The last full-size Kmart has closed, while La Crosse’s still stands

It’s nearly complete, the end of the “Blue Light Special,” could be coming to a close nearly 65 years after it began.

The last full-size Kmart in the continental U.S., located in Bridgehampton, New York, closed in October, while a fraction of a store in Miami remains.

There, are four others out there — three in the U.S. Virgin Islands and one in Guam.

The first Kmart opened back in 1962 in Garden City, Mich. It wasn’t long after that, La Crosse had its store, which is still standing.

In 2002, Kmart filed for bankruptcy. At that time, it had 2,114 stores and 240,000 employees.

The Kmart at the corner of Losey Boulevard and State Road opened in 1965 and closed in 2017. Onalaska and Winona also had Kmarts.

La Crosse’s Kmart was going to be demolished in the summer of 2021, and begin development, but Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions — which is developing that lot — told WIZM’s La Crosse Talk PM, doing so at that time would have made costs astronomical.

In September of 2023, the city council granted Three Sixty’s request for an 18-month extension on developing the site, which has been renamed Copper Rocks. That extension is coming to an end around February.

We talked with the city council rep. in that district about the Kmart site a few months ago.

The plan for Copper Rocks was for a mixed use, business-residential project.