Business Insider/Jessica Tyler Sears had display cases advertising products sold at the new Kmart.
- Sears is struggling. Sears Holdings reported that same-store sales fell by 13.4% at Sears stores and by 9.5% at Kmart in the first quarter of 2018. In early June, it announced it would be closing 68 more stores.
- In an effort to turn its business around, Sears is experimenting with a number of new concept stores, CNBC reported.
- One of those concepts is a new Kmart-Sears hybrid store in Brooklyn, New York.
- The idea is to make Sears a one-stop shop by bringing in a Kmart store that sells everyday items like groceries and cosmetics.
Sears is struggling to stay afloat.
In the first quarter of 2018, same-store sales fell by 13.4% at Sears stores and by 9.5% at Kmart. Earlier in June, Sears Holdings announced it would be closing 68 more stores by September.
But Sears is still trying to turn things around. According to CNBC, Sears is trying out a variety of new concepts to see what works, including a small store focused on appliances and mattresses and a new Kmart-within-a-Sears format.
A new Kmart opened inside a Sears store in Brooklyn, New York, last week. The merger allows the two stores to benefit from each other's strengths.
"There are common things that everyday customers came into the Sears store looking for and unfortunately we had to turn them away," Pearl Thompson, manager of the new Kmart store in Brooklyn, told CNBC.
Kmart has more to offer in terms of basic health and beauty products, household cleaning supplies, and groceries, whereas Sears focuses on products like major appliances and electronics, clothing, and bedding. The idea behind opening a Kmart within a Sears was to turn it into a one-stop shop and add convenience and - hopefully - profitability.
One aspect that detracts from the convenience factor is that the Sears and Kmart stores have separate check-outs. And from what we saw when we visited the Kmart-Sears store, the Kmart section seemed to be in much better shape than Sears.
Here's what it was like: