Another bear I found at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on 87th and Cicero. I would have ignored it completely had I not noticed that it was originally sold at K-Mart. "Now, there's an idea," said I as the light bulb lit up. "You had room for the now-defunct Factory Card Outlet earlier this year; why not make room for the now-defunct K-mart?"
This bear is supposed to play music, but there were no batteries, and I didn't have the money at the time to buy it. Still, the "Joy to the World" tag pictured above would seem to suggest that it plays a take-off on the Three Dog Night song, known for its "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..." line.
So. As they used to say, "Attention, K-Mart Shoppers..."
HISTORY
K-Mart started out in 1912 as a department store called S.S. Kresge. I primarily know about Kresge thanks to my Tomart's Action Figure Toy Guide, which had a section on Mego's "Mad Monster Series." Along with licenses such as D.C. and Marvel superheroes, Mego produced figures such as the Mummy, Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster as part of a subset of their "World's Greatest Super Heroes!" line. The book mentioned a highly sought-after variant of the monster figures, sold exclusively at S.S. Kresge. If memory serves, their card-backs were slightly narrower than the typical Mego card-back.
In 1969, S.S. Kresge became K-mart. Thirty-five years ago, we still had the "old" style of K-mart on 94th and Pulaski, where there now stands a Home Depot. It had the familiar retro signage of a red "K" and a light-blue "MART," and it stood until about 1997-98 or so, at which point the Venture store across the street took its last gasp, allowing the "new" K-mart to take its place. It enjoyed its position in town from then until around the 2010s-2020s, and I must confess that I have very few memories of either outlet.
No comments:
Post a Comment