K-Mart in the 70's

[brannon86]

K-Mart

Do you guys remember when K-Mart had wall to wall metal lunch boxes at the beginning of each school year? They must had a lunch box out for every prime time show and every Saturday morning cartoon and live action show that was on at the time....Decisions, decisions, Ha

[nvmbrsdoom5]

I'm fairly sure that I bought a lunchbox or two from K-Mart back then. I always wanted the Marvel SuperHeroes one from the mid-Seventies, and never got it. Maybe someday.
I definitely can recall the large displays of back-to-school stuff they'd have every August/September.

As for the smell of K-Mart, it doesn't surprise me that you have flashbacks when you have certain smells. I think they say that your sense of smell is most closely tied to memory. Even today, if I smell a certain plastic scent it will instantly bring back memories of opening certain toys when I was a kid.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

I remember K-Mart quite well as a kid. Most of the time my parents would leave us in the family station wagon knowing if they took us inside it would be a living hell for them. It was great though when we would go inside. Megos, star wars, dungeons and dragons, duncan batmobiles. Great stuff. I always loved going to K-Mart, Jewel, and Zarye. I lived in Gary Indiana as a kid and we had great stores close to home. I miss being a kid and I will go back if they ever make time machines. I also remember my father going to a mom and pop store as a kid and buying me a mego penguin and joker. I broke the penguin in less that five minutes. He was a type 1. My dad then went back to the store and bought me another one. It would be so nice if dc direct and marvel would bring mego back for one more run even if was for a short run at that. It is time for everyone here to petition. We mego crazed people need our childhood back.

I grew up, and still currently reside, in Southside Chicago literally walking distance from Hammond, IN., and I can recall going to a Zayre out towards Gary as a kid! Probably the K-Mart as well. My current roommate grew up in Gary too, on Buchanan street. Several years back he gave me the remnants of his Star Wars figure collection and still had a bunch of the backer cards for them, many of which have Zayre, RISS, K-Mart and Mays price-tags on them. Do you recall what shopping malls you frequented as a child, if any?

[supercrazy]

The one in Gary was just like the old mall. So we would sometimes go to Merryville to the mall and Toys R Us over there. My dad used to work at Inland Steel in East Chicago Indiana so we wouldn't go out a whole lot. Wow I was born in Gary at Methodist Hospital. I went to Ivanho Elementary and Beckman junior high. I also attended a few other schools but don't remember the names. I had two best friends Daniel and David. I live on Tyler street down from the bakery and the hospital. Zayre was a great store also. I purchased my first magnetic batman there.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

The mall in Merrillville (Southlake Mall) is still there, and happy to report that the Toys 'R Us is still there as well In fact it's one of the only TRUs left in the area, as the one in Lansing/Calumet City is gone as well as the ones in the South Chicago area :(

[supercrazy]

Wow. Funny how times change. Have you ever been to Brady's This Is It in Gary. I remember as a kid they had a lot of mego figures, aurora models, the lone ranger many other toys. That was a good store.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

That sounds familar....I will ask my roommate Willie about it when I talk to him, he's likely to recall this, he was very into Mego and model kits when he was a kid too.

[jwyblejr]

I remember K-Mart was mostly frowned upon when I was younger. The other kids would say "you shop there?" like you were the scum of the earth or something like that.

[wyatterb]

I spent alot of time at Kmart. It was one of the few stores on the edge of Urbana that was close for for those of us who lived in one of the numberous small towns in the area. Sadly, it's gone and replaced with apartment buildings. I know that both my Mego Batman and Robin both came from that KMart. One of my biggest mego regrets (for a 6 year old) was that I had saved up $5 with the intent of buying Megos, however the day before I went to a birthday party and won my first Star Wars figure (R2D2) as a prize. [You can tell where this is going] Up until I got to the store I was Mego set. I really wanted to have more than just B&R, so any DC character would be fine with me. So once I get to Kmart I see that on one side of the isle we have 1979 Mego goodness: I remember Superman Batgirl, Joker, Penguin, Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, & Conan. On the other side of the isle, we have Star Wars goodies. I think the concept of 2 SW figures can be purchased for the same price as 1 Mego figure swayed the decision. Even more humiliating is that I didn't pick cool lead characters like Vader or Luke, I picked C3-PO and Hammerhead. I rarely looked at the Mego stuff after that as I was fully emersed in the world of Star Wars. I do remember seeing Aquaman vs the Great White Shark sets there for many years after that, but still passed on it.

[grayhank]

I got most of my Megos at K-mart or Woolworth's. My mom would go to K-mart just about every Saturday. My allowance was only 2.00 a week and it was the hardest thing in the world to wait 2 weeks in order to have enough to buy a $2.99 Mego.

I remember I had enough money to buy two Megos one day and I wanted to go to Kmart so bad to get some. My mom wouldn't take me though. So I talked my grandfather into taking me that night and I bought Batgirl and Supergirl. He asked me "why are you spending your money on dolls?" with a very disapproving expression on his face. I don't recall what my explanation was to him at the time, but I'm sure he thought it very bizarre that his grandson was buying girl dolls with hair.

And yes, shopping at Kmart was very frowned upon by other school kids because they didn't carry name brands like Levi's back then. If you didn't get your clothes at the mall, you were made fun of. I still love my Wrangler jeans though

[Ranger 3]

I talked my grandfather into taking me that night and I bought Batgirl and Supergirl. He asked me "why are you spending your money on dolls?" with a very disapproving expression on his face. I don't recall what my explanation was to him at the time, but I'm sure he thought it very bizarre that his grandson was buying girl dolls with hair.

Not to hijack this thread away from the Kmart discussion, but I had a similar experience at Kresge's. I was HEAVY into the 6MDM/Bionic line, and when the Bionic Woman doll came out, I had to have it. However, I was still a little embarrased at the though of being seen (by anyone) buying a female 'doll'. So I went into the store with my mom, pointed out what I wanted, and ran to the car to wait for her to buy it for me!

Oh, the memories...

Mark

[brannon86]

K-Mart

I remember really well, buying my Six Million Dollar Man there, and my Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Fisher Price Adventure People stuff, Heroes In Action, models, school supplies(lunchboxes, paper, pencils, erasers, etc), GI Joe stuff, Big Jim, Star Wars(Original figures), Evil Knievel stunt cycle, and lots of other cool stuff back in the day.

[DocDrako]

We went to K-Mart alot. We had an Uncle Happy's Toy Shop in town, but it was way across town for us and my folks weren't going to drive there just for a toy store. It was okay though because K-Mart rocked back then. My mom and I would usually go there together, shop awhile, eat in the cafeteria, shop some more, and go home. Unfortunately, I was big into Star Wars then so I never checked out any other aisles except the Star Wars aisle. I hate to think of the Mego goodness that probably resided only an aisle or two away. But then, had I collected Megos back then, I'd probably be at The Star Wars Museum. I can still remember what the aisle looked like the last time I was there buying Star Wars figures. I did however buy a couple of Buck Rogers figures to go with my Star Wars "men". Back then I didn't know they were made by Mego.

To me as a kid, K-Mart was the best. Now it's pretty Lame-O. Then again, I'm not a kid anymore. At least, not legally.



By the way, does anyone remember Grand Central? Just a random memory...

[Remco Monster]

[brannon86]

K-Mart

Cool, price tag and all....