Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sears Essentials (formerly Kmart) in Keene, New Hampshire

photos by John Jewell
description by Nicholas Eckhart nicholas@deadanddyingretail.com

The Sears Essentials store in Keene, New Hampshire was located at 480 West Street. This Sears was one of the many stores closed by Sears Holdings in 2012. This store is 102,209 square feet and according to the  Sears Realty website the population in a five mile radius is 28,403. This store opened in 1995 as a Kmart store in Keene's Kmart Plaza. The Kmart became Sears Essentials in 2005, at the same time the shopping center which is owned by Heyman Properties became Sears Plaza. This store was one of the first 50 Kmart to Sears conversions to take place. Many other Sears Grand and Essentials stores have been converted back to Kmart. The Sears Grand in Solon, Ohio remains open as the last in a former Kmart.








11 comments:

  1. This former Sears became a Kohl's in the mid part of 2013 and is now open. Also in Keene,NH, the Shaws supermarket and Burger King restaurant in the Riverside Plaza closed down aswell this year. :( . I don't know why the Burger King closed down, the employees never said why. However, I do know that Shaws cound't compete with the other supermarket chains in the city and the food was too expensive. I think that the Walmart next door to Shaws in the plaza might buy out the space and expand their business. After all, the Walmart in Keene smaller than the other few around. By the way, the Dunkin Donut near the RiverSide Plaza closed down in early 2012 do to declining business and the fact that there are four other Dunkin Donuts in the city.

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  2. I also forgot to tell you that the Diamond Run Mall in Rutland, Vermont looks like it is slowly dying. There was a Lowes in Claremont, New Hampshire that opened in 2010 but closed in 2012 after only 2 years of business(probably from Home Depot next door). The Kmart/Sears that's also in Claremont will probably be dead within a year or 2 do to lots of declining business and cometition from Walmart. There was also a Home Depot in Brattleboro that closed down a long time ago and the building is still standing vacant.

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  3. It's a darn shame that this place had to close down two years ago! By the way, this artical needs to be updated! One reason is that this Sears building was remodeled last year and became Keene's new Kohl's.

    I also had a few requests to be made. These requests all have stores and restaurants that are either dead or slowly dying. All these are in New Hampshire and Vermont.

    In Vermont
    Former Pizza Hut resturant in Brattleboro (closed in 2010)
    Former Friendly's in Springfeild (closed in 2014 after the lease wasn't paid)
    Diamond Run Mall in Rutland (still open but slowly dying :( )
    Home Depot in Brattleboro (closed after a few years and is still vacant)

    In New Hampshire
    Burger King and Shaws in Keene (both closed in 2013 and both and in the Riverside Plaza)
    Dunkin Donuts at the Riverside Plaza in Keene (closed a few years ago and the building used to be a Mr. Donut before the 1990s)
    Walmart in Hinsdale (built 1992 and closed a few years ago and moved down the road to a newer Supercenter, but the old building remains empty. The sign is now being used as "The Shoppes at George's Feild.)
    Lowes in Claremont (opened in 2010 and closed in 2012. Built two buildings down from Home Depot which probably lead to its doom.)
    Kmart/Sears in Claremont (still open but is dying. This was a Big Kmart before Sears moved in.)

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  4. what do you mean still open but is dying?

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  5. I ment to say that the The Kmart/Sears in Claremont, New Hampshire is still open, but with not much business, it will probably close down soon. It probably won't last much longer with our toilet economy we have now and with Walmart being a mile away from it.

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  6. Kmart in Claremont IS CLOSING. Surprised? and the Sears in Rutland is closing.

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  7. The Kmart in Claremont closed in December 2014. The Sears in the same building moved into a different area of the same plaza. Sadly, the Staples in Claremont also just closed down on the 17th.

    There is a Ben Franklin store in Middlebury, Vermont along with an A&W Restaurant that's also in Middlebury.

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  8. This article needs to be updated for two reasons!
    1: The building was remodeled into a Kohl's and it opened in the summer of 2013.
    2: A new Sears was put in on the outskirts of Keene next to Market Basket near Swanzey.

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  9. I just found an old photo of the building from when it was still a Kmart! The photos is from between the late 1990s and before this store converted into a Sears in 2005. The link to the photo is below this comment.

    http://amesfanclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=2442.0

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