000 stores across the country not too long ago. Heading into 2022, they had six. Today, one remains in the Miami, FL, area (it's the size of a convenience store). A handful of others remain open in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

South Jersey Kmart Closings We Still Remember

If you loved shopping at Kmart, 2017 was a particularly challenging year for the chain. That was the year they announced dozens and dozens of stores would be closing, including the ones in Rio Grande, Pleasantville, and Manahawkin.

But while those stores shuddered, the Somers Point Kmart remained open, at least for about two more years... but it wouldn't last long.

• FUN FACT: The Somers Point Kmart was the last new Kmart store that was ever built

At the end of August 2019, news broke that the Somers Point Kmart was closing and liquidation would soon start to clear out the remaining inventory. Before Christmas 2019, the store was gone.