Kmart Corporation (/ˈkeɪmɑːrt/ KAY-mart, doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big-box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was incorporated in 1899 as S. S. Kresge Corporation and renamed Kmart Corporation in 1977.[3] The first store with the Kmart name opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan.[4] At its peak in 1994, Kmart operated 2,486 stores globally, including 2,323 discount stores and Super Kmart Center locations in the United States.[5][6][7][8] As of April 16, 2022, that number was down to nine, including just three in the continental United States.[1] From 2005 through 2019, Kmart was a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation.[9] Since 2019, Kmart has been a subsidiary of Transform SR Brands LLC, a privately held company that was formed in 2019 to acquire assets from Sears Holdings.
