Aug 21, 2002 3 min read

Kmart announced on Monday that it plans to cut 700 more jobs. While the loss will fall mostly in corporate headquarters, the news must be unsettling to those who work in local Kmart stores. The announcement comes less than a week after Ames Department Stores notified employees as they reported to work that soon they will be without jobs. While Ames stores throughout the chain, including the Belle Vernon store, had already closed, stores in Uniontown, the Laurel Mall, Waynesburg and Mount Pleasant have remained open and have kept 185 workers on the payroll. In about 10 weeks Ames will close its remaining 327 stores, adding these workers to the ranks of the unemployed. Large vacant space in the shopping centers will need filled and the trickle effect of reduced traffic will be keenly felt by neighboring, smaller retailers.

When Ames filed for bankruptcy, seeking court protection from its creditors, it was hoped that it would reorganize and emerge in a position to compete in the retail trade.

Ames, similar to Kmart, offers shoppers discounted goods but has been unable to keep up with the likes of Wal-Mart and Target.

In his book, the late Sam Walton offered advice to retailers who feared the arrival of Wal-Mart to their towns. He suggested they find and service a niche that his store did not. This advice was meant for the Mom and Pop stores already suffering in many of the nation’s formerly bustling downtowns. It wasn’t as easily foreseeable that other major retailers, already located in shopping centers that offered easy access and free parking, would suffer as well.

Ames did find a small niche with the senior set who looked forward to the extra 10 percent discount offered to the elderly on Tuesdays. But one day does not a retail week make.

Ames employees who could gaze out on mostly empty parking lots most likely knew the stores’ days were numbered. Still they must have been hoping for turnaround or for a sale to a more viable retailer. Some employees had been through this before as they worked for Hills Department Store before the chain was bought out by Ames in 1998. And we’d venture a guess that a handful of employees might have been holdovers from the days of G.C. Murphy.

We wish the Ames workers speed in finding new positions. One bright note is that Fayette’s economy has been growing with retail and service positions on the rise, although we recognize that offers little in way of encouragement to the many who are wondering how they will support their families.

That worry most likely is crossing the minds of Kmart employees. Since filing for bankruptcy protection in January the company has closed 283 stores. The company says it will not close any more stores this year. But the loss of corporate positions, along with last week’s motion in bankruptcy court seeking permission to increase from $100 million to $400 million the size of loss it could report, are troubling signals.