Kmart

Needless to say this store has changed drastically over the years and is a very sad and unkept store with employees who are less than thrilled to be there. In my experience over the last several years, they appear to be there to do the minimum amount of work required of them and still collect a paycheck.
This particular visit was of utmost disappointment to me. My mother, my young daughter and I ventured out to the store to purchase some items off of my nieces «Baby Registry», a very happy and joyful experience, or so we thought… After arriving, I waited in the «Customer Service» line for approximately 8 minutes while two other customers before me were being helped. When it was our turn, we stepped up and stated that we were there for a «Baby Registry» purchase and immediately we were told «we don’t do that here.» My mother and I glanced at each in confusion and I began to explain that my niece was registered at Kmart and we simply needed to purchase some items off of her registry and I continued to say I don’t understand how you «don’t do that here» if you are Kmart and if this is where she is registered. The woman helping me quickly said «we don’t do that here but you can look it up» and she motioned for me to come around to another side of the desk and look at a monitor she turned around for me and walked away to help the next customer in line. Again, my mother and I shared confusing stares as we looked at this monitor and had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. After hearing my mother and I discussing how we didn’t know what we were supposed to do with this, the customer service associate who walked away, returned and opened a browser and navigated to the Kmart website and then to the «Gift Registry» page where I then told her I could take it from there. I typed in my nieces name, and up popped the registry. I wasn’t asking permission at this point and simply hit «Print» and was on my way.
We headed over to the baby section and began filling our cart. We grabbed a monitor (on the registry), some wipes, a package of receiving blankets/​towels, a comfort toy/​blanket and a couple of layettes. The layettes were marked as $ 14.99 and were «Buy one get one 50% off» however they had several exclusions listed that we were careful to avoid, or so we thought…
We finished our shopping and headed to the register. The young man at the register kindly began to ring up our things. I asked him for gift receipts and to verify with me the price that each item rang up as. He kindly agreed and began to tell me the prices. He rang up the monitor and it rang up as $ 99.99, I indicated that this was not the price that was listed on the registry and showed him the price as marked on their print-​out which was $ 89.99. He politely told me that they «don’t honor their online prices.» I said «this is crazy, this is Kmart, you offer a baby registry and yet you don’t honor the prices listed on the registry in your store…» He called over for a manger or some other person of higher influence than himself and «Michael» came over and reiterated that they don’t honor online pricing however he would do it and called over for another person to code in the discount ($ 10.00). This person came over, took the monitor, disappeared for a few minutes and returned with the monitor and another one and said this is the monitor that is $ 89.00 as he pointed to the second monitor he brought with him — which was NOT the monitor on the registry or the one I had wanted to purchase. I showed him the registry as I declined his offer to purchase the $ 89.00 monitor and indicated that I wanted to buy my niece the monitor she registered for at the price that Kmart listed on the registry. He gave me a blank stare as the cashier continued to ring in the items and the layettes did not ring in as «Buy one get one 50% off» so again I noted that this was an error and said that there was a sign directly above the layettes that indicated this discount. Again, the other gentlemen that helped with the monitor grabbed the items and took off. The cashier asked me if I still wanted them and I said «I’m not sure, its going to depend on what he says. I’m not going to take anything if he doesn’t honor the price.» He kindly shook his head in acknowledgement. The other gentlemen returned a few minutes later only to tell me these were excluded because they were «sleepwear» which I acknowledge was an exclusion listed on the sign. The items however did not say «sleepwear» anywhere on them or on their tags. Instead, they were called «layettes» and I asked him to show me where it said sleepwear. He couldn’t, but held the position that these items (monitor and layettes) were not discounted. I grabbed my daughters hand, and said I didn’t want anything because «Michael» had agreed to honor at least the monitor pricing and now they were telling me they wouldn’t. I told them I’d be writing a review and that I will NEVER shop at Kmart again. They did NOTHING to stop me. Sad.

Oh how I loved the days of the discount department stores; Bradlees, Ames, Caldor & Kmart. Unfortunately, by the mid 90’s Walmart had forced the closings of all of these stores. The only one left standing was Kmart.
Walking into this store, brings me back to those days. While they’ve tried to bring in some brand name clothing, most of it is very dated. One of the main aisles is crowded with stretchy waist shorts, tarp like tank tops and other clearance items that should probably be hidden in the back of the store.
The shoe selection looks like it dates back to the 80’s. Where else can you find Bongo, Joe Boxer, Everlast and Thom McAn all in one store?
Their home selection is decent. The toys while not always the most current, is pretty well stocked. The health & beauty section could use some updating.
Overall, it’s not the best or worst place to shop.

