64 K-Marts will be closing across the nation, including the Lubbock location on University. The liquidation sale began today, with prices significantly marked down. The store has been on University for nearly 50 years, some employees have been working there for 30. Sharon Stephenson said it hasn’t become real quite yet.
“It’s part of you.. you know,” said Stephenson. “You go home and you answer the phone ‘K-Mart’ you know because you’ve been here so long. They’ll say ‘where are you going?’ I’m going home.. or wait, I’m going to work.”
The store has seen a significant increase in business recently given the sales. They have hired new employees to help assist with the crowds. Jeremy Long started today and said they have run out of carts due to so many customers.
“Since the stores are closing, prices are getting marked down each week lower and lower,” said Long. “The baskets are all over the place right now.. It’s kind of crazy.”
Finding the positive in Lubbock’s development, The Chamber of Commerce said that more than 1/3 of the city’s sales tax they collect come from people out of town. The CEO of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, Eddie McBride said its sad to lose those businesses especially for those that have been there for so long, but there’s hope for them.
“Our unemployment rate has always been historically low even during the post 2008 downturn so we have a sneaking suspicion that there’s some jobs available for these people. So I really do think they’ll be able to go right from the closures of those businesses to finding a new job.”
