K-Mart: Creating a Forgettable Experience?Many articles have been written and lectures given to business students about the downfall of K-Mart. I suppose the reason for the widespread use of this case is based on clear examples of what not to do. This is a much more interesting and compelling argument than focusing on all the companies that got it right. The beginning of the end for this retail giant began in Garden City, Michigan in 1962. K-Mart began as a spin-off of the chain of popular retail stores called Kresge, owned by Sebastian S. Kresge. K-Mart invented the concept of discount retail and not long after it opened it outgrew its parent company, which before K-Mart was the largest retailer in the country. K-Mart has certainly been a leader of change, focusing on low prices and understanding the customer (Zyman, 2002, p. 220). This was a huge hit among consumers. K-Mart enjoyed a dominant position over its competitors from when it opened its first store until the mid-1980s. Because of their superior business position and size of operation, K-Mart sat back while its competitors, Wal-Mart and Target, relentlessly pursued improvements in supply chain management and marketing strategies (Zyman, 2002, p . 220). By 1990, Wal-Mart had surpassed K-Mart and gained market share leadership with its everyday low-price strategy. Afterwards, K-Mart struggled to come up with a strategy that would put them back on top of the world of discount retailers. None of them worked, and to be more precise, most of them failed miserably causing further damage. As a result of the failed business strategies, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002. K-Mart merged with Sears Roebuck and Co. in 2004 to produce Sears Holdings Corporation. The purpose of the merger was to create a “larger retail presence and greater scale… improved operational efficiency in areas such as sourcing, marketing, information technology, and supply chain management” (Kmart Holding Corporation, 2004 ). One of the strategies implemented following the merger is a hybrid store called Sears Essentials. This "out of the mall" approach is basically a combination of the most popular and affordable products from Sears and K-Mart. The first of these stores opened in 2005, but did not produce the desired results. As a result, Sears announced that it would abandon the Essentials plan altogether and begin implementing a new store format called Sears Grand, a superstore concept..