Yeah remember a decade or two ago they filed bankruptcy. Guess that is the wonders of Chapter 13 bankruptcy law in USA. And thanks to obfuscation of owner ship for corporations, god knows who owns them now.

Kmart in Australia is pretty good to be fair. Cheap goods with good enough quality. I put them above Temu or Shein. For toys or pet accessories, they are unmatched in price anywhere else.

For stuff like cups, power boards, tooth brush holders, etc they are basically the best. The furniture is pretty garbage though and not really that cheap compared to something much better at ikea.

My house is full of kmart dog toys. I keep forgetting we got them there as they are good quality. It's a place you get everything, fairly cheap but good quality for the price. Notwithstanding TFA.

As an Australian, I can say that Kmart here is an absolute powerhouse. They sell highly curated goods made in China for very cheap, it's a dream for young people on a budget. Poor delivery services here pushes people toward brick and mortar stores too.

Amazon is not too strong in Australia in terms of variety or price. So kmart is great and free delivery over a small amount makes it convenient.

Kmart in Australia is best thought of as a fork from the original. The original in the United States is effectively defunct now.

This is more common than you’d think - often subsidiaries are distinct enough that the Canadian or Australian version survives the US parent’s bankruptcy.

And sometimes it’s just a different store that licensed the name for 100 years.

My other favorite example of this is the A&W Restaurants which in the states was a bit more of a fast food establishment. It was never that successful, but you'd see them every so often. Gone now in the states, but I believe its Canadian successor is still going strong.

There's still quite a few A&W restaurants around in the US though they are rareish.

https://awrestaurants.com/locations-list/

400+ according to their wikipedia entry.

A&W is exceptionally rural now, and I'm not 100% sure why - it's a weird combination of fast food (drive thru) + waitress/sit down ordering that doesn't really exist anywhere else (kind of how there are a few carhop/drive UP restaurants that still exist).

There are bunch of A&W restaurants in Okinawa as well and as far as I know, it's popular.

The Canadian A&Ws are very good as far as fast food burger joints go. The American version is quite shitty though, last time I saw one years ago.

Canadian A&W is expensive though - like "only really go for a treat" expensive. Made McDicks somehow more reasonable.

Australia also still has E.B Games.

On a recent visit to the UK (from the US) I briefly thought I was in an alternate universe because their TJ Maxx stores are virtually identical but inexplicably called TK Maxx.

(Well, not quite inexplicably. Wikipedia cleared it up for me.)

Even more astonishing to me is that we’ve not just simply allowed something like ubiquitous camera surveillance and facial recognition, increasingly with effectively 100% coverage, but most people have actively participated in it with all their various cameras they even installed inside their home, let alone set up neighborhood surveillance systems.

And yes, they are all tapped and not even Orwell imagined what we’ve done to ourselves. But don’t worry, it will only get more apparent and worse once things are far beyond too late, when Minority Report will be noted for its cute and naive depiction.

Orwell never imagined that the surveillance data would be worth so much money or that every single technological advancement could only be accessed once one agreed to surrender all of their privacy.

This is Australia

Yes, I saw that in the article. What's your point, that if in Australia it's not real?

I was curious so read the Kmart wikipedia article over morning coffee. Seems like these (no longer) share any ownership with the original. Which I guess raises a philosophical question about names and existence that will require at least a second cup of coffee :-)

to be fair, Australia does kind of seem like a made up place with made up animals

too cheap to die

Kmart in Australia has been owned by Coles Australia since 1978, and since 1994 has had no association with the US Kmart.

It's very successful in Australia.

Additional, Australia has a Target that isn't at all related to Target US.

Which also now owned by the same owners of Kmart (Coles Group, now owned by Wesfarmers).

And both Kmart and Target Australia operations have merged (though still operating 2 separate brands)

Woolworths too!