Kmart Buying Closeouts From Liquidating Companies To Offer More Tempting Deals

Maybe they got the idea from their own store closing sales. Kmart announced today that it is seeking out a new type of merchandise in hope of finding more fabulous deals. It wants to compete with retailers like Big Lots and Ollie’s by purchasing dirt-cheap merchandise from liquidating companies. The chain’s president, Alasdair James, says that the retailer wants to offer its customers “truly brag-worthy” and “extreme-value deals.”

“Just as when we brought back Bluelight Specials last year, we continue to find innovative ways to provide our Shop Your Way® members with an extreme value proposition that can only be found at Kmart,” James said in a statement.

The press release announcing these deals uses the word “brag-worthy” five times, including in the headline. What kind of deals do they think shoppers will brag about? The one example so far is a big purchase of merchandise from Brinkmann, a now-defunct manufacturer of outdoor cooking and lighting equipment.

The Brinkmann merchandise will sell in the “closeout” sections of Kmart’s real-life and virtual stores, as well as Blue Light Special deals. Instead of hanging around the store waiting to hear the words “Blue Light Special” over the public address system, shoppers can stay home with their smartphones and receive push notifications that something is on special sale.

Will this work? Maybe. Americans like closeouts and off-price stores, which is part of what’s hurting Kmart parent company Sears Holdings. There’s nothing that quite packs people in the store like brag-worthy, extreme-value deals and a rousing anthem.

(via Chain Store Age)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist