Big Kmart in Allegheny Township will close before Christmas
The only remaining Kmart in the Alle-Kiski Valley is closing.
The Big Kmart located in Hyde Park Shopping Center in Allegheny Township will close before Christmas, according to a statement provided by Larry Costello, public relations director for Chicago- based Transformco, which is representing Kmart.
“After careful review, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close the Kmart store in Leechburg, Pennsylvania,” reads the emailed statement provided to the Tribune-Review.
Liquidation sales are expected to be held in mid-September, and the store is planned to close by mid-December.
The company encouraged customers to shop on Kmart.com.
The Valley’s only other Kmart, along Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington, closed Jan. 6. It was a casualty of parent company Sears Holdings’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing Oct. 15 amid financial woes and massive revenue losses.
Leechburg resident and longtime Kmart shopper Melissa Aller said she has shopped at Kmart for 13 years.
“I’m upset about there being no layaway and no other stores around in the area,” Aller said.
The Trib reported in June on A-K Valley residents’ concerns about the future of the Allegheny Township Kmart as the public took to social media lamenting changing conditions at the store that included less inventory, empty store shelves and the elimination of the home and garden and electronics departments.
Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.