Kmart

Kmart is an American department store chain that is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The company can trace its roots all the way back to 1899, and at its peak it had 2171 stores with 105 Super Kmart locations. Kmart purchased Sears for $11 billion in 2004 with the newly formed corporation called Sears Holding Corporation. Kmart however began to decline and many of their stores are now closed. There are now around 360 Kmart stores and the most recent number of employees was reported at 45,000 in 2014. Employment opportunities within Kmart stores are in line with other big-box department stores, including re-stockers, clerks, loss prevention officers, and various other positions.

S. S. Kresge founded the company that would become Kmart in 1899. Thanks to a chance meeting with Frank Winfield Woolworth, Kresge would invest all of the money he had saved from his job in 1897 to create a five-and-dime store in Memphis, Tennessee. He co-owned the store with a former customer named John McCrory, and they added a second store in downtown Detroit the following year. After this partnership, Kresge decided he wanted his own store and so the two split off and each took ownership of one of the two stores, with Kresge taking the Detroit store. The Kmart Company was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 23, 1918. Through some innovative pricing, by 1924, Kresge was worth approximately $375 million.
Some of the items that Kmart sells include clothing, shoes, linen, bedding, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys, and in some stores, food. The most recently reported revenue was $25 billion for the 2015 fiscal year.