It’s about to get even harder to shop at Kmart.

A Kmart store in New Jersey located 15 miles from New York is expected to close permanently this weekend, USA Today reported. After the closure, there will be just three more K-Mart stores – in New Jersey, New York and Florida – following a series of closures for the big-box chain. In July, Kmart closed a location at Astor Place in Manhattan, which was the retailer’s last location in New York. Another Kmart Manhattan location at Penn Plaza closed in May 2020.

Why is Kmart closing?

Kmart, which sells a variety of shoe brands such as Adidas, Crocs and Skechers, filed for bankruptcy in 2002. 2005, Kmart and Sears merged to form Sears Holdings Corporation. At the time, the company was the third-largest retailer in the country, with nearly 3,500 retail stores.

Shortly after Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy in 2018, Transform Holdco LLC, a division of former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments hedge fund, acquired the struggling retailer in February 2019.

Transformco, which currently owns Kmart, did not immediately return FN’s request for comment.

How many Kmart stores are still open?

After the Avanel, New Jersey Kmart closes, there will remain three K-Mart stores in three different US states. The locations of these stores are as follows:

• Westwood, New Jersey: 700 Broadway
• Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York: 2044 Montauk Highway
• Miami, FL: 14091 SW 88th St.

Several Sears stores have also closed in recent years. In 2019, Sears Holdings liquidated another 80 Sears and Kmart locations, bringing its total number of stores to nearly 600 from about 2,000 five years ago. This number continued to decline.

Who is the founder of Kmart?

Sebastian Spering Kresge open the first Kmart store in 1899 in downtown Detroit. Back then, the goal was to keep prices low, with everything selling for a nickel or a dime. Kresge expanded to 85 stores by 1912 and reached annual sales of over $10 million.