A ‘Blue-Light’ Shines Upon The Big Apple

The blue light special is going downtown: Kmart, the mecca of suburban bargain hunters, is moving to Manhattan.

The discount retailer is opening two new stores in New York City, one next to Pennsylvania Station on 34th Street, the other on Broadway in Greenwich Village.

The chain has branches in the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, but has never opened a store in Manhattan. Myles Johns, general manager of the 34th Street store, thinks the new stores will find a place among Saks Fifth Avenue and its ilk.

“People don’t realize how normal New Yorkers are,” he told the New York Times in today’s editions. “They’re just like everybody else.”

The 34th Street store opens today, and its downtown counterpart is to follow in November.

Each megastore, at more than 140,000 square feet, is expected to yield more than $50 million in sales to a chain beset by the challenges of competition and market glut in the suburbs.