Jamestown Kmart to close in May
February 20, 2013 at 12:57 am in The Jamestown Sun
Kmart will close its doors in Jamestown on May 19, according to Howard Riefs, director of corporate public relations for Sears Holdings, in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Continue Reading
that’s unfortunate, for the mall and Jamestown. seems to be hard for a Kmart to compete directly with a Super Walmart though
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With Sears, Kmart owned by the same company, it is tough to justify having 2 stores close-by, much less in the same mall when the existing sears could stock what K-mart handles anyways. I would think a smaller version sports store would work in Jamestown such as Dicks sporting goods or similar. It has taken many years to fill the old target location in Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, Scheels will take over that location beginning of 2014.
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Could our city council step up and try to fill that store in with a target or some other store. We need to have these jobs in Jamestown. A target would be a great addition to our city. We need something that is gonna be competetion for wal-mart. We cant have one store running the whole town. Not good business. Can anyone from the city council comment? Mayor?
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The announcement of our Kmart store in Jamestown closing is an unfortunate surprise. We need to remember that a retail business needs a certain volume of sales to justify their business location. This Kmart location must not have had that volume.
Please know that representatives from the City and JSDC have had and will continue to contact potential businesses that could be interested in this location.
I would also like to remind the consumers, that when it comes to retail, you vote with your dollars. If Walmart “stole” business from Kmart, it is because you, the consumer, chose to spend your dollars at Walmart.
I hope you know that I will continue to be the best representative I can be for Jamestown, and I will be happy to justify anything I have done or will do for the City of Jamestown. I do not make any decision without researching and thinking through the entire issue. Many issues are very complicated, and the reporting may be less than the entire picture. You can email me at MayorKatie@ND.GOV or call City Hall at 701-252-5900 (make sure you leave a return number, so I can call you back).
I really do appreciate feedback from the public, and I would be open to any suggestions for how I can improve my communication with you, the citizens of the Jamestown area.
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“I really do appreciate feedback from the public, and I would be open to any suggestions for how I can improve my communication with you, the citizens of the Jamestown area.”
Don’t you mean the CITY OF JAMESTOWN. Your testimony against HB 1269 showed me you don’t care about the citizens of the Jamestown AREA.
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Really? I don’t think the Cherry Berry jobs pay $15/hr.
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Cherry Berry got a LOAN that is backed here but through the Bank of North Dakota – Flex Pace. Bank of ND requires a local group to back it for the interest. But JSDC’s actually funding does have the requirement. Besides, Tutti Frutti does pay some of their staff $14 & $16 per hour.
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Actually surprised it stayed open this long. The few times I was in there it was basically empty. You just knew this would happen when Wal Mart moved to town. A Target would be great but just don’t see this town being able to support that and a Wal Mart at the same time.
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It also would be nice to have decent sporting goods store in town (Sheels). Something that could compete with gun n reel and actually have reasonable prices and more selection. That is one thing this town lacks. A good place to get shoes for kids in sports, hunting, fishing ect…. Just my opinion
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A Scheels would be great too but lets be realistic here folks. This is a town of 16,000. Just won’t make it here.
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A Scheels may not make it, but a Dunham’s would here. Aberdeen has one and it is awesome. Anything would help.
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Aberdeen also has 10,000 more people and isn’t within 100 miles of two cities with a Scheels. That said, another option(s) would be nice.
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If a sporting goods store thought this market would be profitable, they would have already built here.
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I never said there is anything wrong with gun & reel, being from this area and knowing how important and popular the outdoors are to people , hunting,fishing,ect.. and the local sports and surrounding areas, what other stores are there besides gun & reel and Walmart? I do believe this market area calls out for stores like this. And as much as I have shopped at gun & reel myself they are very limited to what they have. And that’s why many people I know do there shopping out of town.
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HB 1269 did not in any way, shape or form have anything to do with the Titan squabble yet you were willing to throw rural Jamestown and Stutsman county families under the bus as a negotiating ploy. Luckily the House and Senate saw through the political stunt and did what was right and passed the bill.
BTW, there’s no need to blame the media or reporters. That’s so cliche politician. It’s not always the media’s fault.
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supposedly there will be an influx of people with the building/operation of new ethanol plant and fertilizer plant… with that in mind I hope our chances of getting some quality shopping here will improve….. TARGET would be great… one can not live by Walmart alone
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The vast majority of those workers will just be here temporarily. Once the thing is built, they’ll move on much like the oil workers.
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Jamestown Resident,
It is true that many temporary workers will be needed to build the plants and associated infrastructure for the pending CHS nitrogen fertilizer plant, and DSA Ethanol plant. However, if/when these two projects are up and running an estimated 160-210 full-time permanent employees with full benefits and average salaries upwards of $60,000 are need for day to day operations. Those permanent jobs are the real economic growth this area is looking for. We should see a nice economic impact from the construction and temporary workers too, but as you noted above, they will likely move on when the projects are complete.
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Mayor Katie, as i drive down the interstate i see signs with advertising for the city of jamestown. How many businesses have shown interest in our city? What kind of incentitives are we giving them? Do you think we give everything we can to them to bring them here. Any business here WILL bring some money to the city. We need to do something in this town or it will get worse. I dont think a frozen yogurt shop is gonna cut it but hey its a start. Lets shoot bigger. You can always lead a horse to water but lets get that horse to drink. We as a city can be pushing these places. I am really curious who has been contacted to come to our city. Please tell us the tax payers what is going on in our city.
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In other words, the businesses won’t come to Jamestown without a bunch of subsidies and corporate welfare.
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To be fair, it’s the same way with most towns in ND. The prospective businesses know the economic development groups will fall all over themselves to get them to set up shop in their town. You can’t blame the businesses for trying to get as much free money as possible because the groups are willing to comply. Funding private businesses with public money is a growing epidemic.
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Jamestown is and always will be a pitstop on the way to a city with decent places to shop, attend an event and eat.
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MENARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NUFF SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I agree. A home improvement store is needed.
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or a Mills Fleet Farm …
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A Menards or Fleet Farm is not realistic when they both already have all of Jamestown’s business.
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Kmart closed it’s doors in my town when Walmart was being built and I still miss having a Kmart here.
Walmart had the lowest prices in town on just about everything and a lot of other stores went out of business because they just couldn’t compete.
Now that Walmart has been here over 10 years, other stores have opened and now the shoe is on the other foot because now those other stores more often then not have the lowest prices.
People are used to shopping at Walmart and still believe that Walmart is the lowest in town however, they are not. In fact, they are about the highest. Walmart doesn’t price nationally on their grocery items. They price locally. You can buy the same bunch of strawberries at different prices based on location.
I avoid shopping at Walmart and shop other stores because Walmart pisses me off on so many levels.
Walmart Corp treats their employees like crap and pays them crap.
Walmart employees are often rude and barely look up and greet customers. No wonder.
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