The first Kmart discount store was opened in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962 by the S.S. Kresge Company.
In its first year, 17 more Kmart stores opened, and sales were upwards of $483 million.
S.S. Kresge, the company that started Kmart, changed its name to the Kmart Corporation in 1977.
By 1981, there were 2,000 Kmart stores across the country.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdKmart spent the 1980s and 1990s buying various retailers, including Waldenbooks, Builders Square, PayLess Drug Stores Northwest, PACE Membership Warehouse, Borders, and Sports Authority.
In 1990, Walmart passed Kmart in sales, knocking Kmart down to the third largest retailer.
That's when things started going downhill. From 1994 to 1995, Kmart sold off Office Max, Sports Authority, and a number of other retailers it had acquired.
In 1995, more than 200 Kmart stores were closed.
It began testing new store formats, like Big Kmart, a larger version of traditional Kmart stores. The Big Kmart stores were bigger and brighter than traditional stores, and they sold a bigger variety of products.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdIn late 1999, Kmart launched BlueLight.com, its online store.
However, it continued to close stores throughout the 2000s.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002.
In 2005, Sears merged with Kmart to create Sears Holdings. At the time, it was the largest retail merger ever.
The combined company's sales have plummeted since then, dropping from $53 billion in 2006 to less than $17 billion last year. Kmart has struggled while competing with Walmart and other discount retailers on price.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdDozens of Kmart stores will be closing by the end of the year in the wake of Sears Holdings' filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month.
Meanwhile, many of its stores have fallen into disrepair.
When we visited a New York City Kmart location after the bankruptcy filing, we found the store to be messy, with floors peeling up, dead plants on display, and boxes of merchandise everywhere.
Read more about Sears' bankruptcy: