Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

But it's worse than I thought!

Many of the shelves are bare, though, at the Kmart in Avenel, New Jersey, picked over by bargain hunters as the store prepares to close its doors for good April 16.

Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the US — once well over 2,000 — will be down to three last holdouts, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.

But it wasn't inevitable:

“It’s a study in greed, avarice and incompetence,” Cohen said. “Sears should have never gone away; Kmart was in worse shape, but not fatally so. And now they’re both gone.

“Retailers fall by the wayside sometimes because they’re selling things people don’t want to buy,” he continued. “In the case of Kmart, everything they used to sell, people are buying, but they’re buying it from Walmart and Target.”

Roadtrip?

Kmarts continue to operate in Westwood, New Jersey; Bridgehampton, on New York’s Long Island, and Miami.

I'm guessing at the closing date here, but given that commenter Zach reported this in early January, I'm guessing that they probably closed out the year & month and then folded with the New Year. Since there was still a "hiring" sign in the window, I wasn't sure until I got out of the car and peeked in the (heavily tinted) windows that they were actually closed. While the furnishings were still inside, it looked pretty clear from the state of things that they were not set to re-open the doors.

I have seen this new-ish chain in a number of locations lately, including several spots on the coast, but I have never gotten around to eating in one.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

UPDATE 18 Janurary 2022: Commenter Beth reports that in fact they are still open, so I have revised the post title with "Open". Always good to be wrong about bad news!

If you hap-happen to be reading this right now, may the New Year bring all the best and the Old Year take out all the rest!

Merry Christmas Columbia!