Kmart Scales Back Plans To Close Stores

Kmart Corp. said it plans to convert 450 of its stores a year in the next three years to a store format that devotes more space to frequent purchases, such as soda pop and laundry detergent.

The discount retailer said it converted 152 of its more than 2,000 Kmart stores to the format in 1996.

The nation’s third-largest retailer also said it’s closing fewer stores than it had expected to in 1993 under a restructuring plan designed by former executives. Kmart closed 48 stores in 1996, 214 stores in 1995 and 120 stores in 1994. That compares with the original plan of 175, 150 and 100 for the same years. The company now expects to shutter 402 through the end of the year, including 20 more planned for 1997, instead of 503 store closings under the earlier plan.

Kmart said it will close fewer stores because it re-evaluated closing criteria.