Originally posted onJune 12, 2025 @ 9:37 pm
The Mega Brands That Built America Recap for The Retail Reckoning
This week’s episode of The Mega Brands That Built America is titled The Retail Reckoning shows us how some of the nation’s biggest megastores came to fruition.
In Detroit, Harry Cunningham worked for SS Kresge’s and wanted to take it to the next level in order to keep it in business. He visited all his stores across the nation and two years later, decided to replace the stores with a whole new vision. The stores will have a little bit of everything so everyone could get what they needed in one fell swoop.
Across the country, the Dayton company is also suffering. It is owned by George Dayton and run by himself and his brothers, including Douglas, the youngest brother. John Geisse Douglas’s right hand man, comes to him with an idea of opening a discount store.
At first, Douglas is skeptical, but he soon decides it may be the way to go.
Meanwhile yet another man is trying to capitalize on this idea…..someone named Sam Walton, who gave us what we now know as Walmart. The idea was to focus on the small-town person, having everything from toys to hardware to items and everything in between.
He opens the first store in Rogers, Arkansas, despite his business partner thinking he was taking a big risk.
In Detroit, Harry is still working on his own store, giving it a whole new identity….Kmart. It will be a one stop shop for people to get what they needed.
Back in Minneapolis, Douglas and John work on their store as well. They debate on names at a bar with another friend and once they see a dartboard, coming up with what we now know as Target.
All three stores open in 1962 in their respective location.
Kmart is able to open more locations across the nation, but they run into problems selling things because the store wasn’t organized and no one knew what was on sale. Enter the Blue Light Special! This sets Kmart to the top of the heap.
Sam thinks this is a good idea and spies on Kmart stores around the country to get some ideas. He also came up with the idea of buying straight from manufacturers and offering low prices every day.
Target, however, is struggling, but decide to open more stores, all the while trying to offer things Kmart cannot. John and Douglas end up having a falling out over it, with John quitting the business.
Kmart and Walmart are in direct competition. However, Sam isn’t able to get all the brands he wants for Walmart, so he opens his own distribution center to make it happen.
While all this is happening, the seventies hit and the country is in turmoil. Despite the issues with the economy, Kmart continues to succeed.
Douglas hires Steven Paisner as a Hail Mary to save Target. When he is out one day, a waitress tells Steven that people call the store Targe, to make it sound fancier. The guys pivot on this idea by selling designer options at a great discount. They also make stores organized in the exact same way to make it easier for customers to find what they want.
Walmart is quickly expanding in all sorts of areas and bringing in one billion dollars. Kmart is bringing in 14 billion, so Sam decides to take a huge gamble and buys Big K (no relation to Kmart) and turns them into Walmarts. This amps up the competition, but it is still not making Kmart money.
People soon begin to turn on Kmart because it is so dated. Joseph Antonini, the new president of the company, brings in none other than Martha Stewart to help them revamp their stores. She becomes a spokeswoman for the company, which helps put her on the map and Kmart back in the game.
Sam is now the nation’s richest man worth 2.8 billion dollars. However, he still wants to beat out Kmart, so he decides to add groceries to the store….opening the Walmart Super Centers. This finally brings him to number one.
Target is becoming more popular, which causes Kmart to go into bankruptcy in 2002 and finally closing all but one store by 2025.
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