This store is old, dirty, and depressing! I’ve never seen more than 1 register open, it takes forever to pay and the cashier is almost always a rude/​grouchy person. I don’t shop here anymore and I warn every one I know.

I agree with the Unilocalers that Kmart has seen its better days. As a result, it is like stepping back to 1992. I don’t think their registers have not been replaced since 1989.
The only reason why I shop there is because whenever Shop Your Way Rewards puts money on my account, I go online and order something that ends up being free to me. I have been very grateful to Kmart that I have gotten many free stuff over the years; socks, underwear, shower liners, toothpaste, nail polish, and other cheap, useful stuff. It certainly beats those Target and Wal-​Mart monsters.
The employees are a hit or miss. You are lucky if there are more than one register opened. I understand that Kmart is not an ideal place to work at, but some of the employees should at least pretend to appreciate the customers. That is why I order online and pick up at the store because I don’t have to bother them and I can earn E-​bates or Upromise points.

CROMWELL K-​MART. 2^nd visit in seven years. OMG. Please don’t tell me that’s how they roll. I was looking for and found a lightweight reclining deck chair. In the meantime, several store security folks came strolling by. No one friendly. The store was devoid of customers, but there were cars in front of it. Where were the shoppers? After placing said chair in my cart, I could then NOT negotiate ¾ of the merchandise aisles as placement is beyond poor. Almost every aisle has some form of barricade to proceeding forward. The racks are too tightly placed. A person could easily find themselves pickpocketed or credit card copied if another shopper is following with a cart. There is NO escape. I had to BACK OUT of clothing aisles. How do you manage sale days? And then when you think all is getting better, you go to the cash wrap, and directly behind you is Gloria LADY-​DAY-​OF-​THE-​NIGHT in her overly snug multi-​coloured pink chiffon 3/‘4 length lounge ensemble at high noon on a Thursday. I quickly asked what she was checking out as she held no merchandise. She said she was ‘there for LAYAWAY’. LAY-​A-​WAY. Oh-​LAY Oh-​LAY. If so, she ought only be taken care of by CUSTOMER SERVICE. But NO. So I asked her to go before me and I got a disgruntled ‘tssisk’ of annoyance from her. She was peeved with me? FAKE OUT. And now I’m on another line. Its taking the young man an appreciable amount of time but I DON“T MIND. As a former EDUCATOR, I understand. His transaction with the shopper was at least eight minutes and it was a simple matter to finding a coupon which worked to discount her item’. And now, me. The woman behind me complains about how slow they are, but I would never do that in K-​Mart. I am a compassionate human being. The young cash wrap person got a tad mixed up about ‘the numbers’. BUT ITS ALL GOOD. Once out in carpark, I was concerned. All those cars & no shoppers. However, there were women my age sitting in their cars while I got into mine. I appreciated that. In short, it was a UNIQUE experience!

K-​mart has really gone down hill over the years and has seen much better days, if you ask me. They do have a good selection on certan items. But my experience has also been they also seem to be out of stock on a lot of other things. Today for example, I went back in to see if a certain brand of blender had arrived which I was interested in. However, I was told they still hadn’t received it yet and I have had this same experience in the past at other locations. They just don’t seem to keep up very well with there inventory. I was a little disappointed since this was the 2^nd time in just the past month which I tried to track down this certain model which I wanted. I did find something else comparable even though it did not have as many settings as the one I originally wanted. It will have to do for now I guess…
Also, the store does not seem very clean! A lot of the shelves look like the merchandise has just been half-​hazardly thrown on there, and it doesn’t leave a very good presentation to the customer experience. The floors also don’t seem as clean as the y probably should, and a couple of the isles even have sticky spots on them which could become a problem if someone falls. And the odor! It really smells downright stale and musty in there. Ugh!
The store employees are okay, not overly helpful but not rude either. One tried to appear helpful but she still did not seem to know to much about the store or its merchandise in general. Overall, I just feel like they could do a lot better if they put more effort in. Maybe it is just this store though, since I don’t shop at K-​Mart often to begin with.

An old, run down and disappointing store.
As soon as I walked in, there was a very awful, musty odor. That was only a sign of things to come. The store is messy and very dated. This seems to be the trend lately with remaining Kmart stores. It was hard to find what I was looking for and when I finally got to the aisle, everything was a mess.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I got to the registers and there were three enormous lines (only 3 out of 8 registers open) that were so long that they were completely blocking the aisles and spilled into the bed & bath section. You shouldn’t have to wait in line for 20 minutes to buy one item.
When I finally rang out, the coupon points that were clearly showing up on my phone and register screen would not work. They had to call a manager over to fix the issue. There was no explanation for the problem except «we don’t know, this keeps happening.» This also happened to another customer in front of me, so how about you fix the issues or write down a solution for the cashier?
At least the cashier was pleasant. That saves this review from being 1-​star.

Great Place to Shop, and alway’s has what your looking for. I prefer to shop at Kmart over Walmart or Target and Drive about 25mins when I visit the Cromwell Store. It has good prices and a great selection of products.

Great, Big K Store! The wife and I use to go the Waterbury K-​Mart but they closed last year… The Big K Store’s interior is dated but they have really nice merchandise, much better than Wal-​Mart. They also have a great toy section that is always well stocked. Christmas time is always fun, they have stuff that I never see at other retailers.

I can’t disagree that KMart is a depressing place these days. What with the success of the WalMart/​Target oligopoly in low-​end retail, it’s hard to understand how this store is even still here.
The only reason we find ourselves here is to do «targeted» (no pun intended) shopping for items that we happen to see on the website, or have a coupon for. They are affiliated with Sears, so any sort of «Shop My Rewards» that you earn there can also be used at KMart.
We’ve gotten some nice stuff here — the plants we bought in April flourished nicely all summer, basic housewares etc. Prices are good when things are on sale. But when things aren’t on sale, sometimes the prices make you scratch your head, especially for things like foodstuffs and paper goods.
Remember Caldor? That’s what KMart is now.

It’s amazing that with all the Kmart’s that have closed throughout the years that this one still stands. The checkout situation at this place has to be the worst. No matter when we come there is always 1 or 2 cashiers and each have about 6 to 7 people in line and of course something always goes wrong.
On our visit this past Friday they had 1 cashier at 6pm. There was another associate at a register, but he was cashing out even though there were 5+ people in the one line. The working cashier needed an override and had to walk to the service desk to get assistance. No working phone at the checkout? The supposed manager took time out from talking at the service desk to come over and asked the other associate if he was cashing out, and said he was supposed to do that after the line went down. Maybe she should have told him earlier. As we left the manager was back at the service desk along with another associate, plus two workers who were apparently on break. I guess waiting on each other is more important than getting customers out in a timely fashion.
I think the only real reason I come here is because it’s a Kmart and it’s like going back to my childhood. I can’t recall coming here on my own and buying anything, it’s always because someone else needs something.

If I never return to this store again, it will still be too soon. I absolutely hate Walmart, so the only reason why I ever go to this store is pick up those things that you just can’t find anywhere else — or, in this instance, because central Connecticut was virtually in the dark due to a massive power outage, but this little piece of Cromwell had electricity.

it’s a kmart and you cant really expect more than that. when i come here (pretty rare) its to get something specific that i know kmart will have — usually junk that no other store sells.
the weird thing is it feels like the interior has never been updated, feels like circa 1980 kmart. i know there are modern day kmarts out there, somewhere, right? maybe they still sell garbage pail kids and quisp.

Wow! And you thought those «People of Wal-​Mart» emails were funny. The people I saw in this store aspire to one day be that cool. I would not shop here unless forced. I hate Wal-​Mart and this is a step back in time. Thanks to the airline losing my luggage for 4 days, I had nothing to wear and after miles on the road, this was the first establishment I saw — and it was close to a McDonalds. Lunch and shopping. Good times.
Walking into the store, I noticed the dim lighting. That might be nice for a fancy restaurant, but not so much for your local retail establishment. The aisles were overcrowded as well. Scanning around the store, it looked like a tornado hit the Goodwill. I think this store hasn’t changed since 1975. I forced my way to the back and located the men’s section. Wading through aisles of camo, hunting shirts and basketball pants, I found a section of graphic tees. Woah! Try finding something in that swap meet! Shirts were all thrown together, sizes and styles mixed, some on the ground, others waded up. It was too much to look through. I found a $ 4.95 pair of running shorts and a $ 9.95 pair of basketball pants. I needed a couple of shirts, and while I was tempted by the one reading: Grand Slam: Beer, Bucks, Babes and unfortunately I forgot the fourth one. But then, I saw a group of shirts that were marked 99 cents. I picked up two and went to the counter. The cashier indicated they may be miss marked, but she would have to sell them at that price. How exciting?
Thankfully I escaped the store quickly. Just a little disappointed the blue light didn’t go off while I was there.

I’m always disappointed in the selection at this Kmart. It can be a bit of a mess at times as well. I think 90% of the time I go in, I leave because I couldn’t find what I needed. I most of the time find it at the Walmart down the street though. I recently decided not to go back to Kmart unless I’m desperate. It’s just a waste of time.